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[previous article] [next article]Making one of the new SUN workstations "inhabitable" by ECN users takes a bit of doing. A combination of several different groups within ECN must put in a lot of "hidden" work to bring the SUN from its box to your office.
In the beginning, it's all up to the hardware crew. SUN workstations consist of two basic parts, a file server and several workstations. Each has its own particular challenges. The server contains the disk storage for all the workstations it serves and must be placed in a machine room environment. Floor space must be made available, as must electrical power and at least one, but in most cases two connections to ECN ethernet cable must be made. Once the server has power and has been positioned in the correct environment, the disk drives attached to it must be "burned in" by running a formatting and test program for a couple of days. As you may know, large hard disk drives are not perfect. There are a number of small defects on them which must be found and marked before the disk can be used. The "burn in" procedure finds these spots by intensively scanning the disk, writing and reading back portions of the disk and noting bad sections.
When the disks are burned in and their bad spots identified, the ball is passed to the software group. It is my job to get the latest UNIX system software installed on the server. This takes a day or two more, as I will load several tapes, testing each step of the way, and then use the server's ECN network connection to complete the installation. Next, mail and other machine specific programs are configured for the server. Finally, the space reserved for each of the workstations to be attached to this server is prepared. Only after the server is ready to support clients is attention turned to the individual workstations. Now testing begins on the workstation and mail and other machine specific configuration files are adjusted to fit.
Prior to all the software being loaded, each server and workstation must be assigned a name and network number. Also they must be added to various tables other ECN machines will use to locate them on our network. Letting the ECN software staff know about new machines before they arrive can save time in the naming and software loading processes.
Although the server is ready to accept workstations, any given workstation may take days to be hooked up in their final location. The basic problem: wiring. Each workstation will need a connection to an ECN ethernet cable. Although ECN ethernet cable has been run to all the ECN machine rooms, it has not, as yet, been run to most office areas. To further complicate things, the workstation is not directly attached to the ethernet, but is hooked up via a transceiver cable which goes in turn directly to an ethernet transceiver on the ethernet cable or through a DELNI box to a transceiver. Both ethernet cable and transceiver cable have length restrictions which add to the difficulty.
The sooner cable can be run and setup, the sooner a workstation can be installed. If workstations are planned for your area, talk with the ECN hardware staff about cabling as soon as possible to avoid delays.
Once all of this "hidden" work is done the workstation can finally be fired up for use. It's a long trip from the box to your office.
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