Subject: chemistry Unix server upgrades
 
 Our Unix server "chemistry" aka "chemistry.ohio-state.edu", a 4-processor Sun
 Ultra Enterprise 450, was shut down on Thursday, October 19, 2000, for
 overnight upgrades.
 
 The following work was done:
 
  - addition of a 3rd hot-swappable power supply; now the power supplies are
    redundant, and failure of one of them will not bring down the server
 
  - addition of 1 GB of memory; the server now has 2 GB of RAM
 
  - addition of an internal storage expansion option to house more
    hot-swappable disk drives (before: 4; now: 12 possible)
 
  - addition of 2 Ultra-wide SCSI chains (40 MB/s each), bringing the total
    to 6x40 MB/s SCSI chains
 
  - addition of 4 new disks (3x18 GB, 1x36 GB; all 10,000 rpm)
 
  - upgrade of Veritas Volume Manager from version 3.0.1 to 3.1 (used for disk
    striping and mirroring)
 
 The /home filesystem was moved from a stripe-set over 2x9 GB 7,200 rpm disks
 to a stripe set over 2x18 GB 10,000 rpm disks. The /home filesystem was 96%
 full before the move. In addition to providing more space, the new stripe set
 should be slightly faster.
 
 The total disk space after the upgrade is 206 GB, with 83 GB owned by
 research groups (5x9 GB 7,200 rpm disks, 3x9 GB 10,000 rpm disks, 3x18 GB
 10,000 rpm disks, 2x36 GB 10,000 rpm disks, 2x4 GB old disks).
 
 We continue to use the 8-bay disk enclosure purchased 3 years ago, housing
 the older 5x9 GB 7,200 rpm disks.
 
 The boot disk continues to be mirrored, further adding to redundancy and
 reducing potential downtime. The server still runs Solaris 7 (with the most
 recent patches).
 
 The chemistry Unix server handles all departmental email, web pages, general
 purpose computing, Unix home directories and serves as the entry point into
 the Department from the outside.
 
 See Support Bulletin of December 5, 99 for information about the upgrade 
 from the old to the new Unix server a year ago.