Dear all NetBSD alpha users,

To replace my old DEC 5000/125 mail server that gets more and more 
behind its task I thought of putting together a AlphaStation 255/300 
with NetBSD 2.1. Installation went fine, no problems so far. To be 
prepared for future space requirements I thought of having a PCI SCSI 
hostadapter in the system to allow for decent drives which I have on hand.

Before I go on in configuring the system I'd like to ask some questions

1. Which one to use?
    I have a spare Dawicontrol DC-2976UW, which uses a NCR 53C875E.
    NetBSD-2.1 configures this card perfectly, but is it tested
    thouroughly?
    esiop0 at pci0 dev 11 function 0: Symbios Logic 53c875 (ultra-wide\
    scsi)
    esiop0: using on-board RAM
    esiop0: interrupting at isa irq 5
    scsibus1 at esiop0: 16 targets, 8 luns per targ

    On the other hand I have a ADAPTEC  AHA2940U2W (V2). This hostadapter
    works also. It attaches as

    ahc0 at pci0 dev 11 function 0: Adaptec 2940 Ultra2 SCSI adapter
    ahc0: interrupting at isa irq 5
    ahc0: aic7890/91: Ultra2 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
    scsibus1 at ahc0: 16 targets, 8 luns per target

2. What about the BIOS config these cards offer under PC-BIOSes?
    Do I have to switch off the SCSI-BIOS. How should I configure
    the SCSI hostadapter under the PC-BIOS. The Dawicontrol does not
    offer a lot of config settings. The Adaptec has a lot of settings.
    Will the Alpha SRM use or even touch these settings?

3. Should I switch to NetBSD-3.0?
    NetBSD-3.0 is somewhat new. Usually, a new release needs some time to
    settle. Is there anything I would benefit from using NetBSD-3.0. I'd
    like to use the system in production with apache and cyrus-imap. I
    think the Alpha will perform quiet well for a workgroup of 20 users.

I searched through the archives but couldn't find anything useful for 
question 1 and 2. Question 3 is more a question for opinions. I hope the 
third question will not lead to a broad discussion on whether this or 
that release is technologically better. I'm only asking from the end 
user point of view.

Any help is greatly apprechiated.

Best regards

-- 


Uwe Lienig
----------
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Forschungsinstitut Fahrzeugtechnik
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