Some Questions and Answers I have recieved on setting up a test environment

Q. Can you recommend a cheap external storage device that you know works with your test environment?
A. Any external SCSI enclosure with 2 SCSI connectors will work as it will have the Y cable built in internally. Normally the extra connector is used for a Terminator.

Q. I read your article about setting up clustering. I have been trying to set up a cluster using two Copmaq 6400R's, currently loaded with Windows NT sharing one 23 GB hard drive on the same SCSI bus. I am able to change the SCSI ID's on the External SCSI conectors as you indicated, however every time I bring them up, when the second one comes up the first one crashes and there is an error about IRQ request being incorrect, then a core dump follows. I have treid different termination etc. using a Y cable and hang the active terminator off the pigtail beyond the CPU's SCSI.
A. For the SCSI Controller to work there MUST be a way to disable initialization (reset) of the SCSI bus during boot. The 2940's support that but I guess the Compaq's don't. You must also be able to set different ID's on each SCSI Card.

Q. If I am using an external RAID Tower, do I have to use a Y-Cable or use any specific SCSI card to make this work?
A. If you are using an external RAID enclosure (that has the RAID controller built in) then it should already be Cluster ready. It should have two SCSI connectors on it. If this is the case, then any SCSI card that has the ability to change it's ID (most) and turn off SCSI initialization during boot up, will work.  Remember that you need to check with the Clustering software vendor to see if the card is supported.