Infoserver series

The InfoServer series of VAX computers has four members:

• Infoserver 100
• Infoserver 150
• Infoserver 150VXT
• Infoserver 1000

Overview

An InfoServer is an Ethernet-based, high-performance, virtual disk server. It can serve physical disk media and sets of logical disk blocks to the network. Host systems running the appropriate client software can connect to virtual disks served by the InfoServer and use them as though they were locally attached devices.

The InfoServer is a virtual disk server. Unlike a file server, the InfoServer does not impose a file system on the virtual disks that it serves. This means the InfoServer can serve a disk with any type of on-disk file structure. The host client system interprets the on-disk structure itself, allowing each host system to use its own native file system. Multiple on-disk structures can be served and accessed on a single InfoServer at the same time.

An Infoserver is comparable to what today is a SAN server.

Comparison of InfoServer Models

Comparison of InfoServer Models

Model	Boot Device	CPU	RAM	SCSI Ports
InfoServer 100	RZ23	KA41	4MB (fix)	2
InfoServer 150	RZ23L	KA41	4MB (fix)	2
InfoServer 150VXT	RZ24	KA41	4MB (fix)	2
InfoServer 1000	Flash	KA?	4MB (8MB optional)	1

There's a rumor that you can convert a MicroVAX 3100 (or even a VAXstation 3100) into an InfoServer by replacing the system ROMs with those of an InfoServer. You need two 27C1024 ICs, the ROM images, and a ROM programmer device. I can supply the ROM images for the InfoServer 150.

Host-Based InfoServer Alternative

Beginning with OpenVMS Alpha V8.3 and OpenVMS I64 V8.2-1, OpenVMS itself contains host-based InfoServer support; the ability for OpenVMS itself to provide InfoServer Local Area Disk (LAD) and MOP services. The OpenVMS host-based InfoServer software also removes the 2 GB limit from previous InfoServer devices; hardware InfoServer devices are limited to serving disks of 2 GB or less.

See also

• Installing and Using the SIMH InfoServer150VXT

External links

• InfoServer 100 System Operations Guide (EK-DIS1K-UG-001)
• InfoServer System Operations Guide (AA-PJXJC-TE)
• InfoServer 1000 Installation and Owners Guide (EK-INFLC-OM.B01)
• MicroVAX 3100, VAXserver 3100, InfoServer 100 and InfoServer 150-150 VXT Maintenance Guide (EK-A0372-MG.B01)
• InfoServer 150 Installation and Owner's Guide (EK-INFSV-OM-001)
• InfoServer 1000 - Network SCSI Storage Server (EC-F2305-29)