What a mouthful of a name. What the bloody hell does all that mean? The Unit is a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) StorageWorks (name of the product line) Storage Shelf. Basically it’s a SCSI box. The model number (BA-356) is one of the last in the BA-35x line of storage units built using DEC’s Storage building Blocks (SBB) units. Each BA35x contains:
- At lease 1 (optionally 2) Power Supply
- 1 Interface module. There were many different types
- Various SCSI drives including:
- Hard Disk SBBs (single width)
- TZ-series SCSI tape drives (3-units wide)
- Dual 5.25″ bay unit with RRD5x series CD-ROM or Tape Drive
- Dual rear-mounted air blower units
The BA-356 is very easy to service. As you can see in my previous post wit ha video describing how to strip down a Hard Drive SBB, the SBBs are also easy to service. Below are some photos taken as I stripped and inspected one of the two units that came in the AS4100.
