By Bill Rinko-Gay
Network World, 5/26/97

If Data General Corp. has any visions of its Aviion 3600 server paving the way to market leadership, it had better readjust its focus. Under Windows NT, the Aviion 3600 came in last or nearly last in all our tests. At DG's request, we didn't test the server under IntranetWare because it is sold only as an NT server. The only place it ranked near the top was in price, with an estimated street price of $31,663.

The server's poor performance may be due to the IBM disk drives, which we haven't seen before, or perhaps the remote diagnostic card using backplane bandwidth.

DG seems to be focused on reliability. The Aviion 3600 is assembled almost entirely from components made by other vendors. DG has a remote diagnostic card that can monitor the system and allow you to trouble shoot problems via modem even if the computer is powered off. The Clariion external storage system has dual redundant channels to the RAID system for nearly 100% availability. NT/Alert, called NT Alert on Windows NT, can page you or a DG service representative when any alarm condition is met. Add all this to the Hewlett-Packard Co. HP OpenView support and the copy of pcAnywhere 32 that is shipped with the system and the focus becomes clear.

Looking at the front panel of the Aviion 3600's tower, you'll find two lockable doors on the left that enclose the standard and hot-pluggable drive bays. On the right are LEDs that indicate power, disk I/O activity and alert status. A rack containing six drives is behind the hot-pluggable drive door, which is behind an additional locking panel. The drives are held in place by a solid locking mechanism.

Two side panels also swing out, but with a bit of difficulty. The left side of the unit contains the logic boards. Of the many EISA and PCI slots, most of the PCI ones were used. An integrated video adapter would free up a valuable PCI slot.

One of the EISA slots was occupied by DG's ExTended service board for remote diagnostics. This battery backed-up board can be accessed to diagnose problems even when the server is shut down. The CPUs are easily accessible, but the SIMMs are hard to reach, requiring removal of a bracket and a card.

The right side of the chassis is nearly empty. It provides access to the drive bay area. It also provides the electronics for remotely powering the system. Some of the spare space is available for an optional redundant power supply.

DG preinstalled NT/Alert software that watches for alarm conditions you specify, such as the file system being 90% full or network errors exceeding a threshold. It can be programmed to send a network message, make a phone call, or page an operator.

DG's rebranded system manual is far more detailed and easy to use than previous DG documentation. We received OEM manuals for the network adapters, NT and DOS. Copies of pcAnywhere 32 Version 7.5 and QAPlus/Pro from DG also were provided.

This server is no price/performance bargain. But its reliability features are outstanding, and the service and support provided are a real benefit to companies that don't have the expertise or time to maintain their own servers. However, unless that's you, it's hard to justify the cost of this server.

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