SUMMARY: T3 array battery

I am quite impressed; I got more than three times as many helpful 
answers as "Out of Office Reply" messages from folks with misconfigured 
email clients. >8^)

Information I gleaned from the replies:
1) T3 array batteries have a life-cycle timer which causes them to
   stop after some number of hours of use
2) Power Supplies are hot swappable and redundant, so you can
   theoretically fix them while the unit is running (not tested)
3) Sun does not sell the batteries separately any longer
4) Sun replaces the entire power supply #300-1454, including the
   battery, under warranty or service contract (I have neither
   for this unit)
5) several vendors* have or can get the battery pack for $250-$300,
   though stock seems limited
6) some organizations have rebuilt battery packs by buying the
   individual cells and building their own (I plan to try this)


* vendors recommended by correspondents:

(this vendor has replied, and I am purchasing through Alta)
  Alta Technologies
  Michael Carter <mike.c@altatechnologies.com>
  Sun/Cisco/IBM Sales
  763-475-5327  (direct)
  800-546-2582  (Ext. 327)
  763-475-5331 (fax)
  www.altatechnologies.com
  AOL instant messenger  mikec at alta

(contacted, currently out of stock)
  Computech Systems Corporation
  11421 NE 120th Street
  Kirkland, Washington USA 98034
  Greg King <gregk@computech.com>
  800-882-0201
  425-216-0591

(contacted, no reply yet)
  Computer Computer
  http://www.com-com.co.uk/
  2 Constable Crescent, London, N15 4QZ, UK
  +44 208 885 9900 (voice)
  +44 208 880 9122 (fax)
  ian@com-com.co.uk

(contacted, no reply yet)
  Marathon International
  1274 Anvilwood Ave
  Sunnyvale, California 94089
  http://www.marathon-int.com/
  oem@marathon-int.com
  800-783-7354
  408-400-8600 (voice)
  408-400-8601 (fax)

and Sun is still working on providing a helpful answer.

If I get specs on rebuilding the battery packs, I'l post a followup 
summary.

Many thanks to:
Bob Plagens, Peter Krotkov, Mike Carter, Jim Campbell, Luigi Marra,
Scott Mickey, Matt Garrett, Bob Rahe, Deb Crocker, Eugene Schmidt,
Mark Walsh, Clovis Souza, Kris Hogg, Michael Stalnaker, and a couple
of people whose names were non-obvious from their reply.

I appreciate everyone's assistance! Allan

Original question follows:
> Greetings,
> We have three Sun T3 disk arrays, and one of them has had a failure of 
> the battery backup (for the cache) in the power supply. The part number 
> is 370-3956 Battery Pack, NIMH. Sun no longer carries the part, nor any 
> refurbs. For $200/hr they could come look at the part, and supposedly 
> fix it. I have no idea how they would fix dead batteries they don't 
> carry replacements for.
> 
> Have any of you bought a replacement battery for a T3 array from a 
> third-party vendor? If so, can you give me the vendor's name and the 
> part number they use? Google has zero responses for the Sun part 
> number, and I can't find specs on the part to start asking battery 
> vendors about it. The unit is in production, so we want to get a 
> replacement battery and only take the unit offline once for the repair, 
> not twice to get specs off the battery and then replace it later.
> 
> Thanks, Allan
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