From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 26 14:33:53 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1D6816A401 for ; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:33:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jakbeatz@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0102.google.com (nz-out-0102.google.com [64.233.162.195]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5E1F843D48 for ; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:33:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jakbeatz@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0102.google.com with SMTP id 9so1319739nzo for ; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:33:52 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=FIH9oBbSDuPvz6ra0zZq2yOBMWCv3Pwuhi7ej9lWzM2XdosFq2r68iJLKzcd9CHFis/wKN73rbkBp0At3uFEJjA+Anhp0mRDaFTwFf2Eh2hkBgTRjn+Vz1TJn5dPM62GGELuecUivacHukfryJoI28hKOYfLLPK5sYYSQXY7VsA= Received: by 10.65.72.17 with SMTP id z17mr1672078qbk; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:33:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.65.22.8 with HTTP; Wed, 26 Apr 2006 07:33:51 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4993f7e10604260733t168451f6n52c260a9889ae3f0@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:33:51 -0400 From: Questions To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Dell vs. Silicon Mechanics vs. FreeBSD Systems X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:33:53 -0000 Anyone have any opinions about the quality and/or value of these respective vendors? I'm looking for something that has good AMD64 support, great RAID1 support and good Serial Console Redirection support, all obviously reasonably priced. I've had bad experiences in the past with onboard SATA and/or RAID controllers from Silicon Mechanics but it looks now like their Rackform nServ A206 uses an Adaptec SATA controller and an Adaptec RAID controller (this will do RAID1, right?) Anyone have any experience with FreeBSD Systems IPMI interface? I don't claim to know much about IPMI, so forgive me if I ask seemingly dumb questions: Is IPMI implemented entirely in userland or are is there hardware required that FreeBSD Systems just happens to include with their systems? Is IPMI really any good at the end of the day, or are there other solutions that are better/more relaibe (tm)? How does Dell fit into all of this? I haven't dealt with Dell in years but when I have in the past, there didn't seem to be any major issues. I'm looking at a Power Edge 1850 with the Embedded RAID (ROMB) - PERC4e/Si Controller. Does Dell support Serial Console Redirection without their extra lights out card? Lastly (I think) with regards to AMD64 Support (more for the Silicon Mechanics and FreeBSD Systems options), I had issues a couple of years ago with AMD64 and OpenLDAP. Something to do with Mutexes, and wound up having to backpedal and go with a 32bit install on my 64bit system. PITA. Are there any decently priced/stable options out there, other than the three I've mentioned?