Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 15:52:54 +0200 From: "R. Zoontjens" <beheer@radecom.nl> To: dev web <dev_web@hotmail.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HP Servers Message-ID: <41766DB6.9090902@radecom.nl> In-Reply-To: <BAY12-F23voXM7e0C9g000032e1@hotmail.com> References: <BAY12-F23voXM7e0C9g000032e1@hotmail.com>
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dev web wrote: > Hi, > > The company I work for use mainly FreeBSD servers, we are currently > investigating investing in a new server with the following specs: > > HP ProLiant DL380 G3 - Xeon 3.06 GHz [SNIP SPECS] > Has anyone had any experiance running FreeBSD on a system such as this, > My main concerns are really the Raid Array, ILo and Insight Manager, I > know that FreeBSD has the Smart Array 5i supported through ciss, but we > dont currently use either HP or Raid, The reseller has been as helpful > as possible (bar giving us a server to play with) but support for > FreeBSD at HP is obviously limited at best. > > Any help would be appreciated, our only other alternative is to run > RedHat or MS which are both supported by HP, We are preared to do that, > but would much rather continue to use FreeBSD, it has served us > extremely well and has proved to be a solid enviroment for our > requirements. Hi Alex, We recently installed freeBSD 5.2.1 on such a system to test several things, including RAID-1 (2 disks). It was a HP DL380 G3 with the 5i controller. The Ilo functions are working nicely (use the trial period for the advanced features). I configured almost everything trough Ilo remotely. Only after having a ssh shell available, I changed to the shell. Always being able te reboot the server is nice (even with severely damaged or no OS). I pulled out one of the drives, then started the server. This was immediately noticed and the ciss0 started recovering the array (interim recovery mode). After a while the status changed to "recovering->OK". Everything worked just fine, except for the Tape drive. You need a special Hot plug tapedrive for the 5i controller bay, but I could not get it to work properly. I found in Google: "SCSI passthrough is not supported by the CISS driver. Are you trying to hook the tape device to the CISS controller? I believe that will never work as the CISS driver only supports logical arrays (of disks). I do realize that you see output from the CISS BIOS that a device has taken a certain ID, but I'm pretty sure it will not allow the OS to recognize it. My advice would be to stick in another controller!" Be aware that the server does not have normal power-connectors (ours didn't). So trying another -internal- scsi tape drive will probably not work. I somebody finds an answer to the HP Hot-plug tapedrive + ciss driver, I'd like to hear it! Good luck!!! with kind regards, Richard Zoontjens ----------------------- Radécom B.V. E: richard@radecom.nl I: www.radecom.nl ----------------------- Dit bericht kan vertrouwelijke informatie bevatten. Indien u niet de geadresseerde van dit bericht bent, verzoeken wij u dit bericht te vernietigen zonder van de inhoud kennis te nemen en de inhoud ervan niet te gebruiken, niet te kopiëren en niet onder derden te verspreiden. This message may contain information which is privileged or confidential. If you are not the named addressee of this message please destroy it without reading, using, copying or disclosing its contents to any other person.
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