From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 8 18:22:31 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BCA9D106564A for ; Mon, 8 Jun 2009 18:22:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from erobison@gmail.com) Received: from yw-out-2324.google.com (yw-out-2324.google.com [74.125.46.28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76C6A8FC08 for ; Mon, 8 Jun 2009 18:22:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from erobison@gmail.com) Received: by yw-out-2324.google.com with SMTP id 9so1901445ywe.13 for ; Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:22:30 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:from:date:message-id :subject:to:content-type; bh=6pLcxMdsmjU3AnXDJvBGNAuD8vRcRBmm/mzF8W+gIuk=; b=HpVg8HizoSzbifggkYDLJqTkN8llBzfGdhbWTrX3VED7qQWgvBHMGJYJ3ImSf14AUX XM22iSH4bag2Aydpxmi6QBjaqqIC/2+rhZqIxgUChiWhPIkelBbC4NuJAnzkS+FVyqpz jkroruXO9/AVm5HzDbtp5KFbGtKQ5Txqf4Nv0= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to:content-type; b=s0k8kf+ZY1rt4vS/HFCxib3rEFsU3eZmVGzoUbZz7FL08ZRUDMtT6i4IEcXlP1mO1m ATD9NsMLkOU9JUAvzh7bR0EcXazgI4P3Lnr320n6P4XGsmNIWtYfZA+vasxk8ak5JuJY Yl1t170f742MiEndxlGkUSm1Xkxo7SDGmknC0= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.90.66.10 with SMTP id o10mr248382aga.90.1244483816456; Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:56:56 -0700 (PDT) From: ericr Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:56:35 -0600 Message-ID: <7fc6c27a0906081056u161731c6m298efcf2aa471d38@mail.gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: What server hardware are you buying from the big companies these days? 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: Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:22:32 -0000 Hi, I need to buy some new servers, and mgmt has decreed that we get them from someplace which will provide service contracts with on-site h/w suppport, which means HP, Dell, Sun, IBM, etc. Has anyone bought servers from one of the big manufacturers lately and had good luck with them? It seems hard to get them to tell you what controllers and chipsets they're using in servers, to compare against the supported hardware list. What I'm looking for isn't all that exotic: rack mountable RAID-5 controller 4-6 or more disks (hot swappable would be nice, but not mandatory) dual power supplies (hot swappable would be nice, but not mandatory) CDROM 2 ethernet ports some RAM a video card an Intel or AMD CPU - single, two CPU, or multicore doesn't really matter. and the all-important onsite service. These things need to be pretty reliable, both of the data centers they're going into are a couple of hours from my house, so I don't want a dead power supply to take out the server. We've used SuperMicro's in the past, and they've been wildly variable. Some of them have run ok for years, some died within weeks, and kept dying no matter what parts we put in. (yes, I checked the power, it was clean. My guess is just a bad run of motherboards). I've got 3 servers that have never been able to stay up for more than a couple of days, we don't even use them. Regardless, any one have suggestions on what current models of servers are out there that run? Thanks! - ericr