From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 16 13:17:06 2004 Return-Path: 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 0664316A4CE for ; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:17:06 -0800 (PST) Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net (heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E3C6D43D1D for ; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:17:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from algould@datawok.com) Received: from 20-74.lctv-b4.cablelynx.com ([24.204.20.74] helo=yoda.datawok.com) by heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (TLSv1:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1Asq6m-0003m9-00; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:16:53 -0800 From: "Andrew L. Gould" To: moliveri@uti.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 15:17:26 -0600 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 References: <4007.204.248.53.43.1076961887.squirrel@www.uti.com> In-Reply-To: <4007.204.248.53.43.1076961887.squirrel@www.uti.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200402161517.26889.algould@datawok.com> X-ELNK-Trace: ee791d459e3d6817d780f4a490ca69564776905774d2ac4b1860d6af9a7a54302563508ce72ea46e350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c Subject: Re: FreeBSD on Dell PowerEdge 2500 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 21:17:06 -0000 On Monday 16 February 2004 02:04 pm, moliveri@uti.com wrote: > Anyone have any experience installing FreeBSD on a Dell PowerEdge server? > 2500 or any other? I'm looking at having to do so and, having not done it > before, I'm just wondering if there are any gotchas I should be aware of > or if I have to use their OpenManage CDs or something. > > Take care, > Mike The server I have at work is a Dell PowerEdge. I think the specific model is 1400SC; but my memory could be faulty. It's on the other side of Texas, so I can't see the case right now. The server came with a small, bootable dos partition at the beginning of the scsi hard drive that has certain utilities. Since I was new to FreeBSD at the time; I left the dos partition in place. The Dell CD's were put in a drawer.....somewhere. I've never used them. FreeBSD installed easily and has performed flawlessly. I don't remember what version I installed back in 2001; but the server has remained on the STABLE track via cvsup and 'make world'. The server houses PostgreSQL databases used for clinical analysis and acts as a SAMBA server for the analysts. I've replaced the IDE CDROM with a Sony DVD RW DRU-500A to burn gzipped pg_dump files to DVD-R. Dealing with the server's screwless case drove me nuts. The DRU-500A's went on clearance -- good price for excellent hardware, if you can still find one. My only advice is the same for all computers: Max out the RAM while it's relatively inexpensive. Happy serving, Andrew Gould