Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 10:41:16 +0200 From: lars <lars@gmx.at> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Anyone successfully running FreeBSD on a HP Proliant DL385? Message-ID: <42FDB22C.4000608@gmx.at> In-Reply-To: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIECOFCAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> References: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIECOFCAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > No. I assume that the HP Linux driver has this sort of functionality > in it - but maybe not. Not even the Windows driver for the RAID card > can do this. Ok. > HP has used an agent/manager model with these systems. The drivers > for the hardware in the system all talk to a HP management server that > you run on a separate PC. THAT system is what sends the > pages/notifications. > And of course it's Windows-only. I would guess the Linux driver has > been enhanced to talk to this but I don't know as I don't use Linux. Ok, maybe I'll set up such system. Probably I won't and instead use some other monitoring software. >>Unfortunately we can't go through a VAR. > Why not? I know of no industry that is legally barred from purchasing > from a VAR. Right, it's not "we can't", it's "we won't". Our company has a special relationship with HP that gives us quite a rebate (20-30% off reseller price). If we bought our equipment from a VAR we would lose this rebate. >>And which VAR would guarantee us FreeBSD will run perfectly? > Any one of them that wanted to make a sale would do so. >>I doubt any would or could. > You are wrong. >>But that doesn't matter anyway. In the situation I or my company are in, it doesn't matter. > Yeah, right. OK, well then listen up. By not going through a VAR - > which is HP's preferred channel for selling servers, by the way - > you bear the ENTIRE responsibility for specing the Compaq server > yourself - which also means if you buy it and it doesen't work, you > are going to have to deal with wherever you get it from to return it > and exchange for a different model. > > THAT is what the value of a VAR is. A HP VAR that sells a lot of servers > isn't going to get flack from HP if they need to exchange a server > for a different model. > > Like I said, you need to think long and carefully before dispensing > with a VAR to save the couple hundred bucks by buying it off the website. Ok, I didn't know that. Thanks for explaining this to me. But to profit from the whole rebate, we will still shun the VAR and bear the risk of specing the server ourselves. I specified the server according our requirement of relatively high availability hardware (RAID5, 4 SCSI disks, iLO, redundant fan and power supply should provide this) high I/O and upgradeability (Opteron Dual CPU motherboard, Dual Core capabability should provide this). I chose the parts according to the HP website and asked the sales team whether I had all the right parts, I do. It fits in our rack and we have the electricity to run it. I have some time to give FreeBSD a test run on it, maybe a week, but then this machine will run Windows Server 2003, because of some silly software requirement. I reckon Windows Server 2003 will run fine. Most probably though, we will get a second one of this model, and on that one I'd like to run a Unix, preferrably FreeBSD, otherwise Solaris 10. > I have booted FreeBSD on a DL360 but not extensively tested it. > I have booted it on a ML360. I have run it and do > run it on the older Proliant hardware which uses the older RAID > driver and it works fine on that. And I run both Windows and > Solaris x86 on the newer Proliants. The Proliant gear is top > notch, there is no more reliable server gear available from > anybody. That's reassuring to hear. > Others who have posted to the list before do run it on the > Proliant hardware, most with no problems, some with a few problems, > some with lots of problems. I do not recall a post from anyone > running it on a DL385 on this list. In any case, I'll post my experience with this combination to the freebsd-proliant@freebsd.org mailing list. > The fact is that HP/Compaq > in their server line is getting like General Motors where they > have the same basic cars in every model line, just different brands > on the nameplates and minor styling differences. I guess HP is not the only one, IBM, Sun and Dell probably do the same. > I also must point out that I run it on clone gear, and on other > manufacturers gear like HP Netservers, Gateway, Dell, Toshiba, NEC, etc. > Most of the time it works, some times it doesen't. > > It would of course be nice if someone setup a "system certification" > program for FreeBSD. The problem is that such a program is only useful > if your certifying brand new gear. And there is too much of it and it's > too expensive for anyone to do this. With the older gear, typically > people get it very cheap, so if it doesen't run FreeBSD then they > just move on to the next machine, thus a certification program is > of little use to them. > > Ted Again, thanks for your reply, Lars.
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