Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 15:24:57 +0200 (CEST) From: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@sylvana.boldlygoingnowhere.org> To: "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org> Cc: freebsd-proliant@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: DL 380/G5 with 16G of ram Message-ID: <20060909151636.A4598@sylvana.boldlygoingnowhere.org> In-Reply-To: <20060908130444.V64655@ganymede.hub.org> References: <45008628.2000007@juniper.net> <4500F627.1040104@thebeastie.org> <20060908130444.V64655@ganymede.hub.org>
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On Fri, 8 Sep 2006, Marc G. Fournier wrote: > On Fri, 8 Sep 2006, Michael Vince wrote: > >> I got a HP because I needed a new server fast and Dell claimed 4 weeks, I >> will give you my run down on whats happened with me. > > We're running 2xDL360 G4p's here, and so far, have been extremely happy with > them ... third is about to be installed ... > > >> So far I am annoyed about many things, firstly at has no built in writeback >> battery on the 256mg SAS controller which means no write cache which is >> something you have to pay extra for from HP. >> In the Dells its built in, with 256mg battery backed writecache for >> guaranteed filesystem consistency on sudden power loss, write cache is >> important and is otherwise a waste of a good machine if you need top write >> performance, otherwise may as well get really low end stuff that has really >> simple controller cards like supermicro etc. I can only speak for earlier revisions of the Proliants, and the write-back-cache for most of the controllers is sold separately. (Yes, especially for the onboard-Controllers like the Smartarray 5i) In some cases they come preconfigured when you buy them. >> The other problem is the remote serial support via tip for reaching into >> the bios is quite stuffed, all the text garbles into a single line and is >> just to hard to read, I hacked the minicom port to use the USB to 9pin >> serial device to see if I could make it more like how people in linux would >> use it and it made little difference. >> It looks like HP were trying to have better remote serial bios support by >> going really basic command line style for remote BIOS control but its no >> good. >> The Dell bios is all nice and menu'ed and works flawlessly over remote >> serial, no garbledness overwriting other text. The HP boxes offer 2 ways of serial: traditional BIOS redirection at 9600 bps through 9pin COM1, which you can set up in BIOS, I recall that there are some options to it, like terminal type, ANSI or VT100. Could that be an issue in your environment? (I admit that the Proliants in our datacenter are dedicated to Windows, so I had only limited time to check with FreeBSD on them) > Here, what is 'remote serial'? Is that the same as REMCONS through iLO over > SSH? Again, will have to double check, as my other two machines are > production right now, but my experience with iLO/REMCONS has been most > pleasant, but, I also hook up two ethernet cables, I don't do the 'piggy > backing' that I know is possible over one ... Second possibility ist the console redirection through the iLO board with a web browser. Shall work with recent browsers. >> There is no IPMI with HP even though it appears to be standard on most >> other x86 servers. On the new Dell they now have IPMI v2, and I can use a >> native FreeBSD IPMI client port for remote control. On HP it appears I have >> to pay for some kind of LO software, this might be the reason for useless >> uncontrollable remote 9pin serial for BIOS access. Hmm, the standard iLO features on HP DL 360G2 and 380 G3 should be sufficient for Unix environments- the advanced pack gives you graphical "console" redirection thats needed for Windows out-of-band management including mouse support and some stuff i already forgot. I monitor these few windows servers via SNMP through the iLO, works without problems, and there is the possibility to login via ssh to iLO for essential things like powercycle. For anything else HP uses SNMP, and I recall some work to script the iLO via XML templates, that can be downloaded from HP. HTH Olaf
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