Topic: Dell PowerEdge 1600 IDE with SME 5.6

[Brascoe]

Hi there,

I'm looking for an upgrade of my server from an old PC to a "real server system" - Currently I looking at the Dell PowerEdge 1600 IDE with 2 hard disks for running RAID on it.

BUT:

How about drivers/modules? Will there be any problems with the E-Smith 5.6 server? Dell offers RedHat 7.3 server installation - so I my opinion there shouldn't be any problems as the E-smith is based on that - correct me if I'm wrong. But one thing is theory - the real world is another thing.

Anyone with knowledge/experience in Dell/E-smith configurations?

Cheers

Brascoe

[calvin]

I have four servers Dell PowerEdge 1600 IDE and SCSI running mitel server without problem, you need only download the netword driver from

http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/contrib/Intel/

see if you have a gigabit ethernet card and download de correct driver.

[Brascoe]

How about Raid?

Should I go for hardware solution or software?

Hardware solution is faster I suppose, but again, how about drivers?

I appreciate your answers, as I will use them, to be able to make the right decision, I hope

/ Brascoe

[Charlie]

Brascoe wrote:
 
> How about Raid?
>
> Should I go for hardware solution or software?
>
> Hardware solution is faster I suppose, but again, how about
> drivers?

All RAID is really software RAID, it's just a matter of who wrote the software and where it runs. A "hardware" solution is not necessarily any faster.

Charlie

[Tom Haynes]

I have e-smith installed on a Dell 1600SC. It was pretty routine, although the gigabit onboard ethernet card is not detected, and you have to install it manually. Then you install the driver as Calvin describes and set up networking again. It finds the driver, and all is well.

[Kelvin]

Charlie wrote :

> A "hardware" solution is not necessarily any faster.

But a good hardware RAID can be a life saver.

Recent example :-

One site's server suffered a HDD failure. Luckily, the server's HDDs were in a Hotswap Hardware Mirroring subsystem. The alarm automically sounded which immediately alerted the people in the office of a problem. Rang me about the problem. I reassured them that all will be well and to just keep working as normal but to turn the key on the faulty drive to silence the alarm. Turned up on site an hour later with a replacement HDD. Replaced the faulty drive and left. All this during the middle of a busy working day.

Time to respond to HDD problem : 1 hour (45 minutes drive away)
Time to replace faulty hdd : 90 seconds (10 seconds if I had a spare tray)
Downtime to customer : zero

No need to schedule after hours work, etc.

Kelvin

[Brascoe]

Tom Haynes wrote:
>
> I have e-smith installed on a Dell 1600SC. It was pretty
> routine, although the gigabit onboard ethernet card is not
> detected, and you have to install it manually. Then you
> install the driver as Calvin describes and set up networking
> again. It finds the driver, and all is well.

I've just ordered the server on the internet, and I will definitely come back for help when the machine arrives

Thanks for all your replies.

Cheers

Brascoe

[Brascoe]

Kelvin wrote:
>
> Charlie wrote :
>
> > A "hardware" solution is not necessarily any faster.
>
> But a good hardware RAID can be a life saver.
>
Hi again,

My brand new server has arrived - one day earlier than announced - Thanks Dell

There is a Hardware IDE Raid controller in the server witch I can control from the controller bios on boot up.

The 2 disks are 120 gb and if I then choose the Raid 1 - mirroring solution when I install the SME 5.6 some thing strange happens?

If I do the "df" command on the console the server says that the disk is approx. 60 gb? - Where did the other 60 gb went?

So the question is now, should I choose single harddisk install, and depend on the hardware RAID controller? If so, how do I check that it's actually mirroring the data?

/ Brascoe

[Kelvin]

Brascoe,

>If I do the "df" command on the console the server says that the disk is approx.
>60 gb? - Where did the other 60 gb went?

I believe some others have come across this before. Do a quick search and I'm sure you'll find references to the problem and how to get around it.

>So the question is now, should I choose single harddisk install, and depend on
>the hardware RAID controller? If so, how do I check that it's actually mirroring the
>data?

You need to know if the controller is supported by SME or not. If it is not supported at all, SME's installer will complain about not finding any drives to install on. If it is supported as a ide controller only (like the Highpoint 370 cards) then SME will only treat the drives as 2 individual drives. If it is supported as a RAID controller, then you should be able to install it onto the one logical drive (that you defined via the controller bios) by choosing the single hard disk install.

I'm not familiar with the Dell, so I don't know what indicator lights are visible to you. If the RAID is functioning correctly, you should see the activity lights of both hard disks light up whenever the system writes any data to it (eg. during installation). If only one lights up, then it is not running in RAID mode.

Kelvin

[James Mansell]

>http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/contrib/Intel/

> see if you have a gigabit ethernet card and download de correct driver.

I have just bought one of these servers. How did you get the network driver onto the server if you don't have network access?

TIA

James

[Brascoe]

James Mansell wrote:
>
> >http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/contrib/Intel/


> I have just bought one of these servers. How did you get the
> network driver onto the server if you don't have network
> access?

Download the intel e1000 rpm from the above showed link, then copy it to a floppy disk, mount the disk with #mount /dev/fd0

go to the floppy with #cd /mnt/floppy

Install the rpm, reboot the server, login as admin -> choose configure this server - and then you are back in business.

Cheers

./Brascoe

[James Mansell]

Brascoe wrote:
>
> James Mansell wrote:
> >
> > >http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/contrib/Intel/
>
>
> > I have just bought one of these servers. How did you get the
> > network driver onto the server if you don't have network
> > access?
>
> Download the intel e1000 rpm from the above showed link, then
> copy it to a floppy disk, mount the disk with #mount /dev/fd0
>
> go to the floppy with #cd /mnt/floppy
>
> Install the rpm, reboot the server, login as admin -> choose
> configure this server - and then you are back in business.
>
> Cheers
>
> ./Brascoe

Thanks! As you can probably guess I am new to this. I'm trying to save a few pennies from M$!

James

[Brascoe]

>
> Thanks! As you can probably guess I am new to this. I'm
> trying to save a few pennies from M$!
>
> James

Few?

If you are using an SME server instead of a windows server, it's not pennies

Good Luck.

/ Brascoe

[Charlie Brady]

James Mansell wrote:

> >http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/contrib/Intel/
>
> > see if you have a gigabit ethernet card and download de
> correct driver.
>
> I have just bought one of these servers. How did you get the
> network driver onto the server if you don't have network
> access?

The e1000 network driver is already included, just isn't autodetected in 5.6. Try:

/sbin/e-smith/config set EthernetDriver1 e1000
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event reboot

and see how that goes.

Charlie

[DigyDK]

hi there,
some news about the raid configuration and disk capacity ?
does everything work well ? because i want to buy such a server too.

Guy