Topic: hardware requirements

[cattledog]

Just wondering what ppl are using as a motherboard for sme9?  Not too expensive but let me know as I have been looking at a few and Asrock seems interesting.

Cheers

[Stefano]

my 2c: use certified HW.. HP, IBM, Fujitsu, $whatever..

why?
1) hw is RH/centos certified -> no issues with drivers
2) you can buy extended warranty (NBD)
3) you'll find spare parts for years

since I moved from self-assembled hw to brand hw I never had a single hw issue (but disks.. they die in any case)

[ReetP]

Same boat here

You can pick up great 2nd hand hardware for peanuts.

Cheap enough that you can also buy a shelf full of spares. I usually always have a couple of spare disks and RAID cards on standby. You can get bits easily and quickly at places like ebay.

Have a look at IT recycling places for some good deals. You'll often find the machines will have things like an activation key for advanced features in iLO or RAID cards in there (but check as they can be pricey from HP)

One point to watch with HP is their firmware which is no longer freely available, particularly for 'out of warranty' kit. I already installed some HP machines before they put it all behind a paywall. When the day comes to upgrade (and possibly buy new) I won't use them again, despite the kit being pretty damn good. Their loss ultimately.

Their ML towers and DL racks are nice though. Not necessarily the fastest out there, but rampantly quicker and more reliable than home built stuff. I swapped a DL360 G5 motherboard with bad caps on the iLO port on an old test machine in about 10 minutes. So easy ! And the spare was about a tenner !

RAID cards will usually autodetect an existing array if a card fails. Peace of mind there.

So it goes on.

No excuse not to do it really You won't look back!

B. Rgds
John

[CharlieBrady]

You can pick up great 2nd hand hardware for peanuts.

I just bought two HP ML110 G4's  (as recommended by ReetP ) for $10 each.

[ReetP]

I just bought two HP ML110 G4's  (as recommended by ReetP ) for $10 each.

ROFLMAO.....

About a year ago I got a DL360G5 for messing about for about £50 from a IT recycler. Shortly after I spied a DL360 G6 with 28gb ram and dual CPU that had just come in and he let me have it for about £100 which is my main server at work currently with Proxmox/SME.

Get to know your local recyclers, know what you are looking for (models, variations etc) and keep your eyes peeled for a deal.

One word of caution. You see a LOT of 2.5" SAS drives advertised on ebay etc as 'New'

Remember the old maxims... "you get what you paid for" and "if it's too good to be true, it probably is"

It is false advertising (but no way to complain to ebastards). They call them 'new'....bulk packed. In other words they stuff a pulled drive in a new bag, and call it new. No idea how they can get away with that.

Fine if you know and are happy with it... but don't get caught. A new 300gb drive will probably cost you upwards of £100. So if you see one at £30/£40/£50 advertised as 'new' check the small print and if in doubt ask the seller.

Make sure you get battery backed write cache on your RAID card

Again be careful on replacement batteries. Lots of fakes. You can either build your own battery pack or even do as I did and buy the right batteries, split the old pack with a surgical knife and patience, and solder the new ones in. Cost was a few pounds. Guides on youtube & various web sites!

My 10c of sunshine

B. Rgds
John