Intel SR1500/S5000PAL/Xeon 5050

[Bob Bishop]

Hi,

Further to my question a couple of weeks ago, I've now had a chance 
to play with these beasts. Pretty impressive.

Some points to note: 6.1R doesn't grok the onboard SATA controller 
(sysinstall hangs), RELENG_6 as of last week is OK although in RAID1 
mode I had to do an 'atacontrol create' before sysinstall would 
recognise it as a RAID1.

Even in a diskless box, you have to include the passive (SATA) 
backplane because that also carries fan power and the interface for 
the front control panel. Also that 600W PSU is not a joke, a diskless 
unit pulls over 500W.

The optional Remote Management Module works pretty well, basically it 
gives a web interface to the IPMI functionality in the BMC. Some 
frobbing may  be required if your LAN is not /24 or you want to 
access it over an SSH tunnel. I haven't had a chance yet to 
investigate the IPMI/serial-over-LAN overlaid on to the main NICs.

--
Bob Bishop		    +44 (0)118 940 1243
rb at gid.co.uk		fax +44 (0)118 940 1295