On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Doug White wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Jun 2000, Stefan Molnar wrote:
>
> > I have not built clusters over 200 nodes, but I almost never
> > go into the BIOS for configurations. And the systems that
> > I have used, include serial access within the BIOS. And
> > adding PXE roms will make things nicer on the install front.
> > But my current system is a single floppy, and that works
> > well.
>
> As someone who has built one of these large systems, the best thing we
> could want is OpenFirmware with a ROM monitor and Lights-Out Monitoring.
> Basically make a PC act like a Sun Netra T1. :)
I love the NetraT1, I am now using them at Major broadcasters and
at DirecTV. But gettting the LOM functionality to x86 is a completly
diffrent matter. Since it has to act independtly from the mainboard.
I would much rather see the BIOS be converted to OpenBoot. Since
that works greatly.
> In real life, the only BIOS problems that require human intervention are
> usually hardware related. You can't avoid the trip to the colo in this
> case.
I picked the remote hands service plan at my colo to be that human. When
I see it is an issue to go that route.
> The buildout cost is pretty spendy too, having to buy a Cisco 2511 or
> similiar term server for every 24-odd boxen. For us, this would mean
> buying 20 or so units and cabling up every box, which we don't have the
> time to do. We just leave 9" mono VGA displays and keyboards in the cage
> and call up the remote-hands when things die. We let them power cycle
> things but if it's really hosed we drive over and frob the box ourselves.
I went the 2611 route with 32port async module, but the overall time
and effort does save in the long run. I am a firm beliver that
serial console for servers, and remote systems is not an option.
I is a must. It has saved alot of down time. I delgated the remote-hands
to being my human on-off switch, or a "blinky light" monitor.
> BTW the PXE loader stuff is invaluable for installs. Saves having to
> track down a (usually broken) floppy to load a system up. A few
> keypresses at boot and voila, new FreeBSD box. :) I will probably give a
> talk at BSDCon about these issues, if I can get everything lined up.
And I will be right there in the audiance.
> > The best people to determin if it is nessesary is Yahoo and Hotmail.
> > Since they have worked with these issues in the thousands of machines.
>
> Sigh, it's not easy being #6. Even with 16 million confirmed members
> eGroups gets no respect :)
Yeah, I normaly forget about them, I think eCircles uses FBSD as
well.
Stefan
> Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.FreeBSD.org
>
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