Two fold really - firstly I remember the headaches I used to have configuring Broadcom cards properly under Debain/Ubuntu but the sweetness that was using an Intel NIC. Bottom line for me was that I know Intel drivers have been around longer than Broadcom drivers and thus it would make sense to ensure that we hand intel NIC's on the server. Secondly, I asked Andy Bennett from Nexenta who told me it would make sense - always good to get a second opinion :-)
There were/are reports all over Google about Broadcom issues with Solaris/OpenSolaris so I didn't want to risk it. For a couple of hundred for a quad port gig NIC - it's worth it when the entire solution is 90K+. Sometimes (like the issue with bus-resets when some brands/firmware-rev's of SSD's are used) the knowledge comes from people you work with (Nexenta rode to the rescue here again - plug! plug! plug!) :-) These are deployed in a couple of University and a very large data capture/marketing company I used to work for and I know it works really well and (plug! plug! plug) I know the dedicated support I got from the Nexenta guys. The difference as I see it is that OpenSolaris/ZFS/Dtrace/FMA allow you to build your own solution to your own problem. Thinking of storage in a completely new way instead of "just a block of storage" it becomes an integrated part of performance engineering - certainly has been for the last two installs I've been involved in. I know why folks want a "Certified" solution with the likes of Dell/HP etc but from my point of view (and all points of view are valid here), I know I can deliver a cheaper, more focussed (and when I say that I'm not just doing some marketing bs) solution for the requirement at hand. It's sometimes a struggle to get customers/end-users to think of storage as more than just storage. There's quite a lot of entrenched thinking to get around/over in our field (try getting a Java dev to think clearly about thread handling and massive SMP drawbacks for example). Anyway - not trying to engage in an argument but it's always interesting to find out why someone went for certain solutions over others. My 2p. YMMV. *goes off to collect cheque from Nexenta* ;-) --- W. A. Khushil Dep - khushil....@gmail.com - 07905374843 Windows - Linux - Solaris - ZFS - Nexenta - Development - Consulting & Contracting http://www.khushil.com/ - http://www.facebook.com/GlobalOverlord On 6 January 2011 13:28, Edward Ned Harvey < opensolarisisdeadlongliveopensola...@nedharvey.com> wrote: > > From: Khushil Dep [mailto:khushil....@gmail.com] > > > > I've deployed large SAN's on both SuperMicro 825/826/846 and Dell > > R610/R710's and I've not found any issues so far. I always make a point > of > > installing Intel chipset NIC's on the DELL's and disabling the Broadcom > ones > > but other than that it's always been plain sailing - hardware-wise > anyway. > > "not found any issues," "except the broadcom one which causes the system to > crash regularly in the default factory configuration." > > How did you learn about the broadcom issue for the first time? I had to > learn the hard way, and with all the involvement of both Dell and Oracle > support teams, nobody could tell me what I needed to change. We literally > replaced every component of the server twice over a period of 1 year, and I > spent mandays upgrading and downgrading firmwares randomly trying to find a > stable configuration. I scoured the internet to find this little tidbit > about replacing the broadcom NIC, and randomly guessed, and replaced my nic > with an intel card to make the problem go away. > > The same system doesn't have a problem running RHEL/centos. > > What will be the new problem in the next line of servers? Why, during my > internet scouring, did I find a lot of other reports, of people who needed > to disable c-states (didn't work for me) and lots of false leads indicating > firmware downgrade would fix my broadcom issue? > > See my point? Next time I buy a server, I do not have confidence to simply > expect solaris on dell to work reliably. The same goes for solaris > derivatives, and all non-sun hardware. There simply is not an adequate > qualification and/or support process. > >
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