Re: Broadcom/Serverworks chipsets (was Re: a few simple questions about AMD64 version of Debian)
On Thu, Dec 21, 2006 at 09:14:07AM -0800, Freddie Cash wrote:
> > > > Has someone experience with k8 Broadcom/Serverworks chips?
> > >
> > > Excellent question. I'd be interested in hearing from people that
> > > have used/tried motherboards using this chipset. It appears to be
> > > the only other choice in server boards if once avoids nForce boards.
> >
> > You're supposedly talking about HT1000 and the like? SuperMicro's H8SSL
> > motherboard series is based on this chipset, and there's a 640+ node
> > cluster based on this board at U Wisconsin Milwaukee (and soon here
> > too). What do you want to know?
>
> Yes, the HT1000 and similar ServerWords chipsets. These are the only
> other non-nForce server chipsets out there (other than Intel, but we
> prefer Opterons to Xeons).
>
> How's the Linux support, Debian specifically? We're using Tyan boards for
For Linux support, look at http://lsc-group.phys.uwm.edu and proceed to
the Nemo cluster. They have set up quite a lot of documentation.
While Nemo is running FC4, we @AEI decided to install Debian (Etch) onto
our cluster which is still in an early test phase (only about 1/8 of the
hardware being delivered). Basically, if you build your own kernels (we had
to to have support for Areca RAID controllers, and the Gilgal eth chip on
one of the headnodes [purchased separately]) you're fine. We've been using
FAI to diagnose and install three different types of hardware, and it went
smoothly (OK, three years of FAI experience before...)
> all our servers, but have been notified that the S2882 boards we love may
> be phased out in 2007, so we're looking for possible replacements. Are
Everything that works will soon be end-of-life.
> all the onboard devices detected and usable? Starting with which version
> of the kernel? Specifically, the NICs. Also, how is the hardware
> management (SMBus, I2C, temperature monitoring, etc)? Is there remote
> management (inband or out-of-band) available for the motherboard?
NICs are tg3, kernel 2.6.17 has recent drivers.
For health monitoring, we use IPMI (which conflicts with lm_sensors).
Also IPMI can do remote power on/off/whatever, serial-over-LAN etc.
> And, finally, does all of the above work with the 64-bit version of
> Debian?
We never tried i386 :-)
S
--
Steffen Grunewald * MPI Grav.Phys.(AEI) * Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Potsdam
Cluster Admin * http://pandora.aei.mpg.de/merlin/ * http://www.aei.mpg.de/
* e-mail: steffen.grunewald(*)aei.mpg.de * +49-331-567-{fon:7233,fax:7298}
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