Re: Blade server recommendations?

[Artur Kokoszka <kokoszka@ite.waw.pl>]

James Flinton wrote:
> Good afternoon,
>
> We're looking to buy some blade servers, and wondered if anyone could
> offer advice on which to buy or avoid?
>
> I have read that HP support Woody on their servers, although this
> article was dated 2002.
> I have also read that Intel/IBM are pushing their "open" blade
> architecure, and seem to be winning.
>
> My primary concerns are:
>  1. Will it run Debian 3.1?
>  2. Heartbeat - no serial cables.
>  3. HP, IBM/Intel or someone else?
>
> Should a blade act like any other machine, and work out of the box, or
> are there any particular things to watch out for? We don't want to use
> binary drivers, thery're too much trouble.
>
> As for heartbeat, we prefer to use serial connections for heartbeat,
> rather than tcp/ip, but we have not seen any blades with serial
> connections - do they even exist?
>
> Any recommendations, on or off list would be welcomed.
>
> Regards,
> James Flinton
I've never use debian on Blade, but here is one with a serial port (even 2):
A39UXB2-9ABD2GDN-P
Sun Blade 2500 Workstation Sys Admin/Developer Promo model 1.6GHz, 2 * 
1.6GHz UltraSPARC IIIi Processor with 1MB on-die L2 Cache, Sun XVR-100 
Graphics Accelerator, 2GB DDR1 Memory (2 * 1GB DIMMS), 1 * 146GB 10Krpm 
SCSI Hard Disk, 1 * DVD-ROM/CD-RW, 1 * 10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet port, 
2 * Serial ports, 1 * Parallel port, 4 * USB1.1 ports, 3 * USB2.0 ports, 
2 * IEEE1394a ports, 1 * 1394a/USB2.0 Combo Card, 1 * SmartCard Reader, 
6 * PCI slots, Solaris 8 2/04 and Solaris 9 9/04 pre-installed

I will have it to the and of June, but I will have to install Solaris on 
 it.


Artur
Kokoszka