[ale] RHEL on PowerEdge servers from dell outlet

[Jeff Lightner]

We've been running 2 6650s in an Oracle RAC config for about 18 months
and just had our first apparent hardware failure (the PERC) last week.
For that Dell did actually provide a Linux utility that would show the
statistics for the PERC after the reboot.   Of course their "linux
group" didn't attempt to debug the MegaRaid messages that appeared
before suggesting the reboot which of course I would have done without
calling them as the system was hung.  

 

Anyway it was a good test to verify our RAC continued to work with one
node down.

 

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
To: ale at ale.org
Jerry Yu
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:38 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] RHEL on PowerEdge servers from dell outlet

 

in that case, it is a good thing that the company could afford only
Brown, the basic parts warranty (3-Y NBD). Admittedly, at one point or
another, I could use some final authorities to rectify my
answers/resolutions or my lack of or to shorten the time to reach such
answers/resolutions. In our lab, a Dell PE6650 mysteriously crashed at
certain loads. After many trials and errors, I ended up with a stable
combo of kernel version, firmware version on RAID controller, dell's jbd
module, plus HT disabled in BIOS and kernel. 

On 9/27/06, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

We use Dell for Windoze and Linux.  I really don't have much kick about
the PowerEdge server hardware itself.  I don't have any experience with
the Dell Outlet.

One Caveat - While running RHEL (and Fedora Core) on PowerEdge seems 
fine Dell's support for Linux (below Gold level [$$$]) sucks wind.  On
more than one occasion they've told me to boot from Windows to solve a
problem on a Linux installed server.  It seems much to me that the Linux

group you get really doesn't know that much about Linux.  Haven't gone
to Gold level so don't know if it is truly better.  I guess if it were
up to me to make the choice I might look for another PC vendor that
didn't have such Windoze tunnel vision.

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of 
To: ale at ale.org
Geoffrey
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 8:24 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] RHEL on PowerEdge servers from dell outlet

Jerry Yu wrote:
> I am tasked to purchase a few Dell PowerEdge servers, cheap. Dell 
outlet
> seems to be a natual choice. I wonder if any ALEr wants to share
his/her
> experience with 'scratch/dent' versus 'certified refurbished'.   A
good
> bargain comes & goes so fast on their site. Any known trick to pull to

> ensure I get what I want w/o refreshing the page every so often
> (manually or
> using curl)?
> I heard some horror stories about other outlets simply stamp their
returned
> servers as 'certified' w/o going through really fixing up. Thus comes 
> another question, how do people test/stress/prep the server for RHEL
> AS 4.4installation?

I have no personal experience with Dell servers, but the view I get from

the various tech lists I'm on, their hardware sucks.  Based on that, I 
would never purchase Dell hardware.

--
Until later, Geoffrey

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
  - Benjamin Franklin 
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