[ale] Dell and Linux

[Jeff Lightner]

Maybe they fired the guys doing it 5 years ago because other than basic
installation support my experience with Dell regarding Linux has not
been fun.   I didn't start dealing with them until 2005.

My most recent fun was having periodic system hangs on a RHEL server.  I
suspected the PERC card.   They of course immediately told me to upgrade
firmware even though nothing in the firmware documentation described an
issue even close to what I experienced.   Upon balking at that, they
suggested running full system diagnostics.  This took some 4 hours out
of one of my weekends and at the end when it got to the PERC card all it
did was check to see if the battery was OK - hardly my idea of a good
diagnostic for an HBA.   They couldn't explain why another system
running the same hardware and OS and Oracle DB (RAC cluster) was not
experiencing the problem even though it had the same PERC.

I have finally upgraded the firmware out of sheer desperation.   Only
time will tell if this has any impact on the issue.

There were some positives out of this over prior issues:
1) They actually had a bin file to do the FW upgrade from a Linux
command prompt and fairly good documentation as to what to insure isn't
running when you do the FW upgrade.
2) The support personnel do seem to do a better job of at least
following up on cases.   Previously they actually would simply refuse to
return calls on cases if I wouldn't boot my Linux box into Windows to
solve the issue.

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 9:45 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Dell and Linux

Step wrote:
> Looks like Dell is really responding to the overwhelming community 
> feedback on Linux support:
>
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/28/9655.aspx?CommentPoste
d=true#commentmessage 
>
<http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/28/9655.aspx?CommentPost
ed=true#commentmessage>
>
>
I find it interesting there's so much hoopla about Dell and Linux.  I 
guess it's about workstations not servers, 'cause at my last employer we

were delivered a couple of Dell systems with RH7 installed (5 years 
ago?).  Not a special order, but an off the shelf package.  While their 
engineers were probably not as familiar with Linux as Windows, we never 
had a problem with their support.  They gave us enough info to solve all

the problems we had.

Jim.
_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale