[ale] Searching ALE mail archives?

[JD]

He's a little MS-centric for me, but http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/
does have lots about lower-end storage and NAS that is worth a read.  I
disagree with his "SMBs shouldn't use RAID" article, but he does make
some good points.

Hard core hardware guys here probably have servers from Dell, HP, IBM at
work and perhaps at home. These are out of my personal price range and
the 3 yr old versions sold cheaply often have some undesirable
characteristics, especially for virtualization or as desktops.

CPUs fall into distinct categories.
* Servers
* Desktops
* Mobile
Server-centric CPUs can be really important for server-class workloads,
but a strong Core i5 or Core i7 processor can do most of the same things
for much less cash.

Hypervisor usually means virtualization of some kind.  That's a complex
subject alone (desktop virt, VDI, small scale server virt or large scale
server virt are VERY different). If you are keen on that and want to try
different hypervisor technologies, start with the VMWare "white-box"  HW
compatibility list. This list won't screw you too much on non-Vmware
tech choices. Pay careful attention to disk and network controllers.

VT-x and VT-d (or whatever AMD calls their versions of the same stuff)
can matter lots - or not at all. If you want to do virtualization, it is
better to have these than not.

There are lots of HCLs - Hardware Compatibility Lists. The best advice I
can give you is to go off, do your research, put together a short list
of the HW you intend to build, verifying each part with at least 1 HCL
for linux. Then post those parts here (vendor + model + chip) for
comments.  If you say what you are trying to build, that would help too.
 Audio support isn't too important on a server, for example.

I've built a home disk array using Addonics.com parts. If you have more
time than money, this is an option.

Solid network storage is usually the first step for server-based
virtualization success that isn't just a play machine at home.

Sorry, didn't have time to proof read this post. Hope it helps.

On 11/03/2011 07:57 AM, leam hall wrote:
> Thanks Jim!
>  
> My extremely old server died this morning, may her AMD 32-bit soul rest
> in peace. My very old lap/desktop, a refurb IBM T30, is slow enough as
> is with Fedora. I'm looking to learn OpenStack but all my tech was
> pre-hypervisor. Most of my education, as well, so I hear the terms but
> need to find docs to read to catch up to this century.
>  
> Once I get that education I need to find a low to medium cost source of
> supply. Sadly, I'm several hours from ATL so don't have quite the access
> as you guys.
>  
> So my questions devolve to:
>  
> 1. Where is a good read on current CPU and Motherboard technology?
> 1.a. Deep enough to explain topics like hypervisor, SATA vs ??, other
> options.
> 1.b. Information on disk arrays for home storage.
>  
> 2. For the hard core hardware geeks, what brands do you find most Linux
> friendly and more reliable? I'm not a speed junkie but I keep gear for eons.
>  
> 3. For mail-order, what vendors have we had the best response from? Are
> there ATL based vendors who would ship?
>  
> Thanks!
>  
> Leam
> 
> 
>  
> On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 6:59 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com
> <mailto:jim.kinney at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     If you use advanced search on google and feed it the ale archive
>     site, it can search.
>     The hardware question comes up often. Sadly the hardware changes so
>     old answers are often outdated soon.
> 
>     On Nov 3, 2011 5:25 AM, "Leam Hall" <leamhall at gmail.com
>     <mailto:leamhall at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>         Morning all. My first e-mail here.
> 
>         Is there a way to search the archives without having to go
>         through the
>         "by thread" web page? I'm in need of new hardware and could use some
>         recommendations bot don't want to ask the same question that's been
>         asked a down times in the last year.
> 
>         Thanks!
> 
>         Leam
>         ___________________