CentOS 4 vs 5

[NedSlider]

[quote]
JakeS wrote:
It's a bit hard to install a 64-bit OS on a 32-bit cpu ;)

CPU simply does not support 64 bit. [/quote]

Are you sure?

I thought all Xeon's were 64-bit - especially those running at 2.8GHz

[JakeS]

[quote]
NedSlider wrote:
[quote]
JakeS wrote:
It's a bit hard to install a 64-bit OS on a 32-bit cpu ;)

CPU simply does not support 64 bit. [/quote]

Are you sure?

I thought all Xeon's were 64-bit - especially those running at 2.8GHz[/quote]Yup 100% sure.

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27275&processor=&spec-codes=SL6GG,SL6NS,SL6VN,SL6YQ,SL72F,SL73N

[NedSlider]

Wow, looks like you're right.

[JakeS]

Indeed.

Anyhow.

For anyone who's curious:

Firstly, got this thing, the person said to me "it's heavy by the way" I said "Yeah no problem.." went to pick it up... then could not hold it up very long.. only to then notice the "Warning" "100-160lbs" sticker (7-11 stone). It's got handles on the side, conveniently, it looks like it's designed to be carried by two people :-D.. So I asked him to help me take it up the stairs, which we did.

So booted it up.. drives were already cleaned, kind of disappointed as it's ex-gov and it's a shame they have been properly cleaned
and unrecoverable by the looks of it :-( they usually are not.

Anyhow, so I installed CentOS 4.7, for the build OS on 4 of 7 drives in the RAID.

No problems, that's done and dusted (Although now, sitting with a kernel panic, but that's my fault)

Then installed 5.3 on the other 3. And have set 5.3 to be the primary boot, and added 4.7 boot options to the grub of 5.3.

So at the end of the day.. I installed both. :-)

Anyhow, thanks guys :D

Also, noticed it has 4 cores some how. Seems both processors are dual. However they are 32-bit.

[toracat]

Quite an achievement :-)

Two curious questions. How noisy is it? Is it like an airplane taking off? :-D
How big is the power consumption?

[JakeS]

[quote]
toracat wrote:
Quite an achievement :-)

Two curious questions. How noisy is it? Is it like an airplane taking off? :-D
How big is the power consumption?[/quote]Yes and no. No. More like a shuttle when it turns on, then it quietens down to aero plane taking off. My neighbour knocked at 8AM to ask what the noise was xD.

I haven't checked to be honest with the power consumption. Though I should imagine it's a lot considering it's got 2PSU's.

Oh remember I said the CentOS 4.x had a kernel panic? Well so it seems, both 5.x and 4.x have died with kernel panics. Something bout can't find something or other. So going to re-install both. This time switch from RAID 0, to RAID5 (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). So basically starting afresh.

Though don't worry about the noise. I'm so used to computers I only notice if I listen out for it. Not so sure my neighbour will feel the same though.

:-)

[mwecomputers]

Just recently I kickstarted a HP DL580 G2 server with CentOS 5.3 and haven't had any problems at all.
The server is running with dual 32-bit Xeon 3.0 GHz CPUs, 8GB of ECC Ram, Smart Array 5i w/ 4 36.4GB HDDs.

The server is going to used as a Xen Host, running the Xen 3.0.3 kernel for about five Xen VM instances.

One thing I would recommend when you get your HP DL server is to upgrade the firmware... for the System BIOS, ILO and network interfaces as well.

http://www.bladewatch.com/hp-firmware/

-- M

[JakeS]

[quote]
mwecomputers wrote:
Just recently I kickstarted a HP DL580 G2 server with CentOS 5.3 and haven't had any problems at all.
The server is running with dual 32-bit Xeon 3.0 GHz CPUs, 8GB of ECC Ram, Smart Array 5i w/ 4 36.4GB HDDs.

The server is going to used as a Xen Host, running the Xen 3.0.3 kernel for about five Xen VM instances.

One thing I would recommend when you get your HP DL server is to upgrade the firmware... for the System BIOS, ILO and network interfaces as well.

http://www.bladewatch.com/hp-firmware/

-- M[/quote]Yup I've had no problems here.. well besides the first two OS's deciding to kernel panic on me, I *think* that was due to me taking the raid drives out.. then forgetting what order they go back in *innocent whistle*

It reconstructed the array, however both OS's failed to boot. but that's my fault.

Just before reading your post I was updating all firmware. (It changed the raid array controller from: Compaq to HP :D) Surprisingly it only needed 4 updates. 3 for HDDs, and 1 for the array controller which had speed improvements and various bugs fixed :-) however the BIOS was bang up to date already, bios lists it's backup bios as a 2002 one, whereas current installed one is from 2003, so it got updated at some point.

My server appears to have duals also as it lists 4 cores and only has 2 CPU's :-) however running at a "sloppy" 2.8GHz.

is that ECC Registered or just ECC? Mines ECC Registered :-)

Though my raid controller is a HP (Previously Compaq) Smart Array 5300 w/ 2 logical drives (out of 7 drives)

Remember I said previously I installed 4.7 & 5.3? Well I installed those again no problem. However, yesterday, 4.7 kinda ended up being upgraded to 5.3 for three reasons:

1) Will not receive updates till 4.8 is out, which could be half a year going at it's current rate
2) Tad to old and limited (Koji didn't want to play nicely either, and plague I could not find any-ware)
3) I was bored

So it's now a happy 5.3, with Koji (with errors, koji is a pain for errors, fixed a load, and keep finding more! now stuck on koji-web login screen with python errors, fix that tomorrow.)

Also, I prefer to grab my drivers firmware cd's etc etc direct from the product page: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=3285467〈=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=316545&taskId=135 saves any mistakes eg install firmware that could bugger it up.

I personally hate updating firmwares, as if it goes wrong, you need a new board sometimes, or a new drive or whatever your updating :-( I had to the main motherboard in my pc back to it's manufacture due to a firmware flash didn't quite work, had to pay £10 to get it replaced. Although a new one would of been a couple of hundred at the time, Thankfully I generally build my machines from scratch, so each bit has its own warranty. (it installed partially, said it was complete, rebooted, and I could not get to the OS or boot CD's, only thing avaliable was the bios options)

Anyhow, I talk to much, so I'm going to end this post before it becomes a book! :D

- Jake

[acejbird]

NedSlider

[quote]I installed C5 on an HP ML330 G3 last week without issue.[/quote]

I got a hand-me-down HP ML330 G3 a couple weeks ago and am trying to install C5 and I'm running into issues finding a suitable RAID driver for the on-board IDE RAID controller. Did yours have the LSI Megaraid IDE controller, and if so - where did you find a driver so the install would recognize the RAID array and not the individual disks off the controller. I've searched and can't seem to find the right driver (from HP or LSI) and I've tried just running the setup with the drives being recognized directly on the controller as individual drives and the installation always hangs while formatting the file system (so I'm just assuming it's the lack of the RAID driver - I could be totally off though). Any help you and the community could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Acejbird