We are looking at buying an IBM eServer (x336) with an Intel Xeon
processor.

I wanted to check that D3/Linux will run ok on a Xeon based machine. I
was told that only Pentiums are certified - and that sounded a little odd.

Anyone running such a machine and have any comments on them ?

I am considering running Centos and D3/Linux 7.4.2. Anyone see any issues
with this combination ? I know Centos isn't a RD certified OS, but it is
essentually RHEL and a LOT cheaper (free).

Matt

"Matt Hyne" <matt (AT) hyne (DOT) com> wrote


May I ask who it was that told you that?


I've got one client running D3/Linux on a dual processor Xeon without any
problems whatsoever.


Don't see any problems, but I can't speak from experience as client with
dual Xeon setup is still on 7.4.0.

The only problem I did have was with RAM. Server has 4Gb RAM in it, but D3
was only capable of addressing up to 1.5Gb at the time of its installation
(12 months or so ago).

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I assume you're going to
exhaustively test everything before swapping over to the new server so any
problems should be identified at that stage and rectified without affecting
day-to-day operations?

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

Mike Wooding

Matt Hyne wrote:
RHEL3 works just fine --> one of the joys of using an "approved" box.

Can not comment on Centos, but $350/pa for ES seems cheap to me when I
compare to what I used to pay for SCO .... beware how much your "free"
choice may cost you on the first problem you get.

IBM Certify their equipment for RH - I would think $1/day to be able to
sleep soundly was a good investment

RHEL4 works OK to - just need to double check drivers (eg: the x206
gets a "big tick" for RHEL4, BUT in the fine print you discover that
the built-in adaptec (mirrored) RAID controller isn't supported with 4
- but 3 works just fine.

Doco suggest RAM (Core) can now be 2.6Gb for D3-- last week for the
first time I managed to get >1.5Gb, but can not confirm the 2.6 figure
.... I'd be interested if anyone HAS somewhere near this amount of RAM
working D3/Linux

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005, Mike Wooding wrote:

A VAR who was pushing their own H/W.

Yes, I just wanted to make sure the machine was acceptable. We are
currently running 7.4.0 on RHL9 but with a new machine on board it is a
chance to test the water and go with 7.4.2. I'd rather go with Centos
than RHEL.

Staying with 7.4.0 is our backup plan.

Matt

On Thu, 28 Sep 2005, Ross Ferris wrote:

The x336 seems to be supported on RHEL 4 ES - so is that all I need, or do
I need the AS product that we were being quoted on ?

Matt

I believe that the ES version is fine ... check with your software
vendor in case they are doing anything "tricky", but this is what we
install as standard. I haven't ever installed AS, and whilst I believe
D3 will work with cheaper WS, I like the idea of samba etc being part
of the base install.

I actually "cheat" these days and install EVERYTHING off all 4 CD's -
space is "minimal", but I've never had a problem with a module/facility
not being available recently :-)

Just make sure you get the special installer patch for RHEL4 !!

Xeon should be fine but check with RD anyway to get their okee dokee.
Before loading the OS, look around for driver issues for your other
hardware, like SCSI Controller, support for ATA, support for your
NICs, whatever.

CentOS is fine but "officially" if RD wants to, they can decline you
support. I've been using CentOS for quite a long time now (preferable
IMO to WhiteBox Linux) and it's functionally equivalent because it
_is_ the same base code for our purposes. I've never had a single
OS-specific error.

Be sure to run CentOS 4. That said, I have not run D3 on CentOS4
myself (I'm running 3.5) so I can't say with full certaintly that all
will be OK, but I'd put some money on it.

You may do well to use something like vmWare or MS Virtual PC to load
D3 on the OS/version of choice, spin it around a few times, and if it
holds up then you can repeat the exercise on real hardware.

HTH
T

Matt Hyne wrote:

On Thu, 28 Sep 2005, Ross Ferris wrote:

Thanks Ross - is this a patch for D3 or RHEL ?

One thing I know that is going to give us a lot of pain in RHEL is using
D3 with CUPS and dot matrix printers.

We had so many problems with CUPS and Redhat 9.0 that we switched back
over to LPRng where everything run nicely (RH provided a switching tool
with RH9 to switch between cups and LPRng).

Unfortunately with RHEL we can't switch to LPRng any more as it is no
longer supported/supplied. I wasted weeks trying to sort out CUPS in RH9
and I dread trying to do it again on RHEL.

CUPS might be nice for laser printers - but it is hell for line printers.

Matt

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005, Tony Gravagno wrote:

Hi Matt,
We are using RHEL EL 3 which is also uses CUPS. We have 2 Panasonic
dot matrix/line printers attached via SaMBa and they never skip a beat!

To make your life easier use either printtool (X windows) or printconf
(console). [Personally, i prefer printconf]

p.s. there is an lpr front end to CUPS (the lpr command) that accepts the
same arguments, e.g. echo Testing 123|lpr -P lp0


Regards,

John.


"Matt Hyne" <matt (AT) hyne (DOT) com> wrote