dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Stas Khromoy]

hey folks

we're planing to expand, which of course requires us to buy another server.
so here is the question are there any known problems with dell PowerEdge 
2900/2950

and FreeBSD ?

thanks


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Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Bill Moran]

In response to Stas Khromoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> hey folks
> 
> we're planing to expand, which of course requires us to buy another server.
> so here is the question are there any known problems with dell PowerEdge 
> 2900/2950
> and FreeBSD ?

Yes.  Search the various lists and you'll see lots.

To summarize our personal experience:
1) Dell's DRAC5 client now works _only_ with Windows/IE -- which means
   I can't use it from my FreeBSD workstation.
2) The USB drivers in FreeBSD 6.1 don't work right with the DRAC5, which
   means that you can DRAC in from a Windows workstation, but you have
   neither keyboard nor mouse.  I worked with some developers and the
   fix is in 6-STABLE, so it will be in 6.2.
3) We're having intermittent problems with the onboard NICs on these
   units.  I have some testing to do Monday to narrow the problem down,
   but for now, don't trust the onboard NICs to work reliably.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.
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Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Paul Schmehl]

--On September 29, 2006 2:31:03 PM -0400 Bill Moran 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


3) We're having intermittent problems with the onboard NICs on these
   units.  I have some testing to do Monday to narrow the problem down,
   but for now, don't trust the onboard NICs to work reliably.


Bill, if those are the Broadcomm Extreme NICs (bce), you need to grab the 
new version of the if_bce.c file.  It fixed the problems that I had with 
the NICs.  There's a char inside the file that defines the version - you 
need 0.9.6.  You've got 0.9.5, I'll bet.


I posted about it on the 16th.  See this web page:


Paul Schmehl ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/

Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Bill Moran]

In response to Paul Schmehl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> --On September 29, 2006 2:31:03 PM -0400 Bill Moran 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > 3) We're having intermittent problems with the onboard NICs on these
> >units.  I have some testing to do Monday to narrow the problem down,
> >but for now, don't trust the onboard NICs to work reliably.
> 
> Bill, if those are the Broadcomm Extreme NICs (bce), you need to grab the 
> new version of the if_bce.c file.  It fixed the problems that I had with 
> the NICs.  There's a char inside the file that defines the version - you 
> need 0.9.6.  You've got 0.9.5, I'll bet.

Nope:
char bce_driver_version[] = "v0.9.6";

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.


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Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Bill Moran]

In response to Paul Schmehl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> --On September 29, 2006 2:31:03 PM -0400 Bill Moran 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > 3) We're having intermittent problems with the onboard NICs on these
> >units.  I have some testing to do Monday to narrow the problem down,
> >but for now, don't trust the onboard NICs to work reliably.
> 
> Bill, if those are the Broadcomm Extreme NICs (bce), you need to grab the 
> new version of the if_bce.c file.  It fixed the problems that I had with 
> the NICs.  There's a char inside the file that defines the version - you 
> need 0.9.6.  You've got 0.9.5, I'll bet.

Note that I just ran a buildworld over NFS with no problems, so it
seems as if all issues have been resolved in the 0.9.6 version.

Must have had something else going on during last week's tests.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.


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Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Paul Schmehl]

--On October 2, 2006 9:36:31 AM -0400 Bill Moran 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


Bill, if those are the Broadcomm Extreme NICs (bce), you need to grab
the  new version of the if_bce.c file.  It fixed the problems that I
had with  the NICs.  There's a char inside the file that defines the
version - you  need 0.9.6.  You've got 0.9.5, I'll bet.


Nope:
char bce_driver_version[] = "v0.9.6";


Well, that's disappointing.  I guess we need to hope for version 0.9.7 to 
come out soon.


I haven't noticed similar problems on my 1950 though.  Wonder what the 
difference is?


Paul Schmehl ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/

Re: dell poweregde 2900/2950 and FreeBSD

[Paul Schmehl]

--On October 2, 2006 12:29:36 PM -0400 Bill Moran 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


Note that I just ran a buildworld over NFS with no problems, so it
seems as if all issues have been resolved in the 0.9.6 version.

Must have had something else going on during last week's tests.


Glad to hear that.  You had me worried.

Paul Schmehl ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/