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On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Tanstaafl <tanstaafl@×××××××××××.org> wrote: |
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> Hi everyone, |
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> |
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> Ok, here's my dilemma... |
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> |
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> I have some new Dell R515 servers (12 bay versions). These do not have any |
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> Dell supported internal SD (or CF) card options for the hypervisor, but they |
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> do have an internal 2.5" dual SATA/SAS drive cage, for running a bootable OS |
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> (in my case the ESXi hypervisor)... |
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> |
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> Well, I really hate the idea of wasting money and disk space (for 2 146GB |
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> SAS drives to be run in a mirror, what is being recommended to me) on |
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> something that only requires about 32MB to install (the hypervisor) when |
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> apparently there is a really cool option like: |
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> |
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> for CF cards: |
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> http://www.addonics.com/products/ad2sahdcf.php |
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> |
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> or |
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> |
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> for SD cards: |
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> http://www.addonics.com/products/ad2sahdcf.php |
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> |
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> I could get 2 of these for each server, each with a mirrored pair of CF (or |
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> SD) cards (mirror mode is defined by a jumper or switch on the adapter), |
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> then mirror those (in the BIOS), which would result in a total of FOUR CF |
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> (or SD) redundant cards (a mirror of 2 mirrored pairs) for the hypervisor... |
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> and I can do this for quite a bit less than even a SINGLE 146GB SAS drive... |
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> |
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> Is there any reason NOT to do this? |
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> |
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> What am I missing (other than the fact that Dell won't support this config, |
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> but I'm not using them for software support anyway)? |
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> |
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> Appreciate any/all comments... |
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|
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I'd say give it a shot on something non-critical, see if it works. The |
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big thing I'd be uncertain of is bootup time for the Addonics |
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adapter...how long before it tells the SATA controller it's ready? |
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|
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Incidentally, I think that adapter is brilliant. I might snag one in a |
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few months and set up the Gentoo live DVD as a read-only boot install. |
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|
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-- |
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:wq |