Linux support on older Compaq hardware

I've recently been running a custom Linux distribution on a variety of
older Compaq Proliant servers, namely 5500 Xeon, 1850R and 3000's.

Being a custom Linux variant (loosely based on RedHat 7.2) there is no
support to speak of for Compaq hardware directly especially RAID cards.

Is there a modern mainstream Linux which would still support my older
servers and give me some access to hardware drivers and configuration
utilities?

Regards,
TH.

"Trojan Hussar" wrote in message
ups.com...
I've recently been running a custom Linux distribution on a variety of
older Compaq Proliant servers, namely 5500 Xeon, 1850R and 3000's.

Being a custom Linux variant (loosely based on RedHat 7.2) there is no
support to speak of for Compaq hardware directly especially RAID cards.

Is there a modern mainstream Linux which would still support my older
servers and give me some access to hardware drivers and configuration
utilities?

Regards,
TH.


basic drivers, yes. total systems management support .... not on most of the
older gear, and not with the lesser linux builds and distros.

Start he
http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h...&lang=en&cc=us

locate the system type you want ... then dig into the supported OS'es. You
will find some linuxes on there with varying levels of drivers and software
support.

- LC

Trojan Hussar wrote:
I've recently been running a custom Linux distribution on a variety of
older Compaq Proliant servers, namely 5500 Xeon, 1850R and 3000's.

Being a custom Linux variant (loosely based on RedHat 7.2) there is no
support to speak of for Compaq hardware directly especially RAID cards.

Is there a modern mainstream Linux which would still support my older
servers and give me some access to hardware drivers and configuration
utilities?

Regards,
TH.

I've been using the Gentoo distribution on 2500s, 1850s, DL380s with
smart raid controllers. Once you learn the minor gotcha's associated
with the drivers the installs and support are pretty easy.

I alway put the utilities partitions on my servers so I have easy
access to them at boot time.

Search this group for more info on Gentoo and Proliants.
The Gentoo forums are also a good resource forums.gentoo.org

VinceV

Trojan Hussar wrote:
I've recently been running a custom Linux distribution on a variety of
older Compaq Proliant servers, namely 5500 Xeon, 1850R and 3000's.

Being a custom Linux variant (loosely based on RedHat 7.2) there is no
support to speak of for Compaq hardware directly especially RAID cards.

Is there a modern mainstream Linux which would still support my older
servers and give me some access to hardware drivers and configuration
utilities?

Regards,
TH.

I have never had a single driver problem when using Fedora Core 4 on a
ProLiant. In fact here is a write-up (with some pictures) of FC4
running on a ProLiant 3000:

http://www.pc-mod-squad.com/articles.html

I did have some problems trying to put FC5 on a 1600...but I am
convinced that it is a bug within FC5 and not a hardware problem.

Especially since you alreeady have RedHat faimiliarity, it seems like
Fedora Core 4 is an ideal choice for you.

Jeff

I guess what I'm really interested in is the management utilities, I've
not had a problem with drivers aside from GRUB not calling cpqarray
correctly under Ubuntu 5.10 (installs fine and then boots up and
announced it can't find dev /ida/c0d0p1 because it doesn't load
cpqarray). I'm looking at remotely managing a couple of boxes and would
like to be able to assess the health of the system remotely via a SNMP
client. I was surprised to see that both the 3000 and the 5500 Xeon are
supported by Windows Server 2003 although the cost of this makes it
more than a little prohibitive for the clients I'll be working with.

I wonder how successful installing RedHat 8.0 utilities would be under
FC4 and whether they would install correctly? Guess I'll dig out an old
Proliant 3000 and try it out when I have time. I'm guessing that the
management utilities rely on the Compaq drivers (rather than generic
Linux drivers) being installed in order to monitor hardware.

I've got a couple of servers off site running with more technically
'savvy' users but I'm loath to put machines on sites where they're
going to be hidden away and ignored and nobody will notice a failed
drive.

In the long term I'm hoping to get hold of some more modern hardware,
but for now the older machines are all I have to play with...

Regards,
TH.

Trojan Hussar wrote:
I guess what I'm really interested in is the management utilities, I've
not had a problem with drivers aside from GRUB not calling cpqarray
correctly under Ubuntu 5.10 (installs fine and then boots up and
announced it can't find dev /ida/c0d0p1 because it doesn't load
cpqarray). I'm looking at remotely managing a couple of boxes and would
like to be able to assess the health of the system remotely via a SNMP
client. I was surprised to see that both the 3000 and the 5500 Xeon are
supported by Windows Server 2003 although the cost of this makes it
more than a little prohibitive for the clients I'll be working with.

I wonder how successful installing RedHat 8.0 utilities would be under
FC4 and whether they would install correctly? Guess I'll dig out an old
Proliant 3000 and try it out when I have time. I'm guessing that the
management utilities rely on the Compaq drivers (rather than generic
Linux drivers) being installed in order to monitor hardware.

I've got a couple of servers off site running with more technically
'savvy' users but I'm loath to put machines on sites where they're
going to be hidden away and ignored and nobody will notice a failed
drive.

In the long term I'm hoping to get hold of some more modern hardware,
but for now the older machines are all I have to play with...

Regards,
TH.

I should have specifically mentioned this, and I'm sorry that I didn't.
I did get the RH 8.0 utilities to run just fine on this FC4 3000. I
hinted at that (if only vaguely) by giving you the picture of the IMD
which has clearly been modified...this was done using the IMD Utility
running from within Fedora.

I hate to open a can of worms, but are you CERTAIN that buying a
Server2003 license, for these off site machines, is not justifiable?
You can cut costs by getting Server2000, and still do the same job.
Either one of these allow you to connect via Remote Desktop and run
legitimately installed Management Utilities that Compaq has
specifically designed for these actual OS's.

I hate to wimp out in front of the Linux community, because I love
playing with all of the distributions that I can get. But in reality, I
put 2000 or 2003 on ALL of my client servers for reasons that are just
too numerous to list.

Its also worth noting, that in past threads, LC has indicated that he
has had very few chances to play with Linux on the ProLiants. The
(really rather profound) implication here is that an expert of his
calibre has just always found legitimate utilities running on COMPAQ
SUPPORTED operating systems to be sufficient. Although the management
utilities are free to download, they are not open-source...therefore
they will never be reliably run under newer Linux distributions (unless
they someday make them open-source).

Jeff

It's reassuring to hear that the RedHat 8.0 utilities work under FC4
which means they *should* work under CentOS 4.3. What I was planning to
do was to use a Compaq compliant OS to get access to the monitoring
utilities and then run a hypervisor (VMware/Xensource) to create a pair
of virtual machines (one for the firewall and one for the mail/web
server). That way I can continue running my custom Linux server in a
virtual environment, which also means if there is a hardware failure it
can be relocated to another machine and I don't have to worry about
hardware specifics as these are all controlled 'virtually'.

I can monitor the server from afar via the host OS and also take
snapshots of the virtual OS'es for backup purposes. The two machines I
have out there at the moment have effectively been donated to a couple
of local charities along with my time and support. At this point
neither they or I can afford to pay MS (last time I checked Server 2003
SBS was around £275/$517 for 5 CALs) for something which can be done
open source for free.

Thanks,
TH.

At this point
neither they or I can afford to pay MS (last time I checked Server 2003
SBS was around £275/$517 for 5 CALs) for something which can be done
open source for free.

Thanks,
TH.

Ahh, charitable organizations are a specialty of mine. I don't know
where you are located, but here is what I do:

http://www.techsoup.org/

I think that you will find your prices a bit misquoted after you check
out this site.

Jeff