[Leaplist] New machine build ....

[Bryan J. Smith]

William wrote:  
> .... I am fixin' to build a new machine at work, Intel i7 based,
> 12 GB RAM, planning on CentOS 5.3 at the moment.

Don't forget about Red Hat's "equivalent" of MSDN for $99:  
  http://www.redhat.com/developer_studio/  

  "Red Hat Enterprise Linux and RHN Access
  JBoss Developer Studio includes access to Red Hat Enterprise
  Linux, Linux development tools, and Red Hat Network for
  development purposes. This enables developers both to build
  applications directly for the industry-leading Red Hat
  Enterprise Linux as well as to take advantage of features
  like Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5's built-in virtualization for
  development environments."

I assume you're not using it as a server, correct?  Just your
workstation, correct?  If a server, then this really is _not_
a server board IMPO ...

> The mbd (http://www.newegg.com/Product
> /Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128374) has an onboard Intel
> ICH10R south bridge, w/ onboard (F)RAID support.

If you're going to spend $250-300 on a mainboard with all sorts
of PCIe x4, x8 and x16 slots, another $1,000+ on CPU + 12GiB
of RAM (are you sure you can use 6 x 2GiB DDR3?  It may slow
things down and 3 x 4GiB DDR3 is expensive right now), etc...
why are you even thinking of considering using FRAID?

Add one of these 4x SAS/SATA, PCIe x8 cards and get real RAID:  
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116065  

If you only have a free PCIe x4 slot (no x8-16), then the older
9650SE is an option that only requires an x4 (instead of the
x8 needed for the 9690SA).

Are you honestly going to make use of all those PCIe x16 slots?
If so, with what?

> If the boss sez OK, I'd like to use 4 X 2.5" 250 GB HDD's in
> a RAID10 (RAID0 of 2 2X250 GB RAID1's) for the system disk.

Wait.  You're going to buy a full-size ATX board, but put in
5400-7200 2.5" drives?  Might as well get 7200rpm 3.5" drives
for the DTR performance.  Unless, of course, you were going to
buy 10-15,000rpm 2.5" SAS drives, and you'd want a SAS controller
(like the 3Ware 9690SA).  The controller cost is nothing compared
to disk cost there.

BTW, MicroATX versions of the X58 w/six (6) DDR3 slots start at $170:  
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+1388027177+1075707619&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=280&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=  

> Questions:
> 1. Will I need to setup the 4 disk RAID in the BIOS before
> install, or can/will anaconda deal w/ that on the fly ?

This isn't an Anaconda/Linux detail.

You need to set the ICH10R in its "Fake RAID" mode.  Otherwise
Anaconda will (rightly so) assume the disks are "as-is."
When you enable that Fake RAID bit, then Anaconda detects it and
recognizes that the disks need to be organized like the Fake RAID.

It's the BIOS bit that says whether the Fake RAID is used or not.
I.e., it's Anaconda that "picks up the pieces" after the 16-bit
BIOS routines end.  So it all depends on what the BIOS setup, and
how the disks are organized as a result.

BTW, use only Fake RAID-0, 1 or 10, as the kernel only supports
DMRAID-0, 1 and 10.  DMRAID-5 is not supported:  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=468649  

It's not even supported in upstream yet:  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=468649#c35  

There is also the issue that Intel changes little things with its
ISW approach every revision, and it may not be supported in the
kernel 2.6.18 backports of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release 5
(EL 5), possibly not even the latest Update 4 (EL 5.4) betas.
It all depends.

> 2. Can/will anaconda deal w/ setting things up to boot from
> that setup after install ?

If Anaconda sets it up, it will support it.  You just need to make
sure the BIOS has the bit flipped, and that the specific Intel
ICH10R and ISW revisions/firmware are supposed.  They make not
in EL 5, possibly not even in 5.4.

Since you're already blowing all that money, add the 3Ware card.  ;)

> 3. Any other gotcha's :-) ?

Other than possibly going crazy on building an uber setup you don't
need, I don't know.  These days I'm good with a $400-600 desktop or
$800-1,200 17" notebook (and that's a seriously powerful, 3D notebook).
But that's just me.  ;)



-- 
Bryan J Smith          Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
--------------------------------------------------------
I don't have a "favorite Linux distro."  I use, develop
and support community efforts, often built around Linux.
Technology and solutions are my focus, not dragging in
assumptions, marketing and other concepts which dominate
non-community developed software, which I left long ago.


--- On Fri, 7/17/09, leaplist-request at leap-cf.org <leaplist-request at leap-cf.org> wrote:

> From: leaplist-request at leap-cf.org <leaplist-request at leap-cf.org>
> Subject: Leaplist Digest, Vol 33, Issue 17
> To: leaplist at leap-cf.org
> Date: Friday, July 17, 2009, 5:00 PM
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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. a SheevaPlug and a secret ... (Vernon
> Singleton)
>    2. New machine build .... (William A.
> Mahaffey III)
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