File Servers
Spitfire
Motherboard
- The motherboard in spitfire is a consumer ASUS P5NT Deluxe, featuring a Core2Quad CPU at 2.66GHz. 8GB DDR2-800 (PC2-6400, CL 5-5-5-18) is installed, filling all RAM slots. There are three PCI-E slots: 1st PCI-Ex16 has 3Ware RAID controller; 2nd PCI-Ex16 has Intel quad-NIC; 3rd PCI-Ex16 has HP SCSI controller. At initial deployment (June 2008), motherboard/RAID refuse to talk about MBR/1st-stage boot; workaround is to grub-install to a USB thumb-drive.
- Asus P5NT Deluxe Manual
Chenbro 4U Chassis
The Chenbro RM414 features triple/redundant power supplies, and 16 front-accessible, latching hard-drive bays - drives slide in on caddies, and the drives themselves plug directly onto the SATA backplane.
- Chenbro RM414 4U rackmount chassis manual
- The backplane permits hot swapping of drives:
- 4-Port SAS/SATA2 Backplane User's Manual
3Ware RAID
- True hardware-RAID, with 16 SATA ports. These are physically bundled into four cables-of-four (multilane), which connect to the chassis backplane. This chassis backplane accepts plug-in hard-drives, without the need to connect individual cables.
- 3Ware 9650SE RAID Controller Installation Guide
SCSI Controller
- External SCSI is included for the sole purpose of connecting an external LTO3 tape-drive - backups.
- HP SCSI SC11SE PCI-E Adapter
Networking
- An Intel four-GigE-ports adapter is used, which features a lot of dedicated hardware to offload the main CPU. We then "bond" (link aggregation) all four ports into a single, virtual 4GB/s port (the other end of the connection - data switch - must also be LAG-enabled)
- Intel Pro/1000 EXPI9404PTL Quad-NIC Brief
Tape Backup
- External SCSI-attached HP Ultrium 920 (LTO3) tape drive...Don't perform over-the-network backups (can't supply data fast enough)
- HP Ultrium SCSI Tape Drive User Guide
Hurricane
Motherboard
- The motherboard in hurricane is a consumer ASUS P5NT Deluxe, featuring a Core2Quad CPU at 2.66GHz. 8GB DDR2-800 (PC2-6400, CL 5-5-5-18) is installed, filling all RAM slots. There are three PCI-E slots: 1st PCI-Ex16 has 3Ware RAID controller; 2nd PCI-Ex16 has Intel quad-NIC; 3rd PCI-Ex16 has HP SCSI controller. At initial deployment (June 2008), motherboard/RAID refuse to talk about MBR/1st-stage boot; workaround is to grub-install to a USB thumb-drive.
- Asus P5NT Deluxe Manual
Chenbro 4U Chassis
The Chenbro RM414 features triple/redundant power supplies, and 16 front-accessible, latching hard-drive bays - drives slide in on caddies, and the drives themselves plug directly onto the SATA backplane.
- Chenbro RM414 4U rackmount chassis manual
- The backplane permits hot swapping of drives:
- 4-Port SAS/SATA2 Backplane User's Manual
3Ware RAID
- True hardware-RAID, with 16 SATA ports. These are physically bundled into four cables-of-four (multilane), which connect to the chassis backplane. This chassis backplane accepts plug-in hard-drives, without the need to connect individual cables.
- 3Ware 9650SE RAID Controller Installation Guide
SCSI Controller
- External SCSI is included for the sole purpose of connecting an external LTO3 tape-drive - backups.
- HP SCSI SC11SE PCI-E Adapter
Networking
- An Intel four-GigE-ports adapter is used, which features a lot of dedicated hardware to offload the main CPU. We then "bond" (link aggregation) all four ports into a single, virtual 4GB/s port (the other end of the connection - data switch - must also be LAG-enabled)
- Intel Pro/1000 EXPI9404PTL Quad-NIC Brief
Tape Backup
- External SCSI-attached HP Ultrium 920 (LTO3) tape drive...Don't perform over-the-network backups (can't supply data fast enough)
- HP Ultrium SCSI Tape Drive User Guide
Musashi
Motherboard
- The motherboard in musashi is a Tyan S3022, configured with two Xeon 2.66GHz CPU's. All RAM slots are currently full: 4 pieces of 1GB ECC PC3200 (although it only required PC2100, this lower-spec memory is no longer available (June 2007)).
- Each (of two) PCI-X 64-bit slots has a single-port NIC. No slots are available.
- Tyan S3022 Manaul
Yamato
Motherboard
- The motherboard in yamato is a Tyan S2721, configured with two Xeon 2.66GHz CPUs. Four (of six) RAM slots are currently filled: 4 pieces of 1GB ECC PC3200 (although it only required PC2100, this lower-spec memory is no longer available (June 2007)).
- Each (of two) PCI-X 64-bit slots has a single-port NIC.
- The single PCI 32-bit slot has a 3Ware 7006-2 RAID controller. No slots are available.
- Tyan S2721 Manual
HVILab
- IBM Intellistation Pro, capable of dual-Xeon CPUs, but only a single 2.2GHz Xeon is installed. 1GB ECC.
- Special GRUB notes: a standard Grub intallation won't boot this machine; you must:
# grub grub> root (hd0,0) grub> install --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst