Where to find good/cheap tech support

[ChrisC]

   You seem to be making assumptions and are looking into this to deeply
   my friend. But thanks for the feedback anyway :)
   -
   The $150 was only an arbitrary number thats common in the field. I
   could have chosen another number. It would not have mattered, the
   question would have been the same.
   -
   The SCSI adapter is an Adaptec Ultra320 built into a $3000+ 1U web
   server and not a common inexpensive controller. Since it works fine
   for both RedHat and Windows we are probably going to go with another
   OS on this server other than FreeBSD. Why arm wrestle the situation
   when no one seems to know the solution to our issue.
   -
   And I am in a VERY small company that could barely pay for what we
   just purchased. We where lucky to get what we did and the idea of
   having a duplicate is wishful thinking and not realistic, so thats a
   risk we will have to take until we can afford better solutions. Its
   not the perfect situation but its the best we can do with what we
   have. I would love a new house but the cold numbers dictate what's
   really possible right now.
   -
   Now if your interested in the problem, here is the support
   issue/question no one seems to have any clue about.....
   -
   I am attempting to install FreeBSD 5.3 onto a new server, but during
   the initial bootup it fails / times out from what I think is it trying
   to initialize the SCSI adapter. The server has an Adaptec AIC-7902
   dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI controller which the i386 ahd(4) driver has
   listed as a supported device.
   -
   I have been reading and searching this lists archives as well as the
   bsdforums.org site for possible solutions, but so far what I have
   found has not worked. I have tried disabling/enabling ACPI, removing
   all but one SCSI drive and re-checking the adapter settings comparing
   them to a different Adaptec controller on another server running
   FreeBSD 5.3 which works fine. The servers BIOS and firmware is all up
   to date and is mainly running on its default settings.
   -
   Here is a summary of what I am seeing during bootup:
   -
   Ata1-master : FAILURE ATAPI_IDENTIFY timed out
   Waiting 15 seconds for SCSI devices to settle
   -------Dump Card State Ends-------
   (probe29:ahd1:0:15:0) SCB0xe timed out
   ahd0: Issued Channel A Bus Reset 4 SCBs aborted
   -
   Any ideas?
   Thanks for what help you can give.
   At 4/25/2005 12:07 AM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

     owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org wrote:
     > Where would you all recommend that one can go to find good
     FreeBSD
     > tech support that does not cost $150+ an hour?
     >
     Why are you so hung up on the billing rate?
     Problems with Windows take much longer to fix than problems with
     FreeBSD, so your going to end up paying the same total amount.
     And if you rate your technical help solely by the amount of money
     they charge you are destined to get cheap but poor help that will
     cost
     more in the long run.  And that is true whether your talking about
     fixing
     a computer or fixing a car.
     >
     > I am having a SCSI controller boot problem that no one seems to
     be
     > able to help on
     It is economically foolish to pay for 3 hours at $20 for a SCSI
     controller
     that costs $60.  If your having a booting problem then buy
     replacement
     hardware.
     > but I am also thinking of the future if there is an
     > emergency and I can't afford to have a server down for days at a
     time.
     >
     If your business is that critical you should have a fully
     configured and
     ready to go duplicate of your server, switched off and sitting next
     to
     the
     production one.  This is true no matter what the operating system
     in use.
     And I've seen plenty of Windows server that took "days of time" to
     fix.
     There is a saying "champagne taste on beer budget" perhaps you
     haven't
     heard of it?
     Ted