mini-ITX 1U dual servers??

[Diana Eichert]

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Eric Anderson wrote:

> tony at saign.com said:
> > Just saw some a nifty dual ITX 1U server case, wondering if anyone knows
> > how well or if these boards will run 5.x CURRENT.
> > http://www.caseoutlet.com/NWPc/C147/C147_Barebone.html
> >
> > Woulds be pretty nice to co-locate dual servers in a 1U slot.
> 
> Yes, these should run freebsd just fine in this environment.
> 
> Eric

You know what I see is the real drawback to these systems?  They require a
monitor and keyboard to set them up initially, and really you want to
continue to have a monitor and heyboard immediately available.  This
doesn't really make sense in a rackmount server, what is better is a
serial console that gives access to the BIOS remotely.  I even talked to
VIA about a serial console redirect feature and they referred me to
General Software, http://www.gensw.com/, who has a PXE boot serial console
BIOS for the VIA system boards.  Unfortunately their pricing is not
setup to work with small quantity purchases.  I don't know why VIA doesn't
create an alternate BIOS providing serial console support by default,
maybe if more people contact them with this request.  I would think in the
embedded system world, which is where they appear to be focusing a lot of
their marketing, serial console support would be a no brainer.