FreeBSD on Dell PowerEdge 2500
Andrew L. Gould
algould at datawok.com
Mon Feb 16 13:17:06 PST 2004
On Monday 16 February 2004 02:04 pm, moliveri at uti.com wrote:
> Anyone have any experience installing FreeBSD on a Dell PowerEdge server?
> 2500 or any other? I'm looking at having to do so and, having not done it
> before, I'm just wondering if there are any gotchas I should be aware of
> or if I have to use their OpenManage CDs or something.
>
> Take care,
> Mike
The server I have at work is a Dell PowerEdge. I think the specific model is
1400SC; but my memory could be faulty. It's on the other side of Texas, so I
can't see the case right now.
The server came with a small, bootable dos partition at the beginning of the
scsi hard drive that has certain utilities. Since I was new to FreeBSD at
the time; I left the dos partition in place. The Dell CD's were put in a
drawer.....somewhere. I've never used them.
FreeBSD installed easily and has performed flawlessly. I don't remember what
version I installed back in 2001; but the server has remained on the STABLE
track via cvsup and 'make world'. The server houses PostgreSQL databases
used for clinical analysis and acts as a SAMBA server for the analysts.
I've replaced the IDE CDROM with a Sony DVD RW DRU-500A to burn gzipped
pg_dump files to DVD-R. Dealing with the server's screwless case drove me
nuts. The DRU-500A's went on clearance -- good price for excellent hardware,
if you can still find one.
My only advice is the same for all computers: Max out the RAM while it's
relatively inexpensive.
Happy serving,
Andrew Gould
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