Dell Servers

[Tim Hawkins]

On Monday 22 March 2004 18:29, Jerry McAllister wrote:
> > To whom it may concern.
> > We need to install FreeBSD 4.9 on Dell server , and we need to find out
> > on which Dell server it supports.
> > Currently we have Dell Power Edge 1600C server it's a small business
> > level server and on that same small business server we need to install
> > FreeBSD but we don't know on which SmallBusiness server supports FreeBSD
> > 4.9 os.
>
> We have quite a variety of Dell machines and I haven't found one
> that did not support FreeBSD.   Probably 4.9 is the best place to start
> too.
>
> If your present 1600 is free at the moment, just try installing FreeBSD
> on it and see.   Your main ifs are two.  If the modem is a winmodem which
> is useless get something else.    There may be some confusion if it has
> IDE disk and CD controllers.   You have to get them arranged right -
> primary, secondary, master, slave - for things to be recognized.   If
> you have SCSI disk, hurray because it will all work just hunky dory.
> Note:  Turn off Plug-n-Play at the BIOS level.
>
> If that machine is available to completely dedicate it to FreeBSD,
> well, then go ahead and try it with no qualms.  It won't wreck it
> to experiment.   Dells tend (though not always) to have pretty
> mainstream stuff that is generally supported.
>
> If it has plenty of disk, and it already has some MS junk on it that
> you need to keep, make it a dual boot machine.  You will need a utility
> to squeeze the MS slice down so you can put in a FreeBSD slice.  I have
> had good success with Partition Magic which is about $69 in places like
> Best Buy and Circuit City.  There are some freebie ones, but none that
> I know of can handle NTFS type file systems from MS so I just went and
> spent the money.  You will need to make the floppies it tells you about
> in the PM manual and just use those and don't bother installing it on
> the machine from the CD.  (unless you have to to make the flppies - I
> can't remember that tidbit)
>
> Enough disk would be greater than 20GB or more depending on how much
> you are already using.  Give MS lots of room to expand 2 or 3 times
> what you are already using and then at least 10GB for FreeBSD.
> If you have more, that is better - after all, you want your DB
> and records software to have lots of room.
>
> Read and try to understand the handbook first.  It wouldn't hurt to also
> have another plain language book on FreeBSD management on hand as well.
> Something like The Complete FreeBSD (someone walked off with mine, Grrr)
> or FreeBSD Unleashed.    Onlamp has a couple of good tutorials on such
> things as configuring XFree86 client and server and there are other good
> sources on the net too.
>
> ////jerry
>
> > Kind Regards, George Simonishvili
>
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I would recomend getting hold of a Freebsd "LiveCD" there are various around, 
such as FreeBSIE, I use these to test laptops in shops before buying. Allows 
you to boot BSD without modifing the HardDisk 


-- 
Regards
Tim Hawkins