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Hi all,<br>
<br>
I've been trying to get my grubby little hands on a server for East
Tiger. The physical layout of that site demands we use a shallow
depth (1/2 depth) server. There are surprisingly few servers out
there that are both shallow and offer some kind of hardware RAID and
KVM control with virtual media. I've identified a couple:<br>
<ol>
<li>Dell R210 ii</li>
<ul>
<li>1U</li>
<li>1CPU (E3-12##v2 series)<br>
</li>
<li>Max 32GB RAM</li>
<li>2HD (non-hot-swap)</li>
<li>Stock H200 RAID controller is poopy (no BBWC/FBWC, no option
to enable HD write cache), but it can take an H700 controller.<br>
</li>
<li>KVM not typically installed, but inexpensive DRAC6 cards
available ($15)</li>
<li>Kind of expensive for what it is<br>
</li>
</ul>
<li>HP DL320e G8</li>
<ul>
<li>1U</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>1CPU (E3-12##v2 series)<br>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Max 32GB RAM</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>2-4HD depending on chassis (hot-swap)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Stock B210i RAID controller is poopy (no BBWC/FBWC), but it
can take a P222 controller.<br>
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>KVM via iLO4 integrated standard</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Expensive</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<p>Given the timing, I've gonna deploy a server I have in stock, but
it's really awful:<br>
</p>
<ol>
<li>Rackable based on Intel S5000PSL motherboard</li>
<ul>
<li>2U</li>
<li>2CPU (really old Xeon 5148)</li>
<li>16GB RAM installed (32GB max, FBDIMM required)</li>
<li>4HD (hot swap)</li>
<li>NO RAID controller, and no room in the chassis to install
one either.<br>
</li>
<li>NO KVM (there is an add-on, but it's $170. It may or may
not fit the chassis.)</li>
<li>"Free!" since it's in my inventory and I'm trying to either
sell the servers off or put them to good use.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<p>Since this is going up on a mountain top inaccessible for 1/2 the
year, it's really nice to have the KVM ability in case something
goes wrong or you need to do troubleshooting (just had to use KVM
today to work on some of our ESXi hosts), and the RAID is nice in
case a drive dies or develops a bad sector.<br>
</p>
<p>Anyway, do any of you have any suggestions for any other small
servers I may not have considered yet?<br>
</p>
<p>--Bart<br>
<br>
</p>
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