-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 The ASUS KGPE-D16 is a recent, high-end, high-quality server board that is ideal for hosting purposes (as well as an high-end workstation). It is already supported in Libreboot git and already available at minifree.org.
Board: http://bit.ly/1lwEO4f Specs: http://bit.ly/21R3CV1 Picture: http://postimg.org/image/ap4wf8ee9/ There is at least one project that plans to provide professional, libre hosting with this board (e.g. VPN, VPS, websites, email, build server, murmur and many more, as discussed in #libreboot & #librespeech on freenode). This would be a great leap towards a more "libre planet" and free software as well as free hardware based completely on the back of Canteloupe (Libreboot's mascot) and libre GNU/Linux distros - there's no reason not to be enthusiastic about it. # AMD-V (x86 hardware virtualization "smd") However, there is the caveat that it _may_ not work for hosting companies very well because modern hosting relies heavily on virtualization techniques. Mostly because, but not limited to, that hosting providers will want to offer virtual private servers, which is generally but not fully supported in Libreboot (yet): According to the Libreboot maintainer, current and "premature reports indicate that AMD-V will work, but with only 1 core in the VM [..] to use multiple cores in the VM, you need microcode updates". Again, "more testing is needed to confirm". It may be more than questionable to use microcode to provide fully supported virtualization because you would loose your freedom, on the other hand it may proof unusable if only one kernel can be used in each virtual machine (the performance in these virtual machines _will_ be low). Let's wait and see on what the Libreboot developers and Raptor Engineering will work out. # LRDIMM/RDIMM LRDIMM is currently not supported and would require more work according to Raptor Engineering[0] and the Libreboot status page[1]. This should not be a major issue, since we don't need LRDIMMs, as it provides only few advantages[2]. What is a little confusing, is that the mainboard specifications don't mention LRDIMMs as supported. The full amount of RAM (16 DDR3 1600 memory DIMMs for 256GB of RAM) is available with RDIMMs which are fully supported. # SATA & SAS (via ASUS Pike 2008 8-port SAS2 6G RAID add-on card) Good news: SATA is confirmed to work on all 6 ports[0] (6 x SATA2 300MB/s). According to [1] "SAS (via PIKE 2008 module) requires non-free option ROM (and SeaBIOS) to boot from it (theoretically possible to replace, but you can put a kernel in CBFS or on SATA and use that to boot GNU, which can be on a SAS drive. The linux kernel can use these SAS drives (via PIKE module) without an option ROM)." According to the Libreboot maintainer, "none of this will be integrated in Libreboot and probably won't be", so you will have to configure it yourself. Also, newer informations from the Libreboot maintainer say that "SAS RAID controller firmware [..] won't be freed". Depending on the purpose of the machine, SATA (without hw RAID) will be sufficient in many or most cases. Nowadays, a lot of hosting companies are moving away from hardware RAID for good reasons (one is flexibility). The CPUs available for this board, are more than sufficient for software RAID. # Optional ASMB4-iKVM for Remote Management Lights-out-management is one of the most important things to have when providing hosting services on many machines. Most known existing kvm over IP cards work with non-free firmware (the card itself) and non-free Java (client side). There once was a project (now abandoned) that provided a working, possibly completely free (I did not double-check) kvm over IP solution [3]. Why is lights-out-management so utterly important? Mostly because the system administrator doesn't need to be physically present to work on a machine, even if it won't boot. Further reading here [4]. According to Raptor Engineering (the company who ported the board to coreboot and which works together with the Libreboot project to merge it into Libreboot) it would be possible to port OpenBMC[5, 6] to the add on iKVM card. Generally speaking, it may be more efficient to find a PCI (?) add-on card that will work with OpenBMC and this board as well and would only require (if any) minor changes when plugged into another system. [0] https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kgpe-d16-status.php [1] http://libreboot.org/docs/hcl/kgpe-d16.html [2] LRDIMM http://ubm.io/1QgXhhF [3] http://okvm.sourceforge.net/kvmoverip.html [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-band_management [5] http://bit.ly/1QxMX3v [6] https://github.com/facebook/openbmc - -- Best regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Cordialement/Met vriendelijke groet Thomas Umbach GPG key fingerprint: FD5E 2543 EE62 7395 00A6 9FBB F228 7A48 7CA2 3FA5 * Non-free software is an injustice. Use GNU/Linux. https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html * Consider using Email encryption. https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJWaXc1AAoJEPIoekh8oj+ltmEP/jUBrZ2xhHKuOoSn9h18RK3q 4vbKKTfF9ePsDGVVX0x6gn1ZKUrKBclFZBBD02G3tx7PGlRK+rYNd/9VB4KycU1M +5BnbVwCy/coAbBg3FOXHN0SUklhLnJGQRkILNrK33IvdLoDA/Y8jAL1DWMugi+p jALzqT8jCLaz4GuaaH/UV4YV1RK8Dvzc+rOqDL8+w2+Ap/ida5rHL3Z/8l3cURVg FfcxqFTHcjr+cd4wVwkeOIshkZ6iOmIOpdIpF42CGqpGqrdrHMqXXY8j1wOkEb1T Bbonzz5XGtycPJqvqW+EfAHCeG0LKYqaBG/FvG666f6Y829xNJ8p4xK53E2yrJ2G QCZd51c6J0gtFt0JrHNlQohZBeuqGIQ7+FFCYFnMA+cB2wsqioNj9fUBmSLhk63O cT7fiVuyRT106OJRchZ9sN5LmegdMoXilz/4m590JMQPcS+0kNpKaton0EAEXe8n 3L1jEBXmmjjvzV+kNOh3nX4TU14IGnRkk5KNWxFzjF4dN77cl7Z4t985ndN2FZvA j0Hw74pBtJBROsUky/g0TlhVt/iwza4WQf4GmeesGw5vC1m5TFmERZqPN7YJCb10 TMKa4s96mXtKbpuCwvCjrel26q4YozcJ+vAIviGjlZkkVDNauatDKDA0qDGd1XMb yBqqkPwWdMfvNUJ9Edmw =Pl+h -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
