I would skip RHEL 5 because it has gone past the normal end of life. Not even so much for the support but just to keep the update paths nice.
If the box will run CentOS or Scientific Linux of RHEL 6, that's where I would go. I understand what you are saying about FREE. (and non-profit, etc.) -----Original Message----- From: Linux-PowerEdge [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wes Will Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 10:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Linux-PowerEdge] Greetings. New list member. PowerEdge 6850 - Linux queries ** EXTERNAL ** <SEVERAL LIST MEMBERS, OFF-LIST> wrote something like: > A 6850? Get something 9G or newer!! I'm guessing that "FREE" didn't register here. Allow me to elucidate. I run network services for non-profits and civic groups and random weirdos - from some wood-working hobbyists in the Susquehanna Valley to a guy in Australia who scans "New Scientist" magazines for his archives, stores them on my disk array, and tries to promote discussions of science among some of our mutual friends, to a group of Girl Guides and their leaders in the London metro (yes, London, UK) area. (No I am NOT joking here. Girl Guides. Brownies, to be specific. In England. They're some of my favourite users.) And others. I'm an Aulde Pharte; nearly ten years retired. Retired Geek, from a middlin'-large mid-western university where I did IT stuff - networking, Tier-3 server tech support, and taught the occasional herd of under-grads. In Illinois. Which if you're watching politics the last few years you might have noticed "retirement," "state budget," and "Illinois," having little to do with, "SOLVENT." Or even "SANITY." What with the bloviating moron we have instead of a governor, and the idiots we're stuck with instead of a state legislature (don't even get me started on the federal level), I'm lucky not to be selling pencils or apples on the street. Or just starving / freezing to death. My "pension" is better described as a "pittance." I didn't go in for making piles of wonga when I was young, so now that I'm old I'm wonga-deficient. But mostly happy and not all that stressed most of the time, so I consider it a wash. I keep a server going so I can at least pretend that I'm not falling totally out of touch with the IT industry. I got this Gen-8 monster for free. As in "Absolutely No Money." I've got nothing in it but some sweat and time, which are both to be had cheaply these days. I'm using free, open-source, software (FOSS) for a reason, and the main reason is "FREE." Price IS a consideration here. No "paid support." No "contracts." No software "budget." Either I figure it out, often with the help of kind strangers on mailing lists, or it just doesn't get done. There is no hiring of help for this, unless they take cookies in payment. I get some random, small assistance on the power bill; the non-profits have been known to toss me a bit of coin ("BitCoin"? Yeah, don't I wish.) on occasion, as recompense for not being billed for all the admin time, space, and bandwidth they use. But that is all, and it is quite sporadic. Power is my largest outlay here, but luckily it's not that much, really. We don't use much power anywhere in the rest of the house, so the server rack isn't a big financial drain. If a thing costs real money, and I can't work out the price "in kind," as labour, or pumpkin pies, plowing, bush-hogging, or garden tilling, whatever, I mostly don't get that thing. (Yeah, we're in the back woods of the boon-docks here. Barter is the rule when possible. "Rural" doesn't even come close. We-All Be Po' Folk. But it's quiet, and the air is clean. So far, anyway. Ask me next year if it's still so.) Therefore, unless you know where there's a gen-9 or newer box about to be crushed and dumpstered, within driving distance of the tail-end of nowhere in the south end of Illinois, I'm kind of stuck getting this behemoth going before the even-older machine (dual 600 MHz P-III's, if that gives you any idea of the state of things) decides to go belly-up. Even as out-of-date as it is, I suspect this box will give me more bang for the kilowatt-hour than the even-older one it will be replacing..... IF I can get it running. I do appreciate the responses, on- and off- list, and the spirit in which they were intended. But almost every suggestion involved the outlay of cash which doesn't exist in my universe, so we're back to the original question. Thus far, RHEL 5 or 6 seems to be the route to go. A couple of Debian suggestions, which will be considered and tried out, but the RedHat offering seems to be the one most recommended. I'll be looking for the archive of 'antiquated junk' and retrieve an image tonight, if I can find it. Thanks, y'all. -- Wes Will N9KDY _______________________________________________ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list [email protected] https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge *** This email is from an EXTERNAL sender *** Use caution before responding. 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