Brian Mathis disturbed my sleep to write:
> I think your problem is reflected in the terminology you are using.
> "ILOM" is a Sun-ism, and when you're looking a Intel/Dell servers,
> they just don't work the same way, so it seems you are evaluating the
> Dells with invalid criteria.  Stop calling it an ILOM to help change
> your perception.

Sorry, I didn't realize that...I thought I'd seen some HP marketing
bumpf talking about this, so I thought it was a general term.

One other thing I didn't make clear is that I'm not talking about Sun
Sparc servers, but Sun x86 servers.  I've got a little bit of
experience w/the former, and I agree that x86 stuff isn't there yet --
but the x86 whatever-you-call-it for Sun servers seem to behave a lot
better, and that's what I've got experience with, so that's what I've
got as a basis for comparison.

> - Serial access: I am running both Dell PE2950 and R710s.  They all
> have acceptable serial redirection built into the BIOS, though you
> need to configure it.  This is only enough to get you into the BIOS
> screens though.  You need to configure GRUB, the Linux kernel, and a
> getty to run on the serial line.  That's just the way it is.  In
> reality you will almost never be using this method of access (use ssh
> + sudo).

Doing that already, and while it's rare to use it it's invaluable when
I need it; LDAP has gone away, or the network connection is having
problems, or even just to verify that Linux's OOM management has
failed again (I've probably misconfigured it) and I need to reboot.

> - Remote console access: This is handled on PC Servers by using
> integrated remote console cards like a DRAC, and/or an external
> IP-based KVM.  I have both of these.  As you probably know, once you
> get Linux up and running you don't need console access very often, so
> you'll only need these in an emergency.

Sorry, I think I confused "serial redirection" and "remote
console"...my bad.

> - For firmware versions, checking that just needs to be part of your
> build/test process.  Assume that whatever BIOS/firmware versions you
> get shipped are out of date anyway, so you'll need to download the
> updates and install.

Fair enough.

> Obviously I'm talking Dell here, as that's what I know.  The only
> other vendor I've used is HP, but they got on my nerves when they
> started charging piecemeal license fees for each feature you wanted to
> use in the iLO (such as access to a graphical console window is an
> extra fee on top of access to a text console window).

Aha...did not know that.  Thanks for the heads-up.

--
Hugh Brown
http://saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com
Because the plural of Anecdote is Myth.

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