SuperMicro 5013

[John Rowan]

John Rowan wrote:

> One of my customers was tired of the noise levels from the Proliant 
> 6400R in his office.  He wanted something that would be quieter but 
> also faster.   TigerDirect sent him an email saying the 3GHz 
> SuperMicro 5013 1U was the device he longed for.  He ordered the 3GHz 
> 1Gigabyte RAM dual 120 gigabyte SATA disk unit since the web site said 
> it worked with Linux.    I tried installing Fedora Core 4 which said 
> it was successful but upon rebooting the machine it hung at a GRUB 
> prompt for 30 seconds then rebooted.  I reverted to RH 9.0 but it 
> doesn't have drivers for the SATA RAID controller.  I also tried SuSE 
> Pro 9.1 but that also does not have drivers for this RAID controller.  
> I've done 9 installs with  FC4, RH9 or SuSE Pro 9.1 today all 
> failing.  FC4 has drivers for the controller but after installation it 
> fails to boot.  RH9 and SuSE do not recognize the drivers I've 
> downloaded from SuperMicro.com.  Does anyone know where I  can get 
> drivers for RH9 or SuSE, or why the machine hangs for 30 seconds after 
> reboot with a GRUB prompt on the screen?
>
>
Well, the lack of a workable RAID with Linux, problems with (primary 
application) Pick reporting illegal activation after cold starting the 
server and lack of redundant hot swap power supplies has the SuperMicro 
/ Visionman back in the box waiting for an RMA.    I think it was 
designed more as a Windows machine and as an afterthought claimed to run 
Linux.  

Anyone have a suggestion for a quiet, cool running machine, hot swap 
hard power supplies and hard drives with hardware RAID (preferably 
compatible with RH9 as primary app will not be supported under any 
release of Fedora Core)?  The budget allows for only $1,400 US.