Enterprise 4500

[joacim Melin]

Hi gang.

feels good to be back in Sparc land again!

I got a Enterprise 4500 for free with the following specs:

2 CPU Boards
2GB RAM (don't know if this is per board or in total).
No internal HDD:s

So I got questions:

1. Will Linux run on this machine? It's quite quiet for it's size and
the "ignition key" is pretty cool. :)

2. Can Linux access both CPU boards? I noticed when attaching a
monitor and keyboard that only the first CPU board had ports for that.
The other one only had a network port.

3. Since there is no internal storage, my plan was to run Linux of an
NFS mount. My plan is to use this machine as a web/mail/whatever
server. Is this even doable, and if so, how do I go about this?

Regards,

Joacim

[h***@juno.com]

Joacim,
the cpu boards for the EXX00 series don't have any connectors on the face
plate. you are looking at
the controller board (sorry, don't remember the real names
http://dlc.sun.com/pdf/805-2632-11/805-2632-11.pdf ).

the system boards only have three lights... the I/O boards have the three
slots for sbus cards... I don't know of
any problems with loading Aurora on it... other than the normal
problems... please don't buy the drive board, they
are not reliable and if it goes down, the box goes down... find a 611 or
a 711 or your favorite jbod... just don't try
fibre channel... Aurora doesn't handle that at all.

not quite sure that the above link is for the service manual, but down
load it and find out.

good luck,
haroldkarl
____________________________________________________________
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[Joacim Melin]

Hi gang,

I'm happy to report that I hauled a fully working StorEDGE 1000 home
today complete with 12 drives (got it for free.. yayyy!).

Now, about installing Aurora on this beast, enabling software RAID and
SMP.. can it be done?

Joacim

Post by h***@juno.com
Joacim,
the cpu boards for the EXX00 series don't have any connectors on the face
plate. you are looking at
the controller board (sorry, don't remember the real names
http://dlc.sun.com/pdf/805-2632-11/805-2632-11.pdf ).
the system boards only have three lights... the I/O boards have the three
slots for sbus cards... I don't know of
any problems with loading Aurora on it... other than the normal
problems... please don't buy the drive board, they
are not reliable and if it goes down, the box goes down... find a 611 or
a 711 or your favorite jbod... just don't try
fibre channel... Aurora doesn't handle that at all.
not quite sure that the above link is for the service manual, but down
load it and find out.
good luck,
haroldkarl
____________________________________________________________
Find success and happiness with drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Click now.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2ZDsfuuDmP6iQ3wOsAUgMfrhai6tccc9qT7kUGdohKwIZd5/
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[Lamar Owen]

Post by Joacim Melin
Hi gang,
I'm happy to report that I hauled a fully working StorEDGE 1000 home
today complete with 12 drives (got it for free.. yayyy!).
Now, about installing Aurora on this beast, enabling software RAID and
SMP.. can it be done?

Yes to all of the above. Now, you may very well need a differential SCSI card
to use that StorEDGE drive array; my two D1000's both use diffSCSI. Is your
box a D1000 or an A1000?

I've done fairly large software RAID volumes with an E5500 (essentially an
E4500 in a nice rack with controls and CD on the rack) and a pair of D1000's
loaded with 24 36GB drives; worked very well. Using split bus and four
diffSCSI controllers on four separate I/O cards yielded very respectable disk
I/O bandwidths of 70+MB/s writes.

[g***@hccnet.nl]

Hello Joacim,

..
2. Can Linux access both CPU boards? I noticed when attaching a
monitor and keyboard that only the first CPU board had ports for that.
The other one only had a network port.
..

Are you sure it is like you describe?
The way you describe it, the board with the monitor and keyboard
connectors is the clock board, and the other with the network port is a
I/O board.
There also should be other ports on this board, like a SCSI connector, and
slots for SBus cards.
The clock board and I/O board are located in the rear of the machine.
The CPU board(s) are in the front of the system, and can hold up to 2 CPUs.

Regards,
Ruud van der Kroef

[v***@cojot.name]

It's always best to read the documentation (with pictures):

http://www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1/infoserver.central/data/syshbk/Systems/E4500/E4500.html

The boards are fully documented there, whith part numbers, even..

Regards,

Vincent

Post by g***@hccnet.nl
Hello Joacim,
..
2. Can Linux access both CPU boards? I noticed when attaching a
monitor and keyboard that only the first CPU board had ports for that.
The other one only had a network port.
..
Are you sure it is like you describe?
The way you describe it, the board with the monitor and keyboard
connectors is the clock board, and the other with the network port is a
I/O board.
There also should be other ports on this board, like a SCSI connector, and
slots for SBus cards.
The clock board and I/O board are located in the rear of the machine.
The CPU board(s) are in the front of the system, and can hold up to 2 CPUs.
Regards,
Ruud van der Kroef

[Joacim Melin]

Thanks all for your feedback!

Silly me that didn't see which board I connected display and keyboard
to, but of course, you are correct. :)

Haroldkarl wrote, regarding storage, about an 611 or an 711. I used to
have a 611 but I lost it some years ago. Any idea where one can be
purchased?

Thanks,

Joacim

Post by v***@cojot.name
http://www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1/infoserver.central/data/syshbk/Systems/E4500/E4500.html
The boards are fully documented there, whith part numbers, even..
Regards,
Vincent

Post by g***@hccnet.nl
Hello Joacim,
..
2. Can Linux access both CPU boards? I noticed when attaching a
monitor and keyboard that only the first CPU board had ports for that.
The other one only had a network port.
..
Are you sure it is like you describe?
The way you describe it, the board with the monitor and keyboard
connectors is the clock board, and the other with the network port is a
I/O board.
There also should be other ports on this board, like a SCSI
connector, and
slots for SBus cards.
The clock board and I/O board are located in the rear of the machine.
The CPU board(s) are in the front of the system, and can hold up to 2 CPUs.
Regards,
Ruud van der Kroef

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