[geeks] Sun Fire V210: A New Low in SPARC Servers?

[Scott Howard]

On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 05:28:56PM -0600, Bill Bradford wrote:
> We've had 2 or 3 V210s end up with completely dead LOM (or at least 
> broken serial console); had to put framebuffers in them and use a graphics
> console.

There vast majority of the issues with ALOMs are caused by older
firmware. Presuming you've got an OS you can normally just reset them
from Solaris, or worst case just remove the power cables from the
machine (powering it off won't help as they run on house-keeping
voltage).

There were a few machines with dodgy resistor packs on the serial lines,
but most/all of these were replaced as a part of replacing all
motheboards with teh dodgy BGE chips on them.

> Let me know what you find out / how things end up, as I was considering
> a V210 as the next sunhelp.org server if I can get one donated (as I 
> cant afford an X2100).

They are damn nice machines. With recent firmware on the ALOM (1.5 or
later - the current is 1.5.3) they are pretty much rock-solid, and the
systems themselves are great.  Only real problem with the V210 is the
single power-supply....

  Scott