[rescue] Time to replace the IPX

[Joshua Boyd]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 10:34:00AM -0600, Scott Newell wrote:

> 	I'd like: 
> a faster box
> runs OpenBSD or NetBSD
> can use 1.6" SCA drives (used SCA seems to be good value at 9-18GB)
> fairly quiet
> not too hot running
> 100Mbit ethernet (without dongles/AUI transceivers)
> able to boot headless
> not too pricey  (<$100 would be great)
> bonus points for spiffy RISC arch
> not too big (say, smaller than a full tower)
> 
> 	The main uses of the box will be to run CVS, Samba, dhcpd, and apache (low
> volume internal static webpages).  Sometime in the future it'll be called
> on to also handle some low volume cgi and database stuff.  The IPX is out
> of disk space on the internal 4GB drive, and Samba is pretty sluggish
> (compared to the PCs on the 100Mbit network).
> 
> 	My OS requirements seem to eliminate SGI, and I suspect anything Alpha
> based will be either too hot or too noisy.  Sun Ultra 1E?  What about HP or
> IBM?

I don't know about HP or IBM.  However, a U1E would be perfect for what
you describe.  I've had trouble with PHP on NetBSD/SPARC64, but
everything else just worked fine.

Plus, NetBSD will happily fit on a 2 gig drive, so I can use a super
cheap 2 gig LP SCA disk (which I have several of) for a boot disk, and
save a HH 9 gig SCA disk (say a ST19171WC, which are also quite cheap)
for data.

Now, if only NetBSD/Sparc64 would support some sort of FDDI on a U1.
That's why I'm using solaris instead of NetBSD on my U1s at home.  When
I have the money, I may consider switching to an all SCSI U5 so I can
slam in a DEFPA card for NetBSD support.