[rescue] Rescued Sun servers, now what!?

[vintagecoder at aol.com]

> > 2. Is there a way to tell how much RAM the boxes have and what clock
> > speed CPUs or is it just easier to do when they come up, by issuing
> > some command?

> The OpenFirmware banner will display this information when the machine
> boots.

Thanks. At this point it's going to be a good week or two until I get the
serial cable so I was trying to learn as much as I can without being able
to turn them on.

> > 3. Is it safe to vacuum the servers periodically with a regular vacuum
> > brush or how should they be kept clean? I have a lot of dust where I
> > live.

> Don't do this! Vacuum cleaners can produce a great deal of static charge
> at the attachment end, and you'll likely end up frying something.  Use a
> can of compressed air.

Thanks. I have read different comments on this, some people seem to vacuum
their boxes out all the time with no ill effects but I was always afraid to
try it for the reason you said. As a result my equipment gets dusty fast
inside and I don't really know how to deal with it. Compressed air doesn't
seem to get things nearly as clean as a vacuum would do and these new (old)
servers are super clean inside. I don't know if the fans were blowing all
the junk out or if they lived in a filtered room or what, but they are some
of the cleanest boxes I have ever seen and they're from 2003 and 2005 afaik.

> > 4. What serial terminal emulator would you recommend, for those of us
> > that don't have real serial consoles? Is minicomm ok? I don't think I
> > have ever used a serial terminal emulator, we used to have real
> > consoles.

> I usually just use BSD `tip` but minicom or emacs' terminal mode also
> work fine.

I should have known Emacs would have a terminal mode. I didn't even think
of that. I don't have a BSD system at the moment, I have been moving stuff
around. I have Solaris 10 on Intel and a Slackware Linux box as my two main
workstations. I have minicomi, screen, and emacs on my Slackware box
already so I guess I'll try those. I'm lucky to have a serial port on these
Intel boxes, a lot of the new ones don't and I have heard mixed reviews on
the usb/serial converters.

Thanks for the help everybody.