[geeks] Dell T105 server arrives

[Shannon Hendrix]

DHL delivered my new server this morning.

Initial impression:

Nice design, but obviously made as cheaply as possible.  Very easy  
case to open, good straight-path airflow, automatic speed control,  
very clean internally.

System diagnostic lights are very useful, but did they have to default  
to the "OK" status being all four lights turned on?

I rather they stayed quiet after boot if things are OK.

But, I can understand this is visual verification that the board has  
passed diagnostics.

ECC memory is nice, and the DMI logs are decent.

BIOS says it has a serial console, but I can't make it work.  It must  
be some kind of serial console that only works with certain  
software... or I'm doing something wrong.

DVD drive is bare bones ROM.  Excellent DVD superdrives are $25,  
quantity one, so I think Dell should offer that as an option.

I will add a nice Pioneer DVR drive like Apple uses and that will be  
great.

Internals are bare minimum, but there are nice touches like a soft I/O  
panel shield, a *LOT* of grounding connections, and intrusion  
detection that works.

There is no power switch on the power supply.  Not uncommon, but I  
prefer to have them.

No reset switch.  I'd like to have a hidden one, even if it is a server.

Front power switch initially worried me, but it is difficult to press,  
impossible to do by accident.

No PS/2 keyboard or mouse points, this unit is USB only.  8 ports,  
more than enough for most any server duty.

System BIOS is actually decent.  Absolutely zero options for  
controlling the low level hardware, which is expected on a server.   
However, I would like the option of slowing memory and CPU down in  
cases where power savings is important.

Hard drive bays are simple and easy to work with, and despite the  
plastic-on-metal
way they lay on the rails, they don't make noise even when the drives  
are working hard.

The system is very quiet until it starts running hot, at which point  
the fan begins to speed up to lower the temperature.  Even at full  
speed, it is pretty quiet.

It only has a single 120mm fan that draws power from the front, past a  
huge CPU cooler, and out the back.

Software:

I have decided to test Solaris 10 August 2007 on this machine.

Installation went fine, though it was a little strange in that it  
never asked me for network configuration.

After booting, sysinstall command is not there so I assume Sun has  
done away with that. It's been awhile since I used Solaris... :)

My initial impression is that Solaris is very slow to install, but  
then it always is.  Sun really needs to rethink their installer,  
because it makes a horrible first impression of system drive I/O speed.

I decided to install everything plus OEM, because that's 5GB, and the  
system drive is 80GB.

I put everything on / except for /var and /export/home.

I added a 400GB drive to be /u where data and zones will live.

I don't believe Solaris can see my network interface either, which  
might explain whey it didn't ask for network configuration.  However,  
Sun's website says this machine is supported and so does Dell.

More later as I play with it more.




-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."