On 8.7.2011 1:49, MG wrote:
On 8-7-2011 0:44, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Don't know much about the EFI options but do you have a console cable
for it? Just boot it plugged into another box via the console serial
port.
At least on my RX2600 it's a big weird DB connector joined to a cable
that has like 3 DB9 serial connectors hanging off of it.
Sampsa
That would be the "M-cable", it's a splitter/break-out cable. It's only
available for
systems with the iLO/MP card present. That should be no problem though,
there
is still the serial port that should work as well.
- MG
.
If you have a MP card on a Integrity server (or workstation) and need _only_ the (local) console function, you can use a regular 25-pin null modem cable to access the console functions and of course the other MP functions as well. The 25-pin interface is wired so that the console uses the standard pins (2,3 and 7).
Of course you can use the LAN console functions provided with the MP card. In some cases only the MP serial interface will be accessible and usable.
The MP card is otherwise useful also. E.g. if the machine crashes, you'll be able to check the logs for what has happened or if the machine is completely jammed, you can reset it remotely.
Kari
By 'Bog Standard' do you mean any old HP consumer PC keyboard? might try my Logitech keyboard attached directly to it (not practical long term as it's my USB KVM keyboard on a USB KVM that's also very picky about keyboards, especially Apple ones!)
Yep, about six quid off epay.
On 8 Jul 2011, at 10:13, Mark Wickens wrote:
I dunno, I got to sleep for a few hours and all this activity happens, close to my heart ;)
You should get up earlier, I only posted that this morning :P
RE: keyboards, yeah, those trap exceptions sure are helpful messages. WTF!
I also get a couple of trap exceptions associated with the VMS-not-booting because-it-hates-my-graphical-console issue too. It's not so much the trap messages, it's the noise the machine makes sometimes. Sounds like it's in it's death-throws! It's only a keyboard error, calm down! :)
It was the first problem I had with my ZX6000, and it would have convinced me the machine was a dudd, had it not been for a single post on t'internet about the keyboard being wrong.
I must have fluked with the Belkin USB adapter and it worked fine from the get-go. It was only when I plugged the input into the wrong port (I think) it spat it's dummy out. When switched to the USB KVM I discovered it was prone to spitting it's dummy out on any occasion of not having the right keyboard. Testing has shown it's rather fussy, so yeah.
I bought a bog-standard HP keyboard after that, which works fine, and I also ended up getting an LK464, which is nice ;)
By 'Bog Standard' do you mean any old HP consumer PC keyboard? might try my Logitech keyboard attached directly to it (not practical long term as it's my USB KVM keyboard on a USB KVM that's also very picky about keyboards, especially Apple ones!)
Not tried with KVMs, but am 100% sure that milage will vary considerably.
Yes. I am sure it will too. KVMs vary wildly. I have a 4-port Startech PS/2+VGA KVM that works flawlessly on SGIs but hates my Belklin PS/2 to USB adapters. I have a Compaq PS/2+VGA KVM that hates SGIs bourt works fine with the Belkin USB adapters, and I have a Startech DVI+USB KVM that works fine with a Logitech Keyboard and Mouse but the USB kept disconnecting when I use a Microsoft Mouse and Apple Keyboard. Ahh... aren't 'standards' great ;)
Anyhoo - it seems to tolerate the Belkin USB KVM adapter for now so I'll go with that.
--
Mark Benson
My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson
"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
On 08/07/11 09:34, Mark Benson wrote:
Something else I've noticed is it's REALLY picky about keyboards and KVMs. I currently have it hooked up to to a Compaq KVM via a Belkin PS/2 to USB adapter and that seems to work okay. It starts up fine and booted into Debian and such okay (although Xorg didn't work but I blame that squarely on Xorg mis-detecting graphics card).
I hooked it up to my DVI/USB KVM and it freaked out on boot stopping and listing a couple of trap exceptions. It won't even get into EFI. I don't have a console hooked to the serial so I dunno if it's just disabling the video console due to the lack of keyboard (not detected or faulting) and falling back to serial - a lot of workstations do that. Unplug the USB and it POSTs fine and loads the book menu so I somewhat suspect it's not.
I also tried an Apple USB keyboard (I know I shouldn't let Apple stuff near real computers :P) and it did the same freaking out during POST thing.
anyone know why this is - is it just picky or am I missing a trick somewhere.
Woha!
I dunno, I got to sleep for a few hours and all this activity happens, close to my heart ;)
RE: keyboards, yeah, those trap exceptions sure are helpful messages. WTF!
It was the first problem I had with my ZX6000, and it would have convinced me the machine was a dudd, had it not been for a single post on t'internet about the keyboard being wrong.
I bought a bog-standard HP keyboard after that, which works fine, and I also ended up getting an LK464, which is nice ;)
Not tried with KVMs, but am 100% sure that milage will vary considerably.
Mark.
My Newstar 4 port KVM switch (PS/2) also shows weird behaviour. It works flawlessly with 4 pc's attached (regular Compaq branded pc's). With alpha's attached, especially a Multia an alphaserver 1000A or two or more as1200's then the mouse freezes after 15 to 20 minutes and a little later the keyboard gets into autorepeat mode.
Attaching an external power supply to the Newstar didn't solve the problem.
No idea what causes this behaviour.
Hans
Verzonden vanaf mijn draadloze BlackBerry -toestel
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Benson <md.benson at gmail.com>
Sender: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2011 09:34:58
To: <hecnet at Update.UU.SE>
Reply-To: hecnet at Update.UU.SESubject: Re: [HECnet] VMS on zx6000 - argh?
Something else I've noticed is it's REALLY picky about keyboards and KVMs. I currently have it hooked up to to a Compaq KVM via a Belkin PS/2 to USB adapter and that seems to work okay. It starts up fine and booted into Debian and such okay (although Xorg didn't work but I blame that squarely on Xorg mis-detecting graphics card).
I hooked it up to my DVI/USB KVM and it freaked out on boot stopping and listing a couple of trap exceptions. It won't even get into EFI. I don't have a console hooked to the serial so I dunno if it's just disabling the video console due to the lack of keyboard (not detected or faulting) and falling back to serial - a lot of workstations do that. Unplug the USB and it POSTs fine and loads the book menu so I somewhat suspect it's not.
I also tried an Apple USB keyboard (I know I shouldn't let Apple stuff near real computers :P) and it did the same freaking out during POST thing.
anyone know why this is - is it just picky or am I missing a trick somewhere.
--
Mark Benson
My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson
"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
On 8 Jul 2011, at 09:33, MG wrote:
On 8-7-2011 2:14, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Apropos SANs: Has anyone played with the iSCSI initiator in 8.4? That
could be a pretty killer feature for me, I'm sure for others too.
For some reason, HP removed iSCSI from V8.4. V8.3-1H1 is the last to support it,
don't ask me why... (I read about it on the "Deathrow" DEC Notes recently.)
What??!
*facepalm*
--
Mark Benson
My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson
"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
Something else I've noticed is it's REALLY picky about keyboards and KVMs. I currently have it hooked up to to a Compaq KVM via a Belkin PS/2 to USB adapter and that seems to work okay. It starts up fine and booted into Debian and such okay (although Xorg didn't work but I blame that squarely on Xorg mis-detecting graphics card).
I hooked it up to my DVI/USB KVM and it freaked out on boot stopping and listing a couple of trap exceptions. It won't even get into EFI. I don't have a console hooked to the serial so I dunno if it's just disabling the video console due to the lack of keyboard (not detected or faulting) and falling back to serial - a lot of workstations do that. Unplug the USB and it POSTs fine and loads the book menu so I somewhat suspect it's not.
I also tried an Apple USB keyboard (I know I shouldn't let Apple stuff near real computers :P) and it did the same freaking out during POST thing.
anyone know why this is - is it just picky or am I missing a trick somewhere.
--
Mark Benson
My Blog:
<http://markbenson.org/blog>
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/mdbenson
"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."
On 8-7-2011 2:14, Sampsa Laine wrote:
Apropos SANs: Has anyone played with the iSCSI initiator in 8.4? That
could be a pretty killer feature for me, I'm sure for others too.
For some reason, HP removed iSCSI from V8.4. V8.3-1H1 is the last to support it,
don't ask me why... (I read about it on the "Deathrow" DEC Notes recently.)
- MG
On 8 Jul 2011, at 01:09, MG wrote:
Your point about the limited amount of storage space is what surprises many people.
In a way it also makes a (tiny) bit of sense, especially as the bigger players usually
tend to boot off SAN and larger, centralized, disk systems anyway.
Apropos SANs: Has anyone played with the iSCSI initiator in 8.4? That could be a pretty killer feature for me, I'm sure for others too.
Sampsa
On 7-7-2011 10:04, Mark Wickens wrote:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350475648545&ssPageNam…
Fully loaded RX4640 up for GBP 640, that would put a dent in your electricity bill.
Always amazed me that these came with only two drives built in, given the size of the case!
That's a great find, two available even. Thanks for sharing! Beware though, this is not as
loaded out as one of these can be. In fact, for the power it must consume and heat it that
it will dissipate, it's perhaps not a very wise choice (especially for a Hobbyist) and you
might as well max. it out, so at least you'll get a good performance benefit/return on the
power usage.
The rx4640 is interesting as it makes use of so-called "cell"-architecture, unlike the single-
"cell" "entry-level" systems (like the rx1600/rx1620, zx6000/rx2600/rx2620 and so forth), thus
a bit more like the 'big iron' Integrity systems (like the rx7620, rx8620 and the Superdome).
I believe the rx4640 can take two, which can be fitted with four single-core processors each
or two "mx2" dual-processor modules (as seen in the first Integrity Superdome systems).
Then there are also "memory expansion boards", I'm not sure how many DIMMs go on each of these,
but I vaguely recall it can take a maximum of 128 GB. (In the case of the "cell"/processor
boards, it seems maxed out, but the auction doesn't appear to mention too much on the 'memory
boards'. it might be worth to ask the seller about, before making an offer or buying.)
A friend of mine has one of these (with lesser specifications), he bought it a couple of
years ago, for 1300 at the time! He still hasn't gotten around to installing VMS yet, I
hope he will soon.
Your point about the limited amount of storage space is what surprises many people.
In a way it also makes a (tiny) bit of sense, especially as the bigger players usually
tend to boot off SAN and larger, centralized, disk systems anyway.
- MG
