Brand new hardware for the Slackware servers
by teoberi from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6PVFP)
I am in the process of replacing the current server systems at my main workplace and that's how I came up with the idea of presenting the experience with different hardware manufacturers.
I oscillated between HP and Dell and in the end I decided to try Dell (with Fujitsu Siemens and HP I had some experiences in the past and I didn't really like them).
I chose the T360 Tower Server product from Dell's PowerEdge series.
Although Slackware is not (as usual with all major server system manufacturers) among the recommended operating systems (Canonical Ubuntu Server LTS, Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, VMware ESXi) compatibility with Slackware64-current is good:
1. Network controller: Broadcom BCM5720 recognized with tg3.ko kernel driver;
2. RAID controller: DELL PERC H755 recognized with megaraid_sas.ko kernel driver.
What impressed me about Dell is the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9), a tool to manage the server completely separate from the operating system through which, for example, you can apply the firmware updates of the components automatically without the server having an OS installed (it must only for the server to be powered). For server systems made by me from parts (generally desktop components but individually chosen from what is best on the market) I had to learn to do manual firmware updates, as an example for Intel CSME I used a lot of the information from here.
If anyone wants to share their experience with other hardware manufacturers on which they managed to install Slackware, I invite them to post here. This is how we help those who are in the situation of choosing which hardware they will use without having compatibility problems.:)
I oscillated between HP and Dell and in the end I decided to try Dell (with Fujitsu Siemens and HP I had some experiences in the past and I didn't really like them).
I chose the T360 Tower Server product from Dell's PowerEdge series.
Although Slackware is not (as usual with all major server system manufacturers) among the recommended operating systems (Canonical Ubuntu Server LTS, Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, VMware ESXi) compatibility with Slackware64-current is good:
1. Network controller: Broadcom BCM5720 recognized with tg3.ko kernel driver;
2. RAID controller: DELL PERC H755 recognized with megaraid_sas.ko kernel driver.
What impressed me about Dell is the Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (iDRAC9), a tool to manage the server completely separate from the operating system through which, for example, you can apply the firmware updates of the components automatically without the server having an OS installed (it must only for the server to be powered). For server systems made by me from parts (generally desktop components but individually chosen from what is best on the market) I had to learn to do manual firmware updates, as an example for Intel CSME I used a lot of the information from here.
If anyone wants to share their experience with other hardware manufacturers on which they managed to install Slackware, I invite them to post here. This is how we help those who are in the situation of choosing which hardware they will use without having compatibility problems.:)