[OpenBIOS] Re: boy is EFI a kludge!

[Chris Maresca]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Ronald G Minnich wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Per Jessen wrote:
> 
> > >Hhmmm, that's just gratuitous eye candy, no?  Besides, it's pretty trivial
> > >to replace those graphics with logos or other stuff.  I think that doing
> > >things that are new and usefull (like serial consoles) would really help
> > >get people and hardware manufacturers interested.  Imagine being able to
> > >run a server farm with no graphics cards, just a serial console and
> > >ethernet...
> >
> 
> 
> we make it easier. We do all our admin on linuxbios clusters over
> ethernet. Serial console admin is not our idea of a good time.
> 
> To buy, see www.linuxlabs.com

Right, but what happens when the switch barfs @ 4am 500miles away?  With a
serial console, I can hookup either a modem or a portmaster.  If the
network fails, I can call the data center, tell them "turn on modem in
cage 12" and dialup do fix whatever is wrong (BTDT).  That's one of the
reasons why Sun hardware is so popular in server farms.

Sure, ethernet is the way I admin servers most of the time, but it does
not help when:

a. the network is down, either lan or wan
b. trying to see boot msgs for failed hardware

Unless, of course, you have a special ethernet driver that is embedded in
the bios and you can connect to at first hardware init.

I seem to recall that you developed linuxbios specifically for use in
Beowolf clusters, not with the intent of having geografically remote
systems.

I could be totally wrong, tho'...  BTW, some chipsets include a serial
console, which is great.

Chris.
 
--
chris maresca
      internet systems architect -- www.chrismaresca.com

"linux, only up 138 days, because california has flaky power... "


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