[clue-tech] Linux on a Dell PowerEdge 2300?

[Nate Duehr]

William wrote:

>My employer just practically donated an older Dell PowerEdge 2300 server to me.  It has a couple
>things I have to fix before it's usable (one of the SCSI drives is bad and it's missing one of its
>hot-swap drive thingamajigs -- I honestly have no idea what they're called, but they hold the SCSI
>drive such that it can lock into the case and mount onto the SCSI RAID backplate).  After I get
>the hardware issues figured out, I'd like to put Linux on it.  I favor RedHat, but I also need to
>stick to the "free" route.
>  
>
RedHat doesn't really "exist" anymore for personal uses... do you mean 
Fedora?  If you're going to stay with a RedHat derivitive, I think 
you'll want at least Fedora Core 3.

>When I get the hardware figured out, the system will have 6 drives, 2 CPUs, 2 NICs, and about a
>Gig of ECC RAM.  I'm going to use the machine as a dedicated Apache+TomCat (probably with PHP,
>Perl, and FTP on it, as well) server -- no GUI -- at home.  Can I get Linux and this desired
>configuration onto this box?
>  
>
Yep.

>Notables:
>1)  I'm never installed Linux onto multi-CPU boxes.
>  
>
On most distros nowadays, this is a non-event.  You'll probably find 
that the installer automatically selects an SMP kernel for you.  It 
should generally "just work".

>2)  I've never dealt with SCSI drives, and know very little about them.
>  
>
You'll find them to be pretty easy -- different naming conventions 
depending on if you're on a 2.4 or 2.6 kernel,  but treat them like 
regular disks...

>3)  I've never dealt with RAID systems (or hot-swappables, but that seem self-explainatory).
>  
>
There's a couple of options here, but I'm going to assume you're looking 
to use Dell's proprietary PercRAID hardware if the machine has it.  If 
it does, useful information may include what the BIOS says the version 
number of the PERC controller is.  There's at least 4 major versions.  
You may find that on some distros you may have to find add-on kernel 
modules to "see" the hardware RAID.

However... doing a quick Google search found this:
http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?pagename=details&hid=29

Which shows the PowerEdge 2300 has an Adaptec 7xxx series controller.  
So... the really important question is whether or not the machine has 
the hardware RAID option or not.  (It was an option.)  If it doesn't no 
worries -- you can certainly do software RAID on almost all modern 
distros with minimal learning curve and pain.  (RedHat/Fedora's Anaconda 
installer is a bit cryptic about it, but you can set up software RAID 
fine during the installation process directly.)

>4)  I already have to pay plenty to solve the hardware issues, and I am just a home user, so I
>really can't dump thousands of dollars into Enterprise Linux offerings.
>  
>
You don't need them... definitely not.

>5)  I'm tenacious and willing to experiment, if necessary.
>  
>
This will help a lot with the RAID options.  Everything else is probably 
a piece of cake.

>6)  I have 6 other servers already at home, most of which are RedHat Linux, so I'm not a _total_
>noob; I'm just doing research before potentially wasting a lot of time.
>  
>
You'll do fine... the usual advice... listen for a few more folk's 
responses (other people will certainly think of things I didn't) and 
dive right in... if you get stuck, we're here to help!  ;-)  I've done a 
couple of installs of RH or derivitives on similar Dell hardware.  The 
only real gotchas are the hardware components that require Dell's 
drivers, and Google is your friend.  RedHat's propensity for being able 
to stomach distributing binary drivers and not worrying as much as other 
distros about the ramifications -- or perhaps they've signed the 
NDA's.... who knows? -- should help if you go that route. 

C'mon in... the water's fine.  Those older Dell towers were built pretty 
well, and work well too.  I haven't worked with any of their newer 
hardware lately, but that stuff was pretty solid once you figured out a 
plan to get any needed oddball drivers for their proprietary RAID 
controllers loaded.

Let us know how it's going...

Nate