= PowerEdge 2850 =

HCoop has a Dell PowerEdge 2850 to use as it's new primary server.  Specifications are detailed on the page HardwareDonations.  There are certain steps that we still have to take before deploying, which are outlined on this page.

== Equipment Needed ==

 * DRAC 4 device for remote management, [[http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-DRAC-4-I-Remote-Access-Card-4th-Gen-FC955-DRAC-IV_W0QQitemZ190003054921QQihZ009QQcategoryZ71510QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem|here]] is one that is on auction at ebay.
 * We could put up to 12 GB of memory in the machine with 2 GB modules, but the 4 GB that we currently have is sufficient for the moment.

== Configuration Steps ==

We need to decide on partitioning.  Fyodor's model seems to have worked out well, let's put a new partition schema here which JustinLeitgeb will implement.

We also need to decide on filesystem tuning.  I think that the stripe size in the RAID arrays should match the ext3 filesystem block size, but am not entirely sure.  Ideas here?

We need to do final disk benchmarking and load testing, perhaps using log files from fyodor as the test cases.  These can be run on a workstation on the same network as the PowerEdge while it is being configured.

Final OS, mail agent configurations, then bring data from fyodor (to be rsynch'ed one last time when the PowerEdge is online at he.net), and mail it off to CA.

== Questions ==

 * What is the best way to access the DRAC, given our power constraints, etc?  Should we get one at all?

 * What is the best filesystem and RAID stripe size for performance on our different RAID sets?

 * What else can we take care of before sending this server to he.net?

== Resources ==

There are lots of resources for configuring PowerEdge servers online.

 * [[http://linux.dell.com]] has resources for linux on Dell
 * [[http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/solutions/en/openmanage_papers]] has papers on using openmanage to manage Dell servers.  Includes a white paper on installing an OS remotely with a DRAC.