What OS recommended for ProLiant 2500 ?

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 01:26:40 GMT, Paradox2221 wrote:

Our Search & Rescue Volunteer Group has recently acquired a Proliant
2500 Dual 200 MHz Server w/ 2x 18.1 GB...2x 9.1 GB and 1x 4.3 GB SCSI
HDD's

Our primary objective for the Server is to set up a database for
search details....GPS Maps....Tasking details....Volunteer
details....Pilot Notams etc.

I realize this is an older system, but as we are NOT funded by any
government office....we are Volunteer Pilots that use our aircraft to
assist larger SAR Units as required.

Our main need is a reservoir of data that can be accessed on an AS
NEEDED basis, as our volunteers require a real time database they can
access at any time.....and I, as the Unit SearchMaster want to make
their job as reliable as possible.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

TIA



The Proliant 2500 is getting a bit old. Your best bet is to run a Linux
variant. Most recent versions of Windows will not run properly on it.

Another operating system that might work is EComstation. I don't
know if your budget will allow that or not.

However, the big question is exactly what kind of database server
you will be running on this machine, and how you will access it. Find
what software will do your job best, and then look for an operating system
that will run it.

Also, you may want to haunt EBay to acquire some matching drives. You
need a setup that allows you to easily replace any drive that fails. You
might also want to consider one of the Compaq SMART RAID controller
cards as well.

Aidan Grey

Aidan Grey wrote:

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 01:26:40 GMT, Paradox2221 wrote:


Our Search & Rescue Volunteer Group has recently acquired a Proliant
2500 Dual 200 MHz Server w/ 2x 18.1 GB...2x 9.1 GB and 1x 4.3 GB SCSI
HDD's

Our primary objective for the Server is to set up a database for
search details....GPS Maps....Tasking details....Volunteer
details....Pilot Notams etc.

I realize this is an older system, but as we are NOT funded by any
government office....we are Volunteer Pilots that use our aircraft to
assist larger SAR Units as required.

Our main need is a reservoir of data that can be accessed on an AS
NEEDED basis, as our volunteers require a real time database they can
access at any time.....and I, as the Unit SearchMaster want to make
their job as reliable as possible.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

TIA




The Proliant 2500 is getting a bit old. Your best bet is to run a Linux
variant. Most recent versions of Windows will not run properly on it.

Another operating system that might work is EComstation. I don't
know if your budget will allow that or not.

However, the big question is exactly what kind of database server
you will be running on this machine, and how you will access it. Find
what software will do your job best, and then look for an operating system
that will run it.

Also, you may want to haunt EBay to acquire some matching drives. You
need a setup that allows you to easily replace any drive that fails. You
might also want to consider one of the Compaq SMART RAID controller
cards as well.

Aidan Grey



I agree with Aidan, get a good unix (freebsd or similar, even the x86
solaris) or linux (gentoo, suse). Just run the server at init 3, that
means no GUI. It's just a shell - but that's more than enough to run a
reliable server.
Most of the newer linux distros are getting heavy on the hardware
requirements, so (in my opinion) I'd lean towards freebsd or solaris x86
for a box like what you describe. It should give you a reliable server
for a LONG time.
Also, if possible, add more RAM. It should be pretty cheap for this box...

Osk

pheonix1t wrote in message om...

I agree with Aidan, get a good unix (freebsd or similar, even the x86
solaris) or linux (gentoo, suse). Just run the server at init 3, that
means no GUI. It's just a shell - but that's more than enough to run a
reliable server.
Most of the newer linux distros are getting heavy on the hardware
requirements, so (in my opinion) I'd lean towards freebsd or solaris x86
for a box like what you describe. It should give you a reliable server
for a LONG time.
Also, if possible, add more RAM. It should be pretty cheap for this box...

Osk

I ran Windows 2000 server on a 2500 with no problems at all. It
wasn't a speed demon but it was rock solid.

I have run several flavors of Linux/BSD on Proliant 2500 servers. The
biggest gotcha is Memory Reporting. Compaq reports memory differently
than those distros detect it. In order to install a BSD or Linux
variant you will need to know how to manually set the memory size.
I've posted how to do this for FreeBSD and Linux in this group.

Good luck and have fun with the project!