[NTLUG:Discuss] Rack-mount server vendors?

[Mark Bickel]

> From: Chris Cox <cjcox at acm.org>
> To: discuss at ntlug.org
> Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] Rack-mount server vendors?
> Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 09:20:28 -0600

> I just built my first Compaq DL380 2U unit.  This is a very nice platform.
> Dual 1.13Ghz PIII with hardware RAID (5) and 10K rpm 36G SCSI x 3.  Disk
> operations on this box are so fast that most software has a difficult 
> time keeping up... pretty cool.  Still wish you could redirect the BIOS 
> messages out the serial port like you can do with the Dell units...

Some BIOS will allow console redirection as an add-on feature in the form
of a BIOS extension. Award used to offer a product they called Preboot Manager
which did this, provided the BIOS had the required hooks built into it.
Since Award merged w/ Phoenix all references to this product have disapeared.
Phoenix mentions console redirection as an option in the Server BIOS 3.0 line.
A lot of the intel server mobos have the feature. I wish it was universal and
worked like it does on Sun boxen. Sun's had this feature since the begining.
Turn on a Sun box with no video hardware and it outputs console to serial port
automaticly.

/Mark