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This is the one you want:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/QUANTA-OPENRACK-OPEN-COMPUTE-2-NODE-SERVER-2x-LGA2011-WINDMILL-W-SYSTEM-BOARD-/381480027431?hash=item58d1fb4527:g:5j4AAOSwgyxWXKak
$200 for two motherboards, but I've seen them for sale for $100 for 2 motherboards
You obviously didn't follow my whole line of logic. The first thing I did was to (genuinely) thank Mark for a quality, informative post. If everything is true (and most of it is way over my head, hence why we have experts handle the hardware) then obviously they have no part as a public facing, multi tenant offering.
My second comment about being interested in these was (as I put in the comment) in a colo context where I would have control over the hardware...so effectively single tenant.
Not quite sure what you're hung up on...
Maybe the part where it sounds like you're suggesting or encouraging the use of these in public facing datacenters as is the context of this entire thread to begin with. Your post did nothing to suggest your lack of support for that at all, you even asked for a colo deal for them :P
If Mark is correct, these things need to be trashed or sold all together and not split up.
I'll be the first to admit that based on what Mark has written, these servers certainly seem to have real issues in a public setting. The early posts just seemed like competitor bashing. Obviously I spoke too soon.
That doesn't change the attractiveness of the hardware though. Explain why I couldn't run these colo'd on a private network as a compute cluster? That's what I suggested. Basically a smaller instance of what Facebook had.
Sounds good, I just don't think it was as apparent that you were suggesting that as you think it was
As for this situation, I'm really quite concerned about Mark's words and encourage everyone here to read them before purchasing this. I love WSI and I've recommended them to many people, but one of these is true:
I can't say which one, but that the third one is even a logical possibility based on the information we have presented here is scary as hell.
As do I (I have a couple personal boxes there...as well as one with Delimiter!). Mark has been called a lot of things but unknowledgeable is not one of them. So #1 is unlikely. I would hope #3 is unlikely and Aaron seems like he runs a tight ship. So #2 is most likely...
But as you say, we definitely need to hear from WSI on this matter.
Hopefully Aaron will offer a good explanation here or someone will get one and cross post.
So Mr. Turner now has two accounts? Pleasant.
Twice the posts for your viewing pleasure.
Go away, poptart-corrupted Leader!
By popular demand, people couldn't get enough of one.
Popular demand? My ass, Sir!
What does your donkey have to do with this?
Getting my Pop-corns, pop-tarts and coke ready lol
Now, this is going too far. What is your problem with my donkey? It's a good donkey, a quality donkey! My family raises them since generations. You have a problem with my donkey? Watch out, bigmouth. You have a problem with THE donkey family now.
Now after reading @MarkTurner comments on this, I've got instant regret.
The thing is: MarkTurner's (or NotMarkTurner's) input on those servers is indeed very valuable and helpful - if true, which I cannot judge. It will help people deciding and that is good. I would just prefer him not to pop up in every thread of potential competition to either disturb them, diss them or try to get attention for his own offers. It's just annoying. It's getting too much. Would be nice to see him refrain from that for some time.
mikeyur does it just as much if not more often
Might be their company culture then. However, personal opinion: I don't like it.
Very tempting offer, as I have a requirement for boxes with larger amounts of RAM and SSD.... basically a bunch of real-time searchable data and the not-so important stuff can sit on disk.
However, the disaster recovery issues covered in this thread do indeed seem to be a show-stopper. I've had to resort to IPMI or whatever it is a couple of times and would rather it be in my control.
Cheers LET for the pointer wrt to this box.
Can you detail what you mean about "suitable" USB for KB/mouse? I can understand that there is only one, but what is stopping me from attaching a USB hub and connecting a KB/mouse? I remember earlier you mentioned something about it being a USB port meant for a USB flash drive or something for booting, but are you saying the USB port is entirely not capable of doing any HID stuff?
I was really not aware of these systems, and for the price(100-200 for the boards) I'm thinking I maybe want 10-20 of them for a personal compute cluster. All the other downsides you mentioned aren't really an issue for what I want to do.
Edit: I suppose I should @MarkTurner too
I've had this job for around 2 months. I've been on LET for 2.5 years.
I didn't realize I had to stop contributing in discussions that mentioned other providers as soon as I received my provider badge. Someone should update the rules on that.
I was specifically "targeting" MarkTurner, not you. You did not cross my focus as often, if at all. But remember: There is a difference between "contributing in discussions" and "indirect bashing". And at least MarkTurner crosses that line quite often in my humble opinion. "General Decency" does not need a separate entry within the rules.
Facts are facts whether you like them or not.
There are two network interfaces on these units, one is on-board (gigabit) and the other is a mezzanine card (10GE) which is a Mellanox ConnectX-3 chipset.
The gigabit port is shared between the NIC on the server and the DCMI (to use a Delimiter vernacular - its like a poptart without the filling).
The DCMI by default has one IP and the NIC another, but they share the same physical cable. On some of the DCMI versions you can set the DCMI to tag outbound packets with a VLAN tag, but those packets are still visible to the server.
You can also then tag your outbound packets on the GE NIC to drop traffic onto the management network. Or if there is no VLAN in place, you are already directly on the management network.
For a properly secured IPMI/ILO this is generally 'ok' but this stripped down DCMI lacks any proper security, and trusting that a user will leave eth0 down isn't really security.
This was my BIG turn-off to these systems when they first came into us. There is no way to stop that NIC being presented to the system because its the systems primary NIC. So the only option is to disable the DCMI and cobble together another reboot mechanism.
The problem on these units is there are two motherboards per PSU, so using a regular PDU to power cycle would mean that both units have to power cycled which is not acceptable if you're the poor guy running the next door system.
Even if you cobbled together some simple relay configuration so that the user could reboot it remotely or just sent a tech to yank out the molex connector, its still messy as hell.
The absolute nail in the coffin for me was the lack of onboard KVM or the ability to have an external KVM attached. Personally I use the KVM's regularly when doing upgrades, there is nothing worse than doing a kernel upgrade and it goes wrong, then trying to get someone to boot your system up in another kernel.
This is headless in its most extreme form.
For dedicated servers this is absolutely the wrong product.
But that's their business model. They go into threads and do this, and make refugee offers when other providers get unfortunate downtime/issues.
When it happens to them however, they cover it up by sending pop-tarts, which they know will bring more attention to them.
Its marketing after all, but never will i choose Delimiter.
As said, I like those facts and think that they are helpful. If you could just be like that all time...
You need to quantify that statement - I will point the finger everytime that there is something wrong, irrespective of who it is. If I see a product/service/network deficiency within our organisation I am equally critical and force change. Its people like me that ensure that things both internally/externally are not swept under the carpet with a nod and a wink.
You have to zoom out a little from where you are looking at it. Delimiter sells in this market, its down to our industry and its members to self-regulate and clean up the mess. Otherwise we'll probably end up being considered a utility and end up regulated like many other industries.
So when someone in our industry starts pumping out a product that is blatantly wrong for the purpose intended, should we just be silent and say let them fail and we'll come in and do a refugee offer later on? The only losers here are the consumers. We have on iron in this fire, we are not selling a competitive product.
Just as I work for a hosting company, I am also a consumer. I use services personally from companies like OVH and you've no doubt seen my strong recommendations to use them. Why? Because they got their model right, they sell a great product at a great price.
The forum etiquette for a provider is expected to be different because you are representing a company in addition to yourself. Whether intentional or not, your actions reflect on the company. You can't expect @jarland to post a rule for every single item that's etiquette or common sense.
That is the benefit of a free market, you are free to choose your supplier.
If you don't like Delimiter there are another million providers out there to choose from.
Wasn't expecting my rule line to be taken literally. I'm not sure if you're joking or not mentioning "forum etiquette" on LET.. The appeal of this place is quite clearly the opposite. I don't spend nearly as much time on WHT because it's a lot of the same circle jerk in every other thread, the same questions and discussion - no one speaks freely.
I'm going to continue contributing to the community in the same way I have for years, which means engaging with providers and other members.
As Mark stated, it's a free market. If my actions reflect on the company in a way that you deem inappropriate to do business with, you're welcome to pick from many other providers.