On Tue, Nov 27, 2001 at 03:25:52PM -0600, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: > One of our clients just handed us an IBM Netfinity to work our magic on. I > have to say, this is the nicest x86 box I've looked at (at least as far as > servers go). 3 serial ports (one just for serial console); tons of > diagnostic LEDs on the mobo; diagnostic port on the mobo; big fans; > reasonably sensible power button design (recessed, small button, with a big > bezel around it; easy to find, hard to push accidentally); the BIOS will log > POST and boot error messages; and there's some sort of diagnostic > coprocessor, like a lot of IBMs big iron; case is easy to work on; drive > sleds are easy to push & pull. > > it's a couple of years old (1999); so I don't know if they're the same > anymore; but this thing is awfully nice. We've got a recent-model Netfinity at work and it's a pretty sweet box, no doubt about it. Everything but the motherboard, RAM, and CPUs is hot-swappable with both internal and external LEDs to indicate failed parts. The power supply latches are a bit too stiff to add/remove them without a bit of effort (but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that that's by design) and 2.4-series kernels (at least up to 2.4.5; I haven't tried anything more recent) don't recognize the internal channel on the SCSI controller, but 2.2.19 works great. I'd like to have one at home, but there are other things I'd rather do with that kind of money... -- When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists have already won. - reverius Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Tom Swiss