[CentOS] a hardware question

[Robert Heller]

At Tue, 17 May 2011 16:06:09 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> Brunner, Brian T. wrote:
> > centos-bounces at centos.org wrote:
> >> We need to replace several servers, quickly - four of our
> >> Dell PE 1950's
> >> died in one week. (!!!) So, we're looking around, and I was checking
> >> out IBM. I customized to what we want, and hit 'continue', and
> >> suddenly there's another $800 for a "system common planar" that's
> >> "required". Googling only finds specs with it - does anyone know what
> >> it is? I mean, it's not like it's the motherboard, right?
> >
> >>From a fast & furious google-fu workout, I conclude that the "System
> > Common Planar" is in fact the motherboard.
> > Look at your configuration options ... Do you see another motherboard
> > item there?
> 
> Nooooo... but I was assuming the chassis, along with the embedded slots,
> NIC, etc, were all one item with the base price.
> 
> If they're charging for a m/b in addition, I'm appalled.

Are these 'blade' servers?  If so, this 'motherboard' could be the
backpane the servers 'plug into'.  That is there is the large chassis
that can hold a bunch of 1U servers.  Instead of the 1U servers just
being a something that mounts in a standard rack, with hot-swap (?)
disks and some running lights on the front and the usual collection of
places to plug in Ethernet, serial console, keyboard/mouse, USB, and
power cord, there is some sort of grand connector thing that mates to a
back plane connector, which in turn has a common place for a fat power
cord, plus a built in Ethernet Switch and KVM / console switch. Or
something like that. Just guessing here though...

> 
>           mark
> 
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>                                                                                                             

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Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
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