On 11/15/2011 05:55 PM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote: > Dennis Jacobfeuerborn wrote: >> On 11/15/2011 05:23 PM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote: >>> Les Mikesell wrote: >>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 7:56 AM, Timothy Murphy<gayleard at eircom.net> >>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Incidentally, I don't really understand >>>>> what is meant by the term "desktop" nowadays. >>>>> I always think of it as a contrast to laptop. >>>> >>>> 'Desktop' is in contrast to 'server'. On a server, you only reboot to >>>> load a new kernel and you never use the console display, rarely change >>> >>> Oh, I dunno - it's not infrequently that I have to plug in a >>> monitor-on-a-stick.... >> >> Supermicro boards come with IPMI on-board these days so you can do all >> that work that you previously did standing next to the server from the >> confines of your cozy home. This is even more useful when you server is >> sitting in a rack in a cold, noisy, dry collocation facility. > > Um, reality check time: what colo? I've got two server rooms, er, > "computer labs", and a very small one. In the two, we've got maybe 150 or > more servers. We don't have them all wired with IPMI. In fact, we don't > have any of them cabled that way. Lessee, wouldn't that be an extra port > for each server? Or a few servers with their own switches, and all those > servers cabled? No, you can share the interface so you don't need any extra cables/ports at all. That's a lot of work for the three of us, *and* there are > plenty of times when no, IPMI either a) doesn't work, or b) you have to > physically powercycle the damn thing. Or the one that I have to run down You can physically power cycle the system with IPMI. > to and hit<f1> so it'll finish posting. Or be there because I forgot to > tell it fastboot before I rebooted it (or it rebooted), and I have to > powercycle it, because, as a production box, we can't wait four or six > hours for the fsck to complete. (Don't get me started on *that* state of > affairs.) You can hit <f1> using the IPMI console. You can also modify the BIOS settings. The IPMI controller is a completely separate system. You can physically shut down the computer and still connect to the IPMI subsystem/web interface and power it back on remotely. Obviously if you don't have IPMI on some systems or cannot use it for other reasons then that's tragic but inevitable. All I'm saying is that for new system you should strongly consider it. Back in the days you actually needed to buy an additional card for this but as I said on Supermicro boards/systems you now get this on-board and it simplifies administration greatly. Just a few days ago I had to re-install a system and in the process change the SATA settings from IDE to AHCI in the bios. In the past I had to go to the server to do this. Together with the managed switches I can completely revamp the entire infrastructure if I wanted to and wouldn't even have to leave my home to do it. Regards, Dennis