Hardware compatibility

JBK

New Member
Jan 6, 2009
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Before we go out and blow a wad on equipment can anyone tell me how to find out if the Proxmox VE install (Debian Etch) is compatible with the new quad-core Xeons (Harpertown) running on a Supermicro X7DVL-I board with the 5000V chipset.

Thanks, Jeff
 
I am actually already using this combination of hardware for Proxmox VE. I have two Xeon L5410s plugged in and 8GB of RAM. It's very nice.
 
Hi, Unrelated FYI if possibly of interest: I installed ProxVE recently to generic intel servers with 3ware 9650se PCI express raid controllers, and it was entirely painless. ProxVE has required drivers / support for the 3ware raid controller out-of-box. I subsequently did small customization in OS level (compiled, installed the tw_cli raid monitor utility from 3ware, and then call a script nightly via cron on the ProxVE host to verify raid health is all OK).

Works very painlessly. In case you need reports of good / working generic raid controller hardware :)

Tim Chipman
 
Hi Tog - which RAID card are you using? SATA, SAS or SCSI?

I'm using a cheapie 2-port SATA 3ware. Works fine right from the default installation, though I did need to change my I/O scheduler from default cfq to deadline because cfq was causing ridiculous I/O wait times.
 
I am actually already using this combination of hardware for Proxmox VE. I have two Xeon L5410s plugged in and 8GB of RAM. It's very nice.

Could you please share with us how your supermicro is working so far with proxmox and would you mind sharing your parts list and how you put the server together?

Thanks.
 
It's a Tyan barebones 1U server, you'll have to get whatever model they've got out now since my model I'm sure has been superceded by something else.

I plugged the aforementioned processors and RAM into it, two 500GB SATA hard disks in the front and attached them to a 3ware 8006-2LP. The Tyan barebones system comes with heatsinks for the CPUs so you don't need much else.

I wouldn't mind a little bit faster I/O, if I were doing it over again I might do four disks in RAID10 instead of two disks in a mirror.
 
Good point Tog,

What would be the latest model of what you got? Can you provide a link where one could purchase it?

Do you know any site that would allow to purchase it with optional component? I am not so sure I want to assemble it myself.

Talking about IO, do you see any bottle neck? How many VPS do you have right now, how much ram and what kind of performance are you getting?
 
We're using Supermicro + 3ware controller too on a lot of linux server setup because drivers, utility and performance give no pain at all.

Motherboard: Super X7DBU
CPU: Dual Xeon 54xx
RAM: 16GB
HDD: 3ware 9650se (For SATA II units)

Cheers
 
Thank you for sharing.

1. I am trying to build a new system and I am not sure where to purchase a configurable supermicro motherboard.

2. Also I was thinking of using the highpoint RAID card with a minimum of 256MB cache. Would you think this is better than the one you mentioned?

3. If I wanted to assemble the whole server from parts (which I have never done) how easy is it to put in the processor and heatsinks?
Or is there a website where you would recommend purchasing the supermicro assembled? I tried compusa and amazon but I don't see much supermicros there.

Let me know.

Thanks and regards.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816152081

I don't know of a place that puts the processor and RAM and hard disks in for you, the point of the barebones system is you choose those components and do that yourself.

If you aren't even comfortable with plugging CPUs and memory in, you should buy a pre-made server from HP or Dell or IBM or something.

8GB of RAM like I said earlier. Performance is that of a single 7200RPM 500GB SATA drive, not that impressive, but it works fine normally, the server isn't that heavily-loaded with I/O. I certainly would never run any huge databases on it where you'd be hitting the disk.
 
Good point. I have always bought prebuilt servers and was interested in some flexibility in the components like using SSD, and a better RAID card and maybe cost saving.

I guess I will continue looking for options.

Thanks again for your reply.
 

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