[OpenIndiana-discuss] Good Solaris-friendly system vendor

[Sašo Kiselkov]

On 07/02/2012 10:03 PM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Jul 2012, Sašo Kiselkov wrote:
>> At the moment I use Dell hardware, but seeing as their new line of
>> internal HBAs (H310/H710) lack Illumos support, I'll probably be forced
>> to go somewhere else. Do you guys know of somebody who ships servers and
> 
> If the internal HBA is removable (or can be ignored/disabled), why not
> just remove the vendor-provided HBA and install a good one?

Just off the top of my head a number of reasons:

1) Extra cost of new HBA.

2) One less expansion slot available (that might have be used for 10G
   NICs, external HBAs, PCI-e SSDs, etc.)

3) Most servers come with neatly organized and precisely
   measured-out SAS cabling. Switching to a different HBA in a
   different location often requires re-wiring many parts of the server
   in non-trivial ways - something that can actually void your warranty
   if done incorrectly (e.g. getting caught up in fans, etc.).

That's why I try and avoid servers like those from SuperMicro - since
the box is designed to be generic, you get plenty of loose ends, overly
long cables, missing wire guides, etc. Essentially, it's a
home-PC-builder's approach to server computing and that just won't fly,
especially if you're planning to resell the system to a customer who
expects professional-grade hardware and long-running quick-response
hardware support.

Cheers,
--
Saso