[OpenIndiana-discuss] Looking for experienced user input on specific Machine purchase

[Michael Kruger]

On 01/25/2016 05:04 AM, Richard L. Hamilton wrote:
> Googling for solaris hardware compatibility will find some (partly/mostly crowdsourced, i.e. not authoritative) lists for commercial Solaris.
> I'd expect that OpenSolaris derivatives would resemble Solaris 10, perhaps minus some closed-source drivers.
> Others might be able to expand on differences between the commercial Solaris Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCLs) and e.g. OpenIndiana.
>

This is an interesting topic. OpenIndiana has the device driver utility 
which is capable of uploading the results of a compatibility scan. 
Unfortunately that tool is configured to send those results to a server 
side infrastructure which no longer exists.

If this could be reprogrammed to send those result to an OI server, 
perhaps something could be done with the information...e.g. an improved 
HCL could be assembled.

At this time there is some HCL information on the OI Wiki:

http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/Components
http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/Systems

There is also the illumos HCL:

https://www.illumos.org/hcl/


To answer the OP's question of compatibility, I'd say yes, most HP 
workstation class systems would likely work fine. I have an entry level 
Z210 and it works nearly perfectly with OpenIndiana Hipster. It does not 
suffer the crackling sound issues I have seen on my home NAS, which has 
an Intel brand desktop class motherboard.

IMHO....a single Xeon Z210 system is probably a better choice over a 
dual Xeon system, which is probably overkill for a home NAS. That said, 
the limitation of the Z210 is the number of disk drives it can hold, 
which is 3. I suppose with removable 5.25 drive trays, this capacity 
could be expanded to 6 to match the number of available SATA ports.

Michael