We're Back!
Date: Sat, May 14, 2005
Well, my colocation service was suddenly sold, and the new owner wasn't interested in providing me with free service (imagine that?). So I was stuck with a server 300 miles away and no way of getting at it for several days.
Plus, this was the end of a long line of availability problems, mostly exacerbated by the fact of how far away the machine was. So, I decided to take matters in my own hands, buy a server, and run the website from my house.
I started looking around on craigslist and quickly found a Compaq Proliant 1600r server for sale, the perfect thing to run the website. It has 3 redundant power supplies, dual cpu's, a 4 disk RAID array... It's a few years old, and I didn't pay a 10th of what it was originally sold for (probably around $20,000), it's a great hulking dependable old beast.
Plus, this was the end of a long line of availability problems, mostly exacerbated by the fact of how far away the machine was. So, I decided to take matters in my own hands, buy a server, and run the website from my house.
I started looking around on craigslist and quickly found a Compaq Proliant 1600r server for sale, the perfect thing to run the website. It has 3 redundant power supplies, dual cpu's, a 4 disk RAID array... It's a few years old, and I didn't pay a 10th of what it was originally sold for (probably around $20,000), it's a great hulking dependable old beast.
Dave:
The hard drive from the old server is on it's way to Portland, I got someone to mail it to me from Klamath. I will repost it when it arrives back. :)
Nick:
That was quick Dave. I see your OS install went at least fairly smoothly (considering what OS you put on this hulking beast).
Welcome back!
Dave:
Thanks! it's good to be back, it probably caused a month's worth of setback to be down for so long.. :(
Hit a couple snags -- when you boot from the Slackware bootdisk you need to specify the RAID kernel, otherwise it won't be able to see the disk array. Oh, and of course you have to make the partition bootable to make Lilo work.
I made a custom kernel as well, and that went without a hitch. Probably because I didn't have to set up sound drivers, or something else equally painful. Well, there's one problem, the vga console driver doesn't seem to work, but if you boot with the vga=1 option, it starts up in the default text mode just fine.
Hit a couple snags -- when you boot from the Slackware bootdisk you need to specify the RAID kernel, otherwise it won't be able to see the disk array. Oh, and of course you have to make the partition bootable to make Lilo work.
I made a custom kernel as well, and that went without a hitch. Probably because I didn't have to set up sound drivers, or something else equally painful. Well, there's one problem, the vga console driver doesn't seem to work, but if you boot with the vga=1 option, it starts up in the default text mode just fine.
It looks like the article I sent to you reviewing that telescope book got lost in the move. Do you still have it or should I re-write it?