Want 2008 on an HI ProLiant to replace Debian - need guide

stardotstar

Hi guys,

while I search and research here and on the broader net community I wonder if someone could indulge me and help me step through a sound server gentoo build on my new ProLiant

I am moving an existing debian server and want to use gentoo since I am so familiar with portage and so on - but only on normal disk setups (sd*,hd* etc) and laptops, desktops etc.

I had a bit of a look around for server build documentation but couldn't find anything off hand - saw the server project...

When I boot the 2008 minimal CD I am wondering where I jump into the handbook and deal with the drives - two fast scsi 36G in raid

ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:33 am Post subject:

First of all, these disks are pretty normal, it's just the naming convention that's slightly different. Looks like you have the Compaq/HP raid controller installed in this machine. Therefore you are just substituting the normal /dev/sdax or /dev/hdax with the ones here.

The /dev/cciss/c0d0 is effectively the same as /dev/sda and the partitions are the p1, p2 and p5 equivalents. When you compile the kernel, just make sure it's got the controller built into it. Use lspci to see what hardware you've got and note down the controller for when you compile the kernel.

Your partitions would be /dev/cciss/c0d0p1 which is like /dev/sda1 or /dev/hda1, and so on.
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Ian Walker

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........

Linux Systems Limited | Masternode Monitoring

stardotstar · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:35 am Post subject:

Thanks heaps Ian, I am away!
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stardotstar · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:51 am Post subject:

How much swap should I assign - I have been not using swap on most of my boxes - but for a server it may be advisable.

The box currently has 2G in 2 of four slots so I may increase this to 4G or more if I can afford it.

It will be a web, mail, secondary dns, mysql database

So, how much swap - 2G?

Current partition scheme I am considering is:

steveb · Advocate Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 4564

I assume the disks in your Proliant are connected to the Smart Array Controller (else they would not show up under cciss). So you need to enable the Smart Array driver in your Kernel:

stardotstar · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:11 am Post subject:

Thank you that is very good guidance.

Anyone give me the low down on the swap question please?
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steveb · Advocate Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 4564

2GB should be way enough for Swap. You could start with less and add more Swap if needed. You could as well add Swap to an LVM volume and then increase it if needed.

// SteveB

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:34 am Post subject:

Best base use settings for the server?

Here is where I am at;

I have installed stage3 2008 and latest portage snapshot, proceeded as normal to chrooted environment and switched to the 2008 server profile which I note is:

steveb · Advocate Joined: 18 Sep 2002 Posts: 4564

I go normally the hardened path with servers. But the hardened profile is stuck at GCC 3.4.6 and this is sometime not the best option. For some new servers I went now the path without hardened. For example my ML370G3 is now running without hardened. I did as well install all the HP/Compaq tools in order to get full control of the system. Without them the fans turn all the time on the full speed. This is disturbing and the ML370G3 even has two power supply connectors. Can you imagine the noise? But with the HP/Compaq agents things go down to normal

I recommend installing and configuring them.

// SteveB

stardotstar · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:44 am Post subject:

That's great SteveB

as things have progressed I have gone the genkernel first; using that to get into a base system that I can configure the kernel for.

some of the device drivers are still a bit of a mystery to me.

I have got grub sorted after finding the hard way about the non bios drive and handling things like /dev/cciss/c0d0* as /dev/cciss!c0d0* and so on.

this article helped me in case someone is searching and finds this thread:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00639638&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

I am now in the new system and using the default 2008.0 profile, genkernel, grub and emerging things like vim, bind, proftpd, gentoolkit, bind-tools and so on...

I will further look into the HP/C tools and agents and install them and see how I go - the fans are quite loud - I too have dual power and although the noise is not like the full burst on startup it is persistent.

Thanks again

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ianw1974 · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:04 pm Post subject:

If it's a rack mount, 1u server - which I think the DL360 is from memory, then this will be why the fans are loud. They usually are on 1u servers like this. When I wanted a quiet server that sits next to me in the office, I tend to go for a vertical server like the ML370's - or in my particular case a Dell PowerEdge 840 and this is really nice and quiet.
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Ian Walker

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........

Linux Systems Limited | Masternode Monitoring

stardotstar · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:04 am Post subject:

Yep it is a 1RU but I am not in the colocation yet - just building and want the fans under control even then -- found some debian packages free from HP which I am giving a go.

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