Anyone used a Rackable Systems Server Before
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See one of these on Ebay for a killer price, but have never heard of the brand before. I am buying another machine to phase out an older pfSense box due to its age and saw this machine for sale. Any info on these and their functionality with pf is appreciated.
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Aren't they the ones that bought SGI a couple years ago and then dropped the Rackable name?
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Aren't they the ones that bought SGI a couple years ago and then dropped the Rackable name?
Yes. Even so this is a used machine, but it is an older dual xeon for less than $150.00 a little too good to be true. At least that is what I am thinking.
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I have a few AMD-based rackable machines. I don't use pfSense on any of them, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work since I can boot FreeBSD 8 on mine perfectly fine. You will not get any support from SGI (the brand Rackable is now under) unless you buy a support contract. This includes getting drivers or BIOS updates.
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I actually have about 12 of the older Rackable Dual-Xeon systems. There were a few revisions of them.
The older versions have four SCSI drives mounted around the inner / upper edge of the machine. These machines (at least the ones I have) do NOT have a top on them. Yes, the top of the machine is exposed.
The newer versions have hot-swappable SCSI trays accessable from the front, those are actually fully enclosed.
Both systems are LOUD. There are no speed controllers on the fans, they just run, constantly. Also the MB is front-mounted, so the only connection on the back is power. Everything else is on the front. The ones I have also have a front-mounted LCD which can be programmed via Serial Port. I'm sure you can load 'current' data on them but I never really got into the programming of it other than putting the system name on it.
The one major complaint is the PSU. It's a non-standard deal that can be a pain to find on eBay. The pinouts and stuff are standard, but there's an extra connector in it that only works with the rackable power control thing in the unit. You may be able to replace the PSU with a non-rackable version and pull out the extraneous power control board / stuff, but I haven't tried.
Other than that, they work. Depending on which version you may or may not have space to actually fit a PCI card in, and you may need to purchase a PCI riser separately to make them fit.