I am not dealing with Digital directly, but instead a certified Digital
retailer (or whatever the proper term for that is :). I am sure
they must be able to answer tech questions via Digital and more. In their
initial data sheet that came with the price quote a marketroid of this
retail outlet states quite obliquely: "Linux does not appear on the list
of officially supported operating systems for the Alpha servers, but
nevertheless it should work as long as you use Alpha Linux." In our
order we specifically asked for a Linux-compatible machine, so there you go
:-D (And as Digital is likely to get its name stuck up on display quite
prominently, I'm sure we'll get all the info we need :-)
Now, looking back to the specs, one of the tech info sheets _does_ mention
on second glance some specifics about the storage options they are
offering. The basic features include "support for multi-channel PCI RAID",
and according to the option specs the RAID controller itself is likely to
be a 3-channel PCI UltraSCSI one. As Mr. Snyder said, Linux/Alpha does not
support "[any] PCI based RAID controllers", so is the only real chance some
kind of a SCSI-to-SCSI RAID controller or should we just concentrate on
backing up good and proper? ;-)
As of the SCSI controllers and NICs, the info says:
* PCI Fast SCSI-2 controller (for CD-ROM support)
* Ultra SCSI disk controller (occupies one slot with NIC)
* integrated PCI FastEthernet (shares one slot with SCSI controller)
= 2-channel UltraSCSI-2/FastEthernet PCI combo card,
so those really should pose no problems, judging from what all of you
have said. Under Options/SCSI adapters, it states that the network/SCSI
controller is indeed an IntraServer PCI ITI-4280UE UltraSCSI/
FastEthernet combo (just as Mr. Glaus from Digital informed me).
Ok, since the RAID controller is just about the only device that is not
expected to work (motherboard notwithstanding :), I suppose one could
defenestrate that option right out and either use software RAID or look into
that SCSI-to-SCSI-RAID thingie, and still use Linux as _the_ OS of choice.
To rephrase all that jazz slightly, can anyone confirm that a Mylex DAC960
PCI RAID controller will or will not work specifically with Alpha Linux?
* Heikki Kortti *