[geeks] IBM Regatta server thoughts

[Bill Bradford]

On Wed, Oct 03, 2001 at 04:26:44PM -0600, Nicholas Dronen wrote:
> The remote console is RS232 on the SP (Scalable Parallel) systems
> as well.  They do have a dedicated 10Base-2 (iirc) Ethernet network
> between the control workstation and the nodes, but you use the 
> RS232 interface when
> 	* the network is hosed
> 	* the node is doing a network boot (e.g., during an install)
> So the keyword is reliability and servicability.  Think of not being
> able to access the OBP on a SPARC -- no fun.

Yeah - they didnt say a single thing about having a Ethernet connection
*at all* between the control workstation and the HSC (I think it was,
Hardware System Console?); just serial.

In fact, when you are using a Regatta system *as* a node(s) in a SP
"cluster", you have to have both the SP control console *and* the HSC
on the Regatta.  They're working on being able to integrate them, according
to what was said today.

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford
mrbill at mrbill.net
Austin, TX