Snap 18000 info

[Frito]

i recently got a 18000 and a SD30 from a buddy to use for a file server and needed to run a program on the server that gos will obviously not run. i searched on the net and on here and never found out info on what is needed to be done to run your own os of choice (linux naturally for a server) so posting up the info so future/current owners can be freed of GOS if they wish

its pretty simple actually, go into the bios and disable the watchdog timer otherwise the server will reboot after booting off any HDD connected to the machine in any way (usb, onboard sata controller via backplane, added in pci controllers.)

to get an os installed on the system is as simple as hooking up a usb CD/DVD drive and doing like you would on any machine after that.

the 1 major downside i have found is lack of ACPI drivers in distros i have tried so far and am currently running centos 6 on it so fans will run at max speed all the time and its loud. if you wish to quiet it down a bit remove some of the fans, the machine does not need all 10, i have 5 in mine now but even had it down to just the 2 fans in front of the cpu's and it worked fine that way as well but the PSU's did get noticeably warmer so i stuck 3 more in to fill in the full rearward fan slots and now the machine runs cool.

hope the info helps people and also i am running off a new seagate 1tb 7200.12 hdd so for sure the onboard controller works fine and boots from 7200.12 drives you can buy today. the sd30 is running with 13 original 250gb disks + 1 300gb seagate in raid 6 right now. still testing reliability however because these are old hdd's and when i got it full 2 drives were bad and all of the maxtor 250gb drives that were in it gave me problems with linux software raid (dropped out of array eventually) so stick with WD 250 gb disks if you plan on using original disks from these things in linux software raid. the older seagate 7200.8 300 gb drive i put into the sd30 to replace one of the maxtors is working fine so far so seagate SATA disks seem to be a pretty safe choice so far. i've been told by my friend that i got it from not to ever get any of the new WD green drives, they have the same dropping out problem as those maxtors do with software raid in linux apparently (has nothing to do with the 18000/sd30)

anyone else who has info on running a modified 18000 please feel free to post more info to help myself and others, there is a pretty big lack of topics here on doing this so figured it start a thread up on it.

[sicko666]

Wow thank you Frito, i am going to print this off and add it to the info i printed off from my own desperate cry for help thread at:

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=15676

I too have a Snap18000 with a SD30 array for creating a file server/data saver, that i managed to get second hand off of Ebay.
I had terrible trouble even gaining access to the Snap server until this week when i created a "Cluster" domain on my windows 2003 server and added the Snaps IP, this alone took me a year to discover so i applaud your thread for trying to help others out with there Snap18000's!
Lol, not everyone is a computer genius or works in IT, i have myself have no training or skills in IT. I only wanted a server/data store data for my 3D hobby, lol, and was sick and tired of always loosing data on my desktop pc, i wanted a raid storage device that would be big enough to last a long time, unlike expensive desktop two drive only NAS boxes, lol i wouldnt have enough money or usb ports!!!

Heres my discovery info so far about using a Snap18000:

Gaining access - The Snap18000 can not be accessed directly, it can only be accessed through a web browser from a different machine.Add the Snap to a "Cluster" Domain in order to even gain access to configure the RAID and Volumes.Just add the IP displayed on the front panel to the list of servers on the "Cluster" Domain of your main server.Then type the IP address into the web browser on your main server this should result in the "Home" page being accessible & visible there you can set up the RAID and other settings.

The above is long winded, ( i am not a good writer ), if you want to just add what you think is important info to your original top post if you think it could help others....