[Beowulf] non-proprietary IPMI card?

[Michael Huntingdon]

When comparing cluster offerings, seems reasonable, that the 
additional $85-$100 would be factored in to any system/cluster 
purchase, for at least power up/down and reset?  This is astonishing, 
or is there something I'm missing in this thread? The technology 
mentioned isn't really earth shattering.

Additional system monitoring...like...internal temp...fan 
speed.....cpu/mem/disks, down to rotation rates is readily available. 
There is a very nice technology built into HP DLxxx systems that 
provides pre-failure analysis to system managers. Actually, from what 
I've seen and we've discussed, the goal is to extend the number of 
systems managed per system administrator to higher and higher numbers.

So if it's possible to extend the number of systems per system 
administrator, how about extending the number of systems per cabinet, 
and the number of cabinets per system administrator.  I don't mean to 
minimize the job responsibilities of system managers. Quite the 
opposite, which further exacerbates the notion that in addition to 
the $85-$100....you might somehow have the desire to become a custom 
cable specialist?  BLOODY BRILLIANT....


At 06:00 PM 11/28/2006, Bill Broadley wrote:

>I've heard of folks successfully getting the tyan card to work:
>         http://www.tyan.com/products/html/m3291.html
>
>At least the power up/down and reset functionality.  I've googled
>prices in the $85-$100 range.  Not cheap, but not bad for what looks
>like a relatively low volume product.
>
>I suspect it wouldn't be to hard to get some of the additional 
>monitoring working, but you would likely have to make a custom cable 
>to monitor/connect
>what you want.  Hrm, I guess it's possible that they just got it working
>with a tyan rebranded units (like a sunfire).  I'm not at all clear how it
>takes over a network port.
>
>Anyone else using these cards?
>
>Does anyone know if IPMI can "share" a GigE port?  Or does it usually
>require a dedicated port on the host?
>
>In any case the card looks like it has a nice featureset and can be mounted
>on a motherboard, in a drive bay, or in a pci slot.
>
>Comments?
>
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