[Beowulf] 1000baseT NIC and PXE?

[Michael Di Domenico]

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 1:38 PM, David Mathog <mathog at caltech.edu> wrote:
> Michael Di Domenico wrote:
>>
>> surprisingly enough there are still cards that don't come with PXE
>> built into the embedded rom.  you'll have to check the specs on the
>> card you're interested in from the mfg website.
>
> Here are the docs for a typical inexpensive 1000baseT card:
>
> ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/pdfs/products/DGE-530T/DGE-530T_ds.pdf
>
> There is no empty socket on it for a boot rom, yet the specs say nothing
> about whether or not it will PXE boot.
>
> Let's turn this question around a bit.  Can anyone suggest a specific
> inexpensive 1000baseT card which provides PXE and is otherwise reliable
> and fast?  That is, one that you have personally used to boot a machine
> into your cluster.  Similarly, the names of any models that should be
> avoided would also be useful information.

I can't speak for the dlink card, but i primarily choose Intel NIC's,
something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106121

Any of the intel NIC's that support your slot specification and
support "Intel Boot Agent" should support PXE