So far it works, we’re able to access the serial console through the network, and send the obvious power on/off/cycle commands. The Java tool (IPMIView) that comes with the card doesn’t seem very stable, or fast. The ’speed’ thing goes for the card too, unfortunately.

I’m not too happy that SuperMicro delivers the cards ‘blank’, but I’m guessing that’s because they use the same card for different motherboards, which need their own firmware. Or such. Chances are things might improve after we put in a more recent firmware version (which I haven’t found yet), but for now, “it just works”. :)

Some powerfailures later (They’re common here :/), it started to annoy me. For no real reason, I had to reboot/scan a few times to get everything back to work. Shares showing up as “archive~2″, and being empty. Deleting and re-adding had no effect.. Furthermore, the shares on the -first- disk also broke down while the second disk was plugged in. The disk itself looks fine when connected to my laptop, so that shouldn’t be it..

I figured it might be a firmware issue. Unfortunately, Linksys does not offer a more recent version than 2.3R63 on their site. Google showed me rumors of newer firmwares in
existence. A little searching later, I found a 2.3R72 Beta release, which I flashed into the device. And instantly, both drives worked like a charm. Right. Lucky shot or not? I’ll know in a few weeks, hopefully :)

The “box”, or actually “rack”, had been running for a while, and needed a fresh install. So we abused some Solaris 9 cd’s, after unplugging all but 2 disks from the system. The install itself went quite ok, although t-e-r-r-i-b-l-y slow. The install requires a few reboots, which hurt if the box takes approx 15 to 20 minutes to boot. Anyway, all said and done, we watched the final reboot: all went well.

Then came the Big Test: plugging all disks back into the shelves. All 64 of ‘em. ;) Unfortunately the box fried itself, and kept panicing with various amounts of disks connected.. Time for some googling? :)