Recent content by alex.forencich

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    ES Xeon Discussion

    Got it. Are there any options other than gigabyte that are worth considering? Or is that the only option at the moment that doesn't involve modding the BIOS? Also, is there a summary/compilation of this sort of information somewhere?
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    ES Xeon Discussion

    Thanks, good to know. It's a big thread, I did see that supermicro is no good for ES parts, but I guess I missed the comments on Tyan. What about the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T or GIGABYTE MS03-CE0? I'm trying to find something relatively economical that has lots of usable PCIe x16 slots, and...
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    ES Xeon Discussion

    Does anyone have any experience with the Tyan S5652 and the Sapphire Rapids ES/QS parts? Would a D0 stepping part work in that board?
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    Lights out management for workstation machines?

    Funny you mention the T7920, that's actually the machine that I'm looking at doing this to. And it doesn't have a PCI slot, only the T7820 has one. And in this case, tower vs. rack mount server is less about cost and more about acoustics.
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    Lights out management for workstation machines?

    And that's PCI, good luck finding a slot for it.
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    Lights out management for workstation machines?

    Interesting product; but this thread seems to indicate that it might only work in a handful of ASUS motherboards: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/asus-ipmi-expansion-card.35440/
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    Lights out management for workstation machines?

    I'm wondering what options might be available for lights-out management of workstation machines. Mainly what I mean by lights out management is the ability to power on/shut down/reboot the machine over the network without any involvement of the host OS (so it works when the OS is hung, crashed...
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    Modding/upgrading Arista switches?

    Arista has dropped support for the non-S versions as of EOS 4.25: https://www.arista.com/en/support/advisories-notices/end-of-support/11994-end-of-software-support-for-7050qx-32-series EOS 4.25 and newer will not work on these switches at all, regardless of image variant.
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    NICs and reverse breakout cabling

    Sounds like you want an on-NIC switch, basically. I know Intel made their Red Rock Canyon parts a few years ago that can do something along those lines - several PCIe host interfaces, plus several 100G Ethernet interfaces. I think those were discontinued; and I'm not sure if there is anything...
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    NICs and reverse breakout cabling

    4x100 requires more PCIe BW than is currently available (gen 5 x16). But the bigger issue is that usually you don't need a lot of ports on the NIC end, usually only switch ports support bifurcation so they can be used with multiple NICs. There are a few oddball NICs that do support breakout...
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    Cross-flash HPE ConnectX-6 VPI

    I recently picked up a pair of HPE branded ConnectX-6 VPI NICs. Unfortunately, the cards are locked to HPE firmware, so I cannot update it with the latest firmware from Mellanox. So, I would like to cross-flash the cards to the standard Mellanox PSID. But it seems that there are some security...
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    Arista DCS-7050QX-32

    Did you try google? That one in particular seems to be available.
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    qsfp+ switch seems too good to be true

    As far as I am aware, such modules require support from the switch to run the port at 1 Gbps - the autonegotation extends all the way back to the switch ASIC. If the switch doesn't support running the port at 1 Gbps or it doesn't support the autonegotiation required, then this won't work.
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    qsfp+ switch seems too good to be true

    In general, you cannot convert an SFP+ to 1000BASE-T unless the switch supports running the nominally 10 Gbps SFP+ port at 1 Gbps. So, check the manual and/or try commands on the switch, if you can force the port to run at 1G, then you should be able to use an SFP to 1000BASE-T adapter. The...
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    Brocade ICX Series (cheap & powerful 10gbE/40gbE switching)

    Another data point: I just got an ICX7150-24-4X1G as I needed a couple more 10G interfaces. I was fearing an annoyingly loud switch that I would have to go retrofit with quieter fans, but it turns out (to my surprise and delight) that the ICX7150-24-4X1G is actually fanless. So, if you find...