Asus A7N8X Deluxe MB and Oracle RAC
Allan Nelson
Real Application Cluster setup using firewire disk as the shared storage. I
have been checking this board out on Google and I get mixed feedback. For
this to work I need the Asus to have both nics working, one for public
network, one for cache fusion interconnect. I need at least one firewire
port working for the shared disk. Of the people reporting success a well
updated RH 8.0 system seems to be about the best place to start. Can anyone
on this list confirm for me that this combination will work under linux with
2 nics and firewire available for the RAC experiments?
I have pointers to some DMA fixes for the ide drivers and a patch for the
3Com nic. Any other pointers would or experience would be very welcome.
TIA
Allan Nelson
Benwa
Allan Nelson wrote in message ...
>I would like to investigate using this motherboard to build a cheap Oracle
>Real Application Cluster setup using firewire disk as the shared storage.
>I have been checking this board out on Google and I get mixed feedback.
Same here on the whole subject.. Making a nice small cluster for starters,
thus trying to find: linux FRIENDLY hardware.. The NV2 chipser certainly looks
like a great start. Plus that board has an onboard NIC, and it supports the
latest XP.. But everywhere I read, it's just problems ahead for Linux.
I'm personally quite open to other motherboard ideas, in the cheap price area.
But let's get onto your request for information first Allan.
BEST informative link on this motherboard so far:
http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=6
Personally what scares me the most are these seemingly working drivers,
without source.. Nvidia drivers are proprietary; I just cannot stand a proprietary
NIC drivers with all these open loopholes around.
My findings.
A7N8X Deluxe:
((PROPRIETARY :: No native Linux drivers yet, works only in compatibility mode.))
North Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 SPP
South Bridge: NVIDIA® nForce2 MCP-T(Deluxe Model) / MCP
Serial ATA:
Silicon Image® Sil 3112A Controller with 2 ports
Support RAID 0/1
((Forget it for now.))
Audio
Realtek® ALC650 6CH w/built in HP amplifier
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?series=8&Software=True
Supported through ALSA.
Firewire:
2 Ports MCP-T Integrated IEEE 1394a + Realtek® PHY 8801B (Deluxe Model)
LAN
2 Ports
MCP integrated NVIDIA® MAC + Realtek® 8201BL PHY
MCP integrated 3Com® MAC + Broadcom® AC101L PHY (Deluxe Model)
Elsewhere I read it's the 3Com 3c920B ??? Who is right ?
File: asusa7n8x_3com.diffLocation:
http://home.t-online.de/home/Johannes.Deisenhofer/asusa7n8x_3com.diff
Description: This patch contains the necessary ID for the onboard 3com NIC.
>For this to work I need the Asus to have both nics working, one for public
>network, one for cache fusion interconnect. I need at least one firewire
>port working for the shared disk. Of the people reporting success a well
>updated RH 8.0 system seems to be about the best place to start. Can anyone
>on this list confirm for me that this combination will work under linux with
>2 nics and firewire available for the RAC experiments?
>
I've done extensive search, and NONE so far has done it. But this useful post does
give you my latest findings.
I fear that even if one does; It's all gonna work through proprietary drivers.
>I have pointers to some DMA fixes for the ide drivers and a patch for the
>3Com nic. Any other pointers would or experience would be very welcome.
>
>TIA
>Allan Nelson
>
Guide to A7N8X Under Linux:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6946
One suggests this link better:
http://homepage.mac.com/mpeters/A7N8X/
Closest to Nforce2 yet is to get it working from a patched Nforce1 code.
"The nVidia NIC can be solved by using a kernel module provided by nVidia. "
Too bad for me, It's out of stock anyway from my reseller. I was even looking at
some MODded Xbox stack to start a nice cluster.. :) Hackers have done it already.
Still.. Can we please make a statement to NVIDIA and their proprietary drivers.
These are not linux friendly for such a thing as a cluster or network. It's unsafe.
While the average PC nerd might like Nvidia to at leastr make a working driver.
Cluster Geeks should stick together and find a nice Linux friendly motherboard.
Someone please suggest a cheap single processor XP board that would allow
linux open sourced drivers for the main chipset and NIC.
I really want to toy with a small cluster of four or so PC with
brand new hardware; cheapest possible; Around an 1800XP athlon.
Regards to all ..
Ben
Peter Christy
After digging around a bit, I've got the UDMA and both NICs working OK, but
firewire is problematic.
The UDMA needs a patch to the kernel (2.4.20 patched to 21-pre4), as does the
3COM nic (a minor patch to recognise the PCI ID). The NVidia NIC needs the
module building from the NForce driver package. Note: DON'T install the whole
NForce package - just the NIC driver! Sound is Intel i810, and both USB1 (OHCI
driver) and USB2 (EHCI) work.
Firewire is meant to be OHCI compliant. It is recognised, but doesn't work! I
haven't heard of a workaround yet.
Also AGP only works with NVidia cards! The kernel AGPGART package doesn't
recognise the chipset (neither do the Ati drivers). The NForce package doesn't
include an AGP driver, but the AGP driver supplied with the NVidia graphics
cards does work - but its part of the driver, and doesn't appear seperable.
Having said that, Knoppix managed to boot X alright when I tried it, so there
is obviously some way of getting graphics working without an AGP driver.
The end result is blindingly fast, and no doubt the remaining niggles will get
sorted over the coming months. In the meantime, the only thing I haven't got
working is Firewire.........
--
Pete
chr...@NOSPAMattglobal.net
(make the obvious amendments to reply!)
Allan Nelson
cash for the other shared storage posibilities. One thing I could do is buy
the boards, and a couple of $29 sig cards that are supported, if I can
disable the onboard firewire.
Thanks for your information. This will certainly be a great board sometime
in the future. I have not been impressed however in terms of how
imformative NVidia is about this chipset to the Open Source community.
Allan
"Peter Christy" <chr...@NOSPAMattglobal.net> wrote in message
news:HPo6a.2857$J77.1...@newsfep2-win.server.ntli.net...