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The Vanishing Act of VA Linux Hardware Docs?
Joshua Johnston asks: "Yesterday, my roommate and I picked up a used (and slightly abused) VA Linux 2231 2U server system at a computer show here in New Hampshire. Given the manufacturer, I had expected that support documentation would be a piece of cake to locate. Unfortunately, I couldn't have been any further away from the truth. Only the
Internet Archive copies of the VA Linux/VA Software website had any information whatsoever on the system, with even Google striking out badly on almost any reference material. This comes as a complete surprise, as I had expected much more to be available in regards to a system once touted as a success for the Open Source movement. The current VA Software site has nothing even mentioning the fact they once made some solid server-class hardware, let alone a buried archive of the PDF manuals. What kind of options still remain for reviving some kind of community archive of these files? In the span of three years, are we left with nearly no trace of information on these machines?"
Where there's a need, there will arise a community to fill it... or there should!
It's vaguely possible that they have some really funky firmware RAID controller, I've seen Dell server machines require a special microcode load into the RAID controller to work with Linux. That's a pain in the butt, and when the only thing is available is the binary and only from the vendor I just think the offending device is evil and punt it. (Lotsa RAID stuff is still this way, and sometimes it's even on the motherboard, which means you toss the motherboard).
We're potentially just a few EMPs away from losing a lot of information that's increasingly being stored on the Web in lieue of hardcopy.
Not being able to find server documentation is one thing; not being able to find, say, Planck's Constant is quite another.
I use several of these machines at work. The ones here have standard Intel motherboards in a black case. The motherboard has Phoenix BIOS with EMP, 2xU160 SCSI, 2xP-III, etc.
But seriously, what would you like to know that you can't find at Phoenix or Intel?
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
Have you actually called the company and spoken with a person there about this?
"Gold still represents the ultimate form of payment in the world." - Alan Greenspan, 1999
Maybe I'm just being picky, but doesn't slashdot usually point out that it's owned by VA Linux whenever it runs a story about them? Just FYI.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
I had a similar problem with a set of ebay-ed VALinux chassis . . .
I purchased a lot of 4 VALinux 2u rackmount chassis from ebay a few months ago for a good price (model "FullON 2130"). I knew they weren't going to be 'standard' atx but figured I could rewire things from documentation to get the power button and LEDs working. No dice. There is no documentation left at all. So im taking it upon myself to document/diagram what I did to make the power/reset headers ATX-usable and will post a procedure on my humble website. Hopefully google will pick it up and I can help the next guy that comes along wanting to do the same thing . . .
Anyway, you may want to try VA Linux Japan, who are still in the server business. ("UltraPossum 0.1beta is available now!") Like others have said, though -- I don't think there's anything especially unusual about those VA boxes, apart from blue LED's.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
California Digital bought VA's hardware line when VA got out of the hardware business.
Did you try contacting them?
The six servers (of three flavors) that I had were all Intel server motherboards, Intel CPUs, popular raid controllers (I forget brand/model), and VXA standard tape drives. What's confusing about that?
.sigs are for post^Hers.
The weirdest part of all this, is that the board in the system seems to contradict some of the information available from archive.org. I determined it was an Intel STL2 board, where the archive page copy showed it to be an L440GX which has a lower set of features. I was even able to flash the motherboard with a newer BIOS for the STL2. So now, I'm not sure if the machine is actually a complete unit that was rehabbed with a hard drive (Minspec from VA was 9G, I got mine with a 4.3G) or if it was a unit that had a motherboard upgrade some time ago, which now seems likely.
I suppose that with the motherboard information that I have, I can probably manage things just fnie, but there are still a few areas that make me wonder. My RAM seems to be the a slightly off speed, as I get an incorrect speed warning that requires an F1 to continue booting each time the system is turned on. That's going to make for an interesting day of eBay or Pricewatch next week.
Primarily though, I have to say I'm bothered by such a dearth of information being available. Why on Earth would VA entirely remove -all- information on the products they sold, not even archiving a manual?
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
California Digital Corporation bought VA's hardware business back in 2002. Maybe they have information that'd help you.
Gabriel Ricard
Anytime I find a useful web page, I cache a copy on my local disk (strictly for personal/ time shifted use only). Personal sites have a way of disappearing when the owner loses interest and corporate sites have a tendency to flush old data when they reorg a site. Even with the cost of backups (I use 3 x 250 GB HDs for onsite/offsite backup), keeping a local copy costs a few tenths of a penny per MB.
The loss of old content is sad, really. The web is sometimes more like the spoken word than the written word. It is ephemeral -- if you weren't there when the page was posted, you have a high chance of never getting it.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I thought about bidding on some VA units on Ebay [I'm sure the dude still has them up for sale].
Again, no online documentation. Fortunately, the guy was kind enough to go open a case and give me the motherboard part number [kudos to him for doing that].
Turns out VA just took a basic Intel boxed motherboard, with six PCI slots, slapped it into a two unit rackmount, and put in a riser card to give you [at least theoretical] access to two ["risen"] PCI slots.
Anyway, to make a long story short, in my decision to purchase or not purchase, I just used the Intel site for documentation, since VA was, in essence, just serving as one big Intel reseller.
Dumbass...
How nice, just had to toss in a ant-bush comment where has nothing to do with anything that is being discussed
How sad to have such a small mind filled with such misguided hatred..
You people are ill and need serious mental help.
Ah.. mod me into oblivion, I don't care..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The hardware part of VA Linux was bought out by California Digital. They still sell those servers under their name. You can also order parts from the old VA linux from them as well.
Anyone know where to find anything on old systems from Network Engines? From what I understand some of them are substantially similar to VA Linux systems. I have a NEI Roadster LX that I would like to get more information about, and more importantly SOURCE CODE, so I can figure out how to talk to the front panel LCD.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
We actually have run into the same problem here. I've discovered a lot of the hardware is actually off the shelf parts, Intel motherboards etc. So a lot of the information is out there. Now the only problem I have is finding aftermarket hardware such as drive trays.
your right. its the pits. Why oh why can't people right properly on slashdot?
HOW is this insightful??? EVERY slashdotter ought to know that VA has been out of the hardware biz for YEARS now! I mean, they only run the site you're looking at now?? Stupid mods...
Just a fucking retard
In looking at the Network Engines Roadster LX PDF documentation files I was able to find via a quick google search, those were later systems than the 1U dual processor systems that VA (and IBM at the time) OEM'ed from Network Engines.
I use one 250 GB firewire drive for "dailies" using rsync to backup changed files. About once a month or so, I wipe that drive clean and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a full bootable backup.
I also bought 2 bare drives ( 250GB Maxtor MaXLine Plus II 7200rpm 9ms 8MB Cache Parallel ATA ATA/133), a Miglia Catalyst ATA/FW Conversion Kit (its a little circuit board that mounts inside an old external SCSI drive enclosure and converts it to use any ATA drive on firewire), and an ancient external SCSI drive with a slip-off cover. I love using the easy-to-open external firewire enclosure. Not only is it great for backups, but its nice for doing large file transfers and troubleshooting between computers (just remove a drive from a computer, pop it in the enclosure and mount it on any firewire-capable machine).
For backups, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a full bootable backup of my drive onto one of the bare drives sitting inside the enclosure. Doing a full backup of 140 GB takes about 2 hours (I run it overnight) with about 10-15 minutes labor on either end to setup and verify the thing (I both check the filesystem on the backup and test boot it). I like having a bootable backup because in an emergency I'd hate to have to reinstall/reconfig the OS.
After I make a full backup, I remove the bare drive from enclosure and take it (in an antistatic bubblewrap bag) to the bank safe deposit box and bring back the bare drive that was in off-site storage. Bare drives fit nicely in a safe deposit box. I prefer the ping-pong method for offsites because it means that there is always a safe, offsite copy of my files.
If I were starting over, I'd probably go with 3 bare drives (keeping 2 offsite at all times) and an enclosure. If I weren't paranoid about hardware failures I'd go with 2 drives and an enclosure, but I like the idea that if the hardware fried during a backup (killing both the internal HD and the in-process backup) that I'd have both a safe offsite and onsite backup.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.