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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?"
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
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 . . .
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
I don't think there's anything especially unusual about those VA boxes, apart from blue LED's
Ehh they're fairly proprietary once you open the case. Here's what Ive found - I've only looked into their 2u and smaller cases so larger ones may be more brown-bag:
-Case specific power supplies in some models (cant replace)
-Model specific PCI risers
-Short ATX mobo header cables (wont reach some boards)
-Proprietary power/reset/LED headers (unusable unless cut and spliced - good luck tracing through multi-layered PCB)
With a little work though they do make kick-ass cases and can usually be had on the cheap since no one wants to waste time modding them.
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.