Ideal OS for Proliant 5000 w/ 4 CPU's? 1

[PapaBobDole]

I thought that I'd generalize the subject a little bit to get a variety of opinions. Here is the background info:

I am running a Compaq Proliant 5000 with 4 PPro 200MHz 512k processors, 512mb RAM, and a SMART Array SCSI RAID controller. This machine will be used for a gateway/Webserver/FTPserver.

I am considering the following OS's that I have used with 2 processor configs, but never with 4:

SME 5.5: This is a brilliant package built on Redhat that is easy to administer. Tough to find specific support for, however. Buggy.

Redhat 8: The choice linux for this application probably, as Compaq used to ship with Redhat 6.1 for this server, IIRC. Probably the best driver support. I did read on USENET that isntalling this on the Proliant is difficult due to the BIOS misreporting memory and the RAID controller not having drivers.

FreeBSD 4.7: My favorite server OS, although a little more difficult to configure and very picky hardware support.

Win2k Advanced Server: Slow and problematic EVERY time I use it. It would be nice as I could run a richer featured FTP server and use terminal services, but it is SLOW, unstable, and vulnerable. Good driver support though.


Has anybody run a Proliant 5000 before, and if so, what OS did you use? Also, which OS has the finest tuned Kernel for 4 way SMP?

 

[Jiff]

I have exactley the same set up as yourself, doing pretty much the same duties.

I'm running Win2k server (NOT advanced) and it's been great. Hasn't missed a beat and current uptime is 50+ days (but I've a few updates to apply so a reboot is due soon).

Compaq provide good driver support for most O/S's - although I've not really looked into the linux side of things.