Getting Started, Documentation, Tips & Tricks

Hello Nekochan...new SGI owner here - Page 3

Krokodil
Who joined April 17, 2015, 2:32 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 8, 2015, 12:06 p.m...

ClassicHasClass wrote:

Would it be worth investing in the pci cage for a SCSI card usage? Also, would it be worth considering upgrading to a dual cpu unit...should I be able to find one? I suppose that last question is just personal preference.

The PCI cage? I think so, if SCSI throughput's going to be what you'd use it for. The extra CPU would mostly benefit using it as, you know, a computer.

Once you go Irix you don't go, uh, bye-bye-rix.

Definitely upgrade to a dual CPU, you'll need the extra power to run mplayer well, especially if OpenGL acceleration doesn't want to work.

O2 - (Mantadoc) - R5K - 200MHZ - 128MB RAM - 6.5.30
:Octane:

Octane - (Montrealais) - R12K - 2*360MHZ - 1024MB RAM - EMXI. - 6.5.30
Alphaserver DS10 - (Vandoc) - EV6 - 466MHZ - 256MB RAM
Sun Ultra 5 - (Quedoc) - UltraSparc II - 400MHZ - 512MB RAM
ASUS K55VD - (Mapleglen)- I5 - Dual Core 2.5GHZ - 8 GB RAM
Dell L502X - (Algorail) - I7 - Quad Core 2GHZ - 6 GB RAM

zagnut
Who joined July 2, 2015, 8:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 11, 2015, 10:38 p.m...

Krokodil wrote:

ClassicHasClass wrote:

Would it be worth investing in the pci cage for a SCSI card usage? Also, would it be worth considering upgrading to a dual cpu unit...should I be able to find one? I suppose that last question is just personal preference.

The PCI cage? I think so, if SCSI throughput's going to be what you'd use it for. The extra CPU would mostly benefit using it as, you know, a computer.

Once you go Irix you don't go, uh, bye-bye-rix.

Definitely upgrade to a dual CPU, you'll need the extra power to run mplayer well, especially if OpenGL acceleration doesn't want to work.

If I could afford that, I would. But truth be told, I have a baby to be born in October, and I have been unemployed (start new job tomorrow). So I need to be careful of budget. Myabe I will keep all parts and in 3 years they will be less money

lol

foetz
Moderator
Who joined April 14, 2003, 4:34 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 12, 2015, 8:57 a.m...

Krokodil wrote: you'll need the extra power to run mplayer well

why mplayer?

r-a-c.de

ClassicHasClass
Donor
From Sunny So Cal
Who joined July 25, 2012, 7:12 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 13, 2015, 8:50 a.m...

Because he'll love IRIX so much he'll want to run things locally.

smit happens.

:Fuel:

bigred , 900MHz R16K, 4GB RAM, V12 DCD, 6.5.30
:Indy:

indy , 150MHz R4400SC, 256MB RAM, XL24, 6.5.10
:Indigo2IMP:

purplehaze , 175MHz R10000, Solid IMPACT
probably posted from

bruce , Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC 970MP, 16GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.4.11
plus IBM POWER6 p520 * Apple Network Server 500 * HP C8000 * BeBox * Solbourne S3000 * Commodore 128 * many more...

uunix
Donor
From Stourbridge / England / UK
Who joined March 27, 2011, 12:48 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 13, 2015, 10:18 a.m...

zagnut wrote: If I could afford that, I would. But truth be told, I have a baby to be born in October, and I have been unemployed (start new job tomorrow). So I need to be careful of budget. Myabe I will keep all parts and in 3 years they will be less money lol

Congrats on the sgi baby.

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foetz
Moderator
Who joined April 14, 2003, 4:34 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 13, 2015, 10:52 a.m...

ClassicHasClass wrote: Because he'll love IRIX so much he'll want to run things locally.

oh yeah that's the spirit

r-a-c.de

zagnut
Who joined July 2, 2015, 8:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 14, 2015, 12:10 a.m...

uunix wrote:

zagnut wrote: If I could afford that, I would. But truth be told, I have a baby to be born in October, and I have been unemployed (start new job tomorrow). So I need to be careful of budget. Myabe I will keep all parts and in 3 years they will be less money lol

Congrats on the sgi baby.

Hey thanks man!
Once I get steady incoming flowing back in, I'll try and get the Octane running and post some pics if it.

ClassicHasClass
Donor
From Sunny So Cal
Who joined July 25, 2012, 7:12 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 14, 2015, 7:12 a.m...

Steady income flowing back in? Not with a baby.

smit happens.

:Fuel:

bigred , 900MHz R16K, 4GB RAM, V12 DCD, 6.5.30
:Indy:

indy , 150MHz R4400SC, 256MB RAM, XL24, 6.5.10
:Indigo2IMP:

purplehaze , 175MHz R10000, Solid IMPACT
probably posted from

bruce , Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC 970MP, 16GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.4.11
plus IBM POWER6 p520 * Apple Network Server 500 * HP C8000 * BeBox * Solbourne S3000 * Commodore 128 * many more...

Krokodil
Who joined April 17, 2015, 2:32 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 14, 2015, 9:05 p.m...

foetz wrote:

Krokodil wrote: you'll need the extra power to run mplayer well

why mplayer?

I presume he would want to play videos.

O2 - (Mantadoc) - R5K - 200MHZ - 128MB RAM - 6.5.30
:Octane:

zagnut
Who joined July 2, 2015, 8:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 15, 2015, 11:06 p.m...

ClassicHasClass wrote: Steady income flowing back in? Not with a baby.

Pretty much. But a little pocket change here and there wont hurt. I need to get a lens adapter for a camera lens first though.

Krokodil wrote:

foetz wrote:

Krokodil wrote: you'll need the extra power to run mplayer well

why mplayer?

I presume he would want to play videos.

Nope. More than likely, it will be a redundant RAID array for serving photographs.

jan-jaap
Donor
From Wijchen, The Netherlands
Who joined June 17, 2004, 11:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 16, 2015, 12:48 a.m...

zagnut wrote: Nope. More than likely, it will be a redundant RAID array for serving photographs.

IRIX does not do 'software' RAID, other than JBOD, RAID0 (striping) and RAID1 (plexing). The latter requires a license.

As far as hardware RAID goes: there are no hardware RAID controllers for SGI/MIPS systems. You'll need a disk array with built-in RAID capabilities, or a SAN server. Beware that there's a 2TB logical LUN limit in IRIX (this is a 32bit limit), arrays returning 64bit LUN numbers here will result in kernel panics and massive corruption. XFS does not have a 2TB limit, and XVM can be used to create large volumes out of 2TB or smaller LUNs.

I've got an old IBM DS4300 SAN server I occasionally use with my IRIX systems, it has ~ 8TB raw capacity (28*300GB). I can configure the disks in 2TB RAID5 LUNs and serve them up to an IRIX system which can then stripe them into a single, large volume using XVM (effectively a RAID50), and put a single XFS filesystem on it spanning the entire volume. SGI used to sell the same unit as the InfiniteStorage TP9300 and this is the way you were supposed to add large, redundant storage capacity to an SGI server.

The DS4300 is fully licensed and has many interesting enterprise features, but the noise level and power consumption of ~ 500W make this a silly thing to operate 24/7 at home. My current storage server (Supermicro, Haswell Xeon, 16TB raw capacity) idles at ~ 20W and is all but silent. And faster. Much faster.

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )

zagnut
Who joined July 2, 2015, 8:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 17, 2015, 12:51 p.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

zagnut wrote: Nope. More than likely, it will be a redundant RAID array for serving photographs.

IRIX does not do 'software' RAID, other than JBOD, RAID0 (striping) and RAID1 (plexing). The latter requires a license.

As far as hardware RAID goes: there are no hardware RAID controllers for SGI/MIPS systems. You'll need a disk array with built-in RAID capabilities, or a SAN server. Beware that there's a 2TB logical LUN limit in IRIX (this is a 32bit limit), arrays returning 64bit LUN numbers here will result in kernel panics and massive corruption. XFS does not have a 2TB limit, and XVM can be used to create large volumes out of 2TB or smaller LUNs.

I've got an old IBM DS4300 SAN server I occasionally use with my IRIX systems, it has ~ 8TB raw capacity (28*300GB). I can configure the disks in 2TB RAID5 LUNs and serve them up to an IRIX system which can then stripe them into a single, large volume using XVM (effectively a RAID50), and put a single XFS filesystem on it spanning the entire volume. SGI used to sell the same unit as the InfiniteStorage TP9300 and this is the way you were supposed to add large, redundant storage capacity to an SGI server.

The DS4300 is fully licensed and has many interesting enterprise features, but the noise level and power consumption of ~ 500W make this a silly thing to operate 24/7 at home. My current storage server (Supermicro, Haswell Xeon, 16TB raw capacity) idles at ~ 20W and is all but silent. And faster. Much faster.

Very informative stuff there, as I'm not terribly educated regarding RAID. So from the looks of things, I will definitely have to run a Linux port to get RAID.

Many will say, and some have already, get a small unit designed specifically for what you (I) seek. There's 2 issues with that...limited budget, and then what do I actually do with my Octane. In all honesty, IRIX serves me no real purpose. Especially with my extremely limited free time. Sure I could gut it and put "regular" PC components in the case, but time and money for that won't be available for quite some time. If I do that, I want to do it right, and do it good.

hamei
From over the rainbow
Who joined Feb. 24, 2004, 4:10 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 17, 2015, 6:33 p.m...

zagnut wrote: [ In all honesty, IRIX serves me no real purpose.

If Irix serves you no purpose, then give it to the Goodwill 'cuz Loonix will not do even 10% of what Irix does on that hardware. Basically, you can run a terminal on it, and that's all.

commodorejohn
Who joined Oct. 2, 2012, 1:22 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 17, 2015, 7:17 p.m...

But hamei, it's free and full of love!

Computers: Amiga 1200, DEC VAXStation 4000/60, DEC MicroPDP-11/73
Synthesizers: Roland JX-10/Jupiter-6/D-50/MT-32/SC-55k, Ensoniq SQ-80/Mirage, Yamaha DX7/V-50/FB-01, Korg DW-8000/03-RW/MS-20 Mini, E-mu Proteus MPS/Proteus/2, Rhodes Chroma Polaris

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foetz
Moderator
Who joined April 14, 2003, 4:34 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 17, 2015, 8:10 p.m...

commodorejohn wrote: But hamei, it's free and full of love!

in that case go for it :lol:

r-a-c.de

calvin
From /dev/wd0b
Who joined June 10, 2014, 9:44 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 18, 2015, 11:07 a.m...

1. If you're just going to run Linux, why bother with SGIs?

2. SGI hardware is a poor fit for a NAS. Not only is it loud, hot, and power hungry, (the standard old workstation fare) the HW and SW aren't suited for it. (That is, IRIX is a terrible server and SGI hardware doesn't have HW RAID or proper space) If you're doing A/V stuff like rendering 3D or capturing video, it can make sense, but if you want a NAS... get something meant for it. A Synology, a whitebox, whatever.

No SGIs here.

foetz
Moderator
Who joined April 14, 2003, 4:34 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 18, 2015, 12:51 p.m...

calvin wrote: IRIX is a terrible server

how so?

r-a-c.de

uunix
Donor
From Stourbridge / England / UK
Who joined March 27, 2011, 12:48 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 18, 2015, 1:02 p.m...

foetz wrote:

calvin wrote: IRIX is a terrible server

how so?

Indeed.. how so?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Ho! Pip & Dandy!
MyDungeon() << :Fuel:

MyLoft() << :540:

MyWork() << :Indy:

calvin
From /dev/wd0b
Who joined June 10, 2014, 9:44 a.m.

Wrote the following at July 18, 2015, 5:14 p.m...

It's not very secure, nor is it optimized for server workloads and applications.

No SGIs here.

josehill
Moderator
From New England, USA
Who joined June 6, 2005, 9:53 p.m.

Wrote the following at July 18, 2015, 5:58 p.m...

calvin wrote: It's not very secure, nor is it optimized for server workloads and applications.

By 2015 standards, sure, but by the standards of its time, IRIX was an outstanding server OS.