XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   Scott Lurndal  wrote:   
   >Note that the systems Scott is referring to are high-end servers,   
   >not home user systems.       The high-end servers from HP, DELL,   
   >et alia. are designed for high availability, hot spares and   
   >long life.   That means that they often provide modified disk   
   >drive firmware (or contract with the disk manufacturer to add   
   >capabilities to the standard firmware) which is used for various   
   >RAS[*] reasons.  The servers generally have a dozen hot-plug drive bays,   
   >redundant power supplies, and hot-plugable CPU cards.   
      
   If HP actually gave a damn about reliability they would first of all   
   fix their firmware bugs but secondly they would let end-users install   
   random disks in order to make last-minute workarounds.   
      
   All HP cares about is taking my money.  They are not really HP any   
   more.   
      
   >Datacenters have thousands of these servers, mostly managed   
   >remotely (aside from an on-site technician to manually swap   
   >drives or CPUs, or replace a power supply).   The UEFI   
   >firmware is significantly different from consumer grade hardware   
   >and is key to the RAS support.   
      
   And we turn as much of that stuff off because it usually reduces   
   reliability of a standalone system.  Can be a big win in the virtual   
   system world, but that is not my world.   
   --scott   
      
   --   
   "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)