Server RAM

[reicherb]

I'm not sure where else to ask this. I need to upgrade the RAM in a BorderManager server. It's a Compaq ML370. Compaq wants $275 for 512MB and crucial.com only wants $89. I know generally you get what you pay for, but I have always had good luck with crucial for PCs and wondered if anybody had used their RAM in a server.

Thanks.

 

[nightowl]

Go with the memory from Crucial. It is not going to be any different than the stuff from Compaq. In fact it might even be the exact same thing as Crucial is an OEM for many system manufacturers. IMO products directly from the system maker has always been overpriced. This is where they make some of their money.

 

[reicherb]

That's what I like to hear. Does anyone else agree? One more opinion and I think I can pull the trigger.

 

[gaidin123]

We bought a few gigs of Crucial RAM for one of our HP/UX servers and though the system "alerts" you that you are running non-HP RAM when you boot, it works perfectly and was a great deal cheaper than what HP wanted for the same amount of memory. Go for the Crucial if you can match the specs from Compaq unless your support agreement (if you have one) specifically does not allow you to install non Compaq peripherals.

Gaidin

 

[bozo1]

I've using Crucial & Kingston RAM in Compaq servers without problems. Just be aware that if you have flaky problems with the server, Compaq will make you remove the non-Compaq RAM before they will help. (if the problem could be memory related, of course)

 

[Oaf357]

Go with Crucial but make sure that Crucial says it will work in your server. Compaq is notorious for screwing people and using proprietary components.

 

[Buddha Bart]

If you have any, or want any support at all from compaq, get the ram there.

If not, make sure you get the exact same type of ram. (ie: PC133 3-2-2 7.5ns Registered ECC or something like that)

bart

 

[spidey07]

If you have any, or want any support at all from compaq, get the ram there.

exactly. we're talking 200 bucks here. get it from HP.

 

[SaigonK]

BorderManager eh? How do you like it? I am getting ready to setup a box with Bordermanager, as well as build an iChain box too....

 

[Kingofcomputer]

What support can Compaq offer on the Compaq ram?
Even you put non-Compaq ram into Compaq Server/PC, when you request on-site warranty, they will come to fix or replace the bad Compaq component despite of any non-Compaq stuff inside.

If you're the IT manager/support or your company has such person, you or he/she should know how to order a ram from Crucial or Kingston (they have memory selector and have gurantee on the ram to work on the system you specified, and lifetime warranty) and install it.
Even if in the future something goes wrong, Compaq's people came over and find out it's your non-Compaq ram died, you could just take it out and return to Crucial or Kingston.

Recently I bought a Kingston PC133 ecc reg 512M for ML330G2, costed about HK$1600=US$200. Compaq wants HK$5,616=US$700. If mail order from Crucial will be US$90 + $15 international shipping. Since there is local dealer for Kingston ram, so I prefer to pay more to buy local.

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: SaigonK
BorderManager eh? How do you like it? I am getting ready to setup a box with Bordermanager, as well as build an iChain box too....

Well, as a firewall I'm not a huge fan of it. It does work, but it just doesn't seem as easy to configure or as feature rich as a hardware firewall. We recently moved to a PIX515E for a firewall / VPN server and I love it. We are just using BM for Proxy / Content Filtering and it does an awesome job of that. Because users have to authenticate to use it, we get some great logs of exactly who went where and when. I'm at a school and that really comes in handy.

In fact, just yesterday, I rebuilt the server from scratch. We were running BM3.5 and for some reason when the proxy tried to load, it was having problems reading NDS. We were going to upgrade to BM3.7 soon anyway so I blew the box away and started over. It was my first BM install and it went extremely smoothly. Granted we aren't using it for NAT or filtering, but we do have 3 more BM3.5 servers down stream and are doing hierarchical caching which wasn't too bad to setup. So far the server hasn't hiccupped.

I can't say anything about iChain. In fact, I'm not even sure what it is.


One more note. If you plan to use content filtering you are going to need quite a bit of RAM in the server. They recommend at least 1GB if you have less than 100 users accessing it and then upward as the users increase. If you didn't guess, that's why I started this tread.

 

[SaigonK]

iChain is Novell's new content/proxy box. it is supposed to run on just about any hardware, more of an embeddded OS than a full blown NOS component.
I am doing some proxy work for our Notes environment and ISA wont strip off internal headers like I need to..so I looked into something we already own.


My plan is to use BorderManager (latest version) for our VPN solution when using wireless.
That way i can tie it all into our NDS.

So ram is a good thing eh? I will keep that in mind!
Any other tips of info?

EDIT: Link to ICHAIN

 

[reicherb]

Memory is very good. In fact I went ahead and decided to try to run it on 384MB of RAM. I just checked remotely and the server is screaming about being out of RAM. I've got about 725 PCs using the proxy, but it's the weekend and almost nobody is around. I guess I better upgrade quickly.

The only other advice I can think to offer is that since you will be doing VPN and I assume users will have to authenticate, you want to make sure you have a read/write of the replica(s) holding the users that will be authenticating. Atleast with proxy authentication, it just won't work right without it.

Craig Johnson (BM Guru) has a book out that is supposed to be great. It's just a pdf that you can get from caledonia.net. If you look on the BM3.7 CD under docs, there is a stripped down version of the book and might be everything you need.

Edit: After looking closer, the memory errors were olny occuring when it updated the content filtering (Surf Control) definitions.

 

[blstriker]

I use crucial ram in my dell poweredge 500sc servers with no problem. It's a fraction of the cost and works just as well.

 

[reicherb]

We are just a poor school so I ordered the Crucial RAM. It will arrive today and I'll let you know if I have any problems.

 

[reicherb]

Put the RAM in today and so far so good.