[wplug] AMD Opteron support

[Vanco, Don]

wplug-admin at wplug.org wrote:
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> We are looking at getting new server and one of the ones that we are
> looking at uses the AMD Opteron 240 (IBM eServer).  What distro's
> support this CPU?  I think that SuSE and Red Hat have verisons that
> support this.  Are there any more out there?
	As far as supported operating system (from an IBM perspective and an
Enterprise application perspective) you've named about the only 2 worth
consideration.  See http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/compat/nos/matrix.shtml for
details - although this does not specifically list the e325 (because Intel
wants it that way) - it's at http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/eserver/opteron/.  You
have to download the specific model PDF to find a definitive OS support
statement - and the ones I have only show SuSE as supported (but I know that
RHEL is in testing).

	We have a customer that has had these units in eval for some time
(starting with the 2nd RHEL 3 beta, now on the released OS) and they have
been quite pleased with the performance (to the point they will possibly be
buying 300 more next spring).  Wish I had one to play with.  Past experience
with AMD -vs- Intel has proven pretty much "1/2 the price for 2/3 of the
performance".

	There are undoubtedly other distros that will work (like Debian) but
I am kinda guessing that you're not going to buy this server and then void
your IBM warranty by running an unsupported OS.....

Don