Re: [Wg-test-framework] Inquiry from SoftIron.co.uk (SoftIron Overdrive 3000)

[Lars Kurth <lars.kurth@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ian, (adding Julien)

On 09/08/2016 11:48, "Ian Jackson" <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>(Adding the Xen Project Test WG mailing list.)
>
>Background for the list: We've been talking to SoftIron about getting
>a couple of SoftIron Overdrive 3000 1U ARM64 servers for the colo.
>All the technical details seem good.
>
>We like to have machines in (at least) pairs, because that makes it
>much easier to distinguish hardware failures from host-specific
>software bugs.  Also, given that these will be our only arm64-capable
>machines, having a spare would be essential.
>
>Lars, do we have another possible vendor in the pipeline too ?  I
>think an architecture tested in our colo only two hosts is possibly on
>rather thin ice.  Obviously having two is better than none, and if
>there is some problem we could degrade back to the situation where we
>had none, but it would be nice to have more than two.


I was also going to get two Cavium boxes for this release cycle, which
are also ARM 64. So we need to get moving on this.

See http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=92&p=190&v=1029&ck=102
Possible candidates are
- R120-T30 (rev. 100) 1U Cavium ARM Rackmount Server
- R150-T60 (rev. 100) 1U 10-bay Cavium ARM Rackmount Server
- R150-T61 (rev. 100) 1U 4-bay Cavium ARM Rackmount Server
- R270-T61 (rev. 100) 2U 24-bay Cavium ARM Rackmount Server
- R270-T60 (rev. 100) 2U 12-bay Cavium ARM Rackmount Server

>This is especially true given that these now boxes are hosts which we
>might want to do some 32-bit testing on too, even if only of 32-bit
>guests, so we test 32-on-64.
>
>AFAICT from our records we have 6U spare in the rack.  I wouldn't want
>to use all of it and in any case one of the spaces is inaccessible due
>to other equipment.  But 3 (if identical) or 4 (if not) ARM64 boxes
>would be nice.

That was the plan: I am still waiting for Cavium to confirm which one
would complement SoftIron best from a testing perspective and which
US redistributor to use. As far as I understand the key difference
between those machines on the list above are that some are 1 vs 2
sockets.

Also, the tests will not work on Cavium servers until we have GICv3,
which is coming. Julien (CC'ed) should be able to confirm. So we have
a bit of a chicken and egg problem.


>Also, Lars, you'll want to think about money :-).

We have should have plenty of funds for HW. We will need another rack
though, for which we will have funds for 2017. If needed, we could get
this in place in Q4 2016.

>
>Thanks,
>Ian.
>
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