On Tue, Jan 02, 2007 at 03:31:49PM -0500, Steven Grunza wrote:
> I need to setup a file server on an Ultra5.  Is there a general 
> consensus as to what version of NetBSD-sparc64 I should use or should 
> I just use the latest released version?

My recommendation is always to use the latest released version (currently
3.1). I run -current on my workstation, but 3.0/3.1 on all my production
sparc and sparc64 systems.

> The IDE interface card is a cheap Sabrent card from Tiger Direct.  It 
> was supposed to be a simple ATA133 card but seems to be a RAID 
> controller.  I doubt the BIOS will be of much use in a SPARC system 
> so I'm just hoping to use the RAIDframe driver in the kernel.

Double check that NetBSD has a driver for it - it _should_, but just make
sure. BTW, you may be able to get the PROM to boot from a PCI IDE
controller - see http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/sparc64/faq.html#pci-cards. 

As I'm sure you're aware, the U5/10 onboard IDE is horrible. You can pickup
a cheap Symbios 875-based SCSI board (you mentioned SCSI for your DLT
drive) and it'll be recognised by the PROM (ie you can boot from it). _Any_
875-based card will work - the support is built into the PROM.

> I'm currently using a cheap Dell PC but the system keeps locking up 
> under heavy network load.  I'm moving to the Ultra for stability and 
> to give the Dell to the kids as a Win2K play box.

Be warned that there are still a few thread-related bugs in the sparc and
sparc64 ports. They don't bite that often, but be aware of them. In a
file-server type environment with NFS and or Samba/CIFS you probably won't
see them often if at all though.

-mj
-- 
Michael-John Turner | http://mjturner.net/
mj@turner.org.za    | Open Source in WC ZA - http://www.clug.org.za/