Re: [Nolug] Often overlooked technique for that extra bit of added security

On Saturday 11 January 2003 11:00 am, Ron Johnson wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-01-11 at 08:57, Andrew S. Johnson wrote:
> > On Saturday 11 January 2003 12:10 am, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 22:59, Andrew S. Johnson wrote:
> > > > On Friday 10 January 2003 10:47 pm, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 2003-01-10 at 22:08, Andrew S. Johnson wrote:
> > > > > > On Friday 10 January 2003 08:03 pm, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > > > > > http://www.hackinglinuxexposed.com/articles/20020611.html
> > > > > >
> > > > > > One of the reasons I rescued an AlphaStation 400 from the junk bin at work.
> > > > > > It will make a nice server as soon as I get some drive space for it.
> > > > >
> > > > > Used SCSI drives are pretty cheap nowadays...
> > > > > http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/workstations/retired/a400series.html
> > > >
> > > > That's the one. Actually, used SCSI drives are pretty expensive on a $/GB basis.
> > > > I think I'll be able to do better with an IDE-RAID card and some drives. The trick
> > > > is getting a card that I can configure after bootup, since this box doesn't have a
> > > > video card. Real servers have serial consoles : )
> > >
> > > I thought the BIOSs on these type cards were written for a particular
> > > processor family (typically x86).
> >
> > The AlphaStation 400 shares a motherboard with the Celebris P90's. The
> > CPU is on a daughtercard, and there is a jumper on the motherboard
> > to tell it what processor it has. This one has 3 PCI slots and 4 ISA slots
> > (one shared), and it originally came with WindowsNT 3.1 (or 3.51, I'm
> > not sure which, since it was here before me). I added two SMC-1211TX
> > network cards, based on the RealTek 8139 chip, that I bought for 9 bucks
> > each last month, and they work fine with RH 7.2, even in a FTP install from
> > floppies. Right now, it only has a 1 gig and a 540 meg 50-pin SCSI drives,
> > so that is why I'm looking for more storage.
>
> Ah, so you can install Linux??

Of course. It runs, I just don't have it configured to do much right now,
since I can't load enough on it to replace the 486 I'm currently using as
my server. If the on-board IDE controller worked, I could just take the 5
gig IDE drive that is currently /home and put it in the Alpha, copy over
a few files from /etc, and I'd be done. It could probably use more RAM
too. It has 96 MB, and it uses 72-pin FPM, so I need to round up some
more of that too.

>
> > > Yes, SCSI disks are cheap on a $/GB basis. However, the maximum
> > > internal storage is only 17.6GB, so you wouldn't be paying much,
> > > anyway.
> > >
> > > BTW, not only do real *servers* have serial-port consoles, but
> > > real storage controllers have serial-port consoles! There's nothing
> > > like plugging a spare VT510 into your balky HSZ80 because your
> > > AlphaServer 4100 won't boot...
> >
> > If I would have been thinking, I would have rescued the HSZ40 or the
> > HSZ50 from the salvage pile. At least there would have been some
> > 2 and 4 gig drives to go along with it. If I remember right, they bought it
> > in '97, so it wasn't really all that old. I used Hyperterminal to configure it,
> > since the VT220's are getting harder to come by at work.
>
> Bummer, dude. You could have booted off the HSZ[45]0. And the HSZ50
> can take 18GB (and maybe 36GB) disks... Of course, does Linux
> understand the HSZ? Or does it's firmware just transparently show
> a very big SCSI disk to Linux? That's my understanding of how it
> works in VMS (The One True OS).

This is how it worked in Windoze, so I'd guess that Linux would be the same.
My recollection of the HSZ was that it was really slow, and for less than
$90 I should be able to get a new IDE-RAID controller that would be much
faster.

>
> VTs are useful down in the glass room, though, since moving one
> around from server to server is much easier than moving a PC!!!
>
> Putting a NIC chip in an HS[ZGC] and giving it an IP address would
> be so much more handy, though... Just telnet into it from anywhere!
>
> Does your company still use Alphas? (OSF/1?)

We have one or two left, and they run VMS. The one I have was bought
for Windoze NT. Our Oracle databases are the only production Linux boxes
we have right now. Once we have corporate support aggrement in place
(do not go there, it's not so that I will feel warm and fuzzy), we may get to
have Linux in a few more places.

Andy

>
> --
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Ron Johnson, Jr. mailto:ron.l.johnson@cox.net |
> | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
> | |
> | "Basically, I got on the plane with a bomb. Basically, I |
> | tried to ignite it. Basically, yeah, I intended to damage |
> | the plane." |
> | RICHARD REID, who tried to blow up American Airlines |
> | Flight 63 |
> +------------------------------------------------------------+
>
> ___________________
> Nolug mailing list
> nolug@nolug.org
>
>

___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org
Received on 01/11/03