Cerebra Server

The Cerebra server has an Intel N400BX motherboard which

can support two PII processors. It has an impressive configuration with 256 MB SDRAM,

expandable to 512 MB, an onboard Symbios UltraSCSI card, a Mylex RAID controller card, and

three IBM 4.2 GB SCSI hard drives.

As the server contains three different BIOSs to boot from,

namely those for system, the onboard SCSI card, and the RAID controller card, it takes

time to start up. The server can also be configured to boot off a remote agent with its

LANDesk remote agent.

The server we reviewed came with Win NT Server 4 preloaded.

However, to see how easy it is to configure the server from scratch, we re-installed

everything. We installed Win NT on it, both with and without the RAID controller card. As

NT doesn’t come with drivers for either the RAID controller or the SCSI card, we had

to use the startup disks to install it. Otherwise, it doesn’t recognize the hardware.

When installing without the RAID card, the SCSI card drivers are required. When installing

it with the RAID card, the SCSI drivers are not needed. In that case, just the RAID

drivers are required.

The server comes with a bootable CD that contains utilities

for creating boot disks for Win NT, SCO OpenServer, and IntranetWare. It also creates

driver disks for onboard network, SCSI, and display adapters. The onboard network card is

an Intel 82558 10/100 Ethernet adapter, and the display card is from Cirrus Logic with 2

MB VRAM.

As the server comes with an IDE CD-ROM drive, special

attention is required when installing NT server on it. When booting off the NT startup

disks, you’ve to manually add the IDE ATAPI drivers for the CD drive. These are

located in the startup disks only, so you don’t need to hunt for them elsewhere.

Configuring RAID on the server is slightly complex and time

consuming. But the documentation provided with it is very good, and gives detailed

step-by-step instructions. The online support for the Mylex (www.mylex.com) RAID card is

also very good. They reply to queries within 24 hours on e-mail.

The server has four PCI and two ISA slots for adding

additional boards. Since the most common components, like the network, display, and SCSI

are onboard, these slots are more than sufficient for further expansion. The server also

has a board management controller for monitoring various system management events. It can

log all information into onboard non-volatile memory area, which can then be collected by

system management tools like Intel LANDesk Server Manager. This feature monitors the

system temperature, over-voltage conditions, etc. It even has wake-on-LAN support that

wakes up the server upon a request to the network card.

The server’s performance is very fast. Once the

initial hurdle of configuring RAID, and adding drivers is through, rest of the

installation zips along. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including file and

print, intranet, or e-mail, and comes with three-year onsite warranty.

The server is suitable for networks consisting of 300 or

more nodes. My wish list for the server would be a well-compiled restoration CD, instead

of the umpteen driver floppies that come with it. Overall, a fast machine for small

networks that’s worth its price.