ColocatedServerConfiguration

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Colocated Server Configuration

General

- depending on location we install servers in 2-post or 4-post racks - San Jose - 2-post racks; Santa Clara - 4-post racks; customer is responsible for appropriate rack mounting hardware for their equipment; if you require a shelf - please notify us beforehand.

- Intuix LLC provides all cables (serial console, network and power); if you require non-standard serial console adapter you would need to supply it (we provide PC DB9F by default and Cyclades/Cisco RJ45M by request).

- please label your server with system "handle" (as assigned by Intuix LLC) on front and on the back; if available - please add mac (ethernet) address of primary (internet) interface; for example: "handleA - mac ab:cd:ef:12:34:56"; optionally you can add your company name and contact information to the label

- label network ports - especially if manufacturer labeling is wrong - i.e. "PUBLIC" "IPMI" "PRIVATE"

- if your system has multiple serial ports - please label console port with "CONSOLE"

- please label hard drives, if they're removable, especially if your system has multiple drives; label each drive with your system handle and drive number, i.e. "handleA disk#1"; we recommend placing label on drive itself and on the front of removable drive sled

- please ensure ant test that your server is configured to turn on automatically when power is disconnected and reconnected (see typical BIOS setting below).

Recommended BIOS Configuration

* enable USB support and Legacy USB support, so we can use USB keyboards
* ignore POST errors (especially keyboard, floppy, etc)
* set "Power loss" mode to "Stay on"
* enable BIOS console redirection if available: 
   * COM1 (COM A)
   * Speed: 9600 baud
   * Console type: VT100, 8bit
   * Flow control: none
   * Connection type: direct connection
   * Continue redirection after boot: yet (sometimes also called "Run Agent after boot")

We can accommodate different speeds for serial console if needed but strongly prefer settings above.

OS configuration

• turn on OS serial console on serial port 1, with settings as above

Configuring serial console:

• • Linux: http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/Serial/serial-console.html

• • FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/serialconsole-setup.html

• permit reboot via Ctrl+Alt+Del combination if available (Linux/FreeBSD allow it by default)

• we also recommend adding Intuix ssh key (with limited function) exclusively for emergency shutdown purpose - details would be provided.

Network configuration

We provide IP provisioning information as a part of setup process. If we assign a (smaller than /24) block of IP addresses to you we can sub-delegate reverse DNS as per RFC 2317 Section 5.2 (alternative approach).

We recommend reserving least-numbered interface (eth0) for private network and using next (eth1) for public. eth0 can be used for LOM/DRAC/IPMI (accessible from one of our shell systems); we can also provide jumpstart/kickstart/PXE boot in case of emergency through this network interface.

We ask you to allow ICMP echo request/response from 216.218.215.0/24 so we can monitor reachability of your server.

Here are Intuix/KOLO.NET recursive DNS nameservers which you can use in /etc/resolv.conf or as forwarders:

* 216.218.215.21 - rns1.he.kolo.net
* 74.123.227.155 - rns1.te.kolo.net

We can provide gratis secondary/slave DNS service for your domain by request.

You can use one of our NTP servers for time synchronisation:

  * ntp.he.kolo.net in HE SJC
  * ntp.te.kolo.net in QTS SC

Provisoning

As part of the setup you would be provided with:

• network configuration for your server(s) (ip/netmask/gateway), recursive DNS servers if desired
• account on shell server for serial console and power access (you would need to send us public key for ssh access)
• access information for console server
• access information (host/login/password) for power controller
• access information (URL, login/password) for bandwidth graphs