Server equipment... slow boot?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

Thanks for your insight, yeah I was kind of surprised and somewhat appalled at the speed, and I never figured out why they did it this way?

I mean, sure, these things should be power up and forget to turn off, but if they just followed client/consumer model of fast bootup to at least vGA initialization so you can see something on the screen, wouldn't this be better off?

[Per Hansson]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

I don't think it's normal, what you can do is put in a port 80H POST card and see what the system does before the video initializes.
Some boards do RAM training on the first power up and this is then saved to the BIOS.
So a problem with writing this data to the BIOS could also make the system perform a RAM training each boot and that can take a long good while...

[eccerr0r]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

Do not have that equipment, no pcie post card, only have pci.

Supposedly one can tap off LPC for this info but never tried it.

Btw, if this was true, I would see consumer/client/laptops with the same issue, but this is exceedingly rare - I don't come across a lot of server hardware but they frequently are slow, and extrapolation would indicate this is a common trend.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

Bodged for the AVR54 errata for B0 C2000 chips!

At least it still boots just fine minus the slowness.

Hope this will last forever and ever...

[maxfolder]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

Is it normal for servers to take an eon to boot?

I have two "server class" machines/boards now, with ECC RAM. Both take an eon and a half to boot.

The specific one I have is a Supermicro board with an atom c2550 chip in it. It takes forever, almost a minute before it initializes vga if at all (for some reason it doesn't even init the onboard VGA port, I have to stick in a PCIe card). Machine almost seems dead before then.

The other machine is an Itanium machine, likewise does not init VGA until at least a few minutes after power up.

Yes perhaps it's because I'm used to consumer quality equipment that initialize vga pretty much right away or at least a few seconds you can see BIOS startup, but is this normal for server class machines?

It's not uncommon for servers to take longer to boot than consumer-grade equipment, but a minute or more for initialization of the VGA or display is not typical. However, boot times can vary depending on the hardware configuration and the number of peripherals connected to the server.

In your case, it's possible that there may be some compatibility issues or firmware configuration that is causing the delay. You might want to check for any firmware or BIOS updates for your hardware and ensure that all hardware components are properly seated and configured.

Additionally, server-class hardware is typically designed to provide greater stability and reliability, which can result in longer boot times. These systems often perform more extensive hardware checks and may have more complex BIOS configurations that can contribute to longer boot times.

In summary, while it's not unusual for server-class machines to take longer to boot than consumer-grade equipment, boot times of a minute or more for VGA initialization may indicate an underlying issue that should be addressed.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

Not sure what specifically is up with the sm board, but it indeed takes a minute to cold boot, but about 15-seconds to warm reboot. The itanium takes considerably longer, and I've seen other Itanium boxes also take about the same amount of time before vga initializes...so that's why this seems a bit curious.
Both machines appear to work just fine after booting. rebooting on the itanium iirc doesn't take as long as cold boot - it's just cold boot that takes an eon.

[eccerr0r]

Re: Server equipment... slow boot?

After reading a bit more and thinking about it, I think it may very well be ECC RAM that's causing the cold boot slowness. Anyone have any counterexamples - having a board with ECC support, enabled, and it cold boots fast?