4 ms·

I was a systems engineer and also taught NetWare admin classes. I also worked with Novell to update their training material. I remember the first release of Ne

I was a systems engineer and also taught NetWare admin classes. I also worked with Novell to update their training material. I remember the first release of NetWare 386 very well; it was a breeze to install, but the early version had a bug and if you unplugged the 10Base2 coax from the server it would crash. Apparently, the routine to display a warning message on the console had an issue. Novell issued a patch NLM. I had one site that experienced random crashes, but it was not the aforementioned bug. Long story short: After about two months of sleuthing, working with Novell and Compaq, camping on site and driving to/from the office to site (about 2hr each way), I found that it was a mains spike caused by a dishwasher right up against the server room wall in the next room. The fix was to move the Compaq server, which was actually a large desktop model, on its table to the opposite end of the server room.

stevekemp 2y ago
I remember working in random IT companies, back in the early nineties, where our "servers" were a collection of random desktop machines running Linux. At the time I think we had one Sun E450, and 20-30 random desktop hosts. All headless, except for keyboards connected. We also had a bunch of phone lines and external modems, which were used to run UUCP jobs overnight, or transfer files other ways, to remote SCO Unixware hosts. It was only later that I worked with "proper" servers, with niceties such as remote access, redundant power-supplies, and maybe even multiple hard drives (!)
- lproven 2y ago
  > our "servers" were a collection of random desktop machines Also normal for the 1980s and early 1990s. Because PCs were not servers, and servers were not PCs, and almost nobody made or offered server-class hardware built around x86. The first I ever saw was a Compaq SystemPro and those things cost as much as a decent new car. Wikipedia says it was the first ever PC-compatible server! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_SystemPro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_SystemPro
- kennethrc 2y ago
  > early nineties > running Linux "Unix" though, right?
qingcharles 2y ago
Ugh. I hate "bugs" like that. I worked in PC repair while at college. I remember one customer with a mouse where the right-button wouldn't work. I replaced the mouse, RAM, HDD + OS, mobo + CPU before I tried another PSU. Literally everything worked perfectly except that mouse button.

stevekemp 2y ago

I remember working in random IT companies, back in the early nineties, where our "servers" were a collection of random desktop machines running Linux. At the time I think we had one Sun E450, and 20-30 random desktop hosts. All headless, except for keyboards connected. We also had a bunch of phone lines and external modems, which were used to run UUCP jobs overnight, or transfer files other ways, to remote SCO Unixware hosts. It was only later that I worked with "proper" servers, with niceties such as remote access, redundant power-supplies, and maybe even multiple hard drives (!)

lproven 2y ago
> our "servers" were a collection of random desktop machines Also normal for the 1980s and early 1990s. Because PCs were not servers, and servers were not PCs, and almost nobody made or offered server-class hardware built around x86. The first I ever saw was a Compaq SystemPro and those things cost as much as a decent new car. Wikipedia says it was the first ever PC-compatible server! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_SystemPro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_SystemPro
kennethrc 2y ago
> early nineties > running Linux "Unix" though, right?

qingcharles 2y ago

Ugh. I hate "bugs" like that. I worked in PC repair while at college. I remember one customer with a mouse where the right-button wouldn't work. I replaced the mouse, RAM, HDD + OS, mobo + CPU before I tried another PSU. Literally everything worked perfectly except that mouse button.