iYAN inside! Online Index SoftwareCobalt RaQ2
Introduction
Two major buzzwords seem to appear everywhere these days: Appliance and Linux. Everyone wants to make an appliance; they want to make a black box that does one thing exceptionally well, that draws little power, and takes up very little real estate. A number of these appliances run Linux. Linux really is everywhere, from underneath the new Amiga OS to inside Xerox printers. Cobalt Networks made a splash back in February of 1998 when they introduced their Qube, a 7.25" cube that ran Linux on a 150MHz 64 bit MIPS-based CPU, all for a list price of $999. They followed it up with the RaQ, an innovative repackaging that traded in the Qube's single PCI slot for a single rack unit chassis. The RaQ had very limited expansion capabilities, due to its lack of a PCI slot, no SCSI, and a single 10/100baseT NIC. They assured their customers that all concerns would be addressed, and that the product would still list at $999.
With the RaQ2 line of products, Cobalt Networks has shown that they meant what they said. The RaQ series of products was an excellent microserver appliance, but its limitations kept some potential customers from using it. The RaQ2 adds the expansion capabilities that were missing from the RaQ, boosts up the speed, and adds greater management flexibility.
Description
The RaQ2 platform is a Linux microserver built around a 250 MHz 64 bit MIPS-based CPU. Its two SIMM sockets give it expandability to 256 MB of 72pin EDO RAM, its EIDE controller allows for a large root disk, and its SCSI controller lets users add as much disk as they can afford. Besides being only one rack unit high, the RaQ2 draws a mere 35 Watts of power, allowing ISPs and other real estate misers to install up to 40 units in a single rack without worrying about power problems. The CPU is not a workhorse; Cobalt traded CPU performance for power and heat conservation, and what the system lacks in CPU power it makes up with I/O throughput. Also available are the CacheRaQ2, a RaQ with the Squid caching server installed, the NASRaQ, a SOHO / workgroup file server model, and the Qube2, which is a RaQ2 with a PCI slot, but in the original 7.25" cube chassis.
Everything about the unit is designed for simplicity. It is headless by design; initial setup is done via an LCD panel, and all configuration, management, and administration is done via an easy to use web interface. The only ports on the back are power, SCSI, two NICs, and an RS-232 port. Besides having a full Linux distribution (based on RedHat), it also comes with Legato Networker and Knox Arkeia backup clients, system monitoring tools, and other handy applications.
For the price, its performance is exceptional. Cobalt finds that they get around 30MB/s on FTP transfers, 3.25 mails/second (four simultaneous users; SMTP into sendmail, queued, then POP3'd out), and SPECweb96 gives 86-95 files / second for HTTP transfers.
Setting it up...
4 Surprisingly simple steps to operation.
Step One: Get the server on the network
Getting a new RaQ2 on your network is a very simple process. It will gladly use a DHCP supplied IP, or you can configure its IP, netmask, gateway, etc. via the LCD panel.
Step Two: Configure the server
Fire up a web browser and point it at the hostname/IP you assigned to it. The initial page has links to Cobalt's support organization, their solutions guide, and to a product registration form. More importantly, it also has links to the Server Management pages. From there, you can change the administrative accounts, DNS configuration, install software packages or patches, and even view graphs of the system's performance and resource utilization. It is also the point from which the administrator can create a virtual site.
Step Three: Configure a virtual site
ISPs are an obvious target market for Cobalt, and the web-based administration system is obviously geared to make the RaQ2 a simple and inexpensive domain hosting solution. The ISP can delegate full administrative rights to a customer, who can then add users, mailing lists, manage their web pages and ftp site, backup / restore their data, etc., all via the web.
Step Four: Forget about it
Once it's in place, you don't have to touch it again. It really is a box that you can install and forget.
Summation / Conclusion
While Cobalt has addressed a lot of the outstanding issues of the RaQ, the RaQ2 still has a number of problems. The biggest problem with their current systems is the lack of redundancy. The RaQ2's root disk can only be EIDE, and it cannot be mirrored. A single SCSI bus is a single point of failure. ISPs depend on system availability as much as Fortune 500 companies do. When email or web services are unavailable for any noticeable period of time, customers change companies.
Overall, the RaQ2 is a very solid, well designed and constructed, low-cost microserver solution. It isn't the appliance that it wants to be, but it is very useable in its intended markets. Cobalt listens to its customers and is likely to eliminate the RaQ2's inadequacies with its next product line.
