OK, Let me get this straight:

1) I buy a Raq 3i (like $500)
2) Upgrade to 512 ram ($120- pricewatch)
3) add 2nd Hard Disk ($120) What kind of HD does this thing ship with anyways, EIDE/SCSI (can I put a 80 gig drive on that thing)?
4) restore w/ Raq4r software - so i get PHP and ChiliSoft ($50 ebay)
5) Say Abracadabra, click my heal 3 X's and Presto: A Raq 4r minus 150mhz.

$790 Raq3i mod to raq4r VS $1800 real Raq4r ($100 for pro help upgrading Raq3 to Raq4)

1) Is it really that easy???
2) Anyone w experience w Raqport upgrades Raq3's to Raq 4's?

Sounds too good to be true, If not, pinch me so I can spend some $$$$.:beer:

Has anyone done this already? If so, does everything "work" right? I've found that these no value in saving ?1000 on hardware/software solution only to hav to deal w 100 hrs of work arounds monkey rigging.

Personally, I really like to buy a COTS (Comes Off The Self???) package, install, and follow the instructions (for things like web email, store front, discussion/chat boards...). It's nice it all of these things would work w a Raq3i upgraded to a Raq4r.

Anyone beat me to this yet????:scatter: <--Me at work, ha!

I'd search these forums for people that have already done that... I'm sure you'll find that it's illegal! Now I'm not going to say I haven't tried to do that; but just so you're aware, I've heard its illegal...

Put in simple terms, if you "cheat" a company out of money, its illegal.

Just m .02!

Tommy Pitchford

By the way, what software runs this discussion board?

I like it.:love: <-- and these cool little icons --> :puke:

Hi PitchFork,

THanks, so let's say if you did ever try? (not that you did), is it a pain in the booty? :nuts:

YEAH! I'd much rather just buy the stuipd thing... I have an extra box and tried using the restore CD on it and never successfuly got it to work. So admititingly, I did try; but failed...

Bullitin Board:
http://www.vbulletin.com/

To answer all:

This is very easy to do:

1) Grab some ram - 512 perferable
2) 2 new idetical Hard Drives (only if you have a 3i and want to run raid
3) an os restore disk
4) a 3c905b network card (or the others they say that work)
5) cross cable - or 10/100 hub with 2 straight cables
6) connect the cables
7) boot the os restore disk
8) boot the raq - select net boot
9) enjoy your new raq4 - 150mhz

Dont forget to apply all patches, install ssh, turn of telnet and any other unecessary services, grab portsentry,fcheck, and logwatch - you are ready to go.

Not that I have done this - I have only seen it done once or twice.


- surf!

surfsailor

Do you know if this will work with a regular raq3 not a 3i ?? I have a Raq I am not using and would like to play with it. I would not put it in production because if something go's haywire I am on my own. But I am a tinkerer, and this looks like somethinng cool to try.

Originally posted by surfsailor
To answer all:

This is very easy to do:

1) Grab some ram - 512 perferable
2) 2 new idetical Hard Drives (only if you have a 3i and want to run raid
3) an os restore disk
4) a 3c905b network card (or the others they say that work)
5) cross cable - or 10/100 hub with 2 straight cables
6) connect the cables
7) boot the os restore disk
8) boot the raq - select net boot
9) enjoy your new raq4 - 150mhz

Dont forget to apply all patches, install ssh, turn of telnet and any other unecessary services, grab portsentry,fcheck, and logwatch - you are ready to go.

Not that I have done this - I have only seen it done once or twice.


- surf!

But this is on Cobalt Raq 3, or is it on any Server with the specs above? Like a Dell Server with a restore?

OS restore will work with a RaQ3 or 3i. And it won't work with anything other than a RaQ, there's a hardware dependency coded in, IIRC.

One other gotcha, there is a limit on the size of the HD you can use with a 3 or 3i, much less than a 4 series. I believe it's something like 30GB? Can't recall, but it's in the Sun Knowledgebase.

Brandon

So is this correct.

a raq3 will not take a raq4r OS bacuse the raid option is for SCSI that a regular raq3 will not have? If so then it should work on a raq3i that has scsi?

Is this correct?

What is this about minus 150MHz if you upgrade a 3i? Can anyone explain?

JZ

the minus 150 is that the RaQ3's have a 300MHz processor and the 4's have a 450MHz processor. 450-300=150

Well I am seeing alot of people talking about doing the 4 restore on the 3 boxes..... I have even seen the 4 restore disk being sold as a OS restore for the Raq3 or 4. But still no confirmed answer does it work? Is it stable?? Now to add some more question on upgrading the raq3. I have seen this twice on the web that you " Should " be able to drop a K6II 550 in the box and work in theroy. But like the restore upgrade........ no answers or results. I just thought I would add my findinds to the myth and hear-say.

Yes the RaQ4 OS restore will work perfectly on the RaQ3 hardware.

I've been running several this way.

Even a Sun tech on the Cobalt Forum said as much this week, he didn't even say not to do it, just said that it would violate your warranty (:bawling: (not!)) and not to EVER advertise a RaQ3/4 as a RaQ4, as thats illegal.

Restore away!

Brandon

You can actually upgrade the CPU of a Cobalt Raq3i to a 450Mhz CPU, its a AMD K6-2 450Mhz CPU, will cost you about $36-45,and if you have the 3i (with SCSI port) you can add 2x40GB 5,400 RPM Segate HD's and have a Raq4i Raid configuration for almost 1/3 the cost. The full upgrade only takes minutes to complete.

When doing a Raq restore make sure you have a 3com network card in the computer you are restoring from. There are only about 3 different 10/100 3com cards that will work with the drivers on the restore CD, I messed with a machine trying to get it to restore for almost 4 hrs and I guttet about 5 machines thinking it was the CD-ROM, Motherboard just the whole computer that wasnt working. Make sure you use a CAT5e crossover cable also.


Happy Upgrading......

Wouldn't you have to jumper the MB to change the clock multiplier to 450Mhz? How would you do that?

As for the NIC's, here is the official list from the CD itself:

PCI Cards
- Intel PRO/100+ Server Adapter (PILA8470B)
- Linksys EtherFast 10/100 Lan Card (LNE100TX)
- Netgear Fast Ethernet PCI Adapter (FA312TX)
- 3Com OfficeConnect Fast Ethernet NIC (3CSOHO100-TX)
- 3Com Fast EtherLink XL PCI NIC (3C905BTX)

PCMCIA Cards
- Netgear Fast Ethernet PCMCIA Adapter (FA410TX)
- 3Com Megahertz 10/100 LAN PC Card (3CCFE574BT)
- Xircom CreditCard Ethernet 10/100 (CE3B-100BTX)


I use the Linksys card ($20) all the time with no problems.

Brandon

I also have been successful in upgrading a 3i to a 4r (w/raid). I upgraded the existing drive to a seagate 7200rpm 80gb and added and identical 80gb for raid. I upgraded to 512mb ram and changed the processor to an AMD K6 550MHz. It been running stable for several weeks not with absolutely no problem. The only thing I couldn't find was an additional drive bracket for the 2nd drive. Since there is a place for a 2nd bracket it would have been nice to have. From the looks of this box. There is no physical difference from a 4r.

I did a full OS restore using a 3com 3c905 (not 3c905b like cobalt reccomends) and it worked GREAT! Do note that the restore is very picky about the type of CD-ROM drive you use. DON'T use a cheapo one it will not work. If anybody has any questions about what I did let me know.

JZ

Hi JZaman!

Does your K6-550 run at 550 MHz? I replaced the 300 MHz with a 550 as well but I have only 500 MHz according to "cat /proc/cpuinfo".

Thanks

os restore RAQ4/4i on RAQ3 will work 100%
takes 10 min
--------------
K6II 550 will not work

Well I am seeing alot of people talking about doing the 4 restore on the 3 boxes..... I have even seen the 4 restore disk being sold as a OS restore for the Raq3 or 4. But still no confirmed answer does it work? Is it stable??

I hope it wasn't being sold as a restore "for the Raq3 or 4". Sun have been quite clear about this. It's illegal. The restore CD for a RaQ4 is for a RaQ4. It does work 100% on a RaQ3 and if you do this for your own personal use they will turn a blind eye to it. If you do it for commercial reasons and they find out about it, they'll not be happy with you.

K6II 550 will not work False. The RaQ3 can run at 500Mhz all day, quite well thank you, with a little know-how. We routinely use 533's and 550's underclocked to 500Mhz.

Also, regarding the RaQ3/4 upgrades, IMHO the only thing Sun cares about is someone selling the RaQ3 as a RaQ4 just because it has the RaQ4OS on it. I think it's quite common for vendors to offer to restore a RaQ3 with the RaQ4 OS, and I don't think (I hope!) Sun has a problem with it. For one thing, customers get a more stable OS with more patches, it effective eliminates support for a legacy system, and I would think the risk of canibalization is minimal as there's no hardware improvement... if you're in the market to buy an XTR (or 550 now), an OS upgrade is hardly going to keep you from making that purchase.

In short, as long as you don't sell a RaQ3 as a RaQ4, I think you're fine. Sun's actions so far bear this out.

Of course, IANAL. :)

Brandon

Brandon,

I do agree, that does seem to be the way that they (Sun) are currently treating this situation. But they could obviously change their minds.

A RaQ4 is the hardware plus the RaQ4 software, a RaQ3 is the hardware plus the RaQ3 software, and (to state the obvious) RaQ3 hardware plus RaQ4 software is not a product that Sun produces and would be a direct breach of their licensing conditions.

So, as a business, if you're going to put RaQ4 software on a RaQ3, your only solution would be to renegotiate the terms of that license with Sun.

Just because you can do something, does not mean that you're allowed to ;)

cbtrussell,

Can we clarify the CPU upgrade process?

To get 450, 500, 550 AMD CPUs to work in a Raq3/Raq3i you have to presumably do the Socket 7 , 2 pin short modification to get a 5X multiplier.

Is this the confirmed procedure?

Also JZaman, you seem to have TWO 80GB drives in your Raq3 whereas most people state that 32GB is the the limit for the Raq3.

Is the drive size maximum increased when using the Raq4 OS? Or was there a modification you performed?

Clarification would be helpful for all, I have 3 Raq3i 's and would like to know for sure.

Thanks.
tribui

where is the net boot initiated from.. the front panel or is it and option when you install a third NIC.... would it just be easier to do this from the control panel...

In order to load the RaQ 4 OS, is it necessary to mimic the 4R/4i hardware, or can you just install the OS using the standard RaQ 3i hardware?

I have a 3i with 256 MB RAM (soon to be 512) and a 15 GB disk and don't have a need (or the time) to install the second drive in a RAID configuration...yet.

thx!

I upgraded my Raq 4i to a 4r...... but my admin screen does show the correct ram or the fact that there are two HDDs in it... they are matching drives... do you have any ideas:) :scatter: