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Extreme Manufacturing SBC
Manufacturing environments can often not afford the space to house PCs, and Server racks lead to exensive cabling issues between the server and the storage. The solution often turned to is the Single Board Computer (aka SBC) which houses a full PC in a small form factor and which can guarentee a 1:1 relation between a device under test and the computer which is executing the test. Any problems on that SBC are isolated and do not impact other systems, resulting in higher fault tolerance and less interrupted testing.
The Extreme Protocol SBC solution is turn-key storage testing solution for any high-density SBC configuration (eg. Flexstar SBC hardware) which allows complex scripting as well as the ability to take advantage of new protocols going forward by upgrading the adapter driver. Since the EPS scripting language remains protocol neutral the same script can run on SCSI, Fibre Channel, SAS, and SATA devices with no changes reducing total effort and increasing testing consistancy between protocols.
The testing density is quite high in this arrangement, and the development and wiring of appropriate KVM switches to use all of these SBCs is daunting. As a result, Extreme Protocol Solutions has developed an SBC solution that runs on a networked Linux NFS boot cluster which serves the OS and Extreme Manufacturing files to the SBC running in command line mode to conserve resources. All control of the product is done via Extreme Manufacturing Control to load scripts, monitor testing, and other functions. This arrangement allows the use of the superior scripting capabilities of Extreme Manufacturing as well as all of the tools available of a full-fledged Linux installation (v 2.4.18.)
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1. Request an SBC Trial Kit
For serious inquiries, we will send an installation CD and 30 day trial License Key to you that contains all of the software needed to set up the Linux SBC testing solution.
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2. Install Linux Server software
The Linux Server Configuration tool is designed to simplify the setup of the file server system by helping install various packages and then making the neccessary modifications to several system files needed to serve DHCP addresses, boot kernels, and root filesystems in addition to propogating upgrades to scripts and drivers to all of the SBC systems. If automatic naming is enabled virtually no further configuration is neccessary. Turn on the SBC to add it to the list!
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3. Install the License Server and XMCTL
Each Linux cluster should have its own License Server and Manufacturing Control application networked to the SBCs. These applications are typically installed on a single Windows machine on that local SBC cluster whose IP address is specified by the Linux Server Configuration tool. Dual-ported Windows systems can have one ethernet port statically directed to the SBC cluster (10.c.255.2) while the other is on the company's normal network.
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4. Turn on the SBCs
If everything has been configured properly, the SBC will connect to the Linux Server to get its name, ip address, and root filesystem as it boots. Once the OS is loaded, Xmfg will get a license from the License Server and boot. Now XMCTL on the Windows system will be able to connect to SBC and see a drive connected (if applicable.) Further use of the product occurs via Extreme Manufacturing Control to load and run scripts. When done with an SBC test, simply select Shutdown PC from XMCTL to release the license before turning off power to the SBC (if it does not happen automatically.)
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