How we did it

We installed RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Advanced Server on nine different platforms to test for hardware compatibility. These platforms were: Polywell 2200S (2 2.5Ghz AMD64 CPUs; LSI Ultra SCSI HBA, Hitachi 15Krpm Ultra SCSI Drives), HP DL360-G2 (2 3.06GHz Xeon CPUs), HP DL580-G3 (4 2.5GHz Xeon CPUs), NetFrame 1600 (2 3GHz Xeon CPUs), Dell PowerEdge 1850 (1 3GHz Xeon CPU), Compaq DL-380 (2 733MHz Pentium IV CPUs), and a 'whitebox' server (1 2.6GHz AMD 64 CPU). Hardware detection by RHAS4 was flawless throughout this diverse range of servers.

We tested all versions on a network consisting of a Gigabit Ethernet switched backbone and checked logon compatibility with the following server operating systems: Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition, Apple OpenDarwin OS/X 10.3, Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3.0, NetWare 6.5, NetBSD 1.6.0, and Windows NT Server 4.0, as well as Apple OS/X clients (Powerbook G4, G4 desktop, Titanium G4), Windows XP/2000/98SE clients (Compaq Presario 700US notebooks, IBM ThinkPad 600E notebook, Sony Vaio notebook, several HP/Compaq desktops and several whitebox desktops); GNU/Linux 2.4.17 kernel Mandrake 9, Xandros 3, Debian Potato clients (Presario 700US, several whitebox desktops).

We examined version continuity among the distribution applications for both of the tested platforms (i386 on HP DL360G2 and i686/AMD 64 on the Polywell 2200S). We also tested version levels among the applications, as well as the current vs. shipped level of several service applications, all of which were behind but patched at our installation update time.

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We installed RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.0 Advanced Server on nine different platforms to test for hardware compatibility. These platforms were: Polywell 2200S (2 2.5Ghz AMD64 CPUs; LSI Ultra SCSI HBA, Hitachi 15Krpm Ultra SCSI Drives), HP DL360-G2 (2 3.06GHz Xeon CPUs), HP DL580-G3 (4 2.5GHz Xeon CPUs), NetFrame 1600 (2 3GHz Xeon CPUs), Dell PowerEdge 1850 (1 3GHz Xeon CPU), Compaq DL-380 (2 733MHz Pentium IV CPUs), and a 'whitebox' server (1 2.6GHz AMD 64 CPU). Hardware detection by RHAS4 was flawless throughout this diverse range of servers.

We tested all versions on a network consisting of a Gigabit Ethernet switched backbone and checked logon compatibility with the following server operating systems: Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition, Apple OpenDarwin OS/X 10.3, Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3.0, NetWare 6.5, NetBSD 1.6.0, and Windows NT Server 4.0, as well as Apple OS/X clients (Powerbook G4, G4 desktop, Titanium G4), Windows XP/2000/98SE clients (Compaq Presario 700US notebooks, IBM ThinkPad 600E notebook, Sony Vaio notebook, several HP/Compaq desktops and several whitebox desktops); GNU/Linux 2.4.17 kernel Mandrake 9, Xandros 3, Debian Potato clients (Presario 700US, several whitebox desktops).

We examined version continuity among the distribution applications for both of the tested platforms (i386 on HP DL360G2 and i686/AMD 64 on the Polywell 2200S). We also tested version levels among the applications, as well as the current vs. shipped level of several service applications, all of which were behind but patched at our installation update time.

We used Spirent Communications' WebAvalanche benchmarks to conduct our Web performance tests. We ran tests to determine the number of transactions processed per second, as well as the maximum number of TCP connections per second and found them to be good for this class of processor/speed.

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