admins worst nightmare...

[Edward Ned Harvey]

> This is not a testament to the greatness of Dell.  Or HP or Sun or
> anybody.  They're all the same in this regard.  They build a server
> expecting you to use their branded peripherals, which they have
> attached and tested and designed specifically for such purposes.  If
> you deviate from that - It may work just as well.  It may fail silently
> (as in your case), or it may fail dramatically.  I've seen all of these
> take place.

What I mean to say is:  Even when manufacturers build components to conform
to a public spec, and everything should be interchangeable and compatible,
incompatibilities do happen.  They're surprisingly common, and that's the
reason WiFi consortium exists.  Because previously when the only standard
available was 802.11, wireless cards simply couldn't talk to each other
reliably unless you used entirely one brand solution.

The value you get when you pay Dell or IBM or Sun or whoever for a branded
supported configuration of hardware is to know that thousands of other
customers all have precisely the same product as you, at precisely the same
chipsets and versions, and therefore you can have more confidence that
compatibility problems have been identified and solved, as compared to
connecting a bunch of "it should work" components together, and no
manufacturer standing behind it taking responsibility to support the
solution as a whole.