DATAPUISTOKEMISTI

Recently market has been flooded with 400GB and 800GB versions of Intel 910 Enterprise PCIe SSD priced just one tenth of original cost. Downside of this device is its inability to boot requiring separate SSD for system files and software RAID0 support from OS. Both obvious downsides for my intended use with ESXi.

Latest firmware for Topfield TF500PVRc is 3.56 from 2010 while for TF510PVRc and TF520PVRc there's 3.96 from 2013. Can you flash Topfield TF510PVRc / TF520PVRc firmware to older TF500PVRc? Yes, yes you can after changing SysID with VegaPack and it will start and appear to work just fine. However since TF500PVRc has only 32MB RAM system will quickly run out of memory. First menus will disappear and soon entire system crashes. Flashing newer model firmware "works" only for DVB-C models. In DVB-T models (TF500PVRt / TF510PVRt / TF520PVRt) tuner was changed and while OS will run it won't be able to receive any channels.

While looking for something else I spotted Buffalo WLAE-AG300N "range extender" in our IT "treasure room". Noticing it's OpenWrt supported decided to give it try.

After many, many months of waiting Cisco finally managed to build new version of CSR1000v 3.13 that is compatible with VMware ESXi 5.1. Another quiet release without release notes. As with earlier 3.13 versions this new 03.13.01S build is available only in OVA format without purchasing license (csr1000v-universalk9.03.13.01.S.154-3.S1-ext.ova). Not to worry as you can extract ISO image and even BIN images if needed for upgrading older install from OVA. If you're coming from 3.12 or older with eval license (which allowed creation of eval license locally) you'll need new licenses. Usual two month license is available from Cisco portal  but it's extra step compared to 3.12.  Another difference is performance levels for unlicensed and eval licensed modes. Unlicensed 3.12 is 2,5Mbit/s, eval licensed 3.12 is 50Mbit/s, unlicensed 3.13 is 0,1Mbit/s and eval licensed 3.13 is 10Gbit/s.

Server in question was HP Proliant DL320 G6 from 2010 without any firmware upgrades ever made. Those old versions have multiple known issues, both usability, stability and hardware component compatibility related. Downtime required to perform these steps will be around 3 hours.