This IT equipment was originally designed as an email gateway applicance with extensive features for the control and filtering of email traffic – targeted at the enterprise user.
This equipment has reached EOL (2012 Cisco announced end of life for this product) but it may well be of use as the basis for an interesting repurposing project.
I have seen many online forums where users repurpose this equipment (flash BIOS and install Linux to create a new purpose for the equipment) it is afterall a basic Dell 2650 Edge Server under the control of special purpose software – research this aspect before purchasing this equipment, I do NOT include consultation with the equipment I am offering.
Keep in mind that this appliance is LARGE/HEAVY (details below) it is much larger and heavier than standard rack equipment!
Ironport is a company that Cisco acquired and subsequently installed this equipment in many of their large clients, this particular machine came from a large ISP here in Australia
IRONPORT Email Gateway ApplianceModel: C60
Released to market around 2005 (in the world of IT, this now makes it “ancient” but still very useful for a Unix/Linux project at a fraction of the original hardware cost which was US$63,500 per unit)
This equipment is designed (when used in conjunction with Cisco software) advanced threat prevention, block spam and viruses, and enable corporate email policy enforcement
If you set aside the Cisco software, in reality this is a dual processor server with good memory capabilites (12Gb), raid array, dual hot swappable power supplies, extensive internal cooling systems for long term reliability
The core operating system supplied by Cisco wasAsyncOS which is founded on a UNIX based kernel – you cannot purchase this AsyncOS software any longer and why would you? Run the equipment under Linux and you have a lot more flexibility (and money in your pocket!)
Other software installed on this system was supplied by Symantec and Sophos
Standard 2RU height
THIS EQUIPMENT IS LARGE AND HEAVY:
Dimensions: 483mm wide x 720mm deep x 90mm height
Weight: 25Kg
Make sure you have rack rails to suit or sit the equipment on a VERY STRONG (Steel) tray within the cabinet – this will definitely not suit “front mounting” Ventilation is only from the rear so it doesn’t matter if the top/bottom/sides are enclosed.
EXTERNAL OBSERVATIONS:
Drop down front panel reveals 4x drive bays, small status display and an ON-OFF-STANDBY soft touch button
The case was originally mounted on rack rails, these are NOT supplied
All metal case/frame construction, extremely robust case construction
Rear Panel:
2x AC power supplies (dual redundancy/hot swap)
2x power supply status leds
2x Gigabit Data ports (RJ45)
1x Serial port (DB9)
1x Management port (via an installed comms card)
Unscrew two screws on the front panel (clearly marked) and the top steel cover slides off to reveal the hardware inside
The motherboard is a DELL Edge 2650 (PPID CN-0N2933-13740-38L-0090)
7x internal cooling fans! This explains why the server sounds like an aircraft engine when fired up, a lot of fans are pushing air around inside. It appears that these are hot swap capable (prevents system downtime while maintenance is being undertaken)
2x Intel Xeon processors (533Mhz FSB) I do NOT know the speed of these Xeon’s – I wasn’t about to dismantle the heatsink and didn’t access the machine through the management port but I suspect this will be a pair of 2.6Ghz Xeons (these boards can run Xeons from 2.0Ghz up to 3.02Ghz)
1x Adaptec AIC-7899 Dual-Channel PCI-to-Ultra160/Mb/sec SCSI Single-Chip Host SCSI controller chip
6x SRAM DDR memory slots – providing support for up to 12Gb – 4 slots have memory installed (2x 1GbHB54R1G9F2U & 2x 512MbEBD51RC4AAFA0)
1x SRAM memory slot (RAID memory) which is populated SAMSUNG 128Mb DIMM
2x Voltage Regulator cards CN-08R158
3x PCI-X slots – one slot is used for the Management NIC
1x CD ROM drive Samsung CD MASTER 24E (secu