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Easy Host Names Management

By Brian Wilson

The Edge IP is an appliance for IP management, designed to simplify life for anyone who administers host names and IP addresses for a large network. If you have an IP-based network with hundreds or even thousands of systems connected to it, this product is designed for you. Hook it up, switch it on, and you're off and running with a complete set of DNS and DHCP services.

The Hardware

I tested the Edge IP2000 model, which is a 2U (3.5-inch-high) rack mount server. It has an LCD display and buttons on the right. Behind the decorative aluminum front panel are four SCA drive bays. The back panel has the usual complement of PC-style connectors, including two 10/100 RJ-45 network connectors. The package also contains a CD-ROM with PDF-format documentation and a quick-start cheat sheet.

After unbolting the lid on the Edge IP's deep blue rack mount case, I found a respectable collection of high-end commodity PC parts. The test unit had a Tyan 2510 motherboard with dual 933MHz Pentium III processors and 2GB of ECC SDRAM. Two hot swap 36GB Ultra 160 SEMI1 drives are connected to an IDT Vortex controller, which is configured as a RAID-1 mirror. I'd love to have a setup like this for my Web server.

Edge-IP