I haven’t posted for a long time, so I thought I’d write something about a purchase I made recently. I decided to grab myself one of these:
Considering the incredibly low prices they are available for and the relative power; I couldn’t resist. It’s not as erm… swish… as a Mac, but it is at least packing some decent specs:
- 2 x Intel Xeon 3.00 GHz Processors with HT
- 8GB of DDR 2 RAM (A disappointing 400MHz but still, can’t complain)
- 2 x 36GB HP Hot-Swappable Ultra320 SCSI 15000RPM HDDs
- Redundant power supply
And it set me back all of £96 on eBay UK. Delivered next day for an additional £6.
What I’m actually going to do with it is another matter entirely – so far, I’ve downloaded Ubuntu 10.04 LTS for Desktops (yes, desktops, because I would actually like to use it as a PC while my other machine isn’t in the same place as me). Ubuntu works quite well on it – I was impressed that there were no driver issues at all, it had the drivers for the SCSI controller (once I actually got them to appear!) with no messing about required.
I even managed to install a Belkin Wireless 802.11G network card and get it on my home network – another affront to the server form factor – but hey. That took a bit of work to get it installed and running – especially considering with the backplate screwed to it, it didn’t actually fit in the 1U server form factor PCI slots.
Ultimately, I hope to subtly manoeuvre my server into the CompSoc rack at University – sneaking it in won’t be easy though – it’s heavily defended by overly-nostalgic nerds and squatted by cheap “AMD Duron” powered boxes left over from the early 00’s.
I did have one issue – early on, I couldn’t get the installers of any of the Linux distributions I tried to see the drive. Later I realised that I couldn’t even see the disks in the HP Smart Array Manager. After endless searching, I came across an article on the HP website that offered a simple solution.
It appears that after repeated insertions of the SCSI drives into the slots at the front of the server, the SCSI backplane can become disconnected from the motherboard and need reseating – a simple problem with serious consequences involving the drives showing the “failed” indicator – an ominous sight for any sysadmin. In any case, a quick push down of that black connection solved the issue and the two drives popped up in the HP Smart Array manager – sweet.
I know it’s an old piece of junk, big, loud and power hungry, but it’s a really powerful bit of kit for such a low price, restricted only by the slow RAM modules and the lack of space internally for any expansion to make it more… PC-like.
It does have some nice Out-Of-Band management features – the HP iLO (Integrated Lights Out) system allows easy management of the server, diagnostics, power control and more via a nice (but distinctly 2005) web interface.
I don’t know what I’ll end up doing with it – installing it in the CompSoc rack sounds like a good idea if I can persuade the nerds to part with their age-old 3U UPS that has been whining for new batteries for the past 2 years (and for which the batteries are no longer manufactured).
Fat chance.