# Basement Data Center Lab - Mini-Update 12/10/2010



## Cerberus

*scratch head*

PICS!


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## Lord Xeb

I got some sneak photos uploading now. But for some reason OCN does not like them... so I have to put them on Photobucket e_e


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## Cerberus

awesome, all i understood in the OP was:

Fiber
PIZZA!
Pentium
and storage

lol.


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## Lord Xeb

Sneak pics added


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Cerberus*


awesome, all i understood in the OP was:

Fiber
PIZZA!
Pentium
and storage

lol.



Let me knock it down (although I am still wrapping my head around this stuff too because it is all new to me







. And I love new stuff!)

Fiber channel. Basically, imagine something similar to fiber optics.
Pizza box - General term given to a slim computer (will have pics of them tomorrow). They can be used as application servers, support consoles, stuff like that. Thick thin PC
<.< 
And as for storage, these things are very secure as they can have up to 2 drives fail! And instead of RAID, you have RAID groups and stuff... still learning. Basically, it is fast but more secure than RAID 5. Yet you do not loose as much disc as you would with RAID 5 (Over large volumes, you loose a lot of space. And for RAID 10, forget it. In large volumes you are going though disc space like air!).


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## Cerberus

awesome!


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## ComGuards

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


And as for storage, these things are very secure as they can have up to 2 drives fail! And instead of RAID, you have RAID groups and stuff... still learning. Basically, it is fast but more secure than RAID 5. Yet you do not loose as much disc as you would with RAID 5 (which is essentially half of your storage).


Actually. No.

RAID-5 is (N-1)S. You don't lose half the storage. You have a storage equivalent to (N-1) disks. The amount of parity data is equal to 1 disk, but spread out over all the drives.

RAID-1 and RAID-10 is half. RAID-10 is a stripe-set composed of mirrored sets. That is, you take a bunch of RAID-1 arrays, and put them in RAID-0, to create the RAID-10 set. Theoretically, you can lose 1 disk in each RAID-1 array and the whole array will still be up. Of course, if you lose both disks in a RAID-1 array, you're f***ed.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


EMC BJ26 - 1 P4 2.8GHz (soon to be upgraded to 3.8GHz) 4GB of RAM - will run Windows Server 2003


I hope you're getting that 3.8GHz upgrade for *really* cheap, because it's not worth upgrading (i.e. not worth spending more money on outdated technology). Granted it's a 1GHz speed increase, unless you're doing something that's CPU-intensive, you won't notice the difference. The system will be fast because you (should) have fast disk system I/O.

Going to be loud as hell with everything going...







Guess that's why you have the area sealed (or trying to get it sealed), lol









Have fun with it all


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *ComGuards*


Actually. No.

RAID-5 is (N-1)S. You don't lose half the storage. You have a storage equivalent to (N-1) disks. The amount of parity data is equal to 1 disk, but spread out over all the drives.

RAID-1 and RAID-10 is half. RAID-10 is a stripe-set composed of mirrored sets. That is, you take a bunch of RAID-1 arrays, and put them in RAID-0, to create the RAID-10 set. Theoretically, you can lose 1 disk in each RAID-1 array and the whole array will still be up. Of course, if you lose both disks in a RAID-1 array, you're f***ed.


Thanks for clearing that up... LOL <.<


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## the_beast

What do you actually intend to _do_ with it all?

You enterprise disks are great if you need high capacity and high IOPS, but if you want to do is run a media server then a few 2TB disks would be a better buy - even if you got the above kit for free, you power bill will be so high running it all that buying modern drives will make more sense financially. If you are doing anything cpu-intensive then a newer system will be considerably faster, and if you don't need lots of capacity then an SSD or 2 would be faster still.


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## DaMirrorLink

did i mention that i love you?


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## Erick Silver

Theres only one thing I would do with all that. FOLD!


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## the_beast

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Erick Silver*


Theres only one thing I would do with all that. FOLD!


what good is that going to do? There is very little cpu power there - it's all disk subsystem, and folding isn't likely to be I/O bound even on a high-end brand new system.


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *the_beast* 
What do you actually intend to _do_ with it all?

You enterprise disks are great if you need high capacity and high IOPS, but if you want to do is run a media server then a few 2TB disks would be a better buy - even if you got the above kit for free, you power bill will be so high running it all that buying modern drives will make more sense financially. If you are doing anything cpu-intensive then a newer system will be considerably faster, and if you don't need lots of capacity then an SSD or 2 would be faster still.

They are their for learning and training. My mom is moving from the VTL field to FAS (to different beasts) and my step dad wants to get back into hardware. Also, it gives my bro and I (we love computers. I actually drool at them) to mess with enterprise level stuff. And please note, these things will not be on 24/7. TOO MUCH POWER!

Quote:


Originally Posted by *DaMirrorLink* 
did i mention that i love you?

I love you to bro. Wanna get some coffee?

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Erick Silver* 
Theres only one thing I would do with all that. FOLD!

Your an idiot. All there is here is nothing but disc space. There are CPUs in the head and in the to pizza box computers, but there is no use even bothering folding on them. I mean, have you ever tried to fold on a PIII? *smacks you*

Quote:


Originally Posted by *the_beast* 
what good is that going to do? There is very little cpu power there - it's all disk subsystem, and folding isn't likely to be I/O bound even on a high-end brand new system.

BINGO! Besides, we are really not using this for storage. My step dad would just get a 4TB FAS if he wanted that. In a way, this is just something to mess with.

More pics coming later today hopefully.


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## ComGuards

Well, if you can afford the power bill, then alright, anything you want....

But I can just see it now...

_*Saturday Night, At a movie*_ 
"Psst, son, did you turn off the storage system in the basement before we left?"
"No dad, I didn't have time to log in to each on console to shut 'em all down"
"WHAT?!?!"
"We were late for dinner!"
"This month's power bill is coming out of YOUR allowance"

_To be continued..._


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## BlankThis

Quote:



Originally Posted by *ComGuards*


Well, if you can afford the power bill, then alright, anything you want....

But I can just see it now...

_*Saturday Night, At a movie*_ 
"Psst, son, did you turn off the storage system in the basement before we left?"
"No dad, I didn't have time to log in to each on console to shut 'em all down"
"WHAT?!?!"
"We were late for dinner!"
"This month's power bill is coming out of YOUR allowance"

_To be continued..._




















Nice one


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## CryWin

I can has 4x500gb hard drives?


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *ComGuards*


Well, if you can afford the power bill, then alright, anything you want....

But I can just see it now...

_*Saturday Night, At a movie*_ 
"Psst, son, did you turn off the storage system in the basement before we left?"
"No dad, I didn't have time to log in to each on console to shut 'em all down"
"WHAT?!?!"
"We were late for dinner!"
"This month's power bill is coming out of YOUR allowance"

_To be continued..._










Actually, this is not my toy. It is his. So it is HIS responsibility.

Also I got more pics!


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## Lord Xeb

PICS!

Pentium 3 SC200 (1 socket with dummy chip)

















EMC machine without CPU heat sink:








W/ heat sink and shroud (those little fans move a LOT of air):








The 144F shelf (drives pulled out <.<):








Cisco switch (bro in the background):









Hard drives compared. Can you tell which is fiber channel and which is SATA?:
















So just how old is the PIII machine? Well, it has a Rage XL on it


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## Greensystemsgo

bump outta confusion.

sell to the russians. they'll buy this stuff up. Love underground file storage servers XD


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## Lord Xeb

<.< Once everything is setup and I understand what is going on, will do a full explanation.


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## portauthority

free hard drive giveaway


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## Lord Xeb

That is not going to happen


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## Lord Xeb

Bump!


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## mbreitba

The shelf of 500GB SATA drives is pretty slick - that should give you some pretty decent storage even with just 500GB drives (say around 6TB - 13*500gb-parity + one hot spare) - that'd be pretty useful. It'd be really sweet if you stuck some 2TB WD RE4GP drives in there - lots o storage, low power.

The FC shelves are pretty sweet too for database and I/O intensive work. I'd recommend playing with those for virtualized environments. You've got enough I/O and storage there to get some pretty decent virtual machines going.

What's the interconnect for the different shelves? Looks like FC from what I can tell - is it 1G, 2G, 4G?


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## Mikey976

i work with some of those at work. they look like netapps machines.
chances are they are 1G/2G


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mbreitba* 
The shelf of 500GB SATA drives is pretty slick - that should give you some pretty decent storage even with just 500GB drives (say around 6TB - 13*500gb-parity + one hot spare) - that'd be pretty useful. It'd be really sweet if you stuck some 2TB WD RE4GP drives in there - lots o storage, low power.

The FC shelves are pretty sweet too for database and I/O intensive work. I'd recommend playing with those for virtualized environments. You've got enough I/O and storage there to get some pretty decent virtual machines going.

What's the interconnect for the different shelves? Looks like FC from what I can tell - is it 1G, 2G, 4G?


I have no idea. All I know is that he got them from ebay. But you cannot just slap any normal hard drive into these. They have to be Enterprise class which are expensive and you have the way these things work all off.

They run in RAID groups. You loose 2 disks per self incase 1 fails, the other takes over. So that means 2 disk could fail per shelf.
Also, because of formating, OS, blah blah blah. Once all those shelves are put together, we are only going to have 8TB of space. This is all basically a lab setup for my mom because VTLs are going out the window and she was one of the best in the company when it came to them.


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## 102014

dam, that looks awsome, even if is older stuff i would love ro get my hands on some old enterprise grade hardware

keep us posted


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## Aawa

have fun playing with enterprise equipment. some people dont realize how big of a difference there is from home pc use to enterprise stuff because they think a PC is nothing more than a means to get a higher FPS in games.

If i was you and your brother, i would learn the ins and outs of how it operate and maintenance of it. Definitely a good thing to learn for your future if you want to go into the IT field.


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## Lord Xeb

That is what we are planning on doing. We are bothing going into the computer field. Although he is more software based and I am more hardware based.


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## trueg50

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Aawa* 
have fun playing with enterprise equipment. some people dont realize how big of a difference there is from home pc use to enterprise stuff because they think a PC is nothing more than a means to get a higher FPS in games.

If i was you and your brother, i would learn the ins and outs of how it operate and maintenance of it. Definitely a good thing to learn for your future if you want to go into the IT field.

Yes indeed, this stuff is a blast!

You should play with that switch too, Cisco IOS is pretty fun to learn.


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## Lord Xeb

<.< Working on it. Oh, I forgot to mention. We got a new another App server!

Pics coming tomorrow (hopefully).







The thing is running an OLD Celly 433MHz XD. When we upgrade the dual PIII machine, we will be putting 2 1.4Ghz into it. The old 1.26Ghz PIII will go into this machine


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## the_beast

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
<.< Working on it. Oh, I forgot to mention. We got a new another App server!

Pics coming tomorrow (hopefully).







The thing is running an OLD Celly 433MHz XD. When we upgrade the dual PIII machine, we will be putting 2 1.4Ghz into it. The old 1.26Ghz PIII will go into this machine









I have to ask - why on earth are you 'upgrading' the P3 machine? It really makes no sense - you would be better placed spending the money on something newer in the first place. As a rough guide, a few months ago I bought a fully working 1u PowerEdge 750, with 1GB RAM, dual 160GB SATA drives, a 6-port hardware RAID card, dual Intel NICs and a 2.8GHz P4 with HT for the princely sum of $26. Although a little noisier, it completely destroys my Supermicro dual 1GHz P3 server in terms of CPU speed (and network transfers, since the P3 only has onboard fast ethernet not gigabit). Although it has 1 fewer core, the fact it has double the clock speed and HT more than makes up for it.

On a similar note, you will likely struggle to upgrade in the method you mention - a 433MHz Celeron will be Mendocino (sp?) based, with a 66MHz FSB. Your 1.26GHz P3 will have a Tualatin core - with a 133MHz FSB. The chances of a board sold with a 66MHz bus being able to support a cpu that much newer is slim...


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## ComGuards

Quote:


Originally Posted by *the_beast* 
I have to ask - why on earth are you 'upgrading' the P3 machine? It really makes no sense - you would be better placed spending the money on something newer in the first place. As a rough guide, a few months ago I bought a fully working 1u PowerEdge 750, with 1GB RAM, dual 160GB SATA drives, a 6-port hardware RAID card, dual Intel NICs and a 2.8GHz P4 with HT for the princely sum of $26. Although a little noisier, it completely destroys my Supermicro dual 1GHz P3 server in terms of CPU speed (and network transfers, since the P3 only has onboard fast ethernet not gigabit). Although it has 1 fewer core, the fact it has double the clock speed and HT more than makes up for it.

On a similar note, you will likely struggle to upgrade in the method you mention - a 433MHz Celeron will be Mendocino (sp?) based, with a 66MHz FSB. Your 1.26GHz P3 will have a Tualatin core - with a 133MHz FSB. The chances of a board sold with a 66MHz bus being able to support a cpu that much newer is slim...

Seconded.

Spending money on outdated OLD technology is a *really* bad investment, no matter how much you spend. Especially if you can get a hyperthreaded P4-system for $26!!!


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## 102014

how much did that all cost you on ebay?


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## mbreitba

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
I have no idea. All I know is that he got them from ebay. But you cannot just slap any normal hard drive into these. They have to be Enterprise class which are expensive and you have the way these things work all off.

They run in RAID groups. You loose 2 disks per self incase 1 fails, the other takes over. So that means 2 disk could fail per shelf.
Also, because of formating, OS, blah blah blah. Once all those shelves are put together, we are only going to have 8TB of space. This is all basically a lab setup for my mom because VTLs are going out the window and she was one of the best in the company when it came to them.

I think any SATA enclosure, unless there is specific firmware prohibiting other drives, should accept pretty much any drive. I would be very suprised if you couldn't use one of the WD RE3/RE4/RE4GP drives.


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *the_beast* 
I have to ask - why on earth are you 'upgrading' the P3 machine? It really makes no sense - you would be better placed spending the money on something newer in the first place. As a rough guide, a few months ago I bought a fully working 1u PowerEdge 750, with 1GB RAM, dual 160GB SATA drives, a 6-port hardware RAID card, dual Intel NICs and a 2.8GHz P4 with HT for the princely sum of $26. Although a little noisier, it completely destroys my Supermicro dual 1GHz P3 server in terms of CPU speed (and network transfers, since the P3 only has onboard fast ethernet not gigabit). Although it has 1 fewer core, the fact it has double the clock speed and HT more than makes up for it.

On a similar note, you will likely struggle to upgrade in the method you mention - a 433MHz Celeron will be Mendocino (sp?) based, with a 66MHz FSB. Your 1.26GHz P3 will have a Tualatin core - with a 133MHz FSB. The chances of a board sold with a 66MHz bus being able to support a cpu that much newer is slim...

 Okay, we have 3 Application servers. 1 has 2 P3 that has only 1 P3 + a dummy in it, 1 has a P4 and one has a celly in it. What we plan on doing is upgrading the 2 socket P3 machine and putting the old P3 chip that is in it into the celly machine. Also, since both the P3 and celly socket machines are S370 they should work just fine... I think.

Besides, the new "upgrade" for the 2 socket P3 machine are 2 1.4Ghz P3s. And since it will be running Win server 2003, the P4 will have Win Server 2008, and the celly machine (even if the new donated P3 from the other machine does not work) will have Redhat on it. All bases are covered if things do not work.

We plan on upgrading whatever would be the most bang for the buck. Besides, before we do any upgrades, we are doing our homework on each application server. 2 of them we have PDFs on them (complete manuals) and the new one we are working on finding one for it. If the Celly cannot be upgraded, then we will just put a second P3 1.26Ghz into the other machine.

Meh. I know I am not making sense but trust me, we got all bases covered.


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *mbreitba* 
I think any SATA enclosure, unless there is specific firmware prohibiting other drives, should accept pretty much any drive. I would be very suprised if you couldn't use one of the WD RE3/RE4/RE4GP drives.

Netapp puts custom firmware onto the drives. Only netapp firmware drives can work in a netapp shelf...

But I could easily pop out the SATA drives in the shelf and put them into a desktop, just not the other way around. The same goes for the Fiber drives.


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## ComGuards

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
 Okay, we have 3 Application servers. 1 has 2 P3 that has only 1 P3 + a dummy in it, 1 has a P4 and one has a celly in it. What we plan on doing is upgrading the 2 socket P3 machine and putting the old P3 chip that is in it into the celly machine. Also, since both the P3 and celly socket machines are S370 they should work just fine... I think.

Besides, the new "upgrade" for the 2 socket P3 machine are 2 1.4Ghz P3s. And since it will be running Win server 2003, the P4 will have Win Server 2008, and the celly machine (even if the new donated P3 from the other machine does not work) will have Redhat on it. All bases are covered if things do not work.

We plan on upgrading whatever would be the most bang for the buck. Besides, before we do any upgrades, we are doing our homework on each application server. 2 of them we have PDFs on them (complete manuals) and the new one we are working on finding one for it. If the Celly cannot be upgraded, then we will just put a second P3 1.26Ghz into the other machine.

Meh. I know I am not making sense but trust me, we got all bases covered.


Ehhh.... If you say so.

For the dual-socket system, you'll have to get matching CPUs otherwise you're (most likely) going to run into problems. And by matching CPUs, I mean matching everything...

And you can stop saying "dummy P3", LOL. Just say that it's a dual-socket motherboard with single CPU installed...


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## Lord Xeb

<.< They are match P3s. Same model, same cache size, same socket, same everything.


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## Mootsfox

Let me know if you need any 533fsb S604 Xeons, 200mhz ECC RAM (512MB & 1GB) or other pieces









Also, you should pick up a rack.


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## Lord Xeb

Do not need one.


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## ComGuards

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
<.< They are match P3s. Same model, same cache size, same socket, same everything.

Same stepping? That tends to get overlooked. Just a reminder, really, but if you are confident that they are identical, then that's that.


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## Lord Xeb

Yeah. They are the same spec number


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## mbreitba

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
Netapp puts custom firmware onto the drives. Only netapp firmware drives can work in a netapp shelf...

But I could easily pop out the SATA drives in the shelf and put them into a desktop, just not the other way around. The same goes for the Fiber drives.

That's sucky - but I did find this :
http://vardomskiy.livejournal.com/863.html

Looks like you can "hack" a drive to get it to work properly


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## Lord Xeb

Not going to do it. The setup in the basement is to work as a lab so there would be no point in doing that. It is solely there as a teaching tool. Besides, if my stepdad wanted 8TB of storage, he would get a NAS or external drive and put 4 2TB drives into it. End of story.


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## the_beast

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ComGuards* 
And you can stop saying "dummy P3", LOL. Just say that it's a dual-socket motherboard with single CPU installed...









remember is s370 days you couldn't (on many systems) run with an empty socket - you needed a blank 'dummy' in the second one.

Lord Xeb - you really need to check you compatibility for your single socket celly - all s370 cpus won't work in all systems, just like all s775 cpus won't work in all s775 mobos. There are significant differences between the different P3 models (like a doubling of FSB speed and 2 die shrinks), and many older mobos won't work with the newer chips.


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## Raiden911

i like pizza. mmmm nom nom nom.

looks awesome though


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


remember is s370 days you couldn't (on many systems) run with an empty socket - you needed a blank 'dummy' in the second one.

Lord Xeb - you really need to check you compatibility for your single socket celly - all s370 cpus won't work in all systems, just like all s775 cpus won't work in all s775 mobos. There are significant differences between the different P3 models (like a doubling of FSB speed and 2 die shrinks), and many older mobos won't work with the newer chips.


I plan on it now that you mentioned it. But one way to check (which I will not be throwing out that celly) is just put the P3 in there and see what happens. But if it does not work, well then I guess we will be running a Celly till I can find one that works.


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## mbreitba

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


Not going to do it. The setup in the basement is to work as a lab so there would be no point in doing that. It is solely there as a teaching tool. Besides, if my stepdad wanted 8TB of storage, he would get a NAS or external drive and put 4 2TB drives into it. End of story.


Actually, it might not be bad to do something like that as a teaching tool. Some of the links i found talked about out-of-support netapp shelves, and the inability to find drives for said shelves. When NetApp won't sell you a drive for your shelf, what do you do then?


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## Lord Xeb

Meh, we have all we need. These are not that out of date and netapp still makes them for em.


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## the_beast

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
But I could easily pop out the SATA drives in the shelf and put them into a desktop, just not the other way around. The same goes for the Fiber drives.

You can probably do this with the SATA disks, but to get fibre working in a desktop you need quite a bit of extra hardware.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
Meh, we have all we need. These are not that out of date and netapp still makes them for em.

I think his point was more that it would be useful for you to know how to get other people's systems (that might be older & unsupported) to accept non-NetApp drives.


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## Lord Xeb

e_e THIS STUFF IS NOT THAT DAMN OLD! The FAS themselves are maybe 2-3 years old if that. As for the Application servers, who gives a crap? You sir have no idea what your talking about <.< My stepdad use to work at the level of installing this stuff so knows it inside and out. Now he is a manager


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## Mootsfox

It's computers man, 6 months is old


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## ComGuards

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Mootsfox*


It's computers man, 6 months is old










I thought 6 months was for the mainstream crowd.... isn't OCN @ 3-months?


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## mbreitba

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


I think his point was more that it would be useful for you to know how to get other people's systems (that might be older & unsupported) to accept non-NetApp drives.


Exactly - if this is a teaching tool, it'd be useful to know how to flash a drive and get it working for the guy that's got an 8 year old netapp, can't get drives from NetApp, and the only drives on Ebay are $900 per 36GB drive. Obvivously if the shelves you have are only 2-3 years old, NetApp probably still has drives, but that may not be the case if you end up working on someone elses old gear that doesn't want to spenk 10k putting old as crap replacement drives in.


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## mbreitba

Take this drive for instance - say someone has a failed drive and doesn't want to spend 4k for a single 100GB SATA drive.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NetApp-NetCache-...item5d26e42355


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## swat565

Yum, Cisco routers/switches are fun, better learn Cisco IOS.


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## Lord Xeb

Netapp only works one people with clusters of this stuff (usually in the 100s of TB) so flashing doesn't mean jack. And usually you can just get bigger better drives from them and pop em in. They all use the same connectors in the back (as you can see) just different adapters. Besides, this is for corporate/enterprise stuff. I do not think there is any need to flash 100s if not 1000s of drives as it is just no feasible (time vs. money). Usually these places just throw out the old and put in new.

<.< I can have my stepdad write up something to explain what is going on so you guys understand. I know what is going on, I just do not know how tell it to you. The best way I can put it is this:

It is going to be a lab. All these things are there for is to learn. It is just a teaching tool. Besides, right now we have 5 shelves, 14 drives each. Flash each drive (if they were to be upgraded, it would take some time).

Once learning time is done, we will just sell them off (not here on OCN D







or something... IDK... Or we just may end up using em for storage after that who knows...


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## ENTERPRISE

Great for Backups or a home server lol.


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## BlackOmega

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 







This is an awesome setup but I have to warn you, eyes may explode (pics will be up tomorrow).

This is currently what we have:

2 selves of 10000 RPM 72GB Fiber channel drives
1 shelf of 10K 144GB fiber channel drives
1 shelf of 10K 300GB fiber channel drives
1 shelf of 7200RPM 500GB SATA drives.

Each self has 14 discs

After you take out overhead, formating, blah blah blah, you come out to about 8TB of storage but you consume like 3200W of power XD

The 2 pizza boxes are these:

SC200 - 2 PIII 1.26GHz 2GB of RAM - Will run linux... Not sure what he is thinking of doing with it....
EMC BJ26 - 1 P4 2.8GHz (soon to be upgraded to 3.8GHz) 4GB of RAM - will run Windows Server 2003

+ a Cisco switch which has 24 Ethernet ports on it









Each item can and usually has to be configured via console lol

Right now we are in the process of getting everything working. Pics will be up tomorrow (hopefully).

Tell me what you think!

Here is what we have setup ATM... Note that is is incomplete. Also, please note, these are Enterprize class!!!!!!!!! They are meant to stay on for extended periods of time (a year or more) without ever going down. Basically, these are what is in a data center.











































That's cool and all but I wanna know where you got those shelving units with the casters! I need some.

PS: What are you gonna do with them things?


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## Lord Xeb

Yeah, but I do not think drawing 3200Ws of power for just 8TB is even reasonable! This setup is to be used as a lab. VTLs are going out the door and my mom needs to learn this stuff, so my step dad is helping her out by building a lab (instead of using the one that is her work, NetApp, so that way she (and myself + my bro) can much it up as really bad and not have to worry about the next group)









But since it is against NetApp policy, rules, and blah blah to obtain these from the company and whatnot, he bought this stuff off of ebay (have no idea how much he paid, but the 270 head was a pretty penny).


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## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *BlackOmega* 
That's cool and all but I wanna know where you got those shelving units with the casters! I need some.

PS: What are you gonna do with them things?

http://www.overclock.net/servers/698...ml#post8919681

That explains it. Basically this to be used as a lab for my mom to learn FAS (which she should already know... I think but the situation behind it is complicated). Basically a learning tool. And unlike what the others have said, there is no need to learn how to flash normal drives to netapp drives. You would NEVER uses this in a corporate environment and it is a waste of time and resources.

And as for the shelving units themselves, we got them off of a friend







He had some left over and gave use 2 along with boxes of stuff (FiberOptic cables and other goodies that he had collected)!!!

Once I learn more about what is going on, I will relay it to you guys. But last night our basement started to flood and my bro, mom, and I were up from 11AM to 1AM keeping the water at bay (pumped over 500 gallons of water out!!!!!). We managed to keep the water to the corners (thank god). Today we worked on patching the holes where the water come in from (the ground was so soaked, it just came in through the floor and cracks in the wall!


----------



## swat565

Quote:


Originally Posted by *ENTERPRISE* 
Great for Backups or a home server lol.

at only 3000 Watts >.>

Edit: I would mess with it, get some practice, then Ebay that thing.

Also its cool to see other younger people really getting into technology, try taking some CNT or CIS class's at your local collage. I started taking a few classes when I was 15, and already half way to having my 2 year degree in CNT and I still have another year in High school.


----------



## Mootsfox

That's cool that your mom is learning that stuff. Mine can barely send an email


----------



## Lord Xeb

Dude, my mom is one of the best in here field. Back in her Veritas days, most people in her company knew her or knew of her.

The same goes for her current job at NetApp. The VP and some of the top C positions know of her or know her directly.


----------



## Lord Xeb

MORE PICS! OnTap installed, aggregates set up.

Stepdad working on the laptop (mom is upstairs and they are with another guy over webex







).









Bro working on setting up something on the T60









Finally found a PS/2 keyboard for the KVM switch







(tons of them at my stepdads work)









KVM switch:










WIRES GALORE!

















ITS ALIVE!!!


----------



## Higgins

Looks like an awesome setup Xeb!









Wish i had stuff like that to play around with, or parents that were into computers for that matter.


----------



## Lord Xeb

My real dad is about as dumb as a nail when it comes to computers.... e_e <.< Mom has been in them since 73 or osmething like that and my stepdad has been with them basically from the Apple I or something IDR....


----------



## Higgins

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
My real dad is about as dumb as a nail when it comes to computers.... e_e <.< Mom has been in them since 73 or osmething like that and my stepdad has been with them basically from the Apple I or something IDR....

My dad routinely asks me how to get into his gmail account here at the house, and how to get back to it when he clicks onto a different tab.








My mom isn't too bad, but they would probably look at me like i had three heads if i setup a data center in the basement. haha
They're both very supportive of my computer hobby though, so i can't complain much.

Will you be playing around with this stuff at all, or it it only for your mom?


----------



## Lord Xeb

That is good. My real dad never wanted to hear anything about it... e_e But I am going into computers as a job not a hobby.


----------



## legoman786

I can never go into computers as a job. It's a hobby only.


----------



## ComGuards

I wonder if your local power utility company would report you... as possibly running a grow-op in your house 'cause of the power draw...


----------



## Lord Xeb

XD That would be something wouldn't it?


----------



## Fr0sty

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb* 
Netapp puts custom firmware onto the drives. Only netapp firmware drives can work in a netapp shelf...

But I could easily pop out the SATA drives in the shelf and put them into a desktop, just not the other way around. The same goes for the Fiber drives.

i dunno alot about enterprise storage... but they need a raid controler .... so ill say that the controler is fiber channel .... so thats the reason they cant use anything other then fiber channel ... because fiber channel requires a different connector then sata or sas .....

+ i would like to see the guts on one of those fiber channel storage rackmount if you dont mind


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Fr0sty* 
i dunno alot about enterprise storage... but they need a raid controler .... so ill say that the controler is fiber channel .... so thats the reason they cant use anything other then fiber channel ... because fiber channel requires a different connector then sata or sas .....

+ i would like to see the guts on one of those fiber channel storage rackmount if you dont mind










Nope. There really is no raid per se.... They use aggregates. So you can have 4 aggregates grouped together. In a way you could think of it as RAID.... I do not understand it all myself either e-e


----------



## Fr0sty

can you post pics of the interior????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation

basicly from what i can understand when you aggregate links they use their bandwith into one big link... the software does the rest.... you could do the same with normal sata drives and a couple of Gbits ethernet card really .... but fc is more costly .... i guess it provides error reporting just like sas drive ????


----------



## leaks

all I have to say is /drool.


----------



## 96xj

black omega :

those shelving units are available @ lowes , home depot , target and walmart .
( identical units with different brand names , at least here in mi. ) several sizes and options , but i have not seen ones with casters . optional ?
i would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to find some universal casters that could be modified to work .

my computer setup is resting on one of the unit's right now . modified slightly of course.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Fr0sty* 
i dunno alot about enterprise storage... but they need a raid controler .... so ill say that the controler is fiber channel .... so thats the reason they cant use anything other then fiber channel ... because fiber channel requires a different connector then sata or sas .....

+ i would like to see the guts on one of those fiber channel storage rackmount if you dont mind









<.< You got it all wacky. That isn't even close to how it works. There are no raid controllers in these. It is all software based. Read the quote below to see what I mean.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Fr0sty* 
can you post pics of the interior????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation

basicly from what i can understand when you aggregate links they use their bandwith into one big link... the software does the rest.... you could do the same with normal sata drives and a couple of Gbits ethernet card really .... but fc is more costly .... i guess it provides error reporting just like sas drive ????

O-o It wouldn't do any good. I talked to my stepdad and he said this:

Quote:

The firmware in the FAS themselves enabled hardware to form "groups" (or aggregates) of drives. These are put into a form of software raid. But in each self there are 2 parity drives (backup) that hotswap and take the place of any failed drive.
Or at least that is what I go from it. Pretty cool stuff.

I can give you pics of the heads if you like. I will put them out.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *leaks* 
all I have to say is /drool.


<.<

Quote:


Originally Posted by *96xj* 
black omega :

those shelving units are available @ lowes , home depot , target and walmart .
( identical units with different brand names , at least here in mi. ) several sizes and options , but i have not seen ones with casters . optional ?
i would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to find some universal casters that could be modified to work .

my computer setup is resting on one of the unit's right now . modified slightly of course.

Cool


----------



## Fr0sty

allright fair enough....


----------



## Helmsdg

Drool.... I've been trying to move to fiber for the past year, its really expensive. You have benchmarks off the raids?
--David--


----------



## Lord Xeb

Nope no benches...


----------



## Lord Xeb

BUMP and update.

Will be having a new netcache coming it. It will be converted to another application server. Pics soon!


----------



## assaulth3ro911

Sweet gimme some.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Nope


----------



## null_x86

Do you have a towel? I need to wipe the drool off my desk. That is some sweet equipment.


----------



## Lord Xeb

*hands you a towel*


----------



## allikat

Suhweeeet!!!
I have a dual P3 1.4 1u proliant unit, and a dual P4 Xeon 1.7 machine in my back room, but after running both 24/7 for 18 months, my power company is sending me hate mail. And while having a baby server farm is cool beyond all words, the cost for running it exceeded what I got out of having them fired up.








Good luck with it, and I am so jealous of your ultra-cool stepdad







Can he adopt me??? I'll bring my servers and a 24 port intel enterprise switch???


----------



## ComGuards

Quote:


Originally Posted by *allikat* 
Suhweeeet!!!
I have a dual P3 1.4 1u proliant unit, and a dual P4 Xeon 1.7 machine in my back room, but after running both 24/7 for 18 months, my power company is sending me hate mail. And while having a baby server farm is cool beyond all words, the cost for running it exceeded what I got out of having them fired up.








Good luck with it, and I am so jealous of your ultra-cool stepdad







Can he adopt me??? I'll bring my servers and a 24 port intel enterprise switch???

Replace those two old systems with a current-generation system and get better price/performance/power ratio


----------



## allikat

Quote:



Originally Posted by *ComGuards*


Replace those two old systems with a current-generation system and get better price/performance/power ratio










Sure thing, mail me the check for a blade rack and the blades to fill it mate?


----------



## ComGuards

Quote:


Originally Posted by *allikat* 
Sure thing, mail me the check for a blade rack and the blades to fill it mate?

lol. The right tower system also works...


----------



## Pentium4 531 overclocker

u know how the votey thingy is like cool! 0.0HOLY ****! interesting but meh and meh? well in my opinion, HOLY CRAP! is better than COOL! because its like... ****!! THATS PURE PWNAGE!!! instead of just cool....so i picked holy crap, because seriously.... HOLY CRAP!!!!! i used to have my own enterprise data center, but nothing at that scale, it used 2 p4s and had like 6 out of the 12 RAM slots filled, however i only ended up with like 1TB of space, and it took a small corner in my basement, however its long gone now... after the CPU just died out...still... thats a pwn settup,


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Pentium4 531 overclocker*


u know how the votey thingy is like cool! 0.0HOLY ****! interesting but meh and meh? well in my opinion, HOLY CRAP! is better than COOL! because its like... ****!! THATS PURE PWNAGE!!! instead of just cool....so i picked holy crap, because seriously.... HOLY CRAP!!!!! i used to have my own enterprise data center, but nothing at that scale, it used 2 p4s and had like 6 out of the 12 RAM slots filled, however i only ended up with like 1TB of space, and it took a small corner in my basement, however its long gone now... after the CPU just died out...still... thats a pwn settup,



<.< It is not that awesome you know but it is still rather cool









Also, FYI, the Grammar Nazi's are going to be coming after your ass... e-e That was REALLY hard for me to read as I am one of them.


----------



## A_Blind_Man

Now the real question is... Can it play Crysis? XD hahaha
Anyways, sweet stuff, hope you have lots of fun with it.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Thanks.

Quick update:

ATM, we do not have any of the OSes and software we need. Current my stepdad has been waiting on a friend to give them to him, but the guy has been running around like a bee between his family and his job.

Once we get the OSes and software, there should be some progress on this. ^_^


----------



## thrash408

Technet is your best friend.


----------



## the_beast

not for the software he is looking for it isn't


----------



## thrash408

What software is he needing? Linux? I didn't read this whole thread, as you can tell


----------



## scc28

But can it fold?


----------



## kkruegs101

Quote:


Originally Posted by *scc28* 
But can it fold?

*slaps*


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *thrash408*


What software is he needing? Linux? I didn't read this whole thread, as you can tell










A bunch. And linux is the easy part.

Update:

Friend of my stepdad lost all the OSes and software he was going to give us because his mac crashed (hard drive failure) and he didn;t back up... You know, you work for a backup company, why do you not backup your own stuff?


----------



## thrash408

"A bunch" doesn't really tell me what type of software you are needing...


----------



## Lord Xeb

I will put it this way, it is server class software that cannot be obtained easily. 8.0 software can only be obtained through NetApp (my stepdad works there so he can get it easily).

There are several others that we need.

Some of the OSes we need are as follows:
Also VMware OS (forget what it is called)
Windows Server 2003, 2008 (may just stick with 2008, but not sure yet)
Ubuntu Server (already installed)

That is why I said a lot.


----------



## Marma Duke

VMWare OS so... ESX or ESXi, the latter being free.


----------



## Lord Xeb

ESX I think... Not too sure though.


----------



## mbreitba

ESX and ESXi are the same thing basically, just fewer management utilities with ESXi - you don't get live migration or the other high-end features with ESXi. For non-production work ESXi does everything that you need.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Hm... Well, whatever. I am not sure of everything that is needed e-e But we got 4 application servers needing OSes....


----------



## thrash408

Technet would give you all Microsoft stuff, vmware is free if you don't need the vmotion and other cool stuff. It sounds like you have pretty much everything covered if you would just get a technet license and download esxi.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Pretty much, but the thing is, my stepdad doesn't have a technet account and he cannot afford it (money is tight right now) and the same goes for my mom. That is why we were having a friend help us out.


----------



## the_beast

are you or your brother (or either of your parents/other members of your family) students? If so you can (each) get full versions of Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 and Server 2003 R2. You don't get CALs and you can't use them for production (as with TechNet), but they are ideal for testing/learning.

Do you have all of the firmwares for the NetApps up to date? That software is likely to be harder to get hold of than any MS OS or otherwise.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


are you or your brother (or either of your parents/other members of your family) students? If so you can (each) get full versions of Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 and Server 2003 R2. You don't get CALs and you can't use them for production (as with TechNet), but they are ideal for testing/learning.

Do you have all of the firmwares for the NetApps up to date? That software is likely to be harder to get hold of than any MS OS or otherwise.


Yep, all up to date.


----------



## thrash408

I understand money is tight, can't blame you there. I would do as the_beast suggested and check out prices for students for server 2008. I wouldn't run 2003 as it's not much use anymore (unless you have a specific software that can only run on 2003.


----------



## zomgiwin

GOOOO ESXi


----------



## the_beast

Quote:



Originally Posted by *thrash408*


I understand money is tight, can't blame you there. I would do as the_beast suggested and check out prices for students for server 2008. I wouldn't run 2003 as it's not much use anymore (unless you have a specific software that can only run on 2003.


You will probably find more Server 2003 licences than 2008 still...

But for students, Dreamspark is free - no pricing to check out, just a full licence to play with.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *zomgiwin*


GOOOO ESXi










Never used it so I cannot comment

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


You will probably find more Server 2003 licences than 2008 still...

But for students, Dreamspark is free - no pricing to check out, just a full licence to play with.


We have to have 2003 and 2008 for my mom (she is going to be using the lab to help learn FAS).

Quote:



Originally Posted by *thrash408*


I understand money is tight, can't blame you there. I would do as the_beast suggested and check out prices for students for server 2008. I wouldn't run 2003 as it's not much use anymore (unless you have a specific software that can only run on 2003.


None of us are students. Besides, my stepdad's friend is giving us this stuff for free







And as for 2003, I am just going off what my stepdad said.

I still do not know much the details as we have not had time to work on it lately.


----------



## mbreitba

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


Pretty much, but the thing is, my stepdad doesn't have a technet account and he cannot afford it (money is tight right now) and the same goes for my mom. That is why we were having a friend help us out.


Man, talk about putting the cart before the horse. You bought all of these on Ebay for what can only be assumed as a reasonable amount of money, yet you did not get the OS's for them. I would have scaled down the environment and gotten an OS for at least one of the systems. At least then you could be working on something rather than looking at some blinky hardware that doesn't do anything.

I mean really - when you've got that much coin tied up in hardware, how can you not spend $350 on a technet subscription to get all of the software you need?


----------



## the_beast

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


my stepdad's friend is giving us this stuff for free










By 'free' I hope you don't mean 'illegal'...

One more suggestion - look on eBay for old servers with 2003 COAs on them - you can probably get something better hardware-wise than some of what you already have for cheap and get the software thrown in with it.


----------



## AM3

"But can it play Crysis"


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


By 'free' I hope you don't mean 'illegal'...

One more suggestion - look on eBay for old servers with 2003 COAs on them - you can probably get something better hardware-wise than some of what you already have for cheap and get the software thrown in with it.


By free, I mean he is getting them off of technet and giving them to us. That is what I mean by "free"

Also, for what we are doing (it is just a lab for learning, nothing more) there is no need to upgrade anything or getting bigger badder stuff.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *AM3*


"But can it play Crysis"


I should beat you with a tire iron.


----------



## banging34hzs

no clue what it is but lots of hardware is lots of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Lord Xeb

It is what they use in datacenters to store data. Imagine, those things with the hard drives in them (FAS), thousands of them. All on a floor stacked between 7 to 14 high each. Some of these data centers are the size of a football field or bigger and just stacked with rows upon rows of FAS.

My mom will be installing these. This lab is to help with her learning the products.


----------



## the_beast

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


By free, I mean he is getting them off of technet and giving them to us. That is what I mean by "free"


So you do mean illegal then. TechNet licences are non-transferrable. Even if this is just for personal use then your friend is still breaking the terms of the licence agreement. Even if only used for learning/testing, the potential consequences for you/your family/your friend can be severe, especially if any part of their use is business-related.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


Also, for what we are doing (it is just a lab for learning, nothing more) there is no need to upgrade anything or getting bigger badder stuff.


The reason I suggested buying kit was not to get better kit, but to get a legal, valid licence. If the server has a retail COA on it then the licence is transferrable, and you would be entitled to use it. This is (usually) the cheapest way to legally get a Windows Server licence outside of TechNet/MSDN/Dreamspark.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *the_beast*


So you do mean illegal then. TechNet licences are non-transferrable. Even if this is just for personal use then your friend is still breaking the terms of the licence agreement. Even if only used for learning/testing, the potential consequences for you/your family/your friend can be severe, especially if any part of their use is business-related.

The reason I suggested buying kit was not to get better kit, but to get a legal, valid licence. If the server has a retail COA on it then the licence is transferrable, and you would be entitled to use it. This is (usually) the cheapest way to legally get a Windows Server licence outside of TechNet/MSDN/Dreamspark.


e-e I do not see how it is illegal when the technet account is my stepdad's friend's to begin with. He bought it with his own money (I do not know what the guy does). Also none of these things are business related and all personal. But if you say what it is true and that it is illegal, my stepdad will go and figure out something after I let him know. I know a couple of friends that are guy Windows in bulk for resale (they own some stores) and I could ask them if we could buy windows off of them.


----------



## Lord Xeb

I just called my stepdad about the issue, and he is going to ask NetApp for assistance (and they already know about the lab







).


----------



## the_beast

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


e-e I do not see how it is illegal when the technet account is my stepdad's friend's to begin with. He bought it with his own money (I do not know what the guy does). Also none of these things are business related and all personal. But if you say what it is true and that it is illegal, my stepdad will go and figure out something after I let him know. I know a couple of friends that are guy Windows in bulk for resale (they own some stores) and I could ask them if we could buy windows off of them.


It's illegal because the guy does not own the software, he owns the right to use it as specified in the terms of the licence agreement he signs when he starts his TechNet sub. That agreement says he can't let anyone else use the software - so giving it to you he would be breaking that agreement, and thus be infriging contract law.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*


I just called my stepdad about the issue, and he is going to ask NetApp for assistance (and they already know about the lab







).


If this whole setup is to learn new stuff that could be beneficial at work for one or other of your parents, then I would be amazed if they wouldn't hook you up with a licence or 2. That would be much cheaper for them than having to pay to train them up themselves...


----------



## Lord Xeb

Yep. My stepdad thought of it on the spot







We already have the isos we just have no license.


----------



## MCBrown.CA

Nice SAN setup you got going... Maybe not the most efficient home setup buy impressive none the less. How much has it it set you back so far, if you don't mind me asking?

EDIT: Definitely play with ESXi! Efficiency goes through the roof when you start utilizing virtualized server environments. In many cases standard servers (webservers, database, etc) don't come close to being fully utilized.


----------



## ComGuards

Quote:



Originally Posted by *MCBrown.CA*


EDIT: Definitely play with ESXi! Efficiency goes through the roof when you start utilizing virtualized server environments. In many cases standard servers (webservers, database, etc) don't come close to being fully utilized.


I just re-read the original post. None of the hosts have meet the minimum requirements for VMWare ESXi. In particular, systems all lack virtualization technology.

He _might_ be able to get it running under the older VMWare ESXi 3.5, but whitebox support on that revision is far less than ESX(i) 4.x.

Without virtualization support, running a virtual environment is, well, less fulfilling...







("This is so slooowwww")


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *MCBrown.CA*


Nice SAN setup you got going... Maybe not the most efficient home setup buy impressive none the less. How much has it it set you back so far, if you don't mind me asking?

EDIT: Definitely play with ESXi! Efficiency goes through the roof when you start utilizing virtualized server environments. In many cases standard servers (webservers, database, etc) don't come close to being fully utilized.


So far? 0

Parts were either given to us or my stepdad asked if he could have them.

Quote:



Originally Posted by *ComGuards*


I just re-read the original post. None of the hosts have meet the minimum requirements for VMWare ESXi. In particular, systems all lack virtualization technology.

He _might_ be able to get it running under the older VMWare ESXi 3.5, but whitebox support on that revision is far less than ESX(i) 4.x.

Without virtualization support, running a virtual environment is, well, less fulfilling...







("This is so slooowwww")



I only stated ESX because i thought that maybe that is something my stepdad wants to do but IDK...

Actually, one of the servers had ESX installed on it and ran fine. The P4 that is in the U2 we got has visualization support









But we are most likely going to end up running Windows Server and Ubuntu server on these machines. The 3rd OS I have no idea.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Update:

EVEN MORE CRAP IS ARRIVING! When I get a chance I will update soon!


----------



## Orn

superb dude!


----------



## The_Rocker

Damn these are pretty outdated now. Yes, even the drive racks.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Yeah BUT they will do what they need to do which is act as a lab. And actually only the app servers are outdated, the racks themselves are really not that old (but in computer years they are).


----------



## killabytes

Quote:


Originally Posted by *The_Rocker* 
Damn these are pretty outdated now. Yes, even the drive racks.

So what. You don't need to be on the cutting edge of computer technology to have decent servers or storage.

Errr people like you bug me.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:



Originally Posted by *killabytes*


So what. You don't need to be on the cutting edge of computer technology to have decent servers or storage.

Errr people like you bug me.










This and besides this is a *LAB* to* LEARN* the tech. e-e Also do you have ANY idea how expensive a new filer is? Yeah well we got these for free so yeah. 50k + worth of hardware FREE is a damn good deal I'd day.


----------



## killabytes

Exactly. It's awesome to learn on it. Not much changes anymore in the world of Computers. If you know your stuff from last year, chances are you'll know tomorrow.

BTW, I'm jealous.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Quote:


Originally Posted by *killabytes* 
Exactly. It's awesome to learn on it. Not much changes anymore in the world of Computers. If you know your stuff from last year, chances are you'll know tomorrow.

BTW, I'm jealous.









<.< That is what happens when you have connections and can get old, unused or thrown out stuff.

The only downside with what we have right now is that it doesn't support the latest software version of 8.0 and a couple other things.... But it is great for learning the basics and whatnot.


----------



## killabytes

At work we tend to hang onto old stuff, legal reasons. It's understandable, but sometimes I wish!


----------



## Lord Xeb

It would be awesome to get hold of a lot of old P4 machines or something and make a giant folding farm if you work has em laying around.


----------



## killabytes

We're actually replacing all of our office's PCs in the next few months, about 1000 PCs. All Intel Duo or Intel P4. Word is since we do the replacement, we get first dibs.

Hmmm


----------



## Lord Xeb

DO EET! Although it would be kinda cool to get a 2U or 3U with 2 C2D or C2Qs in it so that we can run VMX.


----------



## killabytes

I probably will do it. My wife hates it.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Eh, fight with wife to get your way? Tell her this: When you are dying of cancer, folding on these machines could provide new ways to cure it. I am contributing to helping millions.


----------



## hick

Quote:


Originally Posted by *killabytes* 
We're actually replacing all of our office's PCs in the next few months, about 1000 PCs. All Intel Duo or Intel P4. Word is since we do the replacement, we get first dibs.

Hmmm









Dang, didn't know you cannucks built igloos that could withstand the heat of 1000 pc's







. You can always grab a few and toss em on craigslist (if they have it up there) or build a few HTPC's on the super cheap ($40) for a 5450.


----------



## killabytes

Har har









We use Kijiji a lot around here. Same idea, but owned by eBay. Who knows. I may snag a few when we do it.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Update for you all.

Setting this up has been a nightmare as obtaining, upgrading, configuring, etc is a chore. On top of that my mom got sick (she is fine now) and my stepdad has been busy at work and money has been somewhat tight-ish so upgrades are limited ATM.

We just got 4 new PIIIs 1.4GHz to upgrade 2 of the app servers and a 3.4GHz P4 2M 775 to upgrade another one from 2.8GHz 1M.

Furthermore we are soon to be adding more ram to the PIII machines. My stepdad is thinking 4GB each but PC133 ram is not cheap, but I have found 6x1GB sticks for 30 bucks on ebay ^_~

I will get some more pics up of the setup we have ATM.


----------



## Lord Xeb

Bump for those who care


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## Lord Xeb

Update - Gotta downsize, need to get some new filers that support software 8.0 or something IDK, a few other things.


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## Lord Xeb

LATE LATE LATE LATE update - Data lab is dead as of 8/29/11 because of Hurricane Irene.... basement and house got flooded and everything got ruined.


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## Oedipus

Lovely.


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## raiderxx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Lord Xeb*
> 
> LATE LATE LATE LATE update - Data lab is dead as of 8/29/11 because of Hurricane Irene.... basement and house got flooded and everything got ruined.


Super bummer.... You get insurance on it? It'd be sweet to rebuild. Were you able to salvage anything? Drives?


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## Lord Xeb

Basement contents (other than water heater, boiler, etc) are not covered by flood insurance.


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## raiderxx

That really sucks... I'm sorry.


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