My new Toy(s) --Picture warning

[gb_ibmguy]

Couldn't help myself, just had to replace my DELL 4400 server with one of these:


Its an eServer xSeries 235. Xeon 2.67 processor, 512 ram - so far.
It's an unrefined Intellistation . 6 hot swap fans, 6 hot swap drives, 2 hot swap power supplies and 2 hot swap PCI-X slots. It's a beast! Over 70 pounds of god loving IBM over design

This is going to become our new media / home server. The DELL was Ok, but, it wasn't an IBM! I'm in the process of acquiring parts now for upgrade. More RAM, 6 73GIG SCSI drives, another processor and an IBM RAID controller. I'll be detailing my progress as the saga unfolds.

I know this may not be everyone's cup of tea, but, right now, these things are cheap on fleabay! I just got another one, a duel Xeon 2.66 for $35.00 with free shipping! So now I have 2 of these monsters, the old Thinkpad mentality is in high gear I guess - buy one and have a second as a 'spare'

[A31]

I have an IBM Thinkcentre A50 as my workstation, it's connected via a KVM switch to my mouse, monitor and keyboard...
I would definitely not say that IBM's are "the best" (as in my view HP are), but they are pretty good - better than Dell anyway!!

One warning though, my A50 is VERY noisy so yours may also be noisy?? The machine is very noisy at booting up but once you get into the OS (Win XP for me), it's fine.

Congrats!

[gb_ibmguy]

Noisy??? With 6 cooling fans and 2 power supplies?? Do you think
My Intellistations only have 3 fans and they sounded like small aircraft, until I changed out the fans. This thing is going to live on the third floor, all by itself.

Thanks!

[A31]

Noisy??? With 6 cooling fans and 2 power supplies?? Do you think

Sorry, my A50 only has 1 fan!!
didnt realise that the IBM desktop you want/have has 6 of them!!

[gb_ibmguy]

No Problem,

This is not a desktop

This is a full on IBM server with all that entails. Servers are different beasts from desktops. These are where you see IBM design and engineering at their best. This is NOT consumer grade, this is data center 24/7 up time, hence all the hot swap parts.
At the same time, since these are now old, they are cheap and can deliver a lot of the performance of today's standard desktops. Yes they are big and heavy and not 'cute', but they give a person a view onto the whole corporate IBM mentality.

They are fun, and if you have the space, and the need, they are great 'toys'.

[A31]

Do you have any pictures of your setup with this IBM Server?? See it only has 512MB RAM at the moment, but you plan to upgrade to - what do you want to upgrade it to?
Cheers
A31

[gb_ibmguy]

So far, only the stock photo, but more are coming! This is going to be a project!

I found some spare memory from my Intellistations that I popped in - now up to 2.5 g. I have another 2 G on order. It supports up to 16G Think I'll stop at 4.5 G.

Just got my ServerRAID controller 6i today, so I can do RAID 5. Now, all I need are 73G SCSI disks Stay tuned!

Oh, and by the way, the second sServer Xseries Dual Xeon shipped today! What I'm going to do with all these servers is still a mystery to me. I'm starting to run a data center out of the third floor of my house What started out as a simple home server / media server is getting interesting.

[A31]

Imagine how quick (and how expensive even!!) it would be if it ran on all that RAM, 16GB total!!

[t140568]

Wow! That's a lot of server. I wonder if you'll get complaints from the neighbors about the noise from those fans!
Thinking about it, there's probably a good list of jokes we can make about the noise generated from IBM desktops & servers. Here's a few I came up with, but I'm sure others can do better.

Remember the old Maxell commercial? It was really an eServer.

Guy to wife: I'm going to get on the computer for awhile.
Wife: Ok. Did you clear your bootup with the FAA?

My eServer makes Chuck Norris use earplugs.

[gb_ibmguy]

He He,

Nearest neighbors are 1/4 mile away and hard of hearing

Here are some real shots of this beast:


And the inside:


Not a ThinkPad! But By Jove, it sure is an IBM!
It's a mite dusty, but I have not started to clean it up yet.


This is what it is replacing:


It's mate will be here Tuesday - Same thing only with 2 Xeon processors.
Between the two of them I should be able to heat a small town and blow the eardrums out of anyone within 50 feet

[A31]

Looks good!!
Congratulations!

[t140568]

Looks good. Should be a fun project.

[gb_ibmguy]

Thanks All!
The other beast is due to be delivered tomorrow
Bear in mind, I haven't even turned this thing on yet! Waiting to get all the parts I need.

So I plan to build up the duel Xeon as my main server and keep the other as a 'spare'. So far, I have 6 gb of memory and 10 73gb scsi U320 drives to stick in it.
If anyone is interested in trying this, here's a link;http://stores.ebay.com/LapkoSoft

I am NOT associated with these people, just where I've found some cool stuff for cheap.

[gb_ibmguy]

Well, the other beast was just delivered! Another huge, heavy box and another huge, heavy IBM to tote up 3 flights of stairs.

This one appears to be a duel Xeon 3.0. I've transfered my RAID controller and the memory from the 'spare' server. This guy now has 6 gigs of ram! Still haven't fired either one of them up yet, waiting for my drives and a noise clearance
In any case, here they are:


And one of my Intellistations - notice the family resemblance?


Soon as I get my drives, I'll start trying to configure it, that should REALLY prove to fun

[A31]

Sweet! They look really good together...
Forgot to ask... which OS do they have? I am guessing Window XP Pro
These two eServers are much better than the Dell server... what are you going to do with the Dell?
A31

[t140568]

Makes me wish I had a few hundred bucks to play with.

Forgot to ask... which OS do they have?

I'd like to know too.

[gb_ibmguy]

Thanks for asking, One is going to be Server 2003 R2. Connected to the DELL 220s RAID Storage controller (with luck and if the creek don't rise ) and an HP Autoloader. The other 'spare' might end up as a workstation with XP Pro.

For what it's worth, I did fire one of these beasts up and, surprise, surprise, they are really not that loud! And they do not suck as much power as the DELL. (Thank god)

The DELL is up on CraigsList now. If there are no buyers, I plan to part it out. Take the drives and put them in another 220s Array.

Soon as I get my 73 G SCSI drives, I'll continue my saga. But for now, here's the deal,
So far, I’ve spent $61.00 for the first one (no shipping charge) and $35.00 (no Shipping charge) for the second Duel processor unit.
$70.00 for hard drive trays (6)
$35.00 for memory (4GB)
$19.00 for a ServerRaid 6i card
$120.00 for 10 U320 SCSI drives (4 spares)
Under $400.00 for an industrial strength, this aint gonna fail, duel HT Xeon 2.66 home server. With a spare. And I get to play with them – priceless!!

But, if you want to do it cheap, $35.00 for the server, $75.00 for 2 36G SCSI drives with sleds - Around $125.00 to experiment and play and upgrade. (all usd prices of course).

[A31]

Thanks for asking, One is going to be Server 2003 R2. Connected to the DELL 220s RAID Storage controller (with luck and if the creek don't rise ) and an HP Autoloader. The other 'spare' might end up as a workstation with XP Pro.

Do they have a license for any particular OS?
Good choices by the way!

[gb_ibmguy]

They are both certified for WS 2003 or XP Pro.
Since these are servers, they do not have COA stickers on them.

[gb_ibmguy]

Looks good. Should be a fun project.

Just a quick update on this project:

I spent most of last weekend 'fooling' around with this best. Did not take long to build, 4 Gigs of Ram 2 RAID cards and 6 U320 73Gig HDD's, cabling it all together etc. But initializing all the HD's (6 internal and 14 external) took 2 full days! I used the IBM ServerRaid CD and all went very smooth just time consuming. I now have over a Terabyte of pure SCSI storage on line

Initial impressions:
* This thing is fast! Eaisly the fastest server I been around in a while. With only 2 Xeon's 2.66's!
* Reasonably quiet, believe it or not. It's no louder than my Intellistations. Not whisper quiet, but you can't hear it in the next room at least.
* IBM ServerGuide 7.4 did not like this combo, so had to do a standard Server 2003 Enterprise install. Serverguide is the server version of Thinkpad R&R disks. Still don't know why it blew up.

So, here's and updated picture of my set up:


Yes, the UPS unit is an IBM as well (on the left). Next to it is the HP Autoloader, then the xSeries then the Dell 220S array.

All in all, a relativity cheap and fun project. Next up is finding a home for the old DELL Poweredge 4400 and the 'extra' 73gig SCSI drives I bought for this project. (Hmmmm, I wonder where I can find another SCSI storage enclosure )

I'm sure there will be more to come on this little saga. (I do still have another 'spare' xSeries sitting around not doing nothing)

[A31]

Well done!!

Are there any CD or DVD drives in these servers? It doesn't look like it...If not, then how do you install Server 2003 Enterprise?

[gb_ibmguy]

Thanks!

Yes, it has a cd/dvd drive. It's just hidden behind the front bezel.


(Sorry for the mess, it was a loooooong weekend)

The 6 SCSI drives are behind that as well. There are also 2 full size bays available. The bays can accommodate a tape drive (which I really don't need seeing as I have 2 40/80 DLT tape backup units already. But IBM makes a nifty little 'kit' that will allow one to use those 2 bays to accommodate 3 more hot swap SCSI drives I'm trying to track that down now. If I can find it, and afford it, that would give me 23 73Gig drives!

A bit of overkill for a home server, I admit, but.....

[t140568]

I did not know IBM made a UPS. Very cool! It looks quite similar to my APC Smart-UPS 1500. This has me thinking though, out of curiosity, how much electricity/power are these servers using?

A bit of overkill for a home server, I admit, but.....

Maybe so, but if you have the interest in it, money to buy the stuff, and the time to play with it who cares if it's overkill or not?

[gb_ibmguy]

It actually is an APC 1000, just re-branded under the IBM Badge. Looks cool in basic black!

This setup does suck some power, but it sucks less power than the Dell it replaced. The Dell would light up all the bars on the UPS, the IBM leaves one bar unlit running at full tilt. Still not exactly 'green', but a heck of an improvement! The Dell produced a lot more heat, so much so, that during a NJ summer, I had to have a room fan running to keep it from going into thermal shutdown. (the heat was welcome in the winter tho )

My next little project is to build up the 'spare' xSeries server on the real cheap. Just a couple of spare drives, left over memory etc. and see what I can come up with for under $200.00 - Stay Tuned!