Question Little lost - First server

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Desklap

Mar 2, 2023
7
1
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Hey guys

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm very lost. Have been given an old server and unsure where to start with it to be honest.

HP ProLiant DL380 G7

Thought it would be plug and play, but can't seem to get at the OS....?

Working

  • Powers on
  • Boots to BIOS
Not working \ questions

  • Seems like it's blank and has no OS \ keeps trying to boot from CD
  • Does it need a computer or does it contain its own OS - sorry, never messed with a full server - besides local Pi web server.
  • If it has its own OS, where can I find a copy online ?
  • Can I use Ubuntu server, or does it need a special OS ?
Sorry if that's really helpful, just very unsure where to start. If you need anything else, please ask and thank you in advance.
 
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Desklap said:
Hey guys

Sorry to be a pain, but I'm very lost. Have been given an old server and unsure where to start with it to be honest.

HP ProLiant DL380 G7

Thought it would be plug and play, but can't seem to get at the OS....?

Working

  • Powers on
  • Boots to BIOS
Not working \ questions

  • Seems like it's blank and has no OS \ keeps trying to boot from CD
  • Does it need a computer or does it contain its own OS - sorry, never messed with a full server - besides local Pi web server.
  • If it has its own OS, where can I find a copy online ?
  • Can I use Ubuntu server, or does it need a special OS ?
Sorry if that's really helpful, just very unsure where to start. If you need anything else, please ask and thank you in advance.
Click to expand...
Hand-me-down servers typically have had all the disks wiped or even removed. So having no boot is typical.
Looking at the front, the disks would be visible. Do you actually have any disk drives installed?
 
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server is no different than a pc
motherboard, ram, gpu, storage, cpu
Click to expand...
Its basically just a PC.

Yes, you can install Ubuntu on it.
Click to expand...

Thank you - My dumb butt was thinking it needed a separate computer or had some weird inbuilt OS.

Hand-me-down servers typically have had all the disks wiped or even removed. So having no boot is typical.
Looking at the front, the disks would be visible. Do you actually have any disk drives installed?
Click to expand...

They have given me \ it has
  • 2 x 146Gb HDD's
  • 2 x front USB's
  • 1 CD drive
It came with no disk to install. Found a few videos on YouTube and looked at a software page, but unsure what to install.

HP drivers \ software

HP ProLiant DL380 G6 YouTube

Also, I hope you have a dedicated space for this thing. Like the garage or closet.

These are loud.
Click to expand...

It might... be in the living room. It did worry us when the fans went full speed but guess that's a boot test.
Not planning on running it a lot - just curious. Also don't trust the HDD's (made 2010) and the space is fairly small for today.

Never done much with networks \ servers, so a few levels above my comfort zone.
Thank you for the replies.
 
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Desklap said:
It might... be in the living room. It did worry us when the fans went full speed but guess that's a boot test.
Not planning on running it a lot - just curious. Also don't trust the HDD's (made 2010) and the space is fairly small for today.
Click to expand...
It won't get quieter.

Thats why companies have a "server room".

Again, it is really just a PC.
Just in a strange case.
 
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It won't get quieter.

Thats why companies have a "server room".
Click to expand...

Sorry was trying to joke about a noisy thing being in the living room. Not alot of space here.

Again, it is really just a PC.
Just in a strange case.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

At the moment, I'm looking at using Ubuntu server and booting from USB. Hoping this will work and save other disks but reading it's not supported. Seems SLES & RHEL good tho - any opinions ?

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

HPE ProLiant DL380 G7 Server - Overview

Things to find out
  • Pretty sure the server is 32 bit
  • Will any HDD be alright or does it have to be special server kind
  • Does this have a limitation on memory size for a HDDs
It is interesting, but unless I can keep the costs down & increase the storage size, I'd say building a small NAS will work better. Just need something to store large files and access when needed.

Sorry for all the tangents - Little exited, muddled & trying to pick things up

Thanks again
 
Last edited:
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Desklap said:
Sorry was trying to joke about a noisy thing being in the living room. Not alot of space here.



Thank you.

At the moment, I'm looking at using Ubuntu server and booting from USB. Hoping this will work and save other disks but reading it's not supported. Seems SLES & RHEL good tho - any opinions ?

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

HPE ProLiant DL380 G7 Server - Overview

Things to find out
  • Pretty sure the server is 32 bit
  • Will any 2.5 HDD be alright or does it have to be special server kind
  • Does this have a limitation on memory size for a HDDs
It is interesting, but unless I can keep the costs down & increase the storage size, I'd say building a small NAS will work better. Just need something to store large files and access when needed.

Sorry for all the tangents - Little exited, muddled & trying to pick things up

Thanks again
Click to expand...
I would start by connecting to the iLO port. It is a management system with a dedicated ethernet port on the back. Find out what you have.
DL380G7 is NOT 32 bit.
This is not a cost efficient NAS, IMO. The electricity wasted will be huge.
 
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I would start by connecting to the iLO port. It is a management system with a dedicated ethernet port on the back. Find out what you have.
Click to expand...

Will have a look at iLO prot on the weekend.

DL380G7 is NOT 32 bit.
This is not a cost efficient NAS, IMO. The electricity wasted will be huge.
Click to expand...

Sorry, keep forgetting how old 64-bit systems are now.

Internal Storage Hard DrivesNone Standard Hard Drive BaysStandard (8) small form factor (SFF) hot-plug drive bays to support Serialattached SCSI (SAS) and
--------------- Serial ATA (SATA) drives--------------- Optional second drive cage for additional (8) SFF drive bays (total 16) Optional cage for (6) Large Form Factor SAS/SATA hard drive bays
Click to expand...

Read that you can use most anything as storage (sas, hdd, ssd) as long as you set up the RAID (still need to learn) and the firmware supports it.

YouTube video on different hard drives

Will probably use this and turn it on when files need to be moved, so tops run time ~ 3 hours per week.
Can't afford much else at the moment & have some laptop hard drives.

Still cool to mess with but ya very costly and overkill.

Thanks again guys, and sorry for all the bouncing around. Still learning and a little on the ADHD side of things.
Can I put multiple people down as solved ?
 
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On any pc you have to point the bios to the boot media. for installation you can put ubuntu on a usb stick using etcher. I'd recommend looking at proxmox also. You can run containers and vms from it.

after you have installed it usually unplugging the usb will make it boot from another disk but you might have to point it to your install after. so remember what disk you put the os on.

sometimes used servers come with bios settings you might not want like PXE boot.

If you are getting into home servers I would recommend not using a gui. lots of services have web apps. you will find way more help for services on command line or the web app then trying to use the desktop.
 
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