Servers for me or you to play with

[fishkake]

Hi all,

This is a general offer for geekery. Its not the normal sort of post, so as usual if this is not welcome, I apologise. Mods, please feel free to move or delete this as appropriate.

I recently bought myself a server rack, complete with 8 Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers. Basic HW list is below.

I'm relatively novice to Linux, have been tinkering since the 1990s but never got further than the very basic. I'm pretty good in the Microsoft world, and very novice in the networking world but very keen to learn.

The purpose of this post is twofold - firstly a request for ideas of things I can do with this new setup which are fun and interesting. I already have some ideas of my own, so expect some "Help me" posts appearing soon!

The second is an offer, if anyone wants a server or two to tinker with, I can set up remote access. They're no better than a decent PC I guess, but they're numerous, and full of cores and NICs, so someone might want something to experiment. This will NOT involve any exchange of money either way, to be clear! I can't guarantee how reliable it will be to contact either the network or myself.

5 of them are 2 x Intel Xeon X5450 3.0 GHz quad core processors and
16GB DDR2 RAM.

2 of them are 2 x Intel Xeon 5130 2.0 GHz dual core processors and 2GB/4GB DDR RAM respectively.

I think the last one is broken, but it makes a lovely shelf.

All have PERC 6/i RAID controllers.

Currently limited on server-level storage - I have a total of 12 SAS 15K 73GB drives (a mix of Seagate and Toshiba) and some SATA stuff I had lying around, one 400GB, one 500GB and a bunch of much smaller ones.

Joining them together is a Cisco SG300-28 Gigabit Managed Switch.

Connecting them to the Internet is (currently) a Juniper SSG20 firewall (which doubles as a router). I have a home ISP connection with dynamic IP but my ISP is well known for changing them very rarely. I have a good ISP, and a reliable 50Mb down, 3Mb up connection.

I also have 2 x Cisco 2600 routes, but sadly limited to 10Mb Ethernet so not in use.

I also have a whole host of basic tech stuff, a bunch of laptops (mostly i5 spec), 10/100 hubs and switches, another Cisco SG300, Cisco 2142 and 1100 series APs, mostly old or cheap stuff.

I'm not afraid of spending a bit of money in principle to follow through an idea, but the whole purpose of this setup is to tinker with some tech and teach myself some stuff, so its not like I have a budget to play with.

That's it, I hope that this can provide some interest to someone here, and if not, I apologise for the 30 seconds of your life I just wasted.

I will be posting this same post elsewhere too!

 

[bambiboom]

Hi all,

This is a general offer for geekery. Its not the normal sort of post, so as usual if this is not welcome, I apologise. Mods, please feel free to move or delete this as appropriate.

I recently bought myself a server rack, complete with 8 Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers. Basic HW list is below.

I'm relatively novice to Linux, have been tinkering since the 1990s but never got further than the very basic. I'm pretty good in the Microsoft world, and very novice in the networking world but very keen to learn.

The purpose of this post is twofold - firstly a request for ideas of things I can do with this new setup which are fun and interesting. I already have some ideas of my own, so expect some "Help me" posts appearing soon!

The second is an offer, if anyone wants a server or two to tinker with, I can set up remote access. They're no better than a decent PC I guess, but they're numerous, and full of cores and NICs, so someone might want something to experiment. This will NOT involve any exchange of money either way, to be clear! I can't guarantee how reliable it will be to contact either the network or myself.

5 of them are 2 x Intel Xeon X5450 3.0 GHz quad core processors and
16GB DDR2 RAM.

2 of them are 2 x Intel Xeon 5130 2.0 GHz dual core processors and 2GB/4GB DDR RAM respectively.

I think the last one is broken, but it makes a lovely shelf.

All have PERC 6/i RAID controllers.

Currently limited on server-level storage - I have a total of 12 SAS 15K 73GB drives (a mix of Seagate and Toshiba) and some SATA stuff I had lying around, one 400GB, one 500GB and a bunch of much smaller ones.

Joining them together is a Cisco SG300-28 Gigabit Managed Switch.

Connecting them to the Internet is (currently) a Juniper SSG20 firewall (which doubles as a router). I have a home ISP connection with dynamic IP but my ISP is well known for changing them very rarely. I have a good ISP, and a reliable 50Mb down, 3Mb up connection.

I also have 2 x Cisco 2600 routes, but sadly limited to 10Mb Ethernet so not in use.

I also have a whole host of basic tech stuff, a bunch of laptops (mostly i5 spec), 10/100 hubs and switches, another Cisco SG300, Cisco 2142 and 1100 series APs, mostly old or cheap stuff.

I'm not afraid of spending a bit of money in principle to follow through an idea, but the whole purpose of this setup is to tinker with some tech and teach myself some stuff, so its not like I have a budget to play with.

That's it, I hope that this can provide some interest to someone here, and if not, I apologise for the 30 seconds of your life I just wasted.

I will be posting this same post elsewhere too!

fishcake,

Interesting project. As there are so many with a similar specification, my tendency is to think of working out a Beowulf cluster and run them all in parallel. Add RAM and a few early series Tesla GPU coprocessors- a Tesla M2090 6GB can cost only $60-70 and the compute potential could be surprisingly enormous. As only the head unit will have drives, change the PERC 6/i to an LSI 9260 and run a 1TB Crucial MX300 and followed with a RAID 50 of the SAS 15K HD's.

Then, with a good router and remote configuration, invite students to run simulations and analysis problems- fluid, thermal dynamic, Matlab, NAMB molecular biology, structural, and etc. You could join the Folding at Home program and that is a very good cause to support.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z620_2 (2017) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.1GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB + Intel 730 480GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / ASUS Essence STX PCIe sound card / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)

[Passmark Rating = 6166 / CPU rating = 16934 / 2D = 820 / 3D= 8849 / Mem = 2991 / Disk = 13794] 4.24.17 Single Thread Mark = 2252

 

[fishkake]

That's pretty cool - and nice to see an idea that turns my desire to tinker with some servers in to something which might actually serve for the forces of good, in some tiny way.

I'd rather be doing disease research than searching for extraterrestrial life (is Seti@home even still a thing?!).

Good shout. I'll let you know when I have something, or anything, running. A quick (very quick) google tells me that adding fancy GPUs to a 2950 might not be as simple as plug and play, and even your suggestion of $60-70 across 7 servers adds up to quite a bit, but we'll see where I get to.

 

[bambiboom]

That's pretty cool - and nice to see an idea that turns my desire to tinker with some servers in to something which might actually serve for the forces of good, in some tiny way.

I'd rather be doing disease research than searching for extraterrestrial life (is Seti@home even still a thing?!).

Good shout. I'll let you know when I have something, or anything, running. A quick (very quick) google tells me that adding fancy GPUs to a 2950 might not be as simple as plug and play, and even your suggestion of $60-70 across 7 servers adds up to quite a bit, but we'll see where I get to.

fishcake,

I think the Beowulf cluster is a more productive/creative use than a gaming or even database server.

The Teslas can add up, but they are amazing in adding compute power , and at the highest possible double precision. They're in their native habitat in servers as they're passively cooled and need all those server CFM. We have an HP z620 with dual 8-cores ans that runs a Quadro K2200 4GB and Tesla M2090 6GB with special cooling (they are passively cooled) and the combination has more compute power than a Quadro M5000 8GB.

Yes, I'd be very interested to follow the project. Send a PM if you'd like.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Alabalcho]

Every server project you plan to do will be limited by your

reliable 50Mb down, 3Mb up connection.

Next will be your wife complaining about the power bill, and noise coming out of your server room 😉

 

[fishkake]

One very good point that you have both made is power and airflow. Bear in mind this is running in a home office, not a custom made server room.

I'm currently only running three of the servers. There's no paint left on the walls, the glass in the window is starting to melt, and my local power station called to ask why they were getting through so much coal this week.

Seriously though, cooling is another area I know little about, so it will be part of the learning curve.

As for my wife, if she complained about the noise and power of computers, I very much doubt she'd have married me. She even drove the van when we went to pick up the rack. What a lady.