Old server ...

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senare
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Old server ...

Post by senare »

Humn here is'a question the wise ones ...

My parents have more luck so they have been gifted with 'fiber connection' (I have no such luxury ) so i will put my box in there basement (far far away). I also have 2 old boxes from my brothers company which i got for free so ... they be a bit old ... but thay are 'servers'

HP proliant ML100 G2 I think so thats from 2004 ? ... and it has a pentium 4 sticker on it I also lifted a few numbers of the box ...

(edit this would be the more relevant specs .... http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?se ... GB8521aym4)
379272-001
50311 36918
REV:B/B

I never actually touched them so I don't know much about them (they are supposedly working)

Are they worth the effort ? Can I upgrade them .. or am I better of using a desktop machine ?

I would use it for 'file-server', ftp web .. build machine for various projects etc ... any one know anything ?
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Chrisax
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Re: Old server ...

Post by Chrisax »

The ML 100 was a series with models called from "110" to "150" based on this manual:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/publ ... -c00457863

And here is the general page for all the manuals for the 110:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/h ... .492883150


2004, 10 years old and servers... hard to say in what condition they are.

If you see, hear... and possibly smell no obvious issue when powering them and letting them run for a few hours, I would say you can try and this could work.

Nevertheless, if they were servers, it's most likely the hard disks that are close to a final failure.

Changing the HD's (or some fans) is the only thing I would recommend. All other modifications would be pointless or overpriced (like the RAM used which is DDR 400 and costs a fortune now because it's obsolete). And hard disks can always be put in another machine.

You can change the DVD player if any and if necessary, if it doesn't work weel, because you'll likely find a cheap one.

The computers have a USB2 bus, so I would tend to add things by USB if you really need, at the cost of performance, because USB2 is still in use, and you can use any USB addition on another computer too. I definitely think you shouldn't get any "legacy" part, unless you get a total bargain on it.

I hope you have models with SATA interface for HD's. Your models were SATA, it seems:
http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdi ... 2864-1.pdf

But they were also SAS. Normally, you have both interfaces. Use SATA. SAS would be way to expensive for nothing now.

So you could replace the disks with SATA disk of roughly the same capacity (and NOT requiring SATA 3). The BIOS may not support disks bigger than 500GB / 750GB. I doubt it supports 1TB at all. I would go for 500GB, playing safe and not expensive.


Processing-power-wise, those machines should be each able to handle many small web sites without issue, under Linux.



Note: some hard disk utilities may be able to get information from the disks and tell you how long they have been working and more or less in what condition they are. It depends on the disks models though.
senare
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Re: Old server ...

Post by senare »

Oki thanx for the replay :=)

I might add that this ofc serves dual purposes I felt the need for some more 'hands-on' ops experience so thats why i wont just get a 'cloud' machine ...

I can't think of any use for dvd/cd/usb on a server so that hopefully wouldn't be a problem.

When it comes to disk I was going to buy new since i didn't want to be bother with old disks. But might be limits in size & sata version so i guess i would have to be a bit careful there ...

I was thinking 3 mechanical SATA for store and 1 SSD SATA for OS ( BIOS might be a real setback here ... I am one of them spoiled devs .. my laptop has UEFI, SSD and 32G ram so I tend to look at high spec stuff ... but that might not be need for a file / build server)

RAM would be supplied from the 'various saved bits and bobs box' the more the merrier ...

Since i have 2 boxes i was pondering one file server and one server for other purposes setup

probably id go with some xen server of some sorts ...

One option would be to go with some newer Desktop box but it wouldn't have features for remote management (light out I think hp calls it) .. idk if thats usefull or not ?
senare
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Re: Old server ...

Post by senare »

Seams that the disk controller would be a 'Adaptec AAR-2610SA'

So that would be a hard limit on 1TB disk and total of 2TB

and also

SATA compliance SATA 1.0 and SATA II phase 1 specifications

RAID levels support • RAID 0 (1 to 6 drives)
• RAID 1 (2 drives)
• RAID 5 (3 to 6 drives)
• RAID 10 (4 to 6 drives)


this is bad ...
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Chrisax
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Re: Old server ...

Post by Chrisax »

I can't think of any use for dvd/cd/usb on a server
In your specific case, I was thing of auto backups on a cheap USB hard drive with simple software, so you keep your network as simple as possible, due to the age of the equipment and possible incompatibilities.

SATA 3 devices are normally backwards-compatible with SATA II interfaces, at the cost of a clear loss of performance (still a SSD will clearly outperform a mechanical disk).

I can't remember what in hell was SATA II phase 1 though. But as it's something that was released, I assume the backwards-compatibility applies.

What scare me are the up-to-date drivers for Adaptec AAR-2610SA for a modern OS :( Do they even exist?
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