Token's lvl1 blog- edit -- Token's rantings

Token · April 22, 2019, 3:27am

Motivated by other member’s examples, I figured I would start some kind of log of my actual (I’m not highly skilled) level1 lab adventures. I’m not 1337, so if BTW you run Arch, this probably isn’t the place for you. If you are a noob bumping around in the dark, still learning the many achronyms here and still can’t script, welcome.

For starters, I want to retire my z800 ESXi box. It was VMWare with lsi chip flashed to IT mode and passed through to a FreeNAS VM. It was the culmination of a lot of what I’ve learned on this forum. It was a ‘one box does all’ NAS, Plex, vm lab, web host (WordPress), log server etc. When I first came to this forum, I wouldn’t understand half of what I just wrote. Thanks to so many here that explain so much when asked!

I found a wall mount rack and Craig’s list and now begins the shinanigans, designated hardware for designated jobs. Over kill, but because flashing lights.

Started working on some custom ventilation so push out that hot upper garage air.

Will be cutting plexiglass to use with magnets to force cold air up, to the front and out the top.

Then rack this Overkill FreeNAS build

All from my phone right now, can put more details of the build and goals later.

Specs for recording’s sake:
CPU: 2x Intel Xeon E5-2620 V2 Hex (6) Core 2.1Ghz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 (8 x 4GB - DDR3 - ECC REG)

Hard Drives:

Included is a 32GB SATADOM internally Installed with FREENAS 11 onto FLASH boot drive
8x 2TB SAS Hard Drives: HUS723020ALS640 plus 1 Spare in case a drive goes down; Total 9 Drives or 18TB Storage (in case we are out of Hitachi we will use Seagate Drives)

HBA Controller: QTY 2x LSI 9210-8i 8 port HBA controllers updated to ITMODE for JBOD to maximize all 12 Drive bays for Direct Attached Storage Speed 6GB/S

NIC: Integrated Onboard 4x 1GB Ethernet Ports

OS: FREENAS 11

Secondary Chassis/ Motherboard Specs:

Supermicro 2U 12x 3.5" Drive Bays System
Server Chassis/ Case: Supermicro CSE-826A-R1200LPB
Motherboard: Supermicro X9DRi-LN4F+
Backplane: BPN-SAS-826A I-Path Direct Attached Backplane
PCI-Expansions slots: Low Profile 4 x16 PCI-E 3.0, 1 x8 PCI-E 3.0, 1 x4 PCI-E 3.0 (in x8)

Integrated Quad Intel 1000BASE-T Ports
IPMI 2.0 Compliant

12x 3.5" Supermicro caddy
2x 920Watt Power Supply PWS-920P-1R Platium

Goalkeeper · April 22, 2019, 3:31am

Did you take the pics from the phone? The picture quality is quite good.

MFZuul · April 22, 2019, 3:34am

Yay!

This is glorious, can not wait for more

Token · April 22, 2019, 3:41am

Yes, OnePlus 6

Baz · April 22, 2019, 3:41am

Guess that goes for all of us lol, traits of your typical L1 community member haha

MFZuul · April 22, 2019, 4:25am

yup me

Make me a regular plz @Goalkeeper

oO.o · April 22, 2019, 5:03am

I’m very happy about all these blogs. Can’t wait to see your progress.

Token · April 30, 2019, 2:41am

I’m thinking of getting this to be my type1 hypervisor

Or should I stick to good ole’ 710s like this one?

Token · May 4, 2019, 10:53pm

Was my first time working with acrylic, trying to use the scoring method, ultimately went with the Dremel

Hot glue and magnets from fleebay. The ‘dude’ in me was about to use jb-weld, but figured that far overkill.

Holding against a little bit of gravity

Oh the fun of racking this thing on a ladder- had too many close calls to like to admit

Now to actually boot up and start setting things up.

Token · May 4, 2019, 11:08pm

When you are grocery shopping and realize your nerd factor when the first thing that crosses your mind when seeing this box is, “Manjaro?” and not water.

BTW I (don’t) run Arch

Token · May 5, 2019, 1:50am

Oooohhhhh, I think this is the one!!

Token · May 5, 2019, 6:33am

Part of the drama of racking the Microserver was that the original rails were too long, I had to get special shorter ones.

Its been pulling teeth to get Dell r710 rail length specs, so looks like I’ll get some super generic shelf like rails-

Much more affordable, unfortunately not really rails.

TimHolus · May 5, 2019, 8:36am

And what do you have in your plans as a fire protection system? Wood and other easily flammable things around…

Token · May 5, 2019, 3:06pm

Can’t open that in YouTube, what product is that?

I didn’t have fire fighting components in mind beyond the extinguisher I already have, but I’m re-doing the garage electrical so that a) higher capacity/better connections at junction boxes etc and b) better isolation organization at the panel.

IMO class Charlie fires are not out until power is isolated, so that is addressed.

As far as automation, I do not have plans. It might make for good Arduino or Pii diy projects though.

You have me rethinking my apc mounting…

I also have been wanting to dry wall the garage for asthenic reasons, but it would also increase fire resistance.

Thankfully the garage is not attached.

Token · May 5, 2019, 3:39pm

Hindsight being 20/20, I should have sprung for something like this.

TimHolus · May 5, 2019, 4:11pm

A passive fire extinguishing solution from PROTENG ($ 160 for a short version of 40cm) but probably others are doing the same.
This is a plastic pipe under pressure of 5bar. The active agent is FM-200, a kind of halon substitute. When open fire violates the pipe, gas chokes the fire quite quickly, especially good in small closed places like a rack. It will not save the server itself but there is a good chance that the whole garage will not burn.
When it comes to fire extinguishers, it does not make much sense without automation to detect fire and start self-extinguishing. Before you know that something begins to burn, it will probably be too late.

ezgif-5-e275ae0c953f
images
https://proteng.com/products/

You can also think about non-flammable insulation.
https://www.bondedlogic.com/ultratouch-denim-insulation/

oO.o · May 5, 2019, 6:54pm

I hope that thing is attached well!

Token · May 5, 2019, 7:02pm

Its attached per the manual. My ~200lb ass can do pull-ups at the edge. That said, I bought some 2’4s and brackets to bolster the framing in that area and add attachment points because why not.

Just threw down on some HDD caddy screws, “ultra-quiet” 4.7" fans because the current Flea-bay ones are louder than the server, and some monitor arms.

Token · May 6, 2019, 12:20am

I would like a CO2 or Halon type system, but $$$$$. Found these:

They probably make a heck of a mess, but at least they would likely stop a small fire in the garage.

I’m really digging that craigslist rack- it probably has some inherent fire resistance (keeps an electronics fire inside), but not wanting to spring $500 and my floor space saving wall-rack project is almost done.

The fleabay fans were crazy loud, so some 30db ones are on the way, and looking to use this thermostat with the old ones in an exhaust configuration in case the summer causes some peak requirements.

Its all coming along. Just need to pull the trigger on an r710 and some 10G cards. Then setup some pools- I’m thinking Z2 for my NAS storage, and RAID10 for VMWare iscsi storage.

MazeFrame · May 6, 2019, 12:24am

Yep, they make a huge mess.
Plus the powder kills electronics.