RM DUALSERV REDEPLOYMENT

[ChrisERoots]

I'd just like a bit of sense checking before I continue. I have several of the RM servers doing nothing at the moment. I was thinking of repurposing a couple of them to be used as Offsite (in different buildings) purely as backup servers. Has anyone else done something like this with old server hardware? It just seems a waste to have them sat there and it would provide us with a bit more resiliency. Has anyone else installed Server 2012 on these devices?

[steve_forbes]

Hi,

 

We've seen a number of schools do this with RM servers, either offsite in other buildings or even in different schools. Whether you can install Server 2012 really depends on the spec of the server, there are some configurations that aren't suitable for Server 2012 but if you let me know the serial numbers I can give you an idea of that - there is of course a difference between what we recommend in terms of OS and what is physically possible but in this scenario I assume you would have the opportunity to try and test before relying on it as a backup solution.

 

Steve

Head of Network Solutions

RM Education

[cpjitservices]

You could maybe try something like FreeNAS if you want just storage on the servers and use them as backup locations. Maybe using rsync....

[ChrisERoots]

Thanks so much for the suggestions.

@cpjitservices I'll definitely look at FreeNAS. Ive never really done something like this before so its all learning really.

@steve_forbes The serial of the server is: W048555901. They're old boxes so not expecting much performance wise but would definitely like them to come in useful in this scenario. Not 100% sure what they're like eon storage either at the moment. I would really need to put in a few TB drives to accommodate the current amount of information.

[PotNoodleTech]

By all means give it a go but be aware the dualserv gotta be like 7 years old now and may not support the disk config that you would wish to go for (e.g no solid state drive support, or no support for SATA drives over 2GB size, or even no support for SATA drives at all as the earlier ones would be SAS 10,000 / 15,000rpm SAS only).

 

Even though I deploy dell throughout now, the dualserves I had a long time ago were solid as a rock so I've no doubt they'll keep going but I would warn against using them for anything mission critical.

[3s-gtech]

I tried this on some old RM DualServs that I had in, seeing what the newest OS revision was that they'd take. A couple were Prestonia Xeon (Northwood P4) so 32 bit only, most were Nocona Xeon (later P4) powered and would run 2008 R2 at the latest, one was a Penryn Xeon (Core 2) which ran 2012 R2. The RAID controllers and CPUs within were the main inhibitors on running a newer OS https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dn482072.aspx . Worth a crack anyway.

[steve_forbes]

@ChrisERoots Based on that Serial number I got the following specs:

 

SERIAL NUMBER: WO48555901

PART NUMBER: 1AA262

DESCRIPTION: F/A-2x2.8 Xn2GB DDR2 ECC Dual_210 CTRL_BRJR 320_** OPERATING SYSTEM: No Operating system installed Operating System Registration PID: NOCOA

MOTHERBOARD: RM Intel SE7520BD2VD2 Server Mainboard [sBD22]

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz (800MHz Front Side Bus) (Dual CPU)

RAM: 2048MB (DDR2)

FLOPPY DRIVE A: 3.5 1.44Mb

FIRST SCSI CONTROLLER: LSI Logic 53C1010-66 PCI [LSI20160] BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 0: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb) BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 1: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb) BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 2: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb) BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 3: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb) BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 4: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb) BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 6: SCSI Backplane Controller [HSA_HSBP_M27] BUS 1 SCSI DEVICE ID 6: Sony SDX-700V AIT-3 Drive (100000Mb) [sDX_700V]

CD-ROM: Samsung SH-D162 [sH-D162]

VIDEO: VGA ATi Rage XL 8MB RAM [RAGEXL]

ETHERNET: Intel On Board 10/100/1000Mb [082541PI] ETHERNET ADDRESS: 000423CF47B7

COM1: Enhanced 16550A at I/O 3F8h IRQ4

MAINBOARD: Intel SE7520BD23S for RM plc Serial No. BZB261970508 DIMM 1: Manufacturer - Infineon Serial Number - 01150C10 IDE PRIMARY MASTER: SAMSUNG SH-D162 IDE PRIMARY SLAVE: None IDE SECONDARY MASTER: None IDE SECONDARY SLAVE: None

CPU: Family=15 Model=4 Stepping=10 Serial Number - 00000F4A

 

As @3s-gtech said, this may be ok to run Windows Server 2008 but very unlikely to work with 2012 I'm afraid.

 

Thanks

Steve

[3s-gtech]

It's LGA 775 based which means Prescott/2M (sadly no Core 2 support on that board), which means, for Server 2012 R2 onwards:

 

To install a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit PC, your processor needs to support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF

which it doesn't.

 

You may get 2012 R1 running, though it wouldn't play for me. You will probably need more RAM, though if it's just a DC it'll work fine with 2GB.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep it's a 10-year old jobby. The old P4 ones are serious power hogs too - so much electricity draw for such little performance.

 

Frankly, I'd get that one recycled and pick up something cheap but a few generations newer from ICT direct....

[mrwoberts]

+1 for FreeNAS, or NAS4Free...

 

That's exactly what I've turned mine into. The ZFS filesystem supports snapshots, which have been a brilliant way for the staff to retrieve something that was deleted days ago (like 30+ end of year reports!)

The RM server I have is close to 7 years old, but has 8GB RAM.

[ChrisERoots]

Thanks everyone for the information so far. Really appreciate the feedback.

@steve_forbes Got a couple more Serials if you could help with the SPECs. ECRI5100113 & ECRI5100021. I initially just saw the Xeon name and thought they'd be okay.

 

Might have to rethink and replan as @AButters got me thinking about Power. I'd already have to fit several drives in to the unit to accommodate capacity and the more I think about this and that hardware the more out of reach it seems. Did anyone manage to get the boxes to boot from USB?

@mrwoberts Would love to hear a little more about your setup. Going at this from a blank slate but it sounds like you might even let staff interact with your setup?

[steve_forbes]

@ChrisERoots Those serial numbers don't look like RM serial numbers, they normally start with WOxxxxxxx - are they definitely RM servers?

[ChrisERoots]

@steve_forbes Correction on those serials: W04590730 W045910801

[steve_forbes]

Here's the specs for one of them, the other one appears to have a digit missing?

 

SERIAL NUMBER: WO45910801

PART NUMBER: 15F765

DESCRIPTION: F/A-2x2.8 Xn 2GB AXIV CTRL_AXIV 320_0_20160 CC3 **

OPERATING SYSTEM: W2K3SVR (YF441) [W2K3SVR]

Operating System Registration PID: NOCOA

MOTHERBOARD: RM Intel SE7520BD2 Server Mainboard [sBD2]

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz (800MHz Front Side Bus) (Dual CPU)

RAM: 2048MB (DDR)

FLOPPY DRIVE A: 3.5 1.44Mb

FIRST SCSI CONTROLLER: LSI Logic 53C1010-66 PCI [LSI20160]

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 0: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb)

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 1: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb)

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 2: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb)

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 3: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb)

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 4: 10,000 RPM Hard disk (146800Mb)

BUS 0 SCSI DEVICE ID 6: SCSI Backplane Controller [HSA_HSBP_M27]

BUS 1 SCSI DEVICE ID 6: Sony SDX-700C AIT-3 Drive (100000Mb) [sDX_700C]

DVD-ROM: Sony DDU1615 x40 IDE DVD [DDU1615]

VIDEO: VGA ATi Rage XL 8MB RAM [RAGEXL]

ETHERNET: Intel On Board 10/100/1000Mb [082541PI]

ETHERNET ADDRESS: 000423BBD82B

COM1: Enhanced 16550A at I/O 3F8h IRQ4

MAINBOARD: Intel SE7520BD22S for RM plc Serial No. BZBD52471155

DIMM 1: Manufacturer - Samsung Serial Number - 41015F4D

IDE PRIMARY MASTER: SONY DDU1615

IDE PRIMARY SLAVE: None

IDE SECONDARY MASTER: None

IDE SECONDARY SLAVE: None

CPU: Family=15 Model=4 Stepping=1 Serial Number - 00000F41

[PotNoodleTech]

So. SCSI drives. No way to use SATA drives or SSD drives. I stand by my previous statement....recycle in a WEEEEEEEEEE£ compliant manner! Edited May 5, 2016 by PotNoodleTech

[ChrisERoots]

Thanks for this @steve_forbes and @AButters. Most useful posting here anyway and at least I know not to waste any more time on them. Onwards and upwards with some newer kit. Would love a few pointers from people on how they got their extra backup solutions going with FreeNAS or equivalent?

[mrwoberts]

In a nutshell

 

My unit has

4x500GB disks (7200rpm Sata II)

8GB RAM,

Xeon® CPU E5506 @ 2.13GHz

 

- Ripped out the RAID card (ZFS manages its own RAID config!)

- Cleaned the inside of the case, including fans, reapplied fresh thermal compound...

- Installed a new bios battery

- Plugged the SATA disks directly into the m/board

- Installed NAS4Free image on a USB drive (which needs to remain plugged in - you can install it to an internal disk, but that disk shouldn't be used for the Filesystem)

- Created a single pool as ZFS RAID-Z (similar to RAID 5, so allows one disk to fail, but in hindsight I should have used RAID-Z2 similar to RAID 6, which allows two disks to fail)

- Created the users and shared folders, setup the permissions...

- Enabled automated snapshots of the pool every night at 8pm (This is a brilliant feature - imagine 'previous versions' for every file, or a Time Machine for files)

- Setup a backup routine to sync contents to a remote building, on site.

 

And off we go... These shared folders are used every single day and they've been such a fresh of breath air moving away from the RM setup which was just crippling; for me anyway.

 

With the two network cards NAS4Free supports bonding/teaming the connection to achieve a higher throughput.

You can schedule disk scrubbing and SMART tests, which is great because already I can see that one, possibly two of these disks are starting to show signs of failing, but this thing just keeps going...

 

Thoroughly recommend it.

Incidentally, I chose NAS4Free because it had a lower spec requirement than FreeNAS. FreeNAS looks more polished and probably has higher-end features, but NAS4Free does the job.

 

All the best