Show Us Your Racks

oli356 · 25 Jul 2012 at 14:54

Looks neat

and must have been cheap!

I've had my Skeletek rack since Monday... well.... it's still on the floor -.- It was missing casters, they got sent out from Austria yesterday. Then I noticed one of the bits of metal is bent, I used some pliers and solved it but it still doesn't fit (measurements are wrong...)

Waiting on an email back from the Austrians again about that, they are very slow at replying.

In the mean time, I bought a Cisco 3550 but stupidly erased the flash while upgrading the IOS image. Now I watch the file transfer from my computer using Xmodem at 9600 bits per second, woo! 6MB will take a while.

Nikumba · 25 Jul 2012 at 15:07

oli356 said:
In the mean time, I bought a Cisco 3550 but stupidly erased the flash while upgrading the IOS image. Now I watch the file transfer from my computer using Xmodem at 9600 bits per second, woo! 6MB will take a while.

If you got to the prompt you should have been able to liven up a port and do a TFTP job?

Kimbie

oli356 · 25 Jul 2012 at 15:21

Nikumba said:
If you got to the prompt you should have been able to liven up a port and do a TFTP job?

Kimbie

Think I had to be in rommon mode for that. All I got was the switch: prompt and had these options.

Code:

switch: ?
           ? -- Present list of available commands
        boot -- Load and boot an executable image
         cat -- Concatenate (type) file(s)
        copy -- Copy a file
      delete -- Delete file(s)
         dir -- List files in directories
  flash_init -- Initialize flash filesystem(s)
      format -- Format a filesystem
        fsck -- Check filesystem consistency
        help -- Present list of available commands
 load_helper -- Load and initialize a helper image
      memory -- Present memory heap utilization information
       mkdir -- Create dir(s)
        more -- Concatenate (display) file(s)
      rename -- Rename a file
       reset -- Reset the system
       rmdir -- Delete empty dir(s)
         set -- Set or display environment variables
   set_param -- Set system parameters in flash
       sleep -- Pause (sleep) for a specified number of seconds
        trap -- Cause a software breakpoint to occur
 -- MORE --
        type -- Concatenate (type) file(s)
       unset -- Unset one or more environment variables
     version -- Display boot loader version

antc · 26 Jul 2012 at 22:35

oli356 said:
Looks neat and must have been cheap!

I've had my Skeletek rack since Monday... well.... it's still on the floor -.- It was missing casters, they got sent out from Austria yesterday. Then I noticed one of the bits of metal is bent, I used some pliers and solved it but it still doesn't fit (measurements are wrong...)

Waiting on an email back from the Austrians again about that, they are very slow at replying.

In the mean time, I bought a Cisco 3550 but stupidly erased the flash while upgrading the IOS image. Now I watch the file transfer from my computer using Xmodem at 9600 bits per second, woo! 6MB will take a while.

Where did you get the skeletek rack from if you dont mind me asking?

oli356 · 26 Jul 2012 at 22:42

antc said:
Where did you get the skeletek rack from if you dont mind me asking?

Dantrak.at -- They do things differently though. You don't purchase from the site like you do here. All prices/stock is kept on http://www.venelin.com/public/Stock_Price_List.xls and then you email them, they send you an invoice and you send the money directly to their bank (cost £10 for the international bank transfer).

My experience hasn't been pleasant! The casters were missing, after multiple emails (they are slow at replying) the casters got resent. Then a part of metal wasn't fitting and was bent. The bend wasn't the only problem though, measurements somewhere were off. More emails to them.... I had been speaking to the American Dantrak (good customer support) and they had to end up sending the Austrian store money to cover the postage for the replacement part, on top of them giving them another! Rant over....Hopefully have the parts and have it built by mid-next week

The UK store though will be up and running within a month!

hellarda · 26 Jul 2012 at 23:16

Some updates to my home lab

nothing compared to some stuff on here but I'm only 17 so it's a start!

New 1950 and 2950 and old 2850 which is refusing to POST

tried removing everything and it still won't display anything/make any beeps

1950:

1x Xeon E5405 2.0Ghz
4GB ECC 5300F RAM
Perc 6/i (not being used)
Running ESXi 5.0 off a 2gb memory stick

2950:

2x Xeon E5405 2.0Ghz
8GB ECC 5300F RAM
Perc 6/i
2x 2TB RAID0
2x 300GB 15K SAS RAID0
1x 2TB
Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
Running ESXi 5.0 off a 2gb memory stick

Main Switch Cisco Linksys SPS2024 24 Port Gigabit Fully Managed Switch

Second switch (running DRAC and AP's off of it.) Cisco Catalyst 3550XL

Top Box: Used as vCentre Server and NFS Server for ESXi Storage.

AMD Athlon II x4 645 3.0GHz
4GB RAM
2x 1TB RAID0
1x 3TB
1x 500GB System Drive
Server 2008 R2

Bottom Box:

Q6600 2.4GHz
4GB RAM
Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter - Teamed.
Running ESXi off a 2gb memory Stick.

Network Cable Run from switches to Servers:

Muel · 26 Jul 2012 at 23:34

Impressive setup no matter how old you are. Wish I had that sort of kit!

jamesfreddie · 27 Jul 2012 at 13:30

hellarda said:
Some updates to my home lab

nothing compared to some stuff on here but I'm only 17 so it's a start!

New 1950 and 2950 and old 2850 which is refusing to POST tried removing everything and it still won't display anything/make any beeps

1950:

1x Xeon E5405 2.0Ghz
4GB ECC 5300F RAM
Perc 6/i (not being used)
Running ESXi 5.0 off a 2gb memory stick

2950:

2x Xeon E5405 2.0Ghz
8GB ECC 5300F RAM
Perc 6/i
2x 2TB RAID0
2x 300GB 15K SAS RAID0
1x 2TB
Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
Running ESXi 5.0 off a 2gb memory stick

What do you use them all for?

Combat squirrel · 27 Jul 2012 at 14:04

Muel said:
Impressive setup no matter how old you are. Wish I had that sort of kit!

jamesfreddie said:
What do you use them all for?

Exactly my questions !

very curious.

Im really enjoying messing around with my server, even though its not in a rack mount, just a normal case, but I like how im building it for reliability and power use etc, very different approach to a normal PC.

One question, if I had multiple LAN cards in the server all connected to the gigabit router, would the server send data to the network via all 2/3+ 'paths' (I.e. network cables), or would it just saturate the connection on the 1st connection, and then the next one etc...

Its just I have to back up 3TB from my main pc tonight to the server and the LAN connection is ok, 30-60mb/sec but wouldn't mind it going faster, I know it will b limited by the hard drives, but after an hour its the lan that gradually slows down.

LizardKing · 27 Jul 2012 at 14:46

Combat squirrel said:
One question, if I had multiple LAN cards in the server all connected to the gigabit router, would the server send data to the network via all 2/3+ 'paths' (I.e. network cables), or would it just saturate the connection on the 1st connection, and then the next one etc...

It will only ever use 1 connection, unless you have set-up teaming (hardware dependant) and have a switch capable of doing the same

Nunzio · 27 Jul 2012 at 15:00

pdw8 said:
The labels show where that is so maybe you should edit over the labels.

Nah

Its in THN

it should be pretty safe there.

Combat squirrel · 27 Jul 2012 at 15:13

LizardKing said:
It will only ever use 1 connection, unless you have set-up teaming (hardware dependant) and have a switch capable of doing the same

Doh, I need to think of a way to connect the 2 PC's together as fast as possible, they are 5 Meters apart, I know sensibly its probs only gigabit ethernet which I use now, but really want to use something that will maintain a high throughput, my more crazy ideas involve:

USB 3 link (and somehow force it to use only that, but I Have no idea how)

Thunderbolt link ? with whatever add in cards become available.

And im out of ideas....... :/

I had hoped 10 gigabit ethernet was reasonably affordable, but its really not, a basic card is well north of £400 :O

Madness.

jamesfreddie · 27 Jul 2012 at 15:15

LizardKing said:
It will only ever use 1 connection, unless you have set-up teaming (hardware dependant) and have a switch capable of doing the same

Do you need a "Managed" switch for teaming?

LizardKing · 27 Jul 2012 at 15:22

Combat squirrel said:
Doh, I need to think of a way to connect the 2 PC's together as fast as possible, they are 5 Meters apart, I know sensibly its probs only gigabit ethernet which I use now, but really want to use something that will maintain a high throughput, my more crazy ideas involve:

See below

if your network cards do support it (and most servers do that contain multiple nics) then getting hold of a switch capable will be the best method

jamesfreddie said:
Do you need a "Managed" switch for teaming?

Pretty much, its not a uncommon feature so i'd expect most low end managed switches to have this feature.

pdw8 · 27 Jul 2012 at 15:46

Nunzio said:
Nah Its in THN it should be pretty safe there.

Quite a bit of kit goes missing in TH, lots of racks in the shared areas have the same key and many racks are open or insecure.
Just because it's in a DC does not mean its secure

Combat squirrel · 27 Jul 2012 at 16:18

LizardKing said:
See below if your network cards do support it (and most servers do that contain multiple nics) then getting hold of a switch capable will be the best method

Pretty much, its not a uncommon feature so i'd expect most low end managed switches to have this feature.

Yeah I think mine do, intel pci-e card and realtek one in there, but yeah my switches are unmanaged cheapish gigabit switches :/

Combat squirrel · 27 Jul 2012 at 16:50

Would these work for network teaming?:

1x Intel Gigabit PRO/ 1000 CT PCI Express Desktop Network Adapter (EXPI9301CTBLK)
1x NETGEAR PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT ETHERNET DESKTOP SWITCH GS108
1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

hellarda · 27 Jul 2012 at 18:41

jamesfreddie said:
What do you use them all for?

I use it for experimenting with AD/DNS, pfsense, vmware, Windows 8 etc.

Most of it is used for testing, I have a couple of VM's that i use permanently (WHS 2011)

Combat squirrel said:
Would these work for network teaming?:

1x Intel Gigabit PRO/ 1000 CT PCI Express Desktop Network Adapter (EXPI9301CTBLK)
1x NETGEAR PROSAFE® 8-PORT GIGABIT ETHERNET DESKTOP SWITCH GS108
1 x Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

It would be best to get a dual port intel card as it may not work across the realtek and the single intel port.

And pretty sure that switch isn't managed?

Coldzero · 27 Jul 2012 at 18:48

Saw your pics over on the hard forum hellarda, nice setup.

Deleted member 77746 · 27 Jul 2012 at 18:50

hellarda said:
I use it for experimenting with AD/DNS, pfsense, vmware, Windows 8 etc.

Most of it is used for testing, I have a couple of VM's that i use permanently (WHS 2011)

It would be best to get a dual port intel card as it may not work across the realtek and the single intel port.

And pretty sure that switch isn't managed?

Will need GS108T revision to be managed, I think.