Well. I woke up to a dead server.

[Uranium-235]

Actually it was late last night when I tried to plug it in.

We had storms early that day and the second I heard thunder I shut it down (successfully). Unplugged the power and disconnected the ethernet. As I do with most of our electronics when it comes to storms.

Tried to plug it in...the pre boot led was flashing on and off real quickly (like seizure quickly)

This is a Poweredge 1800 so I tried the other redundant psu. Same result

Trying an EPS PSU (24+8). The power flashes on and off in rapid succession. I read if you move a purple wire on the 24 it might work. Haven't tried that yet.

Considering both redundant give me the same result I'm guessing power distribution unit or even worse... Motherboard.

All caps look good. Distribution unit uses OS-CON, as do many on the motherboard with full real polymers (and a few chemicon for Pci-express filters)

I only really use it for minidlna (sleep music to roku 1-has rca out). And file serving. I have a poweredge 700 I'm not using but using compressed ext4 writing does require some fair cpu power.

Not totally sure where I should cut my losses

[Curious.George]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

We had storms early that day and the second I heard thunder I shut it down (successfully). Unplugged the power and disconnected the ethernet. As I do with most of our electronics when it comes to storms.

I find rescued UPS's sufficient protection, here (and, if the batteries have ANY charge holding capacity, they usually get me through the "lights flickering" line disturbances). But, our utilities are below grade so less of a risk (unless a nearby ground-strike).

Considering both redundant give me the same result I'm guessing power distribution unit or even worse... Motherboard.

Have you tried powering up the individual PSU's outside the server? You'll have to jumper the PSON signal on the connector. There's some risk to the supply operating without a minimum load but I don't think any server-grade supplies are designed that way, any more.

I had some bad caps on a PE 2500 (?) some years ago (power distribution module was a BIG board, scantily populated).

I only really use it for minidlna (sleep music to roku 1-has rca out). And file serving. I have a poweredge 700 I'm not using but using compressed ext4 writing does require some fair cpu power.

You trade time for horsepower. Do you really need a compressed filesystem? (are you trying to run off a tiny SSD?) Nowadays, you can easily trade dollars for access time (in your case, uncompressed data).

E.g., I now store all my music as 24/96 FLAC as memory is so cheap; it lets a small "server" stream multiple programs to different clients without working up a sweat.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

I find rescued UPS's sufficient protection, here (and, if the batteries have ANY charge holding capacity, they usually get me through the "lights flickering" line disturbances). But, our utilities are below grade so less of a risk (unless a nearby ground-strike).



Have you tried powering up the individual PSU's outside the server? You'll have to jumper the PSON signal on the connector. There's some risk to the supply operating without a minimum load but I don't think any server-grade supplies are designed that way, any more.

I had some bad caps on a PE 2500 (?) some years ago (power distribution module was a BIG board, scantily populated).



You trade time for horsepower. Do you really need a compressed filesystem? (are you trying to run off a tiny SSD?) Nowadays, you can easily trade dollars for access time (in your case, uncompressed data).

E.g., I now store all my music as 24/96 FLAC as memory is so cheap; it lets a small "server" stream multiple programs to different clients without working up a sweat.

It was still on and operating fine when I shut it down. We've never had a lightning strike take out anything here

I shall try that with the psus

No, im a technician and use it for utility and backup storage, as well as media, videos, other software. It has two WD blacks 1tb in linux raid 1 and are about 90% full with compression

[Uranium-235]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

Tried the short test on both. Neither works. But then again I don't even get a ac led when plugged in

Took one apart. My god these are built well. Nichicon and rubycons

[Agent24]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

Bad capacitors or other parts somewhere?
If it was on 24/7 normally, the components would stay warm and work OK.

Now you shut it down for a while, things get cold, it can't start up again.

Try the hairdryer test?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

looks like u did everything right to take care of your stuff but it still failed. i too hate it when my stuff kicks the bucket but i took every measure to make it last. the fact that i dabble in retro stuff doesnt make my grief any better as they are irreplaceable and no longer being made.

so even tho i cant help u fix your dead server, i can offer u my moral support in that i too feel your pain.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

Actually I got around to switching the purple wire on that EPS Psu and it fired right up. I'm not using the scsi backplane so I don't need it. Just need to find the adapter plate and a dedicated psu, as the Corsair is slate for a different destiny

[Curious.George]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

No, im a technician and use it for utility and backup storage, as well as media, videos, other software. It has two WD blacks 1tb in linux raid 1 and are about 90% full with compression

Again, time vs. (horse)power. I've got about 60T (?) of spinning rust but seldom have more than 2 or 3T spinning (on different machines) at any given time. The rest is stored "off-line" -- indexed in a RDBMS -- so I can quickly find anything that I need, and move it to spinning rust.

[The RDBMS, coupled with some custom software, also allows me to verify every various media as/when they are eventually mounted (I store a hash of each file's contents in the RDBMS which the software systematically verifies whenever any volume is mounted). This lets me keep multiple copies of files -- usually on different media -- and proactively detect bitrot (as if a distributed RAID that employs scrubbing) before I go to access a file and discover it has been corrupted (or, the media has failed).]

E.g., The chances of me wanting to access my 1978 tax returns is effectively zero, on any given day. So, why should I let them eat up space on a spinning disk? OTOH, silly to discard them given it "only" costs me some space on an off-line disk to keep them and the receipts for the purchases I've "deducted"!

Likewise, I likely won't need to access the OEM drivers for any of these computers unless I need to reinstall OS, etc. I don't want to discard them as manufacturers arbitrarily decide to remove resources from their sites and I'd hate for a piece of hardware to be made useless (or even "less useful") just because I don't happen to have a file that is needed...

My normal music archive resides on a dinky little 1.6GHz Atom that runs 24/7/365 to provide core networking services for me (BIND, TFTPd, font server, DHCPd, etc.) If I have a hankering for something that's not "mounted", then I have to consult the RDBMS (running on that same "services" machine) to determine which off-line volume(s) have a copy of the files I want.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

I have a pe 700 (s478 p4 ht 3.2). But it's too loud. I could migrate everything. My server is really multipurpose

I don't have the need, or money to buy more disks to keep offline.

I don't need even 4tb (yet). I know it's cpu overkill. But everything is already setup on it. Cups, minidlna, smb, mdadm.

[Curious.George]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

I have a pe 700 (s478 p4 ht 3.2). But it's too loud.

That's why I opted for the little Atoms -- 4GB, fanless, USFF, quiet/slow 640G laptop drive. It sits under my dresser. The only time I know its there is when there's a power glitch and the UPS (sized to keep it running for almost a full day so the other UPS-backed workstations that rely on those services can continue to be used) kicks in.

I could migrate everything. My server is really multipurpose

I used to cram everything onto as few machines as possible. At one point, had a big tower that I could boot to 4 different OS's. I found this harder to maintain so now have dedicated machines for dedicated purposes.

E.g., I have one workstation that I use to develop software; another (identical) that I use to prepare documentation (DTP). In addition, a set of three identical boxes that I use to design circuit boards and enclosures (CAD/EDA); do graphic illustrations; and create multimedia presentations (each workstation has a different complement of I/O devices as appropriate to the task at hand but each also hosts a 15 drive SAS/SATA array/shelf ).

One of the little Atoms (I have 6 or 8 of them) does my core network services (mentioned above). The rest host external USB drives that I can spin up when needed (for my "distributed NAS/RAID").

There are an assortment of other machines that I use for more specialized purposes E.g., I have a Compaq Portable 386 (lunchbox) that I use solely to give me access to a pair of ISA slots and a 5" floppy drive -- to support some legacy equipment (unit pictured doesn't have the ISA expansion chassis).

Plus some boxes for sentimental reasons (e.g., a Voyager that was just too cool for its day!)

I don't have the need, or money to buy more disks to keep offline.

For $100 you can have 4-5 TB spinning when you need it (and powered off otherwise). I was buying them in pairs so I could keep duplicate copies of files on different spindles. (I don't like large disks so now try to use just 1T drives -- but LOTS of them!)

My first PC had just a 60MB disk (mid 80's). I can recall spooling most of the disk's contents off to 9T tape to make space for the contents of some other 9T tape to be loaded in their place. This got old, real fast! But, adding my first 4G drive to it cost me $1K and the idea of living in a cramped machine quickly became a thing of history!

I don't need even 4tb (yet). I know it's cpu overkill. But everything is already setup on it. Cups, minidlna, smb, mdadm.

<shrug> Your choice. One thing I've learned is that you never have enough storage space. And, when/if faced with the choice of having to delete something to make room for something else, it seems like there's never a clear cut "right answer" (as you ultimately end up needing the thing you deleted at some later point in time!)

[Uranium-235]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

I have a dell SFF pentium D, but no space for the second hdd. I need raid 1

Heh, actually I bought a "server" from goodwill for $100. Why im using quotes us because it was actually a working promise vtrak 15100. Downside is it's all sata 150, with a sca e-scsi-160 backend. I have the cable, and active terminator. I used an old desktop with win98, telnet, and a crossover serial cable to do a factory reset years ago. With a scsi raid card I tested it. Totally works. Dual PSU and everything.

But I need something quiet. The PE1800 with a low noise Corsair 700w psu seems to work fine so far. Question is, it being an average quality psu, 24/7 load might be too much. These dell swappable psus are insanely high quality built

[Curious.George]

Re: Well. I woke up to a dead server.

I have a dell SFF pentium D, but no space for the second hdd. I need raid 1

If you're running a UN*X variant, I'm sure you can find a "software RAID" solution (hint: even "hardware RAID is actually software!). This allows you to mount an external (e.g., USB, FW, SCSI) drive as part of your "array" (configured as 0, 1, 5, etc.).

As I mentioned, up-thread, I use the little Atom boxes to host my "distributed RAID" -- the boxes, themselves, are diskless and support some number of EXTERNAL disks (USB). Software (in this case, custom software) makes the set of disks -- residing on different machines -- look like one giant composite RAID array... where I can opt to have N copies of any particular file (each possibly named different from the other -- or not).

The downside is that the replication isn't as "instantaneous" as with a hardware RAID solution (which still isn't "instantaneous"). The upside is that I can have large portions of the array spun down (and powered off). And, that all of the volumes need not be the same sort of disk (i.e., some can be SCA, others SCSI, still others PATA/SATA, FC-AL, etc.) or even the same storage technology (SSD, Optical, HD, MO, etc. -- all they need to be is "memory"). And, that I can implement the mirroring any way that I choose on a file-at-a-time basis.

For example:

Machine NAS1:

Volume A:

/Taxes/Federal/2017
/MyStuff/2017/Federal

Volume B:

/Backup/My2017FederalReturn

Machine NAS2:

Volume C:

/Archive/Personal/Federal/17
/Working/Taxes/17/Federal
/A/File/That/Exists/Nowhere/Else

Can all be copies of the same file. Whenever a particular Volume is detected anywhere, the NAS software recognizes it as part of the array and registers its new location. So, if I unplug Volume A and attach it to NAS2 (even if NAS2 is up and running, at the time!), all of those files on that volume are now recognized as being present on NAS2 (instead of NAS1).

The software continuously ensures that:
- each copy is intact (valid hash vs. hash stored in the "NAS catalog")
- each copy of a file is truly a copy of its peer(s)
- each copy of a file is accessible (no read errors THIS INSTANT -- instead of checking the file when someone decides to actually try to USE it)

This means (among others) that I can add (R/O) optical media to the array as well! So, I can make another "volume" -- D -- on a CD that has:

Volume D:

/2017/Taxes/Federal
/2017/Taxes/State
/2017/Taxes/Receipts
/2016/Taxes/Federal
/2016/Taxes/State
/2016/Taxes/Receipts
/2015/Taxes/Federal

Whenever this volume is mounted (accessible), its contents are checked just like any other (to verify they are intact, accessible and agree with their counterparts on the other volumes -- none of which are necessarily mounted at the present time)

So, I decide how valuable a given bit of data should be and the efforts I want to go to preserve it. E.g., I'd REALLY REALLY want to keep my '17, '16, '15 and '14 taxes and supporting documentation ("three years plus the current year" for audits). But, probably don't care too much for the 'scan of the manual for my 20 year old snow blower! (OTOH, I wouldn't want to discard that manual as it really isn't costing me anything to keep it!)

But I need something quiet. The PE1800 with a low noise Corsair 700w psu seems to work fine so far. Question is, it being an average quality psu, 24/7 load might be too much. These dell swappable psus are insanely high quality built

That's the beauty of the Atoms and the external USB disks. You don't even know any of it is running!

OTOH, the portions of the array that reside on 15K SAS/SCSI drives demand to be heard. I can move money to places where I want performance vs. capacity (the oversized consumer external drives are excellent for this sort of thing; generally lower reliability but, if rarely powered up, last many many years -- with inexpensive duplicates!)