Tell her it's all part of a cunning plan to take over the world... One cardboard box at a time!!
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Does this look good for a storage server?
- Thread starter Red Squirrel
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Tell her it's all part of a cunning plan to take over the world... One cardboard box at a time!!
Red Squirrel
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Come to think of it, given it's doing the exact same thing on another machine, is it safe to say it's something wrong with the cards themselves? Maybe it's a different revision or something? This is the cards:
(click for higher res)
Also, just grasping at straws here, but could something in my config.sys be causing issues? What should my config.sys look like? Originally I could not even execute the app at all because I was not allocating extended memory. I wonder if some other setting is causing issues.
(click for higher res)
Also, just grasping at straws here, but could something in my config.sys be causing issues? What should my config.sys look like? Originally I could not even execute the app at all because I was not allocating extended memory. I wonder if some other setting is causing issues.
Red Squirrel
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Tell her it's all part of a cunning plan to take over the world... One cardboard box at a time!!
I do have enough cardboard in this house right now to make the fire chief a little worried. LOL
Recycling day will be big, once all this is done and over with.
Rectal Prolapse
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Do you have access to an old Core 2 Duo machine? Like one with a 965 chipset? You might have better luck with those for flashing. I flashed my M1015s with one I think. Now if only I could remember what version of DOS I used...
Red Squirrel
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My main server is a core2duo, though I really don't want to turn it off. It's very old and something usually fails when I do. I think the new machines at work are core2duos though... I work tomorrow, so I'll check. Worse case scenario I can take down my server to put the card in. Though I'm not even sure if it has a pci-e 8x slot. I'll have to check the motherboard manual before I turn it down.
Red Squirrel
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I think I have a success!
Given it did it in another machine, and the fact that it was all 3 cards, I started to have a hunch it had to do with my dos environment.
After trying many things, I ended up disabling emm386 for kicks to see what happens.... and it worked! I did not try the bios update as I was only doing that because I thought it would fix the flash issue. When I tried flashing, it worked! I did not test the cards yet, but it looks good so far... I'm doing the 2nd card now. My 3 other cables came in today, so I'm crossing my fingers that everything works when I plug it in and I'll have myself a fully operational server ready to install an OS!
Now as a side note, how important is the order in which I plug the cables in? I'm kinda anal about having my drive labels match the actual system order and I don't actually have 24 drives to test. What is the typical order to plug everything is. Ex: is slot closest to the cpu the "1st" card, so port 0 would be the first 4 drives, then port 2 would be the next 4 etc? And what order are they in the front? It came with stickers to add drive numbers so I want to put them in the right order.
When a drive fails I need to know which one to pull out!
Given it did it in another machine, and the fact that it was all 3 cards, I started to have a hunch it had to do with my dos environment.
After trying many things, I ended up disabling emm386 for kicks to see what happens.... and it worked! I did not try the bios update as I was only doing that because I thought it would fix the flash issue. When I tried flashing, it worked! I did not test the cards yet, but it looks good so far... I'm doing the 2nd card now. My 3 other cables came in today, so I'm crossing my fingers that everything works when I plug it in and I'll have myself a fully operational server ready to install an OS!
Now as a side note, how important is the order in which I plug the cables in? I'm kinda anal about having my drive labels match the actual system order and I don't actually have 24 drives to test. What is the typical order to plug everything is. Ex: is slot closest to the cpu the "1st" card, so port 0 would be the first 4 drives, then port 2 would be the next 4 etc? And what order are they in the front? It came with stickers to add drive numbers so I want to put them in the right order.
When a drive fails I need to know which one to pull out!
Red Squirrel
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I just used whatever was default on the boot disk. Apparently it was not the right setup for the tool to work.
I put 4 drives in and they are detected by gparted, so that's a good sign! I'm waiting for the latest CentOS to download so I can install that on the internal SSD.
Only thing, I like putting 4 screws per drive, as I find the drive holds in the tray better and there's less chance that it's applying pressure to the port. Where would I be able to buy these flat screws? There are only 2 per tray.
Apparently it was not the right setup for the tool to work. I put 4 drives in and they are detected by gparted, so that's a good sign! I'm waiting for the latest CentOS to download so I can install that on the internal SSD.
Only thing, I like putting 4 screws per drive, as I find the drive holds in the tray better and there's less chance that it's applying pressure to the port. Where would I be able to buy these flat screws? There are only 2 per tray.
Red Squirrel
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Come to think of it, I remember seeing a bag with drive labels and pretty sure it had screws... might be the right ones, I just have to figure out what I did with it in all this mess LOL.
Also just pulled out my clamp on meter to test how much power this beast uses, I'm very impressed, only about 80 watts with 4 drives in it. Well, 0.67a, not sure if my meter is true rms or not, so simply timing by 120 might not be accurate but it gives a ballpark figure at least. Given it's server grade hardware I was expecting at least a couple hundred watts.
Also just pulled out my clamp on meter to test how much power this beast uses, I'm very impressed, only about 80 watts with 4 drives in it. Well, 0.67a, not sure if my meter is true rms or not, so simply timing by 120 might not be accurate but it gives a ballpark figure at least. Given it's server grade hardware I was expecting at least a couple hundred watts.
Ooh, lots or progress since I last checked in, good work
Sadly no idea on drive order against PCIe slot, you will also have to take into account the layout of the ports on your case backplane, if you want a logical physical layout as well, a bit or trial and error might have to be employed with any drives you have available.
Looks like you are making some good progress now and hopefully the worst is behind you
Should be ordering a case in the next day or so, then that just leaves storage drives, a few bits and pieces for cabling and it will be systems go.
Sadly no idea on drive order against PCIe slot, you will also have to take into account the layout of the ports on your case backplane, if you want a logical physical layout as well, a bit or trial and error might have to be employed with any drives you have available.
Looks like you are making some good progress now and hopefully the worst is behind you
Should be ordering a case in the next day or so, then that just leaves storage drives, a few bits and pieces for cabling and it will be systems go.