Technolab 2.0 » Hardware

Whitebox ESXi

Frode Sandholtbråten — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:13:18 +0000

I remember the first time I got my hands on VMware ESXi. It was the 3.5 version and it quickly became apparent to me that this was the feature. Long gone was the chubby ESX COS which I used before. Of course, having a full COS (Linux) had its benefits, but it did little to …

Dell PowerEdge R200 and ESXi 4.0

Frode Sandholtbråten — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:58:10 +0000

I promised some more details on the R200 and ESXi 4.0. Full hardware spec: Server: Dell PowerEdge R200 Processors: 1x Intel Xeon X3320 2.5GHz Quad Core Memory: 6GiB, DDR2 667MHz ECC Disk space: 1x640GB SATA + 1x80GB SATA Storage controller: Intel ICH9 NIC: 2x Broadcom BCM5721, 1x Intel PRO/1000PT PCI-E Dual Port OS: VMware ESXi …

New host: Dell PowerEdge R710

Frode Sandholtbråten — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:49:39 +0000

So, it was time to make the virtualization a bit more serious and the same time solve my hosting problem. After a quick survey of the hardware available, I bought a Dell PowerEdge R710: Chassis: 2U CPU: 2x Intel E5520 2.26GHz 8MB L3 RAM: 24GB UDIMM at 1066MHz PERC 6/I RAID controller 6x Western Digital …

Dell R200 and vSphere

Frode Sandholtbråten — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:01:34 +0000

Yes, the Dell PowerEdge R200 runs vSphere/VMware ESXi 4.0. More details to come as I revive this blog :-)

ESXi and the R200

Frode Sandholtbråten — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:18:20 +0000

I’m getting some comments about the “Can’t write to device” errors. At first I thought it might be a problem with 3.5U2 since I had no problems installing the 3.5U1 on the R200, but my reinstall with 3.5U2 went without a hitch. So, here are some other ideas: Bad disk drive / disk drive firmware …

My project

Frode Sandholtbråten — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:23:11 +0000

So, ok, the new semester started today. As always, I’m a bit lazy on the first day so I took the opportunity to work from home instead of going to school. It turned out be a rather ok day when I finally got out of bed. I’ve made a quick front page and a suggestion …

Serial Console on VMWare ESX(i)

Frode Sandholtbråten — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:34:43 +0000

Just to follow up on the post about Serial console over IPMI: The ESX(i) supports serial console, but you have to configure it under “Configuration –> Advanced Settings –> VMKernel –> Boot”. I didn’t get a real console on the VMware ESXi (I didn’t try to hard neither), but I got the debug output from …

Serial console over IPMI

Frode Sandholtbråten — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:22:27 +0000

The PowerEdge R200 is equiped with an IPMI controller which enables you to control power settings and read sensors over LAN. The version on the R200 is 1.5 which is rather old and outdated, but it does the job. One of the more hidden features of the IPMI controller is the ability to support serial …

Hot hot hot…

Frode Sandholtbråten — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:31:15 +0000

As said earlier, our server room is not equiped with the latest and most powerful cooling equipment available. As it is summer in Norway, the temperature in the room could get above 35C. This room is not optimal, but it is the best solution available to me. So, in order to track the temperature changes …

Connecting the pieces…

Frode Sandholtbråten — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:13:51 +0000

After installing ESXi to the PE R200 servers and doing some initial testing it was time to move the servers to their new home. We have a primitive server room here at our hall of residence which I am happily abusing. I say primitive since there are no rack cabinets installed and the cooling is …