Category Archives: Computers

Overview

A while back I picked up an HP DL160 G6 to replacing my aging Dell PowerEdge 2950 II as my NexentaStor server. The end result was less than perfect and I was never happy with the performance of the server. I was seeing performance decrease over the old PE2950II and the two on-board NIC’s were not sufficient to feed all the servers and workstations with data. So I decide to scrap it and rebuild from scratch. With that in mind, I picked up yet another Dell PowerEdge R710 from Kijiji.

This R710 one comes with two X5550 2.6Ghz Quad Core CPU’s and 96GB of RAM. I’ll pilfer some of that RAM as it comes with 8GB sticks and put it to good use elsewhere. Replace the 8GB sticks with 4GB that I have abundance of for a total of 72GB of RAM.

In my previous blog I started the process of swapping out the Dell network switches in order to replace an aging Netgear GS716T at one of my DC Racks. This time I need to reconfigure the swapped out Dell PowerConnect 5224 switch so that when I rack it up at the data center, only minimal configuration will be required.

This switch is massive compared to the Dell PowerConnect 5324. In my experience it is just as good as the 53 series switches. The feature set is about the same even though the Web UI is slightly different.

To factory reset the PowerConnect 5224 all that’s required is to repeatedly hit Ctrl-F as the switch boots up. It’ll go into a recovery menu. Then all that’s required is to delete the startup-config and set the Factory Default file as the start file

Once the switch is reloaded. Standard config commands will configure the switch for ethernet

Console#configure
Console(config)#interface vlan 1
Console(config-if)#ip address 192.168.77.192 255.255.255.0
Console(config-if)#end
Console#copy running-config startup-config
Console#reload

The switch is now ready to be configured via the Web UI.

Few weeks ago I picked up this old Intel SR1530AH server. This server was picked up specifically to act as a firewall for one of my racks at a data center. This is a very basic, almost desktop level hardware. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz CPU and 4GB of RAM. The only thing that is non-desktop is the fact that it is ECC ram.

This is actually a very nice machine for the purpose. Based on previous experience with 2.0Ghz it should be able to sustain approx 300MBit/s unencrypted traffic across interfaces. Which is quite plenty since the uplink to the internet is only a 100Mbit connection. Now, because this server only comes with two onboard network interfaces, I needed to add an additional network card. I had an extra low profile riser in my junk drawer so couple of minutes later I added a dual port Intel Pro nic. This gives me the minimum 3 interfaces I require (WAN, LAN and DMZ). I could potentially use the third interface as a bridged DMZ for some of the VMs.

In order to install pfSense on the server, I needed persistent storage. I chose to go with the OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD drive. Seems like overkill since the installation of the firewall is only about 6GB including swap space. But SSD’s are pretty cheap nowadays and since pfSense hardly ever writes to the local storage and the lack of moving parts should equate long drive life.

Ran into a small issue installing the 2.5″ SSD into the server as the adapter that comes with the drive is insufficient to mount it. Thankfully, I’ve had several of these “Ice Packs”. These came off of several Western Digital Velociraptors. While it looks like a heavy duty heatsink, it’s main purpose is to simply adapt the 2.5″ Velociraptor size to a 3.5″ hot-swap size.

Couple of screws and the Agility nicely sits in the Ice Pack, ready to be installed into the server.

The disk drive now installed into the server. Hopefully it won’t have to leave it’s home for a very long time.

Time to install pfSense. This simply involves downloading the ISO image from the pfSense web site. Uncompressing it and burning to the CD. The uncompressed image is only 115MB so the burn process is very quick.

After that, simply connect the USB DVD Drive and pop the pfSense CD inside and boot-up the server.

Couple of minutes and few wizard like questions and pfSense is ready to be configured via a browser.

Last step is to label the network interfaces on the back of the server.

The server/firewall is now ready to be racked up. Should be going into the datacenter on Wednesday.

One of my racks at a datacenter has been having some connectivity issues. There’s a possibility that the Netgear GS716T uplink switch is starting to flake out. So I wanted to replace the switch while it’s still running. Canada Post dropped off this little gem from eBay today. Dell PowerConnect 5324. 24 Port Gigabit Managed Switch. I’m running several of these switches with great success.

The idea is to take my existing PowerConnect 5224 from home and replace the datacenter GS716T with it. Then use the new 5324 at home. The PowerConnect 5224 has been proven very reliable and very low latency. If the GS716T is problematic, I know the Dell will show it.

First step is to get this switch configured. This means resetting is to factory settings

Reset To Factory Settings

> enable
> config
> delete startup-config
> reload

Configure IP Address

> enable
> config
> interface vlan 1
> ip address 192.168.77.250 /24
> ip default-gateway 192.168.77.1
> exit
> exit
> copy running-config startup-config

Reload to make sure it saved properly

> reload

Create a web UI user

> enable
> config
> username admin password admin level 15
> copy running-config startup-config

A quick check in the browser and looks like we’re fully operational.

Always a good idea to update the Firmware before it’s put into production. So next step is to hit the Dell Support Site, punch in the Service Tag number and get the latest firmware.

To load the firmware onto the switch, I need a TFTP server running. Over the years I’ve been using this software. No install required, just execute and drop files into its root. I simply renamed the Dell firmware files, boot file to boot.rfb and image file to image.ros and copied right into the TFTP root.

Then from the console

> copy tftp://192.168.77.6/image.ros image
> copy tftp://192.168.77.6/boot.rgb boot
> The copy operation has failed
Copy:
Due to boot initial state, update should be done twice.
Please download the same file again to complete the process.
> copy tftp://192.168.77.6/boot.rgb boot
The copy operation was completed successfully

Now we need to change the boot flash block. Uploading files to the switch always uploads to the non-active block.

> show bootvar
Images currently available on the FLASH
image-1 not active
image-2 active (selected for next boot)

in this case, it was already defaulting to image-2 so we now need to boot to image-1

> boot system image-1
> reload
> enable
> show version
SW version 2.0.1.4 ( date 01-Aug-2010 time 17:00:12 )
Boot version 1.0.2.02 ( date 23-Jul-2006 time 16:45:47 )
HW version 00.00.02

Now all that’s left is to configure the VLAN’s and Trunking to mimic the existing configuration and just do a straight swap.

Incidentally, I logged onto my GS716T at home while mapping ports and was greeted with this:

I guess I haven’t fiddled with that switch in a while, if it ain’t broke….

Had a quite productive weekend. Had to put UltraDMM development on hold for a while as I had to deal with some home network/server issues and catching up on some development for clients.

Picked up an HP (yeah I know) DL160 G6 server from Kijiji. This server has replaced a Dell PowerEdge 2950 II as my NexentaStor server. With 40GB of RAM, a faster CPU it should make the use of deduplication a lot more enjoyable, with the limited 16GB RAM of the PowerEdge 2950, large file deletions would hang the box for quite a while. The DL160 is connected to the Dell PowerVault MD1000 via a Dell H200 6Gbps HBA. Using an old OCZ Vertex as SSD Read Cache. This makes for a very speedy combination. Presenting the datastores to the vSphere server using a combination of iSCSI and NFS pools.

Also picked up this “older” Intel SR1350 server. These make absolutely great pfSense firewall boxes. I’ve tried many firewalls over the years. From simple software based routers to dedicated hardware firewalls (insert Sonicwall Pro 2040 rant here). Once I found pfSense and all the features that it offers, I pretty much stopped looking at anything else. Not only the firewall comes with pretty much every possible feature, it’s extensible via plugins. And with this server, I should be able to easily attain 50MB/s throughput between zones which is perfect for small virtual environment.

The server comes with two on-board Intel NIC’s. I’ve added an additional dual port Intel PRO/1000 nic. This gives me 4 full speed zones (WAN, LAN, DMZ and Bridge). The only thing I need is a small SSD that I use for the boot drive.

Also picked up this Dell PowerEdge R610. To be honest, I haven’t figured out a good use for it yet, but it was a great deal worth snagging. For now I’ll probably install Windows 2012 Storage Server and attach some eSATA boxes to it for testing.

In the last few days I picked up enough servers to retire my last batch of Dell PowerEdge 2950’s. These will be going on Kijiji for sale, hopefully someone will give them a good home.

Now back to UltraDMM development.