# Hooking up servers: help me become an IT guru!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [May 22, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216 "2012-05-22T19:07:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/1 "2012-05-22T19:07:08Z")
So the formula team (see sig) got some servers donated to us for remote solving and file storage. Our computer scientist is graduating and no one really knows this stuff (even him, really, but it all defaulted to him to figure out). Since I’m in charge of the electrons and have an interest in this stuff I’ve decided to get this done. Can anyone provide and info/links/books/ect that will help me set these up? We have 5 SuperServer 6016T servers, all need hard drives and the remote access cards. I’m in the process of acquiring a server rack so we can put these safely in the basement here at school. We could put them in the schools server room but then we don’t have 24/7 access to them and we aren’t comfortable with that because if something happens over the weekend we are screwed. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/2 "2012-05-22T19:16:47Z")
Are you running windows server? What software are you going to run? You didn’t give a lot of info I would worry about cooling and power if you don’t use the schools datacenter They sell KVMs and HP servers have iLO ports to let you remotely manage servers so you don’t need physical access unless you have some hardware blow up…iLO will let you force hardware level reboot and give you console access ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/3 "2012-05-22T19:19:37Z")
Our last computer was running windows server 2007 I believe. I’m open to anything as I have no prior experience or preference. ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/4 "2012-05-22T19:28:43Z")
Stick with windows lots of resources online… However you need to go from hardware(raid) config all the way into server setup and config pretty large breadth of knowledge for a beginner… I will try and find some links for you tomorrow… If you have any specific questions I am more then willing to help I also end up at RIT a lot working with their computer security program so I could lend a hand. Do you have a switch or any network hardware? ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/5 "2012-05-22T19:54:31Z")
We are going from a pc-based server to multiple servers so everything is new basically. We dont have a switch persay but one will be acquired once we have everything together to hook up the other servers. Right now me and one of the other guys are going to put the old hard drive into one of the servers and try to get it to boot as we need to be operational soon. He kinda acts like he knows what’s going on but I’m still skeptical. I’ll update as I go. Thanks for helping and definitely let me know the next time you are here. ---
**Author:** ![ProgRocker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/progrocker/32/5434_2.png) [@ProgRocker](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ProgRocker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/6 "2012-05-22T21:10:31Z")
> [@travisn](#): > > Our last computer was running windows server 2007 I believe. I’m open to anything as I have no prior experience or preference. No such thing…Either 2003, 2008, 2008 R2. From the first post you only need this to do storage? Do you have Domain Admin rights to join these to the domain? What’s your licensing situation for Windows Server? The HP iLO stuff is nice, some servers even have the panel on the front that will tell you what’s failing. ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/7 "2012-05-22T21:10:47Z")
So the HD he put in there is recognized by bios but not windows server install. might be a dead hd, I’ll have to investigate it more. Questions: -best HD’s to put in these? we will probably want 2 or 3 in each to do some sort of raid -someone mentioned the remote access card so we can reboot and what not remotely, what are these technically called so I can research them? any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![ProgRocker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/progrocker/32/5434_2.png) [@ProgRocker](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ProgRocker)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/8 "2012-05-22T21:15:31Z")
> [@travisn](#): > > So the HD he put in there is recognized by bios but not windows server install. might be a dead hd, I’ll have to investigate it more. > > Questions: > -best HD’s to put in these? we will probably want 2 or 3 in each to do some sort of raid > -someone mentioned the remote access card so we can reboot and what not remotely, what are these technically called so I can research them? any suggestions? LOL Ethernet cards? All you really need is Remote Desktop enabled, with 2008 there is a security feature that either allows all types of machines to connect or Anything Vista and Newer to connect. If you really want you can do Wake On Lan in case the server gets shutdown. ---
**Author:** ![TradersBASE](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/tradersbase/32/5321_2.png) [@TradersBASE](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/TradersBASE)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/9 "2012-05-22T21:21:22Z")
In for results. Tall order if you’re really that green. The other IT guys have already suggested/said what I was going to mention. GL ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/10 "2012-05-22T21:27:24Z")
Yea man, green as they come. ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/11 "2012-05-23T06:25:11Z")
You need to figure out what kind of drives these servers accept SCSI? SATA? SAS? You need to figure out what the current RAID controller if it has one and what levels of RAID it supports. How many drive bays? Depending on your budget a lot of people do RAID 1 for the OS which is 2 drives then 3 or more drives for RAID 5 for storage. However if the servers on have 3 drives just do a RAID 5 or RAID 1 + spare. SuperServer = Supermicro which isn’t HP like you mentioned earlier I don’t think they have anything for remote access like HPs iLO or Dells DRAC. Moving hard drives from the other sever and putting them into this probably won’t work btw 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ProgRocker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/progrocker/32/5434_2.png) [@ProgRocker](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ProgRocker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:29am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/12 "2012-05-23T06:29:16Z")
From the specs it looks like it takes 2.5" SATA drives and does pretty much all your basic RAID levels. I’m still unsure if this is just a fancy file share server or an application server or what. ---
**Author:** ![boardjnky4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@boardjnky4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boardjnky4)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/13 "2012-05-23T06:38:44Z")
Getting them racked and wired up isn’t as hard as it sounds. Hopefully you have all of the rails for the boxes. You mentioned that you will be getting a switch. What about getting power into the rack? It’s going to take some time to get the thing setup right. Take it in small steps. If you try to do too much too fast you will undoubtedly fuck it up. In terms of installing software, the RAID setup will probably have the steepest learning curve here. So focus your research efforts there. Setting up windows is a pretty basic task for anyone that reformats their home machines regularly. There are some differences in the network configs and stuff but that all can be tweaked post-install. Since the OS will live on the RAID array, you cannot do much to alter that array once the OS is installed (as far as I know). So you’re gonna want to make sure that’s all setup and ready to go before laying down the OS. Then once the OS is up and functional, then you can go ahead and install more drives and another array for storage and format/configure the file share for that. ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 9:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/14 "2012-05-23T09:38:20Z")
Wow, ok, here goes! lol > [@LZ](#): > > You need to figure out what kind of drives these servers accept SCSI? SATA? SAS? **I think it’s scsi which is why BIOS can see the drive but windows install cannot, does this make sense? Is there an actual difference in the drive I buy? I was reading and it’s just a driver that will allow the HD’s to get onto the SCSI bus? I’m just wondering if that’s the case why didnt the servers come with that driver? I’ve read through the manual that came with these and it said just install a drive, install windows, then install their driver disk, in that order.** > > You need to figure out what the current RAID controller if it has one and what levels of RAID it supports. > > How many drive bays? **4** > > Depending on your budget a lot of people do RAID 1 for the OS which is 2 drives then 3 or more drives for RAID 5 for storage. **any particular brand/options? The OS drive doesn’t have to be too big since it wont be doing any actual info storage, right? I’d like to learn more about that sort of stuff, for example my personal computer has a ‘small’ ssd and a larger storage HD and I’d like to be able to keep the heavy stuff on the regular HD but I cannot find a specific way to do that and I don’t feel comfortable doing it after the fact (dragging files around). I’d like to implement something here too where people can’t somehow keep their shit on the OS hd when they should use one of the different storage servers. sorry, all that might be another discussion, but may be relevant to get going in the beginning** > > However if the servers on have 3 drives just do a RAID 5 or RAID 1 + spare. > > SuperServer = Supermicro which isn’t HP like you mentioned earlier I don’t think they have anything for remote access like HPs iLO or Dells DRAC. **Yea, I’ve since edited it. I was getting a lot of second hand info from various people** > > Moving hard drives from the other sever and putting them into this probably won’t work btw 🙂 **Yea I know, I meant a reformatted drive, which was the old server drive** > [@ProgRocker](#): > > From the specs it looks like it takes 2.5" SATA drives and does pretty much all your basic RAID levels. I’m still unsure if this is just a fancy file share server or an application server or what. **How would I find out? And an application server hosts programs for sharing floating licenses? We need that part. A lot of our programs run that way.** > [@boardjnky4](#): > > Getting them racked and wired up isn’t as hard as it sounds. Hopefully you have all of the rails for the boxes. You mentioned that you will be getting a switch. What about getting power into the rack? **Everything came with slider rails, is there anything special I need to know about power? We still haven’t secured a rack yet because we aren’t sure where to put them yet (our own rack in the basement, somewhere in the schools server room, etc).** > > It’s going to take some time to get the thing setup right. Take it in small steps. If you try to do too much too fast you will undoubtedly fuck it up. > > In terms of installing software, the RAID setup will probably have the steepest learning curve here. So focus your research efforts there. Setting up windows is a pretty basic task for anyone that reformats their home machines regularly. There are some differences in the network configs and stuff but that all can be tweaked post-install. Since the OS will live on the RAID array, you cannot do much to alter that array once the OS is installed (as far as I know). So you’re gonna want to make sure that’s all setup and ready to go before laying down the OS. Then once the OS is up and functional, then you can go ahead and install more drives and another array for storage and format/configure the file share for that. **so you are saying stop messing around with the OS until I get a few new drives to RAID?** ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 9:45am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/15 "2012-05-23T09:45:44Z")
So you need a driver for the RAID array for windows to see it… However you first need to configure the RAID array similar to how you configure bios you need to interrupt the boot process and get in the configuration screen. If you can swing it just buy 4 drives and do RAID 5 + Spare You need to Install HDs -\> Configure RAID -\> Get Proper Drivers for RAID card -\> Install Windows ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/16 "2012-05-23T10:17:14Z")
Hmm ok. The server instructions give two options to installing windows: raid and normal. For raid it tells you to install the “Intel AA RAID WIndows XP/2003/2008/Vista Driver for ICH10R” _FLOPPY_ disk. Well that disk was not included, but it still gives the option for not using raid. I’ve looked through bios and it didn’t appear to be default RAID, perhaps I am looking in the wrong place? I’m going to try to get contact info for the company we got these from and see if I can get that disk. Also, it accepts RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. And none of the specifications list the SCSI card. I’ll have to open it up later and see if I can find one. But for now I need to go study for my heat transfer final. ---
**Author:** ![LZ1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 10:30am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/17 "2012-05-23T10:30:57Z")
Get this they have all kinds of useful drivers and such on the INTERNETZ If you goto the companies website who made the hardware you can DOWNLOAD them from the INTERNETZ Then you can put them on a USB drive and install them! Remind me to let you borrow the internet sometime [https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg](https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg) ---
**Author:** ![SilencingMachine](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/silencingmachine/32/7593_2.png) [@SilencingMachine](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/SilencingMachine)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/18 "2012-07-23T16:33:23Z")
> [@LZ](#): > > [https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg](https://youtu.be/iDbyYGrswtg) Fucking LOVED this episode! ---
**Author:** ![travisn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/travisn/32/5046_2.png) [@travisn](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/travisn)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/hooking-up-servers-help-me-become-an-it-guru/223216/19 "2012-07-23T16:52:13Z")
we still haven’t bought the drives or done anything really. but I did get an A on my heat transfer final. lol