Dacentec dedicated Opteron with 2x2TB and 4x750GB $25/mo in North Carolina

WSS

@Nekki said:
You don't like to live dangerously?

Meh.

@Harambe said:
I didn't see RAID listed anywhere when I ordered, I assumed I'd be doing a software RAID setup.

I just assumed with this many drives, it wouldn't be onboard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nekki

@WSS said:

I just assumed with this many drives, it wouldn't be onboard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It does look a bit like this was a standard 2x2TB build that they shoved a load of old drives into to sweeten the deal.

WSS

It'll work fine for storage. Not like SoftRAID takes a lot of effort.

MikePT

@WSS said:

@MikePT said:

@WSS said:
I've got a flaky KVM. I'm getting no video, but there was just a flash of red on the BIOS screen.

At least you already got your server. Its been 30h here!

Nothing's quite as awesome as paying for something you can't use!

Edit: I got @MikePT 's KVM. Neener neener neener!
@Harambe said:

@WSS said:
Edit: I got @MikePT 's KVM. Neener neener neener!

If you want to be an ass, you'll keep it for the whole 24 hr loan period before they reclaim. Rather than releasing it when done.

Looks like I can go to sleep then! Hehe, I know it will be a PITA to try to get CentOS 7 to run on this server... So doesnt matter much. Im praying for the free Yeti though!

MikePT

@Nekki said:

@WSS said:

I just assumed with this many drives, it wouldn't be onboard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It does look a bit like this was a standard 2x2TB build that they shoved a load of old drives into to sweeten the deal.

Yeah, it even says in the description, 6 bay.

@WSS said:
It'll work fine for storage. Not like SoftRAID takes a lot of effort.

I'll certainly do SW Raid... 2"2TB as RAID 1 and 4x750GB RAID 10.
Hopefully.
...if you ever release the KVM ahah!

WSS

@MikePT said:
I'll certainly do SW Raid... 2"2TB as RAID 1 and 4x750GB RAID 10.
Hopefully.
...if you ever release the KVM ahah!

I'll be done in under an hour at this rate. Don't stay up for it, because I don't know where you sit in provisioning. I just said I got your KVM because mine was roached. :P

WSS

We have allocated a /48 block of IPv6 address space to you.

welp

Harambe

Got a 1 year old RE4 and 1 year old WD SE drive for the 2TB, and mix of 1.5 to 6 year old 750GB drives.

Couldn't figure out how to boot remote media, so ended up using their install system for a SW RAID 1 on the 2TB drives and then configuring a RAID 5 for the 750GB drives.

WSS

Don't forget to go into your BIOS and check your Northbridge settings. Mine was set for AGP/automatic, and was not allocating enough memory for IOMMU to actually work. Setting it to 64MB took care of that, so I can run a recent 4.x kernel.

jvnadr

Harambe said: Couldn't figure out how to boot remote media, so ended up using their install system for a SW RAID 1 on the 2TB drives and then configuring a RAID 5 for the 750GB drives.

If you want to use their images with KVM for manual installation, use the instructions (you have them in your activation email) that lists the available OS images. Then, in KVM lantronix console, you mount it (there are also instuctions) and when done, you power on the server and get into the bios from KVM to configure it to boot from CD-ROM image. Hope I helped.

Harambe

@jvnadr said:
get into the bios from KVM to configure it to boot from CD-ROM image. Hope I helped.

This was the part I had an issue with. Couldn't get "Pepper Virtual CD-ROM" (or anything similar) to show up as a BIOS boot option.

I've done a lot of remote installs before just didn't work out this time, but it wasn't difficult to setup what I wanted using their automated provisioning system.

jvnadr

Harambe said: Couldn't get "Pepper Virtual CD-ROM"

This is not the CD-ROM but a virtual usb flash drive for uploading a new image (they have a centos7 net install as default there, at least for me). But you have to mount first a virtual cd-rom from lantronix control panel using their instructions and the list with isos (you enter the name manually).

WSS

The easiest way to install your own OS is to chain to iPXE..

--

Also, hardware not happy even after fixing IOMMU. Hope it's just bad cables, but I highly doubt it. The 6 year spinning drive throws a preboot warning. Wooo!

[  262.398539] ata1: EH in SWNCQ mode,QC:qc_active 0x7FC000 sactive 0x7FC000
[  262.398650] ata1: SWNCQ:qc_active 0x4000 defer_bits 0x7F8000 last_issue_tag 0xe
                 dhfis 0x4000 dmafis 0x4000 sdbfis 0x0
[  262.398829] ata1: ATA_REG 0x41 ERR_REG 0x84
[  262.398893] ata1: tag : dhfis dmafis sdbfis sactive
[  262.398964] ata1: tag 0xe: 1 1 0 1  
[  262.399028] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x7fc000 SErr 0x400000 action 0x6 frozen
[  262.399143] ata1.00: Ata error. fis:0x21
[  262.399202] ata1: SError: { Handshk }
[  262.399256] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.399337] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:70:00:80:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 14 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.399562] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.399621] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.399680] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.399760] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:78:00:88:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 15 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.399985] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.400044] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.400103] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.400183] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:80:00:90:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 16 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.400407] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.400466] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.400526] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.400606] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:88:00:98:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 17 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.400944] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.401002] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.401062] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.401142] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:90:00:a0:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 18 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.401366] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.401425] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.401485] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.401565] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:98:00:a8:e1/04:00:02:00:00/40 tag 19 ncq dma 524288 out
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.401789] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.401848] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.401907] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.401987] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:a0:00:ac:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 20 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.402211] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.402270] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.402330] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.405678] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:a8:00:b4:e1/08:00:02:00:00/40 tag 21 ncq dma 1048576 ou
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.412571] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.415968] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.419324] ata1.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[  262.422618] ata1.00: cmd 61/00:b0:00:bc:e1/04:00:02:00:00/40 tag 22 ncq dma 524288 out
                        res 41/84:70:00:80:e1/84:00:02:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
[  262.429400] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
[  262.432801] ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT }
[  262.436182] ata1: hard resetting link
--
# for n in /dev/sd[abcdef]; do echo $n; smartctl -a $n | grep -i hours; done
/dev/sda
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   092   092   000    Old_age   Always       -       6064
/dev/sdb
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   084   084   000    Old_age   Always       -       12030
/dev/sdc
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   040   040   000    Old_age   Always       -       53093
/dev/sdd
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   094   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       5639
/dev/sde
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   070   070   000    Old_age   Always       -       26704
/dev/sdf
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   079   079   000    Old_age   Always       -       19150

Harambe

@jvnadr said:

Harambe said: Couldn't get "Pepper Virtual CD-ROM"

This is not the CD-ROM but a virtual usb flash drive for uploading a new image (they have a centos7 net install as default there, at least for me). But you have to mount first a virtual cd-rom from lantronix control panel using their instructions and the list with isos (you enter the name manually).

I understand how it works - the normal boot option for a remotely mounted ISO on a spider will display itself as "Pepper Virtual CD-ROM" or something along those lines. I know that it's a virtual drive not a real CD-ROM.

What I'm saying is I couldn't find a boot option for the virtual disk in the BIOS. So I can mount using their local share or remotely using the applet, but I can't boot because the BIOS can't see a virtual disk.

Maybe they left the second USB cable on the KVM unplugged and just had the one for the keyboard plugged in, or they plugged it into a dead USB port, I don't know.

WSS

It'll sometimes show as a flash device with these ancient machines.

I gave up and let it do a Jessie/2 drive raid1 install, then dd'd my ISO to sdc, booted from that, and did a rebuild. These KVMs are as painful as these old machines.

Harambe

@WSS said:
It'll sometimes show as a flash device with these ancient machines.

Yeah, was looking for something strange but just got entries for the nvidia boot loader, floppy disk and hard drive.

WSS

@Harambe said:

@WSS said:
It'll sometimes show as a flash device with these ancient machines.

Yeah, was looking for something strange but just got entries for the nvidia boot loader, floppy disk and hard drive.

What I did first, was DD the latest iPXE ISO image to sda, then chain from that to do an install. With your network info, you can get it online and chaining to anything within a couple minutes. If I was installing a *BSD, I would have kept with that- but my box died and hung at the bootloader, and I had queued a Debian install, so it went right into that.

Harambe

Moral of the story: these specials use garbage hardware... but $25 for 7TB of raw storage, just shy of 4TB RAID-ed, can't complain.

WSS

Yep. You're paying for unreliable storage. It's almost like dropbox- but you have root!

---

@Nekki said:

@Harambe said:
Moral of the story: these specials use garbage hardware... but $25 for 7TB of raw storage, just shy of 4TB RAID-ed, can't complain.

It's all about the cheap storage...how else can we build the LETFlix network?

LETFlix? More like Archive.org.

Nekki

@Harambe said:
Moral of the story: these specials use garbage hardware... but $25 for 7TB of raw storage, just shy of 4TB RAID-ed, can't complain.

It's all about the cheap storage...how else can we build the LETFlix network?

Harambe

@WSS said:
Yep. You're paying for unreliable storage. It's almost like dropbox- but you have root!

I trust it more than a cheap storage vps. At least I know the shitty IOPs are dedicated to me.

WSS

@Harambe said:

@WSS said:
Yep. You're paying for unreliable storage. It's almost like dropbox- but you have root!

I trust it more than a cheap storage vps. At least I know the shitty IOPs are dedicated to me.

Just so long as your SATA cable stays attached. Given the silly issues I've seen within a couple hours, I'd put this on par with most hardware found in a dumpster. If the drives stop having issues and causing bus resets, I'll be happy.

Harambe

@Nekki said:
LETFlix network

Is this a thing yet? Where's my invite?

Harambe

@WSS said:
I'd put this on par with most hardware found in a dumpster.

I haven't had any of those sorts of issues yet. Maybe mine was pulled from a dumpster in a good part of town?

WSS

@Harambe said:

@WSS said:
I'd put this on par with most hardware found in a dumpster.

I haven't had any of those sorts of issues yet. Maybe mine was pulled from a dumpster in a good part of town?

Well, it is AMD. Give it time..

Nekki

@Harambe said:

@Nekki said:
LETFlix network

Is this a thing yet? Where's my invite?

Getting there, probably going to be something of a loose coalition of individuals offering access to their servers.

Hxxx

Make sure to include your tentacles material @Nekki
Thanks.

Nekki

@Hxxx said:
Make sure to include your tentacles material @Nekki
Thanks.

Been discussed, only family friendly tentacles will be included.

painfreepc

@Nekki said:

@Hxxx said:

Been discussed, only family friendly tentacles will be included.

That's the Norm - Here At LET ..

Nekki

@painfreepc said:

@Nekki said:

@Hxxx said:

Been discussed, only family friendly tentacles will be included.

That's the Norm - Here At LET ..

Wat?