@DavidRK Nice!! They are excellent servers for the cost… the iDrac is also an awesome remote power cycle/management/monitoring tool if u have remote access back to your house (ie I use an encrypted openVPN tunnel from mobile device to pfsense) It’s also super handy for host reboots while ur not physically around to push buttons… I have 1 short rack with 3 servers that lives 5 hours away, 2 states over, that holds my “off-site backups” I can 100% manage all 3 without ever having to even call my uncle provided the internet is working @ both ends…
Also, the sliding rack rails are amazingly easy to work with compared to most of the others ive came across… U can litterally slide out the server with it still connected (powered down of course) and make ram/processor upgrades without unplugging the wires & ever even taking it off the rack… good servers are addictive!!! I got my first actual real rack server, a Dell PE1950, 5-6 years ago? (I have 9x 1950’s now), and the 610’s and 710s are starting to multiply around here quickly also… long story short, ur gunna love it!!!
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Well, I thought I would drop an update.
The Dell R620 is turning out to be a beast, once I got the general idea of how ESXi is setup and to get HDD/SSDs to register it seems pretty quick.
I just have a drive with all the ISOs and VNC software on and then it seems pretty quick to spin up a VM.
Couple things I wasn’t sure of and wanted to see if you have any ideas on @JacobJohnson was that Openhab and Ubuntu seem to fairly resource heavy, I ended up needing about 4GB of RAM and 2vCores to have it running nice. wonder if it’s just the Ubuntu desktop version or Ubuntu server or Debian 10 might be better.
Also, do you use a specific VNC or do you mainly just SSH in, if so what SSH client do you use? I have just been using Putty.
Also @JacobJohnson how do you go about install Java 8 on Debian, I have had nothing but issues trying to get it to install, do you run 32bit Debian for you openhab install, its the only thing I can think why i cant install it. java 11 installs fine but I get the old “E: Package ‘oracle-java8-installer’ has no installation candidate”, driving me crazy lol.
Managed to get Java and openhab working last night, ended up using Zulu’s java as openJDK seems to have issues going with it. seems like its working sweet. I love how easy it is with headless setups to set everything up. the only thing I vnc in for is setting the vm’s static ip.
@JacobJohnson I am taking the plunge this weekend and cranking up the squirrels in my HP DL380 G7. Because you suggest ESXi, I think I will head that direction. Being as I am a serious noob in this world, I assume the free licensed version is way more than I need? And it still has the 8 core restriction per VM and the inability to back them up once created? Any suggestions as far as setting this beast up?
I have a good Win7 enterprise ISO that i can do some VM’s with and do a Blue Iris setup, want to do a dedicated Plex VM, and who knows where that will take me? Hell, I may even do a Linux distro install and try to go over to the dark side!!! LOL I so need to do that.
@Guru_Of_Nothing it is definitely fun, I think the free ESXi is good for most things, cant do hot-plug of resource changes like CPU or ram but nothing wrong with doing a shutdown.
I have spun 5 VMs up[ this week as I delve into learning more Node.js, I been using Debian for most things as it seems least resource heavy and just use Putty to SSH in. Pretty fun.
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Well, I have found another addiction 
ESXi was so ridiculously easy to install on my HP server and one YouTube video later and I have 3 VM’s up and running! What took me so friggen long? The closet in the laundry room is noisy as hell now but that is ok. Just means that the new fans I installed to keep the closet air moving and cool will be money well spent.
Hahaha yeah, my wife has said I have to get the servers out the house, so this week I am going to build a enclosure for the rack in my workshop, mount some fans and filters on it and run a couple of cat6 back into the house.
Got a patch panel and an another Unifi rack switch so I can have more network connections from the Dell server and my storage server.
Fun project I am working on atm is making our place a little more self-sustainable, managed to get a ton of second hand solar panels + charge controller / inverter, instead of getting an electrician to wire my shed and solar up to the main house I am just keeping it off-grid and feed all my hungry servers and freezers for less than the electrician quote. only thing I need to hunt down is a few thousand of 18650 batteries without bleeding me dry.
I have planned to move my server out to one of the shipping containers I have as storage but I need to do some modifications to it for ventilation. The area I live in (Seattle-ish) has temps that stay pretty manageable for server room temps with the exception of August or so when we can be well into the 90’s (Fahrenheit) and that steel can gets a little warmer than I would want without forced air ventilation when it comes to computers. That is the only reason I don’t already have it out there. Can’t keep it cool enough. That whole space will eventually be turned into a man cave and will be insulated and climate controlled but that is a couple years out.
They say that 18650 batteries are in plentiful supply used but good luck getting them for anything close to affordable. People are buying them by the semi truck load to make their own Tesla walls and you can’t get them from used equipment anymore. Probably cheaper to buy yourself a wrecked Tesla and use the battery sled from it instead… except that is being done now too.
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Yeah its crazy how popular they have become, I was talking to a young chap this morning who said there is about 11 new giga-factory’s getting built for battery production in china for various large companies.
So we could have a price drop and possibly some more advanced batteries coming online in the next year.
Sorry I’ve been away for awhile guys, I pave asphalt during the summer so I’ve been totally overworked 60+/hrs a week… i acquired 20x dell r710s for $1200 a cuple months ago, and cant wait till winter to play with them!!
Also for remotely accessing linux boxes my preferred tool is good ol “winscp” and ssh rarely on certain stubborn systems…
@JacobJohnson Twenty of them! Holy crap! That oughtta keep you busy this winter. I just got my HPDL380 G7 relocated to it’s permanent home in the shipping container and all connected up so I too am ready to go nuts with it!
@Guru_Of_Nothing How are you planning on keeping the container cool over Summer? I need ideas for my server room. (It’s the walk in pantry).
@chris To start with, it sits in an area that is shaded by trees. I am going to add in thermostatically controlled fan and vents this winter as an added measure. And… I am going to set up a warning system that tells me if the container is getting too warm and I will shut the server down if it does so. At this point it it isn’t going to be a work horse so i don’t expect there to be a reason why I couldn’t shut it down. Being as we are in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t see a lot of hot weather… couple weeks or so maybe. By next summer I may be able to get a “server room” built in there with an air conditioner. It was in my coat closet and I had to cut a hole above the door and install 120mm fans and a grill to pull air from the floor and vent it out above the door to the laundry room space. Worked well but noisy with the server running. Hence the container. I met a guy that had a split AC unit installed in his closet to keep his gaming server cool. You’d have to get the other half to sign off though:-)
I’ve already installed door vents. I’m thinking a silent ceiling exhaust fan. Hopefully I don’t have to go the extreme of installing an AC unit 
Unfortunately, it takes a lot of CFM to clear out computer heat using a fan. Thought about using an old chest freezer I have and turning it into a server cooler until I watched a Linus Tech Tips video on a computer in a refrigerator and they don’t have the BTU transfer to do the job. Food doesn’t generate heat so the system can handle it.
DUDE! That just sparked an idea! Take the chest freezer and rack mount them vertically. Cut ducts into the box and connect them to a freestanding room AC unit! Small space that is controlled by a MUCH less expensive AC unit. Creates issues for wiring… but if there was ever a better redneck, that’s me! LOL
OR… a modded dehumidifier. Oh boy! I could get myself into ALL sorts of trouble with that.
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They make some heat, along with all my other servers… I built a heavily insulated shed behind the house to house all the racks, I have 2 large window ac units, 1 set to 70, and the other set to 80… I ran 4x 4" conduits between the shed and the house underground and couldn’t be happier… (I should mention I do have solar to slightly help with the power but it’s not 100% covered by any means) all in all I pay around $130/mo extra for the servers but it’s the only hobby I have that I have to pay for regularly so all in all not too terrible… lol
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