Hey all,

As stated, I have somehow acquired an entire DL380 G9 for $150 CAD in basically never-used condition and both Xeons present (There is aesthetic marks on the chassis, but actually 0 dust inside. It’s also lacking RAM).

I messed around with a couple of these things in college, but it’s been a bit since I dealt with the hardware side of servers and setting one up from bottom floor, so I just had a few questions if anyone wants to offer advice.

There is only a single 8 drive bay installed on it currently, and it does not have all of its caddies. What is your go-to place to source drive caddies or additional bays if needed? I’d also be interested in hearing recommendations on suppliers of 2.5" spinning drives, RAM, and power cables.

Back in college we used to put ESXi on these things, but after looking it up I can see that there is no longer a free edition. Is Proxmox the de-facto solution for bare metal hypervisors theses days? Either way, if anyone has any videos covering the process for installation on this hardware, I would appreciate it (though I can probably sus it out with enough time as well).

Finally, server racks are absurdly expensive of course. Any suggestions on DIY’s for a rack would be appreciated.

Glad to answer any additional questions if needed - thanks for your time.

  • litchralee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    13 hours ago

    Congrats on the acquisition!

    DL380 G9

    Does this machine have its iLO license? If so, you’re in for a treat, if you’ve never used IPMI or similar out-of-band server management. Starting as a glorified KVM, it then has full power control authority (power on/off, soft reset, hard reset), either a separate or shared Ethernet connection, virtual CD and USB, SNMP reporting, and other whiz-bang features. Used correctly, you might never have to physically touch the machine after installation, except for parts replacement.

    What is your go-to place to source drive caddies or additional bays if needed?

    When my Dell m1000e was missing two caddies, I thought about buying a few spares on eBay. But ultimately, I just 3d printed a few and that worked fine.

    Finally, server racks are absurdly expensive of course. Any suggestions on DIY’s for a rack would be appreciated.

    I built my rack using rails from Penn-Elcom, as I had a very narrow space I wanted to fit my machines. Building an open-frame 4-post rack is almost like putting a Lego set together, but you will have to take care to make sure it doesn’t become a parallelogram. That is, don’t impart a sideways load.

    Above all, resist the urge to get by with a two-post rack. This will almost certainly end in misery, considering that enterprise servers are not lightweight.

    • golden_zealot@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      1·
      13 hours ago

      Unsure about the iLO, but I do recall powering on one of these remotely in school using it. I’ll have to wait until I find some power cable to take a look I believe, but I do see a sticker with the default user name and password for it on the side, so here’s hoping haha.

      I have a PLA 3d Printer, but I fear PLA has too low of a melting point to use for server components. It would be neat if there were a caddie model out there I could test with though - will have to look around.

      Thanks for the insight on the rack as well, that will be good to know in the future I am certain.