BloodKnight7

Try using lifecycle controller to install the OS. You can access lifecycle controller by pressing F10. Follow instructions in this link: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-ca/poweredge-r630/sys_mgmt_gsg/setting-up-your-dell-poweredge-server-using-dell-lifecycle-controller?guid=guid-5e0aadbf-aa52-4f12-baa8-5866604bb8cd&lang=en-us

have you tried creating a new vm and just attatching the old vmdk drives?

Use Dell Command Update to apply the latest firmware/drivers available for your optiplex. If you are going to run the system 24/7 having the newest most stable available firmware definitely helps! Other than that all the recommendations above are quite solid. I would also give it a deep cleaning/repaste before putting it on operation.

I agree with Blue4130 on this one, unless you are doing a very write resource intensive application (like logs from a high performance database) RAID 6 will work better for you than RAID10. It will also give you more space.

You plan the server to do what role(s) exactly? just a NAS?

No issues, glad we could be of service! Maybe this older server needs more amps/watts and that was juicing out the ups. Anyways, good luck with your future endeavors.

Next time just remember, as long as you keep your vmdk-flat file(s) you can regenerate and recover all your vms even if everything else goes to hell.

you mean... like re-create even the VMs? oh man... if that was the case so sorry I arrived too late. We could had regenerated the VMs from their vmdk-flat files.

you up and running?

Captain here, for IBM the best thing you can do is to look for their "redbooks". Lots of reading to do but you will learn all the basic setup/functionality. http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg247010.pdf

If you create a new vm from scratch... will it turn on? if it does...then just try creating a new vm and then attatching the old virtual disk to the new one.

well... best of lucks with the testing, if you dont find the culprit in the PSUs, the PDUs or the UPS then Im afraid there could be an issue with the motherboard....which would be normal due to the server age, electronic components start to degrade.

Well... that is intersting, I havent touched an HP server in about 9 years, but from what I can see those brown-out events means that your server lost power temporarily, this could either mean something is wrong with the motherboard, or the PSUs, or even the UPS system you have the server connected to could be at fault. Try just having 1 of the power supplies plugged in, if it fails try the other one. Also... why is your onboard clock not with the proper day time, maybe your battery is dead?

I would start by checking the ILO logs...if its a hardware issue you should be able to pinpoint it in the ipmi logs.... if there is nothing there then we would need to check vmware logs... specifically /var/run/log/vmksummary

If you have unlimited budget you can get good ventilation solution with a tempered glass rack....personalized to your choosen criteria from one of many companies that offer such services... I know this guys https://www.martinenclosures.com/product/air-conditioned-server-racks/ they made the most gorgeous show room for a customer's Datacenter that I have seen in my life, they even put LED lighting.