Personal Folding Server Rig - Project Steamroller

[SansVarnic]

Update 20July2020

 

Well after the back and forth with the seller no solution has been found and thus my project is at a standstill. Since the seller led me on and you all know the rest of the issues I had with that seller (though they did try to resolve the issues) and I now have a server that requires the 220v power source and I cannot provide it without purchasing an inverter and those are not cheap. I am looking at $3-6k.

 

I guess I am back to square one, I have 2 options I could sell the server here or on ebay.

Any suggestions? I do not have my Ebay set up to sell, if there is interest I will place a post in the Forum Classifieds. /shrug

 

Dang it. 

I guess I am back to searching for another good deal to get this put together. After almost 4 years of planning I thought I was finally going to make this happen.

[RollinLower]

9 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Update 20July2020

 

Well after the back and forth with the seller no solution has been found and thus my project is at a standstill. Since the seller led me on and you all know the rest of the issues I had with that seller (though they did try to resolve the issues) and I now have a server that requires the 220v power source and I cannot provide it without purchasing an inverter and those are not cheap. I am looking at $3-6k.

 

I guess I am back to square one, I have 2 options I could sell the server here or on ebay.

Any suggestions? I do not have my Ebay set up to sell, if there is interest I will place a post in the Forum Classifieds. /shrug

 

Dang it. 

I guess I am back to searching for another good deal to get this put together. After almost 4 years of planning I thought I was finally going to make this happen.

man that's a damn shame. this really seemed to become one hell of a F@H box.

if i lived anywhere near you i'd come pick that box up in a heartbeat, tough i live in the netherlands and i very much doubt shipping something like that would be cheap.

[W-L]

10 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Update 20July2020

 

Well after the back and forth with the seller no solution has been found and thus my project is at a standstill. Since the seller led me on and you all know the rest of the issues I had with that seller (though they did try to resolve the issues) and I now have a server that requires the 220v power source and I cannot provide it without purchasing an inverter and those are not cheap. I am looking at $3-6k.

 

I guess I am back to square one, I have 2 options I could sell the server here or on ebay.

Any suggestions? I do not have my Ebay set up to sell, if there is interest I will place a post in the Forum Classifieds. /shrug

 

Dang it. 

I guess I am back to searching for another good deal to get this put together. After almost 4 years of planning I thought I was finally going to make this happen.

Depending on the panel you could always use the 240V from a less commonly use appliance like a dryer and transfer between the two when one needs to be used or the other to ensure you do not overload it. 

[SansVarnic]

On 7/20/2020 at 12:57 PM, RollinLower said:

man that's a damn shame. this really seemed to become one hell of a F@H box.

Yes. Yes it is. 

On 7/20/2020 at 1:58 PM, W-L said:

Depending on the panel you could always use the 240V from a less commonly use appliance like a dryer and transfer between the two when one needs to be used or the other to ensure you do not overload it. 

I dont have any 220 circuits in the house. As I have been informed until I get my service updated to 200 amps it is just not able to install a 220v curcuit. It sucks and I feel like I wasted my time or sould I say the seller wasted my time../shrug

 

I think I will put up a I have posted in the Classifieds for now.

I think I will also place a classified in craigslist and may set up my ebay later.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1224753-fs-usca/

[W-L]

7 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

Yes. Yes it is. 

I dont have any 220 circuits in the house. As I have been informed until I get my service updated to 200 amps it is just not able to install a 220v curcuit. It sucks and I feel like I wasted my time or sould I say the seller wasted my time../shrug

 

I think I will put up a I have posted in the Classifieds for now.

I think I will also place a classified in craigslist and may set up my ebay later.

 

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1224753-fs-usca/

Hmm and I'm assuming the panel is packed full to the point of no extra expansion slots? Even at a 100amp service you should have split phase 120V entering the home so it should be possible to achieve 240V. Only problem with a full panel would be trying to remove some 120V circuits to gain space for a single 240V. 

[SansVarnic]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:52 PM, W-L said:

Hmm and I'm assuming the panel is packed full to the point of no extra expansion slots? Even at a 100amp service you should have split phase 120V entering the home so it should be possible to achieve 240V. Only problem with a full panel would be trying to remove some 120V circuits to gain space for a single 240V. 

It is spilt phase and yeah the panel is full. Here is a photo.

Spoiler

I have spoken to the electrician about this and they told at the moment there is no way I could install the 220v.

There is one option I have is, I do have plans to run a separate service line to the garage so I can run power tools and I could do a 220v there but that wont happen until either end of year or next year.

 

*edit

@W-L What is your opinion on this APC unit? Think it may help solve my issue? In theory I get that 220v in place in the garage tomorrow.

https://www.ebay.com/p/1000022042?iid=231808304318

[W-L]

40 minutes ago, SansVarnic said:

It is spilt phase and yeah the panel is full. Here is a photo.

  Hide contents

 

That 30 Amp near the bottom left you have since it double wide should be 240V, red and black live lines. I'm definitely no expert at this but you may be able to get away with using a compatible quad tandem 240V breaker giving you two 240V circuits from a single double (2 slot) breaker. You'll need to check with an electrician thought since not all places allow this but tandem style breakers are commonly used for adding extra circuits to an already full panel instead of changing it or adding a sub panel.

 

Edit: That's a beefy UPS, long as you can get 240V into the home or garage that should work great, I'd ask them to verify the batteries and also check the price for replacements if they are not healthy. 

 

 

Another option if allowed would be to change come of the 120V circuits using single slot tandem breakers to get more space to add in another 240V breaker.

Edited July 22, 2020 by W-L

[SansVarnic]

2 hours ago, W-L said:

That 30 Amp near the bottom left you have since it double wide should be 240V, red and black live lines. I'm definitely no expert at this but you may be able to get away with using a compatible quad tandem 240V breaker giving you two 240V circuits from a single double (2 slot) breaker. You'll need to check with an electrician thought since not all places allow this but tandem style breakers are commonly used for adding extra circuits to an already full panel instead of changing it or adding a sub panel.

 

Edit: That's a beefy UPS, long as you can get 240V into the home or garage that should work great, I'd ask them to verify the batteries and also check the price for replacements if they are not healthy. 

 

 

 

Another option if allowed would be to change come of the 120V circuits using single slot tandem breakers to get more space to add in another 240V breaker.

 

I already spoke with the electrician that wired this house, they informed me that I cannot install a 240 in that box, it wont be able to handle the load. I would have to update the box.

Iirc that double is what powers the HVAC so I cant double pull from it anyhow, according to my Home Inspection classes it needs to be a double but Ill have to double check that.

[W-L]

15 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

I already spoke with the electrician that wired this house, they informed me that I cannot install a 240 in that box, it wont be able to handle the load. I would have to update the box.

Iirc that double is what powers the HVAC so I cant double pull from it anyhow, according to my Home Inspection classes it needs to be a double but Ill have to double check that.

The quad tandem will give you an extra 240V breaker so essentially two breakers in the same footprint, however if it's too much in general for the total incoming capacity of that panel then the second option with the garage getting 240V may be best. Also not bad if you have 240V tools like a welder.   

[SansVarnic]

I have decided to keep the server and wait until I can get the service update to the garage.

[SansVarnic]

*Update 10Sept2020

Ok since I decided to move forward with Project Steamroller despite the multitude of set backs I have been getting things ready to install a new 200amp service for the garage.

 

Well that not going to happen till next year, here is why;

 

August 10th 2020 the state of Iowa suffered on of the worst Derechos in recent history, is has been described as an inland hurricane. This storm effected over 28 counties in the state with straight-line winds from 110-140mph (for you metric peeps 177-225.3kph) the path of destruction was 770miles long. The storm itself moved 75-80mph (120.7-128.7kph) across the Midwest and lasted for 14 hrs.. The storm damage knocked out power pretty much for 800,000 homes, business etc for about a week. The damage was so severe it could be seen from space (see 3rd photo). One town [Cedar Rapids was almost destroyed by this storm as it received the highest recorded winds of the storm of 140mph. Were I live I was told winds reached 109mph.  My black maple tree was destroyed, Photos will be in a second comment in spoilers. I was lucky all the branches landed on the yard, a few landed on the garage with very minor damage. I estimate I carried about 1500lbs (680Kg) of tree to the street to be hulled away. That tree is still standing, but it will be cut down as it is currently a risk as it still has large branches hanging. I lost 8 smaller trees that the larger branches landed on. You will the damage before and after in the photos.

 

This storm was a 100% freak weather incident, this was not predicted and was not expected. The storm developed out of no where and completely blindsided the Midwest.

 

Just so everyone is aware I and my family were not harmed and we are OK. 

My house suffered no damage which was very lucky as my roof was hit by the same winds as the tree... so very lucky. We had a generator to keep our food from spoiling, funny timing with the storm as I had just purchased about $1500 of meat and dry foods to restock our pantry, about 600 of that was frozen meat and new second freezer. There was no way I could replace this at the time, so yeah I was happy I had that generator sitting in my garage doing nothing for 3 years. sweaty lol. 

I dont want to be that guy to order for a service upgrade while the state is still recovering. There are still areas being repaired and cleaned up even though it has been a month.

 

For information on this please google Iowa Derecho 2020, there are numerous articles and Youtube coverage on this event.

 

Photos of the formation, dispersion and reports of damage;

Spoiler

Satellite Photo of crop and vegetation damage;

Spoiler

Each of the 2 red circles are approximately 200miles long, 50 miles wide.

 

 

[SansVarnic]

Photos of damage to my tree.

As you can my part of the street was lucky, down the street to the west of me or to the left in the front photos, trees were blown onto houses, and honestly this is the least amount of damage to my town. I was in the lucky part. I dont have photos of the rest of town as I stayed home so as not to get in the way of emergency services.

Spoiler

Storm is still passing by but mostly calmed down, first looks out the back window.

Spoiler

Storm has passed and this is front, the oak tree mostly survived but it suffered bad splits so its is coming down, tree is 120 years old. It is to the far left in photos.

 

Spoiler

Back yard, after storm passed,

 

Spoiler

Some photos while cleaning up..

 

The branches on the garage.. hard to see here but they are decent size.

 

Spoiler

Pile in the street after clean up, a few days later turning brown... lol a lot of those were 6-8inch diameter and about 20-25ft long. I dragged most of them myself after thinning them down from other small branches of course.

Better photo of the oak, still standing

Spoiler

And here is the Black Maple, she was a beautiful tree now ... well she is to damaged to stay. Roughly 50-60 years old.

You can see the 3 branches laying down at the top, 2 are horizontal and the 3rd is almost upside down.

Spoiler

All cleaned up - big difference from the first photo.

[RollinLower]

the fact that nothing went through the roof of your garage is definitely a testament to its structural rigidity, those branches look massive!

glad you are mostly okay, tough a damn shame such an old tree has to go like this.

[Gorgon]

Glad to hear you and your family are OK.

 

If you haven’t considered it you might want to think about moving your service underground when you get around to upgrading it and if you go that way make sure you add an additional duct from the house to the garage for low voltage signalling (Ethernet, power transfer for the Genny etc.) If you are considering running Ethernet to the garage you might also want to use fibre to reduce the chance of lightning damage.

[Bigtruck747]

Glad to hear you and your family made it through the storm OK!!

[SansVarnic]

First, Thank-you all for the well wishes after the Derecho, They were/ are well appreciated.  

 

 

*Project Update November 12, 2020

 

Things are back in swing with getting this back on track, I have been doing the number game and getting the budget together to run a new service to the garage. Hopefully I can get all I need (hardware and supplies) purchased by end of the year and start getting it installed in January. Granted it will be winter at that time but I dont see to much to worry over it really. Once I get the meter box installed and the service wire run I just need to call the Electric company to get it hooked up at the pole. I have most of what I need done inside the garage already.

 

Expect the next update around mid/late January 2021 

[Tuvar]

After all of this it would be quite unfortunate not to see it completely though. I was looking at maybe placing a pair of K80's in my server as they are cheap on Ebay, but they are older and I'm not sure how well they would fold. My 2080 does around 3M and I have a small 4 GPU rig with some old 1060 mining cards. Combines they run around 1.2M, but the entire machine only pulls 295W at the wall. If I can't beat those #'s for close to the same wattage it might not sure it would make sense energy bill wise. 

 

Do you plan to run the GPU's in passthrough into a Linux VM? Instead of going for 2019 server edition you might want to consider something like 2016 Essentials. 2019 lost some features as they are making to push to Azure from what I read. I look forward to your updates. I found this link, and not sure how well it correlates but maybe you'll find it useful.

 

https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus#compute

[SansVarnic]

On 12/22/2020 at 8:17 PM, Tuvar said:

After all of this it would be quite unfortunate not to see it completely though. I was looking at maybe placing a pair of K80's in my server as they are cheap on Ebay, but they are older and I'm not sure how well they would fold. My 2080 does around 3M and I have a small 4 GPU rig with some old 1060 mining cards. Combines they run around 1.2M, but the entire machine only pulls 295W at the wall. If I can't beat those #'s for close to the same wattage it might not sure it would make sense energy bill wise. 

No, this project won't die. I am determined to get it off the ground... lol someday.

 

I have no new updates though, we got hit by some decent snow both January and February so it's been delayed again, but this was an issue I am not surprised by. Iowa weather can be unpredictable at times.

On 12/22/2020 at 8:17 PM, Tuvar said:

Do you plan to run the GPU's in passthrough into a Linux VM? Instead of going for 2019 server edition you might want to consider something like 2016 Essentials. 2019 lost some features as they are making to push to Azure from what I read. I look forward to your updates. I found this link, and not sure how well it correlates but maybe you'll find it useful.

 

https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus#compute

No, I plan to run it all in Win10. I have no experience with Linux and honestly, I want to know how Win10 will handle this. If WIn10 fails, then I may investigate a Linux Distro.

[mstinaff]

SansVarnic I think I have some good news for you.

 

A few years back I started a childhood dream fulfillment build of a Cray.  I've built mine using a Cray Greenblade SR5110.

 

It too came loaded with the PSSH162202A power supply. No idea what the engineers were on when they decided on that.

 

After much research and some luck I found that  the Cray power supply is based on the same connection as 1u Supermicro power supplies (a compuware technology design i believe).  To date I have successfully used the following Supermico PSUs to power up my Cray

110VAC

PWS-1K41P-1R

PWS-1K21P-1R

and because I'm crazy

48VDC

PWS-1K11P-1R

 

the edge connector of these supplies are slightly narrower than the Cray PSU.  To my understanding the connector positions added are additional 12V connections added to a more recent revision of the design.  But these were the spare PSU I had on hand and it seems backwards compatibility was part of the design.

 

All this said the SR5110 has an iSCB control unit that is very confused as it can't read the PMBus data, but that hasn't stopped it from powering up.

[RollinLower]

1 hour ago, mstinaff said:

-snip-

man, if just plugging in a Supermicro PSU saves this project i'm gonna flip.

this server is way too cool to just sit there doing nothing!

[SansVarnic]

On 3/31/2021 at 2:39 AM, mstinaff said:

SansVarnic I think I have some good news for you.

 

A few years back I started a childhood dream fulfillment build of a Cray.  I've built mine using a Cray Greenblade SR5110.

 

It too came loaded with the PSSH162202A power supply. No idea what the engineers were on when they decided on that.

 

After much research and some luck I found that  the Cray power supply is based on the same connection as 1u Supermicro power supplies (a compuware technology design i believe).  To date I have successfully used the following Supermico PSUs to power up my Cray

110VAC

PWS-1K41P-1R

PWS-1K21P-1R

and because I'm crazy

48VDC

PWS-1K11P-1R

 

the edge connector of these supplies are slightly narrower than the Cray PSU.  To my understanding the connector positions added are additional 12V connections added to a more recent revision of the design.  But these were the spare PSU I had on hand and it seems backwards compatibility was part of the design.

 

All this said the SR5110 has an iSCB control unit that is very confused as it can't read the PMBus data, but that hasn't stopped it from powering up.

Remarkably interesting, I may have to check this out.

Thank-you.

 

On 3/31/2021 at 4:13 AM, RollinLower said:

man, if just plugging in a Supermicro PSU saves this project i'm gonna flip.

this server is way too cool to just sit there doing nothing!

It is pretty cool, thanks.

[SansVarnic]

So first off -Screw covid for interrupting my plans again with this project. So many setbacks.

 

Second, I may have found a way to revive my project.
So, I have one 240v circuit in my house that feeds the air conditioner (from earlier conversation in the thread this breaker didn't exist, it does now), since obviously it doesn't run when it is below 70F (21C) I can run the server on the circuit during the fall/winter. For crying aloud - why didn't I think of this before? 

Now to get feed off the breaker and install the proper outlets and then get a rack on the wall for this beast and say the words!

 

Spoiler

 

Hopefully no more setbacks. 

F@H Team here I come!

[RollinLower]

the thread necro we've all been waiting for!

[SansVarnic]

Update 18Sept2022

 

Currently waiting to get the new 30amp outlet installed. While I have been waiting, I came across a god send.

 

So going back, one of the bigger hurdles was the fact this server has LS-26 inlets in the PSU's, I came across (by accident) a site that has made LS-26 to C-14 adapters.

Only if these were a thing 2 years ago. Timing is everything right? well now I don't need to swap out the inlets I can just use these. 

 

https://www.parallelminer.com/product/ls-26-to-c14-adapter-power-supply-converter-120-240v/

 

These will save me money and effort. Going order 3 of these this week along with the C13 - C20 patch cords.

 

I found a 3amp C20 PDU as well, for $50 on Ebay, brand new. A Dell branded APC AP6031A [It's the same as the APC Brand, same model this will be a nice snatch.

 

It is starting to come together. Finally

 

List of things to do on this leg.

• Install 30amp outlet [in process]
• Build Server Rack <- in process - pictures to follow soon <- DONE!
• Acquire PDU <- Ordered, Delivery on Oct 8th. DONE!
• Acquire LS26-C13 adapter  <- Purchased, waiting on delivery. <- DONE!
• Acquire C13 - C20 patch cords. <- Ordered, Delivery on Oct 7th. DONE!
• Run internet.  <- DONE!

Next leg:

• Test power up, software installs and go from there.

I will continue to update as I go.

三三ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Edited October 9, 2022 by SansVarnic
Updated Information

[SansVarnic]

Update 24SEPT2022

 

Server "rack" is now built, and server is in it.

Photo below in spoilers for easier page loading. Enjoy!

 

*Edit: I just realized I should explain the reason the server is pointed in the way it is. With all that heat coming out, I want it blowing into the room away from the deep freezer you seen to left in the photos. Heat is good for the room but bad for the freezers.  Granted the power cables will be a little exposed but I will be making a cage/cable run for those to eliminate any possible accidental unplugging.

 

Spoiler

Location chosen

 

Spoiler

This will work.

 

Spoiler

First test fit. Yeah, its coming together.

 

Spoiler

Its Done! Oh yeah.

 

Now to wait on the plug adapters I ordered.

I need to run the ethernet cables from the router, it should be easy.

I need to go to order the PDU next.

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by SansVarnic