Server blade at home...

[bejamartins]

So, to help with my thesis where I was working with a virtual server system inside one of my University's cluster, someone kindly offered me a server blade for me to use and run my stuff natively.

 

Thing is, my university is closed for August, so I can't just stack it in a proper server closet and work remotely.

 

So I was thinking on starting to work at home. My (maybe stupid) questions are:

- Can I just work with it without a proper cooling environment? Since it is not stacked, would it still overheat? If so, would replacing the case with a more cooling friendly chassis help (like Linus used in his "7 Gamers, 1 CPU" project)? An can I get a compatible chassis on a still university student budget?

- Power consumption, how different would it be from a normal PC?

- Networking: If I plugged it in my consumer-grade router, would it work?

 

Thanks in advance.

[KuJoe]

21 minutes ago, bejamartins said:

- Can I just work with it without a proper cooling environment? Since it is not stacked, would it still overheat? If so, would replacing the case with a more cooling friendly chassis help (like Linus used in his "7 Gamers, 1 CPU" project)? An can I get a compatible chassis on a still university student budget?

It won't overheat under normal conditions but without proper cooling the chassis fans will be running louder than normal and depending on the make and model, blade chassis are by far the loudest noise in a data center.

21 minutes ago, bejamartins said:

- Power consumption, how different would it be from a normal PC?

It depends on the make and model. Some chassis use a significant amount of power even without and blades plugged in depending on the hardware configuration of the chassis.

21 minutes ago, bejamartins said:

- Networking: If I plugged it in my consumer-grade router, would it work?

Yup. Devices don't care if it's consumer, SOHO, enterprise, physical, or virtual. At the end of the day, a router is a router is a router.

[Pauleh]

Check the PSU for its power consumption. Don't forget to add up the different power supplies if you have it in a redundant setup.

 

As for cooling, all server fan are VERY loud, so don't get worried. Just don't put it in any worse condition then you would put your normal desktop. keep the fan openings clear of dust and debris and don't put it on the carpet or have a bunch of stuff in front/ behind it.

[tt2468]

1 hour ago, bejamartins said:

So, to help with my thesis where I was working with a virtual server system inside one of my University's cluster, someone kindly offered me a server blade for me to use and run my stuff natively.

 

Thing is, my university is closed for August, so I can't just stack it in a proper server closet and work remotely.

 

So I was thinking on starting to work at home. My (maybe stupid) questions are:

- Can I just work with it without a proper cooling environment? Since it is not stacked, would it still overheat? If so, would replacing the case with a more cooling friendly chassis help (like Linus used in his "7 Gamers, 1 CPU" project)? An can I get a compatible chassis on a still university student budget?

- Power consumption, how different would it be from a normal PC?

- Networking: If I plugged it in my consumer-grade router, would it work?

 

Thanks in advance.

The others don't seem to know what a balde is. Remember that a blade server usually has a proprietary interface that connects to the main chassis. You would have to have a chassis in order be able to use the blade at all.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, bejamartins said:

So, to help with my thesis where I was working with a virtual server system inside one of my University's cluster, someone kindly offered me a server blade for me to use and run my stuff natively.

 

Thing is, my university is closed for August, so I can't just stack it in a proper server closet and work remotely.

 

So I was thinking on starting to work at home. My (maybe stupid) questions are:

- Can I just work with it without a proper cooling environment? Since it is not stacked, would it still overheat? If so, would replacing the case with a more cooling friendly chassis help (like Linus used in his "7 Gamers, 1 CPU" project)? An can I get a compatible chassis on a still university student budget?

- Power consumption, how different would it be from a normal PC?

- Networking: If I plugged it in my consumer-grade router, would it work?

 

Thanks in advance.

If this is one blade its useless without the enclosure. 

 

You need the enclosure.

 

It will pull a normal amount of power, its just much smaller

 

It wont work as a 7 gamers as you can't normally put pcie cards in, and they normally can't be gpu's

[Scheer]

Post a picture of it (or the model number), I think you are confusing a blade with a rack mounted chassis.

[bejamartins]

On 04/08/2016 at 8:29 PM, Scheer said:

Post a picture of it (or the model number), I think you are confusing a blade with a rack mounted chassis.

I hadn't the model back then, but I have it now:

HP Proliant DL380 G5 (2007):
14GB RAM
1 x CPU – Quad Core -  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335  @ 2.00GHz
4 x HDD 120GB as SmartArray – 480 GB
 
Ref: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_North_America/12477_na_v37/12477_na.PDF

 

And yes, I can run from home :D. Sounds like a jet engine at boot but works with smoother fan speeds after.
 

[Geralt]

1 hour ago, bejamartins said:

I hadn't the model back then, but I have it now:

HP Proliant DL380 G5 (2007):
14GB RAM
1 x CPU – Quad Core -  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335  @ 2.00GHz
4 x HDD 120GB as SmartArray – 480 GB
 
Ref: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_North_America/12477_na_v37/12477_na.PDF

 

And yes, I can run from home :D. Sounds like a jet engine at boot but works with smoother fan speeds after.
 

Pretty sure that's a rack server.

 

A blade look something like this

 

[Scheer]

1 hour ago, bejamartins said:

I hadn't the model back then, but I have it now:

HP Proliant DL380 G5 (2007):
14GB RAM
1 x CPU – Quad Core -  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335  @ 2.00GHz
4 x HDD 120GB as SmartArray – 480 GB
 
Ref: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_North_America/12477_na_v37/12477_na.PDF

 

And yes, I can run from home :D. Sounds like a jet engine at boot but works with smoother fan speeds after.
 

Yep, that is just a rack mounted chassis.

 

With no load on them they aren't terrible, but if you do any kind of workload its going to be about as noisy as boot.

 

As for power consumption the closest comparison I have is my ML350 G5 and it draws 200 watts at idle and a ML380 G4 that draws 350 watts at idle, compared to the typical 20-50 watts of a normal desktop.

 

(If you are curious, in the 200-350 watt range, if you were to leave it on 24/7 its going to cost ~$20-$30 a month to run it.)

[bejamartins]

4 hours ago, Scheer said:

Yep, that is just a rack mounted chassis.

 

With no load on them they aren't terrible, but if you do any kind of workload its going to be about as noisy as boot.

 

As for power consumption the closest comparison I have is my ML350 G5 and it draws 200 watts at idle and a ML380 G4 that draws 350 watts at idle, compared to the typical 20-50 watts of a normal desktop.

 

(If you are curious, in the 200-350 watt range, if you were to leave it on 24/7 its going to cost ~$20-$30 a month to run it.)

Probably would cost me more, I live in Portugal... But that would be an acceptable cost.

[Scheer]

22 hours ago, bejamartins said:

Probably would cost me more, I live in Portugal... But that would be an acceptable cost.

Ah my bad, I was using the US average of $0.12/kwh. Looks like after taxes the average in Portugal is 0.23 euro/kwh, so you are looking at 35 euro a month sitting at 200w and 60 euro a month at 350w. 

[Geralt]

On 8/14/2016 at 1:25 AM, Scheer said:

With no load on them they aren't terrible, but if you do any kind of workload its going to be about as noisy as boot.

I can vouch for that.