IBM x330 Project - Pt. 3 - Show Stopper

Well, I finally received the last piece of hardware this week. After over a month of trying to obtain a SCSI hard drive tray on Ebay, I was finally able to obtain one for around $12.00. The last one that I thought was on it's way was canceled. The reason the person gave me was due to 'an inventory error'.

The $12.00 tray came with an 18GB SCSI hard drive. Small, but still a nice bonus which I didn't expect. I installed the hard drive, got everything hooked up and then booted the machine with a Linux distro to be installed. It booted up fine into the 'live' function of the Linux distro's CD. I then went to install and the installation was able to get about 24% done and then the server reboots itself. This is the same problem I experienced previously. At about 12-15min, the server just reboots. I tried three times to install Linux and the machine just can't make it through the process without rebooting.

Like I've mentioned before, this is usually a characteristic of an overheating CPU. The only symptom that plays against this is the LED fault readout on the motherboard I interpret to be a PCI bus problem. With no PCI cards installed that equates to a bad motherboard. Maybe I can find an inexpensive IBM x330 motherboard on Ebay, which will continue to increase the price of this project.

It is back to the drawing board for now. I will research more and see if I can solve this rebooting problem or if it is feasible to purchase a motherboard replacement. If not, I will pass this hardware on to someone who has more time, resources, know-how and/or $$ to breathe life back into it.

Modest Linux Server

So while I am waiting for that hard drive caddy to come in the mail, I figured I'd reflect on what I have running right on my primary server right now. It's a modest server running Ubuntu 6.06 on the following hardware:

AMD AthlonXP 2.2Ghz
RAM 1.5GB
SATA Hard Drives X 2 @ 330GB/ea
IDE Hard Drives 1 X 80GB, System Drive 1 X 20GB

It handles my requirements just fine. I don't know how many users it would take until it got 'bogged down'. The list below is everything I am using it for and have running on it all the time.

Apps Served
==========
-SMB File Server (Samba)
-Apache Web Server (LAMP)
-Wildfire Chat Server
-VSFTPD FTP Server
-CITADEL Groupware Server
-SSH
-Folding @ Home (no rest for the CPU)

The next hardware upgrade will be 2 X 500GB SATA hard drives. I will set them up to mirror each other like the 330GB hard drives are currently configured. So yes, I will be adding a terrabyte of storage space, but I will only use "1/2". I will be looking into adding a DNS server to the app list.

Is Linux a Myth?

Just read "The Five Things You Aren't Allowed to Discuss About Linux" by Rob Enderle. Excellent analytical article on 'Linux'. This is the first time I've seen Linux approached as some sort of abstract 'thing'. Linux may not be ready for your desktop, but it's been ready for mine.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2.2

So I downloaded a new flavor of Linux the other day and decided to burn the ISO file to CD. Then I figured I'd feed it to the x330. I did just that and booted up. It has been up 30min. No reboots. Hmmmm.....

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2.1

Ok... so I've replaced the CMOS battery in hopes the the 'BAD CMOS BATTERY' error would go away. Rebooted the machine... error is still there. I monitored the motherboard LED readout while it rebooted itself during the last post and ran into LED error code P9 or bd depending on which way you are supposed to read it. Not sure what the error code means, will have to look it up. Ordered a proper hard drive caddy off Ebay. This time I inspected the picture to ensure that I got exactly what I needed. Another $22.08. Which brings the total to: $406.01 (I'm over $400.00!!). Oh wait a new CMOS battery was $6.00.. so the total stands at $412.01.

As soon as I get the drive caddy installed along with the hard drive... I will get Linux installed and see if I continue to experience auto reboots. This thing may turn into a $412.01 paperweight, which would be too big for my desk.

IBM x330 Project - Pt. 2 (It's Alive)

Finally received the C2T Cable the other day. After a crazy week, I was finally able to put everything in place this evening an give the server an initial test. Still have some hardware problems at this point. I received the SCSI hard drive, but it did not come with a caddy as I had hopped. The other hard drive caddies that I received where in fact.. inserts. So I will be unable to install the hard drive until I get a caddy to support it.

Upon initial boot up, I got into BIOS just fine. The only error I received was a 'bad CMOS' battery. OK, so that needs to be replaced. Checked the boot order sequence to see if CD-ROM was the first boot device. Yes. Pulled out an UBUNTU 6.06 CD and decided to see if we can get a live distro up and running on the server.

The machine had no problem booting into UBUNTU and getting online. Although it take it's sweet time loading which is expected when using a live CD. It was up for approx. 5 mins before rebooting itself. Not sure if this is related to the bad CMOS battery or not. Currently it is back up and displaying the UBUNTU desktop. I have terminal open with TOP running. Going to monitor the machine for a few minutes and see if it reboots itself (my office is starting to heat up).

Uptime: 6min, the fans shift into high speed and then low speed again. What until I get that 10,000 RPM SCSI drive in there... I'm sure the db levels will increase significantly (the wife will thank me later). 7min.. all's good. Let's see if we can hit 10 and then call it a night. ... up time 10min. Time to power down, leave feedback for the person who sent me the C2T cable and then see if I can find a proper drive caddie so that I can feed this machine a Linux install and put it to work.