<<TableOfContents: execution failed [list index out of range] (see also the log)>>
5. People
6. Goals
- Install new disks that actually work into fritz
- Determine whether Belkin KVM and IPKVM are dead or alive
Remove dead dead server and hard drives from rack
- Clean up cables in rack as best as possible
- Set up management LAN
7. Report
- New disks installed and set up
- Disks were removed from krunk, and, after a short wake, krunk was placed onto the recycling pile
- The Belkin KVM is alive. The IPKVM's status is still unknown.
- The switch ordered at the last minute for the management LAN was not useful. Will be RMA'd and replaced. Thus, the management LAN does not yet exist.
SrikanthSastry is now familiar with the inner workings of the datacenter facilities and our cabinet, and spearheaded a multi-hour effort to eliminate the rat's nest of cables
- Detritus, and its fate:
- An ethernet cable and two power cables were found that went nowhere, and were recycled.
- We managed to get everything plugged into the colo provided power strip, and similarly threw our old ratshack power strip into the recycling pile
- We decided that we really did not need the drive blanks for fritz and dropped them on the spare-hardware/recycle-if-no-one-wants-it table
- The two 500G disks that did not work in fritz were labelled "Good" and placed into a similarly labeled box left in the rack. We can put them into our next machine since they are past the return period.
7.1. Status of the Cabinet
(These pictures have been resized somewhat, and are from ClintonEbadi's mediocre phone camera. A bit more detail is available if you view the image directly).
Front/Back of cabinet before we removed detritus and made a first pass at clearing cables:
Front/Back of cabinet after we removed detritus and tried to clear the cable nest:
Although the back of the rack might not look much better from this picture, it is actually significantly more accessible. A number of power and Ethernet cables were completely entangled and now every cable has a clear route. The main problem now is that all of our cables are 6+ feet long in a two foot tall space...
And a funeral for KrunkInfoz before being thrown onto the recycling pyre:
8. Plans
- Order a new positive-polarity 12V/1.5A power supply and see if the IPKVM is still alive
- We might just want to give up and de-rack the Belkin KVM to get an extra 1U of space and also eliminate the bulky VGA/PS2 cables. Seems viable, especially since most of our machines are usb-only, and the usb to ps/2 adapters we have are occasionally flaky, defeating the purpose of having a remote console.
- Acquire another switch for an IPMI management LAN
- If we do this, then deleuze and fritz can be controlled, securely, from hopper. We would have power management and a remote serial console (after some BIOS/grub/getty hacking on-site). Any new machines we will get will also support IPMI, so this seems like the way forward for remote control.
- Alternative: Acquire a 16+ port managed gigabit switch that can segregate ports into separate "physical" LANs or at least VLANs. Depends on opportunity cost.
- All of our ethernet cables are way too long. Replace with shorter ones, ideally ones that we cut to length.
- We should replace the power cables, since they are also all way too long (6-10' each!)
- We might want to acquire a rack mounted PDU to supplement the colo-provided strip. Not a huge deal (yet), since we have to remove at least one server to put anything new in.