Archive:ServerHardwareAuction
About the Project
We received a large hardware donation from a local Internet company and are slowly auctioning it off, with all proceeds going to the Hackspace. It started with about 15 flat screen monitors, 60 servers of varying kinds and sizes, two network switches, and upwards of 200 hard drives; and we're already receiving hardware offers from other organisations.
Our work requires a combination of diverse technical skills, a lot of organisation and coordination, and eBay fu; but mostly patience, persistence, and a willingness to do basic repetitive tasks for no pay :D
In return we get a warm fuzzy feeling from making a major contribution to the financial health of the London Hackspace, we gain experience in hardware diagnostics and maintenance, networking and automation systems, the psychology of online auctions, and a chance to meet enthusiasts from all walks of life.
Project members (please add yourselves):
- martind
- Jasperw
- roberthl
- dsikar
- And many more volunteers helping out in countless small and big ways.
For more context see User:Martind/LfmHardwareAuction.
Help Needed
(last updated Sat 19 Feb)
If you would like to help out with any of the below contact martind, roberthl or Jasperw. Most of these tasks don't really require any particular skills, we can show you how it's done.
- Coordinate eBay auctions
- Robert/martind/Russss have access to the Ebay account, and TurboLister
- Dispatch sold servers
- Need more packaging! Getting bids from all over the country.
- Review servers that didn't boot, fix where possible
- Prep more servers for auction
- Get caddies from drives; attach rack mounts
- Reallocate RAM sticks to ensure all machines have some
- Take photos of prepped servers
- Figure out how to catalogue 2-300 hard drives of misc makes and sizes (incl. S.M.A.R.T. status if easily possible)
- (Axel started a script, still discussing options to speed this up. Script is in ~/lhs-auction-scripts/ on netbootboxxy)
- Assess the box of "maybe dead" hard drives (smart status, stress test etc.)
Switches
- 2 x HP Procurve 2824 (J4904A) running firmware version I.10.32
Current firmware version is I.10.77:
http://h10146.www1.hp.com/customercare/support/software/switches.htm#2800
http://h10146.www1.hp.com/customercare/support/software/summarypages/i-j4903-c.htm
9600 8N1 for the serial
The one that I (User:JasperWallace) am using for netbooting stuff will have 'hackspace' as every password.
It will be on network range 10.192.38.0/24, it will be 10.192.38.1, it has unrestricted snmp access on the public community.
NetBoot Server
It's 'C1'.
running debian 5.0.6
- eth0 - unused (single socket)
- eth1 is on the hackspace lan and is 172.31.24.164 (assumes dhcp is stable!) (right hand of double socket when viewed from the back)
- eth2 is on the netboot lan, 10.192.38.2 (left hand, yellow cable atm).
- 9600 8N1 on both serial ports.
- password is hackspace
See Project:ServerHardwareAuction/NetBootServer for more details
Drives
All drives need to be cleared with dban before we do anything else. This is almost done.
Internal drives
| Make | Capacity | Interface | RPM | Quantity | Model |
| Hitachi | 73 | SCA | 10000 | 67 | HUS103073FL3800 |
| Hitachi | 36 | SCA | 10000 | 2 | |
| Seagate | 35 | SCA | 5 | ST336607LC | |
| Maxtor | 35 | SCA | 10000 | 4 | Atlas 10k IV |
| Fujitsu | 70 | SCA | 28 | MAW3073NC | |
| HP | 9.1 | SCA | 1 | D489-600002 | |
| HP | 4.2 | SCA | 1 | D3583C | |
| Maxtor | 160 | SATA | 6 | 6L160MO | |
| Western Digital | 400 | SATA | 12 | DiamondMax10 | |
| Seagate | 750 | SATA | 2 | Baracuda ES | |
| Seagate | 400 | SATA | 25 | Baracuda ES | |
| Seagate | 80 | SATA | 1 | Baracuda 7200.1 | |
| Hitachi | 164.7 | SATA | 4 | Deskstar | |
| Hitachi | 82.3 | SATA | 3 | Deskstar | |
| Hitachi | 250 | SATA | 10 | Deskstar | |
| Maxtor | 250 | SATA | 6 | DiamondMax10 | |
| Maxtor | 80 | SATA | 1 | diamondMax plus 9 | |
| Maxtor | 500 | SATA | 1 | diamondMax 22 |
External Drives
artag has 3 at home.
All now been dban'd. All also formatted as single ntfs volumes.
In the large brown cardboard box that contained the smaller white boxes that the drives came in, I've refilled the smaller white cardboard boxes with all the parts they origonally came with (usb cable, esata bracket esata cable, psu, manul, cd, case stand).
If the white box has '750' written on it in green highlighter then it's got a known working, wiped and formatted 750Gb external drive with all the bits in it.
There is one 400Gb one thats missing a usb cable.
We don't have any more white boxes or extra bits so there are a few 400gb external drives sitting on the other box.
So all 8 750gb drives are ready to sell.
label = does it have a lastfm sticker/label on the spine of then case
capacity = 4 = 400gb, 7 = 750gb.
| num | label? | works? | capacity | dban? |
| 1 | y | y | 4 | |
| 1 | n | y | 7 | |
| 2 | y | y | 4 | |
| 2 | n | y | 7 | |
| 3 | n | y | 7 | |
| 4 | n | y | 7 | |
| 5 | y | y | 4 | |
| 5 | n | y | 7 | |
| 6 | y | y | 7 | |
| 6 | n | y | 7 | |
| 7 | y | y | 4 | |
| 8 | y | y | 4 | |
| 8 | n | y | 7 |
Todo
- dban last few drives
http://sg.danny.cz/sg/sg3_utils.html
Howto
Better descriptions to follow.
<Jasperw> go to desk <Jasperw> look at monitor <Jasperw> trace monitor cable <Jasperw> switch attached machine off <Jasperw> remove all drives from machine <Jasperw> put drives in one of the 'done' boxes. NOT the dead drive box (unless the drives are dead) <Jasperw> if drives have long thin connector (SCA SCSI) then leave machine off and go back to whatever you where doing (We're pretty much done with the SCa ones). <Jasperw> of they have a sata connector then find some more sata drives on the shelves (not in the boxes). <Jasperw> plug 4 x drives into machine. <SpikeUK> Jasperw - I've found three drives kicking about on shelf - can you direct me to another likely source please? <Jasperw> SCA or SATA? <Jasperw> there should be more drives on the shelves, you just have to look around. <SpikeUK> S <SpikeUK> Jasperw - sorry SATA <Jasperw> you might need to remove them from one of the other types of caddy. <SpikeUK> Jasperw - OK <Jasperw> and put them into whatever is the right caddy type for the machine thats free for wipeing.# <SpikeUK> Jasperw - machine is now fitted with four new drives (in same slots that others came from) <Jasperw> ok, power it on and, depending on what machine type it is, you'll need to work out how to get into the raid controller setup and configure the drives as single disks or JBOD. <martind> SpikeUK: is it a machine in the left or right-hand rack? <SpikeUK> martind - right hand rack <martind> alt+3 to start RAID setup during boot <martind> then clear all <martind> (select all disks, then "clear") <martind> then set up new ones <martind> one by one <martind> select spare disk, "create", which takes you to an "accept" screen <martind> four times <martind> then f8 to finish & reboot <SpikeUK> martind - ok machine rebooting. Only 3 o4 4 drives was recognised. What do I want to boot into? <martind> SpikeUK: may be worth investigating the dead drive <martind> e.g. check the LEDs <Jasperw> dban autonuke on the netboot menu
Etc
On IRC:
Olfin> Are there any plans to harvest the rare earth metal magnets from the dead drives? THey're rather useful!
Yes, and keeping the aluminium shells for melting and casting purposes would be good as well.
Servers
Howto
All servers have been assigned a hardware class, based on their type. (Double-check when you process a machine.) That way we only have to document the basic hardware once.
- open machine, check that is has
- ram
- sata cables (some machines have had the sata cables removed)
- and that all (or at least some) of the drive bays connected (some machines have had their controller card removed so they won't talk to any drives!)
- if all is ok connect up the machine and boot it.
Test that it all works
- Run dban with drives in all slots to ensure they're connected and functional
- Run a ram test (how? need to find good software)
- Test all ports (VGA, USB, PS/2, Ethernet, ...)
- Test the CD drive, if applicable
To determine hardware spec:
- Plug in monitor & keyboard
- Boot up, ensure it netboots into "DISKLESS Debian" (the default option) and wait until it shows a prompt
- Make a note of server ID (the label we put on each server) and MAC address (shown just above the login prompt) and put them both in the Hardware List below
All hardware info files are automatically collected at http://hack.rs/~martind/records/?C=M;O=D (aka http://172.31.24.164/records/?C=M;O=D), one set of files per MAC address (this link shows newest first)
Server classes
Template: ServerClassTemplate
Hardware List
Template: ServerTemplate (mostly for manual comments, since hardware info can now be gathered automatically.)
Under review
Ready to be photographed
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link |
|---|---|---|
Processed
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| N8 | 00:e0:81:34:6b:c9 | of | |
| N4 | 00:30:48:5e:0c:40 | seeds | Put aside for Mark (future member) who would like to buy it. Once he's a member let's give it to him for £100 (20% off the eBay price) |
| B5 | 00:e0:81:2b:02:c8 | an |
For sale
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction |
|---|
Sold
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B2 | 00:e0:81:2e:75:52 | was | [1] | Sold to Terry (ye-olde-shoppe) for £38.68. Not paid yet. Arranging pickup atm. |
| M3 | 00:e0:81:34:1e:12 | from | [2] | Sold to Vashisth (itstuffz) for £62.00. Paid via PayPal. He hasn't yet replied to my message. |
Done
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E3 | 00:30:48:56:52:ca | lady | [3] | Sold to AndyE (member), paid & collected. |
| B4 | 00:e0:81:2f:64:6c | a | [4] | Paid via PayPal. Sent via courier. |
| M4 | 00:e0:81:43:f4:60 | Leeds | [5] | Paid via PayPal & collected. Very nice guy, part of CentOS. |
| F1 | 00:e0:81:47:b1:50 | packet | [6] | Paid via PayPal & collected. |
| J2 | 00:e0:81:32:fa:57 | swallowed | [7] | Paid in Cash & collected. |
| B1 | 00:e0:81:30:e8:42 | There | [8] | Paid via PayPal & collected. |
| E2 | 00:30:48:56:52:92 | young | [9] | Paid via PayPal. Collected. |
| J5 | 00:e0:81:33:7f:b6 | a | [10] | Paid cash, £77. Collected. |
| J6 | 00:e0:81:32:bf:3f | who | [11] | Paid cash, £51. Collected. |
| N1 | 00:30:48:5e:0b:50 | Within | [12] | Paid cash, £117. Collected. |
| N3 | 00:30:48:5e:0c:c6 | half | [13] | Paid cash, £126. Collected. |
Discarded
Troubleshooting
Server won't netboot
- Check that the Option ROM's for the onboard nics are enabled, something like BIOS -> advanced options -> PCI & devices config -> and then you can enable the ROMs. (Sometimes you need to configure it for each port individually.)
- If netboot works but NFS mount fails, try a different ethernet port.
Some drives fail/don't get detected on boot
Remove drives until you found the faulty ones, put them in the "dead drives" box.
Some drives fail during dban or other operation
If you can't figure out how to determine the faulty one just put them all in the "dead drives" box, we will do a second pass of those drives later.
Monitors
Sales status at Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Monitors. Test pattern.
Summary:
24 Working 4 Faulty 28 Total
All to be listed, including faulty, stated as.
A flickr set has photos for each make, nine in total.
Note for ebay listing, item 06 is short of a "mickey mouse" power cable, one item 01 is short of a base.
All photo links next to unit count.
01
9 Units ~ 01A, 01B, 01C, 01D, 01E, 01F, 01G, 01H, 01I in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210488400/in/set-72157625349679459/
1 unit~ 01J missing base, otherwise in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5245454188/in/set-72157625349679459/
Product Type: Hanns.G LCD monitors Description: Model ID JC198D / HANNS.G JC198D LCD display - TFT - 19" 1280 x 1024 250 cd/m2 700:1 8 ms 0.294 mm DVI-D, VGA speakers silver
Product page: http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/tft-monitor/hanns-g-jc198d/
02
2 Units ~ 02A, 02B in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210489222/in/set-72157625349679459/
Model: DXBL-19 60/50Hz 1.5A Manufacturer: AOC
03
6 units available
4 03B, 03D, 03E, 03F in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210489906/in/set-72157625349679459/
2 03A, 03C faulty. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5245454660/in/set-72157625349679459/
Screen size (inches) 19 Panel Type (TN, IPS) TN Type LCD Aspect Ratio 4:3 Resolution 1280 X 1024 Brightness (cd/m2) 300 Contrast Ratio 5000:1 Response Time (ms) 2 Viewing Angle (°) 170 Color Depth (Num of Colors) 16.7M Pixel Pitch (mm) 0.294 x 0.294 Surface Treatment AG(3H) D-Sub Yes DVI-D Yes
Product page: http://www.lg.com/uk/it-products/monitors/LG-lcd-monitor-L1953HR.jsp
04
2 Units ~ 04A, 04B in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5209892033/in/set-72157625349679459/
Product Description: V7 L19WA - LCD display - TFT - 19" Device Type: LCD display / TFT active matrix Colour: Black, silver Built-in Devices: Stereo speakers Dimensions (WxDxH): 46.9 cm x 19 cm x 36.9 cm Weight: 4.5 kg Diagonal Size: 19" - widescreen Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch: 0.285 mm Max Resolution: 1440 x 900 / 60 Hz Colour support: Up to 16.2 million colors Response Time: 8 ms Image Brightness: 300 cd/m2 Image Contrast Ratio: 500:1 Audio Output: Speaker(s) - stereo - integrated Signal Input: VGA Compliant Standards: TCO '03, CE, CSA, UL, TUV GS, ISO 13406-2, VESA DPMS Power: AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz ) Power Consumption Operational: 43 Watt Environmental Standards: ENERGY STAR Qualified
Product page (Amazon): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Videoseven-L19WA-Monitor-Widescreen-Speakers/dp/B000E9Q0M4
05
3 units
05A, 05C in good working order, http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210491646/in/set-72157625349679459/
05B faulty. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5245455216/in/set-72157625349679459/
Brand Belinea Dot Pitch 0.294 mm Model 10 19 02 (Black, Silver) 19" LCD Monitor Screen Resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels Screen Size 19 in Type Flat Panel LCD TFT (Active Matrix)
06
1 unit
06A in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210492476/in/set-72157625349679459/
Mickey Mouse power cable not supplied.
Brand: TC0 Model: 900P Power: AC 100-240V 50-60Hz 1.0A
07
3 units
- 07C sold to Barry for £27.06, picked up already
07A, 07B, 07C in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5209894487/in/set-72157625349679459/
Type 48cm / 19" TN colour TFT active matrix SXGA LCD Contrast Ratio 1000:1 (typ.) Viewing Angles 170° horizontal, 160° vertical (at 10:1) 170° horizontal, 170° vertical (at 5:1) Brightness 300cd/m² (typ.) Display Area 37.6cm horizontal x 30.1cm vertical; 48.3cm diagonal Optimum Resolution 1280 x 1024@60Hz Response Time 5ms (off-on-off) (typ.) Light Source Long life, 50,000 hrs. (typ) Panel Surface Anti-glare (3H) Pixel Pitch 0.294mm Colour Support 16.2M colours (6-bit + 2-bit FRC) Pixel Clock 135MHz
Product page: http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/uk/products/desktop-monitors/lcd/graphic-series/vg930m.htm
08
1 unit 08A in good working order. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210494102/in/set-72157625349679459/
19-inch Chimei A190E3-T0J LCD Monitor Stylish black design 19-inch TFT Active Matrix LCD display 5:4 aspect ratio 0.294 x 0.294 mm pixel pitch 1280 x 1024 maximum resolution 320 cd/m2 brightness 500:1 contrast ratio 8 ms response time 16.2 million Color display 160º horizontal viewing angle 130º vertical viewing angle 30 - 82 KHz horizontal scanning frequency 56 - 76 Hz vertical scanning frequency On Screen Display (OSD) controls Hard coating, anti-glare treatment 0º - 20º tilt
09
1 unit 09A faulty. http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniel-sikar/5210494718/in/set-72157625349679459/
Description 19" Digimate L-1931 TFT Brightness 250cd/m2 Contrast ratio 700:1 Dimensions 430mm (W) x 380mm (H) x 170mm (D) Display colours 16.7M Input signal DVI-D, VGA (D-sub 15pin) Internal speakers Built-in stereo speakers Osd language English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Simplified / Traditional Chinese Panel size 19"TFT(Active Matrix) Pixel pitch 0.294 x 0.294mm Power consumption MAX 50W, Standby 3W Power supply AC 100~240V 50/60Hz Resolution 1280 x 1024(SXGA) Response time 12ms Safety standards FCC, CE, UL Scan frequency H:30-80KHz V:56-75Hz Viewing angle( h/v) 170 degree(H) / 170 degree(V) Weight 4kg
Product page: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/TFT+19/19%22+Digimate+L-1931+TFT+?productId=23548
USB Drives
Total 16 NexStar 3 external 3.5" hard drive enclosure, USB 2.0 and eSATA
- 9 of the above boxed, with most accessories including PSU (some boxes tatty) PSU are 110-240V but have integral US 2-pin mains connector
- 1 of the above has no box or accessories
- 1 of the above has no PSU but there is a Lacie PSU with the same fitting, may be compatible.
- 3 drives (found so far) are faulty, either not spinning or overloading the power supply. These were mostly unboxed units.
- Disk capacities not fully checked. All examined so far are 750GB Seagate Barracuda SATA --Artag 21:52, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
- I'd like one or more of these if they are available to hackspacers --Artag 19:20, 27 November 2010 (UTC)
[766917.452964] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access ST375033 0AS PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 [766917.453582] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 [766917.476662] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] 1465149168 512-byte logical blocks: (750 GB/698 GiB) [766917.488073] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off [766917.488081] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 38 00 00 00 [766917.488085] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [766917.505132] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [766917.505175] sdc: sdc1 [766917.560394] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [766917.560436] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
Selling
See Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Sales (moved suggestions for ebay auction improvements here as well ~Kevin).
People who want to buy stuff: Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Purchasers