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.
Hardware gets auctioned off via our LondonHackspace eBay account, or sold to Hackspace members at a 20% discount (though usually we first establish a price range via auctions.)
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, in no particular order (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 Wed 6 April)
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.
- Be at the space for: deliveries of empty server boxes, pickup of machines by seller or courier
- Assess the box of "maybe dead" hard drives (smart status, stress test etc.)
- Coordinate eBay auctions
- Robert/martind/Russss have access to the Ebay account, and TurboLister
- Prep more servers for auction
- Inventory of machine disk types (so we know how many disks to hold back. Plan: sell machines with 2 disks each)
- Install disks, caddies, rack mounts; make sure machine description (wiki page) is complete
- Take photos
- Almost done: Review servers that didn't boot, fix where possible
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 |
Todo
- remove cases from drives and insert cases into servers
- get sector counts for drives
- sell drives and servers!
Howto
Moved to Project:ServerHardwareAuction/DBAN.
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
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link |
|---|---|---|
| B3 | DEAD no ram or psu. | |
| B5 | 00:e0:81:2b:02:c8 | an |
| C1 | 00:e0:81:32:77:e5 netbootyboxxy | |
| E1 | 00:30:48:56:8c:e0 (no RAM) | |
| G3 | 00:e0:81:47:b1:31JasperWallace wants this one | |
| H1 | DEAD no CPU, RAM, PSU, etc | |
| J3 | 00:e0:81:32:2b:b4 | |
| K1 | 00:30:48:88:11:6e | |
| M1 | 00:e0:81:40:40:80 | |
| M2 | 00:e0:81:40:41:62 | |
| N5 | FAILED | |
| N6 | FAILED | |
| N7 | FAILED | |
| N8 | 00:e0:81:34:6b:c9 | of |
| O1 | 00:30:48:56:08:7c (no RAM) | |
| O2 | 00:30:48:56:16:ca (no RAM) | |
| P1 | 00:30:48:5d:0c:66 | |
| P2 | 00:30:48:5d:0c:b4 | |
| P3 | 00:30:48:61:04:24 | |
| P4 | 00:30:48:8e:28:4c | |
| P5 | 00:30:48:5d:0c:12 |
Ready to be photographed
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link |
|---|---|---|
Processed
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| J7 | 00:e0:81:2f:e7:9b | ||
| J8 | 00:e0:81:61:93:e2 | ||
| L1 | 00:e0:81:28:c6:a8 | ||
| N2 | 00:e0:81:34:76:3b |
For sale
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction |
|---|---|---|---|
| A2 | 00:30:48:55:65:d8 | 250801109663 | |
| F2 | 00:e0:81:2f:15:cb slim chance this is the wrong mac | 250801112849 | |
| G1 | 00:e0:81:31:39:b6 | 250801119312 | |
| G2 | 00:e0:81:30:e8:e5 | 250801123952 | |
| I1 | 00:e0:81:2b:a5:a0 | 250801135089 - Please confirm the winner understands this is SCA not SATA as I made a mistake in the original listing. | |
| I2 | 00:e0:81:2f:14:04 | 250802188140 | |
| I3 | 00:e0:81:2f:c1:bd | 250802192129 |
Sold
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction | Status |
|---|
Sold & On hold
| 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. Awaiting reply. We should cancel this & refund. |
| 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. We should cancel this & refund. |
| J4 | 00:e0:81:31:cb:39 | 250794659089 | Sold to supremeeditor, paid; he asks if we can hold off from shipping until 18 April, and is interested in more servers. | |
| F3 | 00:e0:81:41:1b:92 | 250794660803 | Sold to supremeeditor, paid; see comment above. | |
| J1 | 00:e0:81:2f:c1:b6 | 250797338481 | Sold to supremeeditor, not paid yet; see comment above. | |
| D1 | 00:30:48:87:ec:a8 | Reserved for Ricky Hewitt, will pay & pick it up after 21 April. |
Shipped
| Server ID | Hardware Info | Photo link | Auction | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E3 | 00:30:48:56:52:ca | lady | [3] to a 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. |
| N4 | 00:30:48:5e:0c:40 | seeds | Sold directly to a member | Paid cash, £100. Collected. |
| A1 | 00:30:48:55:65:dc | 250794651347 | Sold (to a member), paid via paypal, and collected. | |
| R1 | 00:e0:81:34:14:03 | 250794638476 | Member, paid cash (£140, incl more RAM) and collected. | |
| H2 | 00:e0:81:40:da:a9 | 250794648218 | Paid via PayPal. Shipped on 7 April. | |
| Q1 | 00:e0:81:41:15:00 | 250794655615 | Paid via PayPal. Shipped on 7 April. | |
| F4 | 00:e0:81:40:4b:06 | 250794663239 | Paid via PayPal. Shipped on 7 April. |
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.
Selling
See Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Sales (moved suggestions for ebay auction improvements here as well ~Kevin).
People who want to buy stuff: Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Purchasers
Shipping
We use Parcel2Go to ship stuff, and get packaging from serverboxes.co.uk.
- 3U server: 80 x 53 x 17 cm, 30kg, £11 shipping and £7 packaging
- 4U server: 80 x 53 x 21 cm, 40kg, £11 shipping and £8 packaging
Dispatching ritual:
- Ensure that someone will be at the space on the day of pickup.
- Typically couriers will pick stuff up between 8am..6pm, but never tell you when exactly.
- Make sure to provide either your own phone number, or the LHS one; they might call beforehand
- Make sure to print out two copies of the postage labels: one to label the package, one for the courier
- Also make sure to print & attach a few "Fragile" stickers; parcel2go couriers may treat deliveries quite badly.
- You can use this one: File:Fragile.pdf
- Make sure to store the machines to pick up in a prominent place in the entrance area, and add a note to members so that anyone would know what to do once the courier arrives.
- You can use this one: File:Courier Note.pdf
Archive
Old auctions.
External Drives
Moved to Project:ServerHardwareAuction/ExternalDrives.
Monitors
Moved to Project:ServerHardwareAuction/Monitors.
