Save Money Buying Used Servers (Part 2) - Getting started with used servers - component setup

Bob Pellerin (CTOBOB) continues the installation of a used server. A lot of people have asked the proverbial "now what?" after opening the box. Bob discusses what to do first before you install the Operating System, such as VMWare ESXi on the server.

Reasons for buying used are easy. You save money if you don't need the very latest technology or the very best processing throughput. In many cases, you will get more (Processing power, memory, drives) for your money.

General recommendations:
* Get something that is not too old. Operating Systems like VMWare ESXi prevent using older processors and systems. This will affect you if this is for a production environment and it will limit the usability down the road.
* Buy new SSDs. The processors and the RAM can be used, but we generally only use SSDs (SATA, SAS, NVMe drives) that are new or that we know have not been worn out. Remember it's your data that counts in the end.
* Buy a brand that continues to provide firmware updates for their products without having to pay for extended support or having to open a service ticket and waste a whole lot of time.
* If this is going to end up in production, consider getting the remote management module. It's most likely very inexpensive with the used server.
* If this is going to end up in production, get a higher-end RAID controller. This will save a lot of time and provide a much better experience. The base model can be really slow in a degraded RAID situation.
* Get TPM 2.0 if that's an option. You'll thank me in the future. :)

Be sure to check out the VMware ESXi installation videos Bob did previously on a variety of server brands and models.
---------------------------------------------------
►Get it Here:
Sample Enterprise or NAS grade SSDs:
Micron
---------------------------------------------------
*Purchases made from store links may give me some money. *
(At No Additional Cost)

[Xzzotica]

You are walking me through this on a R730 I just got for homelab. Great video!

[guyteigh]

Thank you. That was useful. Liked and Subscribed. I will check you other videos shortly as I have a grim (for me) task of learning how to do this AND install linux AND a web server AND two sets of progs so Process 1 is high priority and then a second Process fires up (on other threads?) when main process is idle.

Still, bit at a time :)

[Phelper]

Highly recommend old dell servers for the homelab.

[KingLalafell]

Great video Bob :D Very informative. I recently picked up a R710 for my rack to replace my T310 for my TrueNas Plex media Library. I was wondering, I've looked everywhere online. Do you know what the highest size of 2.5 drive the H700 raid controller will be able to read?. I've read online that 6TB is the highest size that it will accept but I am unsure.

[MACMASTER]

You said you had a 10 TB drive, How many of those drives can you install? Can you install a 10TB in all 8 slots? What's the capacity limit per slot?

[yusvariharzairawan]

Sorry just to be clear, i don't really need idrac password at first boot as long as i can connect to the monitor, keyboard and mouse ? Yes/no

[sonictech]

I think idrac is somewhat overrated unless your server is located in some far away data center. Servers almost never need a hard restart unless they are defective. About the only time I'd use it is if an OS upgrade went badly but those can usually be put off until you know you'll have physical access.