I’m not tech illiterate, but it’s also not my job or anything. That said I managed to figure out how to get a synology up and running and it hosts my Jellyfin and *arrs. Nothing too exciting. I also have a couple of vps’s that I use for nextcloud, a recipe server, all in docker containers. Not nothing but also, not the hardest thing to accomplish.
Well, my manager gifted me an old Dell PowerEdge R720 and 4 hard drives. Yeah, this is way more than I know what to do with, or even where to start. Do I need to plug both power cables in? I still need to figure out how to get a monitor hooked up to it with what looks to be a VGA cable. And even then this thing is a behemoth and what do I even do with it?? My manager was so excited to talk to me about it and I’m all 😵💫
Where do I start?
Well, the first step is realizing it’s okay not to use it. My homelab is a mix of salvaged mini PCs and prosumer networking gear. It has nothing to do with the 6/7 figure gear I use at work, and I prefer it that way. Its simpler and lower stakes, is quieter, and uses way less power.
That all said, it’s a great server. if you do want to use it, there are many ways to start. First, you don’t need to plug both power supplies in, but you can. The server can run entirely on one of them. It has two in case one fails it can keep running, not because it needs 2x the power. For the monitor, yes you will likely need VGA. Servers rarely have modern video ports, because vga just works, costs nothing to add to a server, and is almost never used. Most of your physical interaction with a server should be though “out of band,” which dell calls “idrac.” This is a seperate networking port labeled on the server that lets you connect to a local website, put in a password, and then fully control the server. That includes powering it on, reboots, loading disc image iso files, on and on. The idrac will stay powered even when the server is off.
You may or may not have qn idrac license for that server. If you dont and your boss can’t give you one, you can use something like jetkvm instead when it’s released.
As to what to do either it, i would recommend installing different hypervisors or kubernetes suites and playing around. Proxmox, xcp-ng, k3s, harvestor, on and on. Once you find one you like, figure out how to use automation software to setup VMs and containers, like cloudinit, terraform, ansible, or nixOS.
Good luck, and enjoy. Getting started from scratch can be a lot, but it can also be a lot of fun. Go into it expecting to fail, fail a lot and try to learn what you like. That’s the best thing a homelab can do for you.
VERY IMPORTANT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS SENTENCE OP
I can’t believe this is relevant…
Yeah, I’m glad I don’t work with enterprise gear anymore, I swear I have permanent hearing damage from the server room…
My current setup is an old PC, a Raspberry Pi, and a Mikrotik router. Oh, and a VPS because CGNAT. Everything is quiet, and soon I’ll replace the old PC with something more power efficient (currently sucks 50W or so idle for no good reason).
Honestly you might. I bring my earplugs any time I go into the server room. And a jacket, because it’s nipple-crinkling cold in there. Or I stand in the hot aisle next to the SANs while I’m waiting for something.
Member when a single lightbulb was fucking 70-100W? What a shit hole civilization.
I had an used R710 I used for a good 8 years and just updated it last fall.
I calculated that the power savings alone would pay for my hardware in about a year. And I get much more power out of a modern system for about 1/3 the energy usage.
Hey, thanks for your advice, and honestly the permission to be okay with not using it. I lost sight of that and it’s a good reminder. I am a little concerned for the noise and power consumption that everyone is talking about, especially since I don’t have an out of the way place to stick it.
That said, while I might ultimately not use it, I will at least learn enough to get it running. And like you said, fail a lot. But if I don’t have anything on it, failure won’t be so painful when I inevitability have to start over.
I’ll have to get some sort of adapter for VGA, and thanks for the talking about idrac. I had seen that mentioned on the server and had no idea what it was. So is the idrac website I’m connecting to like the website on routers used for configuration?
Honestly glad to help. We all start somewhere.
You should be able to access idrac, if it’s licensed, by pointing your browser at the ip address that its dedicated nic has. Find that address from your router or whatever else you have that is handing out dhcp. It is a management portal, yes. You can control power, fans, get info about the servers state, set up logs and monitoring, and even use its “virtual screen” to see what you would if you hooked a monitor up to the server. The above is a great way to remotely add an OS or troubleshoot a server.
Idrac will either have a default password you can google or the server will have a little plastic pull out tab with a unique password you can reset on login.
If your server doesn’t have it, as you generally have to pay a fee to have it on, it’s okay. A monitor is a good stand in for one server. Less convenient and feature packed, but that’s homelabbing sometimes.