Tag Archives: server

AMD E-350 running ESXi 4.1

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I’ve been playing around with the idea of getting one of those low powered CPU and running ESXi on it. I finally got a chance to playing around with one. I picked up an Asrock E350M1/USB3 from Newegg. I also got a G.Skill 8GB of ram installed. Unfortunately, the ram and mobo/cpu weren’t on sale but I was too excited and curious to wait. I used old parts for the build. An Antec 300 case, an Intel PCIE NIC card, a USB header adapter, and a 1GB USB flash drive. I have a few HDDs lying around as well and a Corsair 500W PSU.

I sold my i7 960 build which funded this project. Overall, I was surprised at the results – both good and bad.

Good:

  • I was able to run Ubuntu Server 11.04, Freenas v8, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with MSSQL 2008 Server, Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit). All OS are 64 bit except where noted. Windows 7 was the cap and kept my CPU on 100% usage so I disabled it.
  • With 3 VMs running I got an average of 54W power consumption (2x 3.5″ 7200RPM HDD Seagates).
  • CPU usage on idle floated around 300-650MHz.
  • Not bad of a performance considering it’s only a dual 1.6GHz CPU and running multiple VMs at the same time. Of course, the VMs are not doing anything but it’s enough for a home lab setup… at least for what I’d do with it.

Bad:

  • Temperature on idle (based on BIOS readings) floated around 41-47C. Remember, I have this an Antec 300 case so plenty of room for airflow. I also have 3 120mm case fans: 1 for the HDDs, 1 at the back, and 1 at the side panel. I was hoping to be under 40C on idle.
  • On a full load, the tower was near silent but not silent. I don’t have decibel meter but I’m guessing it would be around the mid to high 20s. I’m basing it on the fan ratings, so I could be wrong.

Here are some pics I took.

Here are 2 videos I took. Sorry about the quality. It was late and I was tired.

 

The first video goes over the hardware and the second video is a screencast of ESXi and VMs. I hope this gives you an idea of what can be done with the setup. Prior to this, I couldn’t find any videos and some forum threads with not enough details or screenshots.

I’m planning to turn this box into HTPC running XBMC live via USB. I’ll post more info when I start on that project.

Debian5 Lenny and MySQL Server 5.1.x

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I am running Debian5 Lenny which is running Virtualmin and Webmin. The default configurations install MySQL server 5.0.51. MySQL’s website has version 5.1.x. I wanted to update the version on my Debian box. Unfortunately, Debian considers MySQL 5.0.51 as the stable version, while version 5.1.49 is considered unstable. You can install it by updating your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Add the following lines and save.

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ sid main

After saving the file, update the apt-get.

apt-get update

You can continue to use apt-get and install the newer version of MySQL server or use the Webmin web gui. You can search for it under System/Software Packages, then search for “mysql-server”. You will see the newer version. Before you install it, make sure you have backed up your database, it will remove the old one.

It took some time to find the information. I had to browse different websites and piece together the information. It’s funny how something this common, is hard to find a solution to on one web page. I hope this helps Linux noobs like me out there. Do keep in mind that Debian considers this version of MySQL unstable.

Allowing network connections to MySQL in OS X Leopard Server

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For the past couple of days I’ve been trying to set up one of our XServe running Leopard Server at work for web hosting. I was able to configure the Web, AFP, and SMB properly. The problem I was having was configuring MySQL. It was easy to enable but trying to connect to it from other computers in the same domain was the problem. There’s a checkbox with “Allow network connections” in the Server Admin section of MySQL. So I checked it, save, and restarted it. I still wasn’t able to connect. I checked for firewall settings. I pinged the host and got a response. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So I googled it.

The common answer I found was to edit the /etc/mysql/my.cnf file. Well it’s not there but I did find a /etc/my.cnf file. So I tried editing that file and restarting. It didn’t work.

Then I remembered that the php.ini file that Leopard Server is using isn’t in the default location /etc/php.ini, but it ran the /private/etc/php.ini. So I looked in there and found another my.cnf file. I edited the file by adding # in front of skip-networking entry. I restarted it and it finally worked.

So here’s what you need to do:

  • Go into Server Admin and check the Allow network connections and save
  • Comment out the skip-networking entry from /private/etc/my.cnf
  • Add the IP address of the computer you will be accessing MySQL remotely
  • Give it the privileges it needs
  • Restart MySQL

That should allow you to connect to MySQL running on Leopard Server remotely.