How I fixed PCIe Training Error: Slot 1 on Dell R200 0GU186

I recently picked up a Dell R200 off craigslist\free to teach my nephew about computers/servers by setting up a Minecraft server.  However when I got it home I had a  PCIe Training Error: Slot 1 problem.  Inspecting the card showed some capacitors that were expanding and probably the cause of the issue.  The R200 has the ability to run 3.5" SATA hard drives off the motherboard itself, but if you wanted to add SAS capabilities, you needed an add-on Perc 5/i or Perc 6/iR card.  Neither configuration supported hot swap.  Amazingly enough, Dell had a card that would add SAS...and not add RAID capabilities.

I replaced the 0GU186 nonRaid SATA card with a Perc 6/iR and kept the same cables from the original card.  Since any data on the hard drives wasn't important to me I was able to find a Perc 6/iR card for 5 dollars shipped instead of the 60 dollars people were wanting for direct replacement.  Tested both hard drives with the Drive Scanning tool built into the 6/iR and both drives tested as no broken blocks and installed ESXi 5.5.x like a champ.  However, moving an iso image onto the datastore made 1 hard drive sound like a bench grinder.

Just because a drive utility says everything is fine, doesn't mean all is going to be well in the near future.  Run a few tests.  I'll consider this more learning for my nephew to hear what a hard drive dying sounds like.

note: I would not recommend the Dell R200, go find an R210 II (not the model I) or Dell 410 if you really want a 1u

Initial Setup of a Dell Powerconnect 2724 switch on home network - Part I

With all the servers I've picked up recently I needed a way to network them all together.  Being outside of my normal work scope this took a bit of effort on my part to research.  Not only do I have an existing network currently running in my household, I have a goal to not interrupt others in the household from their own internet usage.  This is the process I needed to setup my surplus Dell PowerConnect 2724 switch using the web interface for use with an existing network.

Pasting values from your host into your VM with ESXI 6.0, ESXI 5.5, and ESXI 4.0+

I got annoyed trying to find an option to allow copy and pasting from the ESXI host directly into the VM while trying out some T-SQL queries and after looking around myself finally googled the answer for pasting into my VM. I know VirtualBox has a quick way to enable it.  I eventually found instructions on vmware's website, I'm copying here to save me time looking later.

• -Screenshots are after the walk-through.
• Warning by VMWare - 

 If a user copies sensitive information to the clipboard before using the console, the user—perhaps unknowingly—exposes sensitive data to the virtual machine. To prevent this problem, copy and paste operations for the guest operating system are disabled by default.

• It is possible to enable copy and paste operations for virtual machines if necessary.
• Note: This requires the VM be shut down or else you cannot even click the options

Let's get started