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

How to Escape from ESXI Console Screen for VM

How to Escape from ESXI Console Screen for VM

The first time you're going to try to exit an ESXI console is probably when you get bored during extraction of OS files when you're installing some OS and feel like alt+tabbing to go looking at a webpage.  All the sudden you're going to notice you can't get out with an ALT+TAB, or an Escape.  It's constantly sending keys to the console.  The first thing I thought of was Admiral Ackbar "ITS A TRAP", but we all know it isn't.  We'll try our standby of CTRL+ALT+DELETE.  Which does work, but isn't what we want because it sends those commands to both the console as well as our desktop and gives us an warning from ESXI notifying us of what just happened.

However, we're close, the commands you're looking for are CTRL+ALT.  That's all it takes to exit the console window or frame within ESXI to get back to our Desktop

If you're on a Mac, I found the answer in this post
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/458525?start=0&tstart=0

Keys on Macbook Pro

fn  -- ctrl -- opt -- cmd

--------^------^------------ out of the console and still in the VM

--------^---------------^--  out of the console and out of the VM = all the way out

Hope that helps

Upgrading and testing HP RAM in a Dell server

I recently went to try some 16GB 10600R RAM from a HP DL360 in my Dell r510/r710 which had 6x2gbs/12x2gbs respectively of UDIMMs.  I have a Dell T130 which specifically requires UDIMMs and not RDIMMs, so I was wondering if it was possible for r510s/r710s to have the same problem. I've seen enough Dell servers on eBay listing RDIMMs but wanted to empirically double check. A quick check of the owner's manual probably would answer this question.  After installing the 16 GB 10600R, I went into my iDRAC system to start up the system and noticed something weird.  I was downgraded from my Enterprise license to Express on my iDRAC system in my Dell r510. My goal is to see if 10600R ram works in this device . I need to see if Dell locks your system specs to the iDRAC license.

TL;DR:
Result: The end result was that the iDRAC snap-in card came loose and I didn't lose Enterprise.  This error shows if you don’t have an iDRAC Enterprise card installed, change hardware and had "Collect System Inventory on Restart" enabled.  Dell did not implement a separate license for Enterprise iDRACs until generation 12 and generation 13 servers, ie r720 and r730 servers.  It is only hardware module to enable Enterprise before 12g which runs about 10-20dollars on ebay.

See this document for details: http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file/__key/telligent-evolution-components-attachments/13-4491-00-00-20-17-06-31/Lifecyclecontroller_5F00_PartReplacement_5F00_lc.pdf?forcedownload=true

HP RDIMM RAM worked fine in my Dell r510 and Dell r710.

However, something to note. is that if you fill all of the memory bank channels.  Your RAM will decrease in speed from 1333/1067 MHz to 800 MHz.  There's a note at the bottom of this post talking about which RAM numbers to look for if you're on eBay looking for a used server.   If you'd like more details on that open up the post and skip to the end.  If you've had any experience where HP RAM didn't work correctly in a Dell Server please leave that in the comments so I can try and investigate that.  Especially if it was a mix and match.

Setting up iDRAC from front LCD panel without computer being on.

You are able to set up Dell's iDRAC6 from the front LCD panel without ever turning the computer on from the front LCD panel.

From the home screen you'll see Setup|View
Choose Setup

DRAC|Set Error  and if you hit right once you'll see Set Home
*if you see BMC, you have a system without iDRAC Express or iDRAC Enterprise...sorry
Choose DRAC

After Choosing DRAC, determine if you're using DHCP or Static. Since I'm going with Static
Choose Static
Enter IP address that matches your gateway.  For example, if Gateway(Gtw) is 192.168.1.1, your IP address better start with 192.168.1.xxx.
I've chosen 192.168.1.122
Do this by selecting the character to change, hitting enter so the character blinks, adjust to desired value. Be careful not to set .100. when you are desiring .001., the display always shows 3 digits. When completed scroll right till next option
Enter Subnet(Sun), for a home user 255.255.255.0 works.
When completed scroll right till next option
Enter Gateway(Gtw). for me, i'm using 192.168.1.1
When completed scroll right till next option
Set DNS1.
Change values to 008.008.008.008 if you care, or leave 000.000.000.000
When completed scroll right till next option
Set DNS2
Change values to 008.008.004.004 if you care, or leave 000.000.000.000
*these values are Googles DNS servers
When completed scroll right till next option
You should now be given an option to SAVE
DO SO

Your changes are now in effect but make sure you double check that the values were saved. You can now log into your iDRAC system at whichever IP address you chose.  If you had a problem double check your gateway.

Fixing Error : The event log has overflowed and needs to be cleared.

I recently bought 2 Dell R710 Servers and needed to start testing them to see if they were functional or had issues to be resolved before trying to sell them.  When looking at the bios I confirmed the R710 's had Dual Xeon 5530 's running at 2.4 GHz with 2.66 GHz turbo.  However I didn't see anything mention about hyper-threading within the BIOS.  I remembered an easy way to see how many real cores/HyperThread cores you have is to run the MpMemory test which uses every core to put your RAM through its paces. So I loaded it up, went to custom scan, selected all the short tests, not just the default of 7/8, hit enter and got an error.

The event log has overflowed and needs to be cleared.
No existing memory related problems were found
Test(s) Failed

Here's how I went about fixing it.