New Rack Console! - HP TFT7600 Rackmount Monitor
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.พ. 2021
- Huge thanks to Linode for bringing you this video. Wanting your own personal cloud services, but don't have the time, money, or space to set up your own server rack? Let Linode host them for you! Visit linode.com/CraftComputing and get a $100 60-Day credit just for signing up.
There's one feature I hugely enjoy having in my rack, and that's a rackmount monitor and console. As great as a lot of remote management tools, IPMI, RDP and SSH can be, sometimes, there's just no replacing a keyboard and monitor directly connected to a server. So, I upgraded the console in my rack with the HP TFT7600 Rackmount Console... but was it money well spent?
But first... What am I drinking???
In a collaboration between Pacific Plate Brewing and Bangkok Craft Brewing comes Tom Yum Beer... an American Wheat Beer inspired by Thai cuisine. With absolutely no expectations, this one was pleasantly surprising. A FANTASTIC wheat ale, and just the right amount of spice from the Galangal to make this one zesty yet refreshing. 5.0%
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Jeff: "And as always, I'm Jeff."
Me: "Oh thank god."
I know...I thought his evil clone had escaped again 'till I heard that.
Every time I hear that I see a nanosecond flash of Channing Tatum appear overlayed on screen, but I blame internet for that.
LIAR your an imposter oh wait this aint among us.
I'm really scared a shapeshifting river monster crawls out of his basement sump and takes over his channel. We really need some kind of proof that this IS ACTUALLY the original Jeff.
until one day it isnt jeff...
Just install the outer rails first. Then mount the inside rails to the kvm and slide it into the mounted outside rails
I was screaming at this point too, I'm fairly certain that's the correct install procedure.
Except I've installed consoles (like the one I removed) where rails and console go all in one go...
@@CraftComputing No accounting for bad engineering LOL
It makes sense either way since it's a light piece of equipment, but I'd rather have sliding rails with a split design any day of the week, just less finicky to install / remove especially in a well populated rack.
Imagine not knowing you always install rails first...
I am not sure why he completely disassembled the rails. Generally there is a release on the inside of the rail revealed when fully extended that can be pressed the and rails can be slid apart without taking any screws out. Maybe I am missing something here.
When the camera fell over, and you came back and said "HI". I had to join as a member. This channel is GOLD
"This is my rack, and I install what *I* want in my rack" : probably like many other people, I can't tell you how much I agree with your statement !. Awesome work, awesome ressource! Keep up the Excellent work !!! (hard to bebelieve you are already back and functionall ...) Cheers from Montreal !!!
I remember using them in a data centre a good few years ago. The hinges are very strong. They normally worked there way loose because we slammed the screen down pretty hard when putting it down. They take a lot of abuse from frustrated IT professionals 🤪
You stop buying things on eBay.... Thats a joke of the century Jeff
😆😆😆😆
Until the wife files for divorce
@@GdotWdot On the upside, she does get to benefit from all the tech in the house working way, way better than the dysfunctional tech calamity crud at all her friends’ houses - so there is that.
@@stevearkwright We all know Jeff is playing with it too much for everything to be working on a day to day. :grin:
Yeah and now I own the same one thanks to him....
I like that in your videos you keep in the footage of all hiccups and struggle normal people encounter when doing any project. Not like some other videos where everything is as simple as opening a box, install and it works like a charm :)
Take a shot every time he says "my rack" lmao
Im doing that already lol
my thoughts exactly lmao
This awesome, didn't want to pay $600+ for new Rackmount Monitor; just placed my order for one HP TFT7600 Rackmount Console thank you.
Craft computing you're awesome another great video as always..
That opening...perfect!
The Craft Computing Drinking game: Take a drink every-time he says "Rack".
That's what she said. By the way, if there is only one reason to have a rack in your apartment it's for the following reason, It affords you an opportunity to ask with a straight face, "Do you want to come over to my place so I can show you my rack?"
I've had a TFT7600 for years now. It's excellent. I also have a EO1010 in 0U behind the 7600.
I grabbed up a 17" Dell KVM a few weeks ago. Love it and glad I upgraded from my old IBM KVM.
I just bought the same rack console and just installed it. It was a bit difficult to mount it because no square holes in my sunrack.
A subscriber donated a super nice kvm switch unit that slides in the back of the rackrails of the console. Will install it soon. 😎
Used these when I worked for HP - they're actually very nice.
Love the videos, stumbled across your channel when I decided to get into home labs with the Proxmox install. Was lucky enough to stumble across an HP LCD8500 and the KVM over IP switch locally for little over $100's, the convenience of not having to have either a monitor hooked up and some janky keyboard and mouse set up was well worth the price tag.
Sounding like any project i do. Problem after problem to solve and by the time im finished i have needed to get every tool i own from the shed.
Ha I just put a console into my rack last night! As always love the content Jeff!
I have a new baby so my truenas pc and other projects are moving into my new shed. The more I watch you the more I think I need to start rack mounting things.
I would compliment your new upgrade, but last time I said I liked someone's rack it didn't end too well...
I've been doing some rack setup today, and looking at how much you struggled I had to hit that like button, just to show how much I sympathise !
Just bought a kvm rack mount yesterday. Building my second rack next week and this will be installed!
In this video Jeff learns how late 2000's HP server rail systems work. He figured it out in the end, rails first, then slide the device in second, then the screws. Very much a HP thing.
$200 junk + branding = $1000 kvm. welcome to rack equipment. haha absolutely true
And even worse, $1000 for a new KVM these days is a bargain... the ones we get in our datacenter go for $1500, and that's before VAT
@@KayJay01: That’s scandalous.
We should all gang together and start our own company making these things for half the retail price those bastards are charging.
@@stevearkwright there aren't enough loose screws available in the universe to keep us supplied though :(
Having installed roughly 'many hundreds' of these I can tell you, yes from manufacture they come fully assembled. If you have a 4-6 U space you can tilt them to install. If you haven't gotten the space, down a server or three and make space.
Interestingly there is a 1U KVM module that slots into the back that lets you connect up to 24 servers via CAT-5 and dongles.
I actually have this exact same rack console, and love it. I updated mine to use USB instead of the PS/2.
Sometimes the rack needs a blood sacrifice, enjoying your videos, Jeff.
These beer reviews should also get a playlist. They're small clips and can include where to buy so people can drink along.
I recently got a 16-port kvm console switch for $75 on ebay; super excited to try it
"Just remote in."
Let me know how that works out for hardware issues.
Exactly. I have a monitor and keyboard sitting on the floor next to my rack that I use every once in awhile because a system wouldn’t boot properly. It’s janky as hell and I’d much prefer a kvm setup like this.
Hammer over IP?
@@slipknottin thats what iDrac is for.
Just waiting for some people to realize that some IPMI and iLO systems require antiquated versions of JAVA installed for remote access to work.
Or even worse, ActiveX plugins.
@@CraftComputing all about that Flash Player
well done after all that effort
I have this exact same console in my rack, and I will give you these two pieces of wisdom: 1) The cable management arm will begin to sag with time, so if you pull that server below out further than that arm it *will* catch when you put it back in; I advise you move the console up 1U in your rack to act as a buffer. 2) The bend points on the cable management arm are nothing more than thin plastic, meaning they will begin to come apart after so many uses; I wrapped mine in a couple wraps of duct tape to keep it functional.
I just noticed the cable management arm doesn't sag nearly as much as the metal brace it attaches to swivels down, allowing the arm to sag.
Amazing job... always great to see a painless job in a rack mount.
lol
I’m not sure how you’ve installed all of your other equipment in that rack, unless they are some newfangled technology I’ve never seen, but you never install a completed server with rails into the rack at the same time. The outer rails always go in first. And then you insert the inner rails that should be attached to your equipment into the outer rails and slide it in afterwards. Granted, the newest equipment I have used in a server rack was probably from six or seven years ago. But still. A lot of your headaches could’ve been avoided.
Note, not being negative. I’m just not going to change the way I phrased it LOL. Sometimes I enjoy watching people that probably have never worked in a data center. I love your channel, keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see what else comes on eBay. You’ve caused me to spend a little bit of money rethinking some of my older decisions 😉
Your videos always are so interesting just because I get to see stuff I didn't even know existed and now I want them so badly (even though I don't have a rackmount server LMAO)
Thanks for this, should help to save me time, and frustration from trying to install the whole enchilada before attaching the outer slide rails. EZ mistake to make, as not kind of project we would be doing every day. I'm making, from scratch, 2 rack mount shelves to hold a couple of docked x220T's (my daily drivers) using HD shelf slides, heavy steel screen for the tray, with two dust filtered fans to hopefully keep them both running cool, and clean. Cool channel, BTW!
Thanks Jeff, because of you I have sent up my first proxmox server with TruNas, pihole and plex as my VMs
Doesn’t TrueNAS Core 12 need to be installed direct onto bare metal (without built-in RAID card), to utilise the ZFS RAID capabilities of TrueNAS, so you can then install Plex as a curated plug-in?
Surely TrueNAS needs direct access to the hardware? It’s interesting that both Proxmox and TrueNAS both run on ZFS. Does your TrueNAS VM actually fully work? The way it’s supposed to? 🍻 Cheers.
@@stevearkwright I have passed through all the hard drives that I needed for TrueNas 12 and is fully working across my network.
this brings me back to my datacenter days :)
I was lucky enough to pick up a 17" rack mount KVM switch locally for $90. Another $50 for cables (it uses proprietary ones, of course) and power cord, and it's been awesome. I'd say $150 shipped is an excellent deal.
Awesome videos as always.
Thanks for showing this off and cheers!
And the screws? If it wasn't botched by the factory then it is a good reminder to never underestimate vibrations.
"You are screwed up if you take fans for good vibrations.":P
the intro... after the flood has a new meaning now for me... I guess for you too.. 🙄🤣
Another great informative video!
I am so glad I am not the only one who has problems like this.. Should have seen me switching my ESXI cluster and SAN to 10GB/s sfp+. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong haha
These should have a blue light that glows inside the pull out handle when the screen is closed. It's hard to tell because you're in a brightly lit garage, but it doesn't look like your light is working. The way the light works is there's a reed switch to the right of the LCD panel, and a magnet to the right of the keyboard. When the lid is closed the magnet closes the reed switch and the light comes on. If you look underneath the unit (don't need to do any disassembly - just slide the unit out) you'll see where the magnet is - or at least should be - on the far right side. If it's missing like one of mine was, just hot glue another magnet in its place.
In our datacenters, i built a little KVM cart from a medical computer cart (decently cheap), a random monitor, lenovo thinkpad compact USB keyboard and five meter VGA, USB and power cables.
Yes, I imagine many of us have contemplated constructing a similarly undignified mobile method of addressing this existing need.
I do hope, every time it’s needed, that you and your colleagues still call it “The Crash Cart”, when over the tannoy comes the call: “Emergency on Level 3 - loss of *heartbeat* in Node 41” 🚨 🆘 🚨
😀😂 Sorry, I couldn’t resist a cluster joke. 😏
I loved the IBM ones
I have always wanted a rackmount monitor
I literally JUST bought this same model two weeks ago for mine to replace a 17" Dell monitor/kb/m I had sitting on a shelf in my rack.
Thumbs up for PRTG!
We had them on every rack. Then they had us all pull them out to save $. Was a pain to remote in.
keyboard mouse and monitor on a cart with wheels and nice long cables, roll it to the required rack and plug it in when ipmi isn't appropriate
Usb kvm... :p
@@AmbulatoryCorpse Yup, we had a hundred servers. They each worked some 15. Before I left they took out 60% of the servers and went big on AWS.
@@christopherrasmussen8718 There's a reason modern datacenters don't use monitors on each rack. Or frankly, nearly any per-server local configuration at all. It's not scalable and invites too much human error/dependency. And there's a reason AWS/Azure are growing at an incredible rate. Modern problems require modern solutions. For a home rack, sure, it might make sense? But in enterprise, no one should be manually provisioning bare metal hardware.
@@christopherrasmussen8718 when I worked a dc we had little kvm to usb devices that we plugged into our laptops... gave us a the server display in an app on our laptops and passed through keyboard & mouse.
As someone who runs a datacentre for a living, the IBM one is much much nicer. Mounting is easier, keyboard is a separate unit so you can get country-specific layouts, and the trackpoint mouse is so much more useful when you get to grips with it.
As for the cabling at the back, velcro is your friend. You can buy a roll of velcro for a very small amount of money. Always buy a roll and cut what you need, the tabbed version is much less useful.
Do not use cable ties - it's too easy to pull them too tight and damage the cables. If you are looking at more permanent cables - for example structured cabling to elsewhere in your house then go look for rapstrap - it's an updated version of a cable tie. The design gives it a bit of flexibility, and you can snap it with reasonably strong finger strength.
Apart from that - coloured patch leads are your friend. For a home server rack you might want to assign one colour to storage, and another colour to each server.
On occasion you have to be directly connected. Such as setting up a new server, configuring remote access. These can still be very useful instead of lugging around a monitor and hoping you have a spare keyboard and mouse you can use.
It’s amazing how many of these you can get that are brand new, but we’re manufactured 10+ years ago
New ‘old’ stock - on the shelves for years, lain there unsold - because of exorbitant mark-ups on what are, realistically, straightforward products which many companies refused to pay the ransom for.
I suppose they are/were a luxury item, in that it saves some poor tech, back in the day, from pushing a trolley with a CRT, keyboard + mouse with a little seat bucket - even just a laptop - around the racks trying to locate the exact server to plug-in to (then save the day), rather than getting straight to it and fixing it. Who in financial administration ever gave a toss about technicians’ bad backs or response times?
These KVM screens *are* nice things though. No doubt about it.
Except the Dell ones - they were all spidery and flimsy. 😬
@@stevearkwright I’ve used quite a few dell ones and never had a problem.
16:56 Hey you! You're finally awake!
Dang it Jeff, now I have to buy one!
It's good its only screws for hinges. Never seen inside one of these.
love your rats next your salty sod and yeah i got one of them i found hitting ctrl twice helps
Damn, I want that beer
Forgetting that you are at home and children have small hands! They are made for working on server racks 😁
Nicely Done !!! You can now chalk this one off the list !!! But if you don't mind my asking, why are you using a KVM ?!! nJust Kidding!! Keep Up the Awesome work !!! Thanks for allowing us t peak over your shiolder and learn as wse go along. I, for one, am definitely enjoying the ride !!! lol! dan -
I had an HP like that one, but the screen was trashed because it never turned off, so the backlight was faded. I replaced it with a very nice IBM console that I really like, and paired it with an 8 port IBM KVM.
Buying one of these. I just managed to get a Netshelter CX 24U.
A few years ago I picked up an HP IP based KVM. Much nicer to just open a java app on my desk top and connect to the KVM. ;)
This is very much a RTFM case. Jeff, you made this harder to install than it had to be.
nice video !
Any chance on a video on how you do your cable management on your rack, when you have time? Please?
When I put my KVM into my rack, I made sure I had enough vertical space to put the KVM in at an angle. Which means that I removed my servers from the rack. My only issue is I had to get 1U extension brackets because I'm running a 24" vs a 36" deep rack to meet the minimum rail length.
a really good kvm to buy that i use now on my channel is the "tripplite B020-016-17" you can pick one up off ebay for 100$ and not only that it comes with 16 ports and 17" HD LCD
This is such a great and informative video! On this HP TFT7600 console, is it possible to adjust the rails to match the depth of your rack?
Lesson learned the hard way in my living room rack...(without peeking at other comments first). Remove the rails from any equipment first, then install the rails in the rack and then mount your equipment back on the rails. And if you've got a heavy server ask a friend to help.
Thank you so much for sharing that wonderfully vivid, deftly amusing - yet cautionary - story with us all. Brilliant and funny simultaneously, thank you.
I’m still laughing at: “Went to E=MC² with a distinct ‘Ka-wang’…”, Lol! 😂 Can actually *hear* it.
Yes, unnamed others have cheerfully removed the HDD caddies and PSU’s from Xserve RAID arrays in order to lift them into racks singlehandedly (and those beasts were really, really heavy - even unloaded). Fortunately, Apple decreed they required solid ledge supports, not sliding rails, so it was do-able - barely - and successfully accomplished despite considerable lunatic danger of permanently losing a foot if one of those muthachuggers landed on it. Jesus. Doesn’t bear thinking about. Nowadays, of course, that sort of risk-taking couldn’t even be contemplated - a friend or two would most definitely be brought in to help.
Lessons learned.
If you're using it as it was intended to be used for a server you can get a lot of them for $80 to even $150 that's how low the market has gone on those mainly because a lot of people just think oh it has a small screen I'm not interested in it when technically you don't need a large screen when it's on a server
PiKVM may replace your screen there, its like tinypilot but better, and can be combined with a kvm switch that can be managed by PiKVM, and you can boot images from PiKVM and more.
I was going to suggest to take a shot every time he says Rack but don't want to kill someone 🤣
just a friendly heads up. most rails separate inner to outer rails. install the outer rails then slide in the inners rails
The tech is neat, but I'd love to see more of a rundown on what he's doing with all of it and why it's worth all of the cost and difficulty, apart from having a TH-cam channel.
I dont think I have touched our KVM in about 2 years. I'm pretty sure the last few times I have used it were because I forgot where the tapes I was supposed to be swapping out were and it was faster to just log in to the backup server to find out than it was to remove all the tapes. Have DRAC, will remote manage forever.
Amazing what constant vibrations can do to scews.
I guess being next to a bunch of spinning rust and fans worked the screws loose before.. would be interesting to see how it fairs after a year or 2 in a rack and how looser they get.
You said in another video you mentioned thinking about offsite backup. I have used AWS and found it to be an inexpensive solution.
Haven't gotten too far into the video. The thing that always bothered me (At least for the early systems) was the metric Eff-ton of thick cabling needed for these things.
Got one of those consoles in my datacenter at work, liked it so much I picked one up for my compute rack here at home. About $100 and I picked it up rather than having it shipped.
As to the fight to get the damn thing installed, I spent the better part of an hour wedging mine into my Dell 24U square hole rack. There were plenty of choice words and a little blood spilled, but overall, it fit like a glove. Now I just need to plumb all of the connections back to the Cyclades KVM switch - that should be fun.
I'm thinking HP intended on these units getting installed before everything else in the rack to make life easier. Which KVM switch are you using? The ones that I have at work are the daisy-chainable HP 0U units.
never ignore your rack
You could probably upgrade the monitor in it with a 2012 HP G72 or even a touchscreen from the Envy line Monitor fairly easy, just find one with a dead board (which is extremely common) and just find a screen board on Amazon, as most reuse the screen as a Moving picture frame.
Maybe for a next project
Installing an infoblox
It's an ipam management system
Nicly for managing al your op addresses and also for dns managing of your internal network.
make sure these 2 licenses are permently installed -dns -dhcp and for redundancy if you want it you need grid license (all need to be permently)
Sometimes remoting in is just not an option. On the OS side, sometimes you manage to screw it up to a point where you can't get to it remotely anymore. Local access is nice. On the management side, sometimes you have hardware so old, your browser/software is too new to use it. Once again, local access is nice. Sometimes, you just bought something and it's not configured to do anything yet. Once again, local access is nice.
The point of out-of-band-management ie. IPMI/BMC, is that it is out of band. You can remotely get to BIOS/UEFI or get beneath any OS layer as required. If you can't remotely access your out of band network, you're either doing something wrong or the datacenter is burnt to the ground.
@@shammyh : Q: How much access can the $100 paid versions of IPMI actually buy you “beneath the OS layer”? It has limitations, correct?
Loathe as most of us are to traipse off to remote server locations even on the best of days, turning up in person to diagnose and fix some faults is still a physical necessity which iLo, iDRAC, iLOM (or whatever) can neither emulate nor substitute for, sadly.
Let's just say I've had to deal with OOB management of servers that are well over a decade old (not all DCs contain recent hardware). The OOB management required a specific version of Java (that was way out of date) and a specific version of IE. It's simply easier to walk up to one of them with a cart than to beat your head on how to get Windows 10 to run IE5 with Java 1.4
i just got a tripp lite console for free from a buddy with a vga kvm he got from a radilogly lab that was upgrading gotta install it now.... i just finished setting up my rack... ill never be done haha
I thought you had the pi-kvm.... surely that would be a cooler setup
Should use some blue threadlocker on those screws so they don't re-loosen. You'll probably replace it again before that happens though.
Does the kvm plug into a kvm switch elsewhere in the rack? If so, what switch are you using?
They could of fit a 20" screen in that bezel. lol Also, the hinge on right side seems lose. Also missing a screw at back of right side of screed hinge.
oke nice but one question please ? where to i power it on ? there is no button for turning on ???? please help ?
I'd like to see a video on cable management arms.
I feel your pain of kvm installation. I have a 15 or 16 server kvm unit in my basement. It is a unit that connects to two server racks. The amount of cable it has is just crazy.
There is a solution, they make some "dongle" things with plug in to you don't have so much cable.
But ...Run them down the (in) side of the racking , as like a cable wall.
I decided it was easier to not install all the cables and just run one and swap.
But my servers don't break down nor need a lot of maintenance.
@@guywhoknows: You mean KVM over Ethernet adapters? Yes, they’ll save a lot of expensive, bulky, hard to find, short-run KVM issues - it’s just that the dongle/adapters aren’t that cheap (unless you get really lucky and nab a job lot - with no other bidders).
2 out of the last 3 video had the beers I gave you and you enjoyed them.....remember that ;)
2 rights don't correct 300 wrongs.
@@CraftComputing those 300 wrong make those 2 taste even better though
Hey Jeff. Is there any way to convert an old laptop to a server rack console??
Hi. I found one with the server switch.
When I start the machine it will change colors on the monitor and nothing else.
Why does it do this? Does it not have an os?
Might have been watching too much Jeff... i bought a 'furniture' rack to prop up the end of my desk which will house my home-lab and gaming PC.
As a tall person do you actually use what chair for work or just videos ? I had a similar one and it destroyed my back.