Fixing up a Sun Fire v240 from 2003

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
  • Minor repairs and booting up a Sun Fire v240 from 2003. This was Sun's improvement to the v100 and v120 and the first 2U server in the v series Sun Fire line. We'll 3D print some Sun hard drive sleds and have a quick look at a SunPCI III - a PC on a board for the Sun Fires.
    Sun drive tray 3D print: www.thingivers...
    Rack stuff
    StarTech 25U Rack: amzn.to/3mEB7hS
    Tripp Lite SMART1500LCD UPS: amzn.to/3KZW3Jw
    1U 24 Port Patch Panel: amzn.to/3Nm0bFa
    1U Brush Panel: amzn.to/3mExAA3
    1U Rack Shelf: amzn.to/3oaDclT
    Note: The above are Amazon affiliate links. It doesn't cost you extra, but I'll receive a commission which will help keep the content coming. I only link to things I've personally ordered.
    Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

ความคิดเห็น • 70

  • @bdhaliwal24
    @bdhaliwal24 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    Sun made such beautifully designed hardware both in terms of functionality and aesthetic=.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      Couldn't agree more!

  • @lpseem3770
    @lpseem3770 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    Your channel is pure gold. My own servers are about 10 years younger and both are working fine. A line between old crap and production in server world is very blurry.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Thanks! oh yeah my main servers are a Dell PowerEdge 510 and a 720. They're getting up there.

  • @andrewnoonan5786
    @andrewnoonan5786 ปีที่แล้ว +36

    Some things to know about the V240... 1. The motherboard is identical to the V210. So much so you can stick a V240 motherboard in a V210. 2. The Netra V240 heatsinks are also identical but have chassis fans instead of fans on the heatsink. 3. V240 will do 16gb ram max. 4. Cpu's do NOT need to match for a dual config. It will just throttle the faster cpu to the slower speed.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Didn't know that about the dual config throttling... as you'll see in an upcoming video that might be very relevant 😄

  • @chrisis429
    @chrisis429 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    Awesome video, thank you! My grandfather worked on Sun equipment his entire professional career at the local ISP, and he had an entire Sun rack that we recycled when he passed. Now that I'm in networking, I really wish I would have kept onto that old hunk of metal.

    • @jessestrobel2
      @jessestrobel2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Maybe one day you can reconstruct what he may have had in there - little bucket list goal for sure

  • @LeeZhiWei8219
    @LeeZhiWei8219 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Yes! Another Sun video. This is awesome.

    • @LeeZhiWei8219
      @LeeZhiWei8219 ปีที่แล้ว

      Quite interesting how the Sun Servers use a SCC to store info, just like the Nvram in sun workstations. Good that you don't have to boot to the ok prompt and set the MAC address in bootup 😂. How about nvram variables such as like initial boot device? Is it on the SCC?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      I've never actually tried it, but I do believe the SCC holds all the OpenBoot nvram variables!

  • @asaone11
    @asaone11 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Glad to see ya, makes me want to get my sun ultra sparc box’s out

  • @AnnatarTheMaia
    @AnnatarTheMaia 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Other than the small CPU fans going bust, these are rock solid servers, so much so that I still use one in my datacenter at home as the primary DNS (running PowerDNS which I ported to Solaris 10 and packaged it), and NTP V4... It used to also be the central backup server, until the tape library died... awesome workhorses, these servers.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Definitely, I'm a big fan of these v240s

  • @SB-qm5wg
    @SB-qm5wg 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I've been enjoying your Sun series. Thank you.

  • @RobertMoore-x3w
    @RobertMoore-x3w 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Watched your video from beginning to end and now I remember why I don’t miss working there anymore.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      any good stories?

  • @atomikrobot300099
    @atomikrobot300099 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Great videos! Looking forward to watching the SunPCI + software + Windows install!

  • @BAgodmode
    @BAgodmode ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Sun was such a cool company.

  • @br3nd4n
    @br3nd4n ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Yes another video!!!!
    I just bought and started using a quantum LTO5 drive for archiving. But now, I also want a Sun machine. They're very cool looking machines.

  • @herdware
    @herdware ปีที่แล้ว +3

    One thing I made sure when I bought my gigabit switch was that it supported 10mbit half-duplex, but then again I have a lot of old machines that use 10mbit.

  • @nathan9510
    @nathan9510 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    I should've shipped a disk that had solaris 10 pre installed! If you get stuck and need a solaris install, I could install sol10 on a 9gb disk in my v240 and take a dd image. Then you could transfer that image to one of your disks.
    I have a SunPCi 1 in an Ultra 10. Its pretty neat seeing Windows 98 running in a Window on Solaris 8.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      Haha all good. I think I'll be able to trick this thing into hitting an ok> prompt, but if not I'll take you up on the dd image offer.
      That's awesome about the SunPCi 1... I'm excited to see if I can get this III working!

    • @onGlobalproductions
      @onGlobalproductions ปีที่แล้ว

      Remove disk bootup, it will go to ok prompt, then, setenv auto-boot? false
      Plug disk back in and reboot.
      It will go to the OK prompt and you can just type boot net or boot cdrom to install solaris

  • @evan141
    @evan141 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Great video thanks!!

  • @onGlobalproductions
    @onGlobalproductions ปีที่แล้ว +13

    There are actually connectors on the board for a SAS module, really rare.
    PN: 370-7592
    So you can boot from an modern SSD

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +7

      Oh interesting... didn't know about that!

    • @ezramiller8296
      @ezramiller8296 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Holy smokes! What about a V125?

  • @mediis
    @mediis 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Oh man, this is hard core work pr0n from the middle of my career. We (superpages ) used to have about a 100 of these.

  • @RobertMoore-x3w
    @RobertMoore-x3w 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I worked for Sun tech support for 15 years. Worked on the Enterprise line and SunFire line.

  • @JasonsLabVideos
    @JasonsLabVideos ปีที่แล้ว +1

    this was a good watch !! Thanks for this !

  • @FransvandenBergeMuziekschuur
    @FransvandenBergeMuziekschuur 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    There are scsi to sata converters. Meaning you can use sata ssd's inside the scsi brackets. That would mean the network can be sped up at least 4 times.

  • @Ryet9
    @Ryet9 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    eucalyptus oil is gr8 for removing stickers..and smells gr8

  • @souplike.homogenate
    @souplike.homogenate ปีที่แล้ว +4

    "From 2003"
    *_sweats at his workplace's still running legacy hardware_

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      haha seriously.

    • @ezramiller8296
      @ezramiller8296 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      So Gentoo and Debian still make an unofficial port for Sparc64. Also Bonslack has a Slackware 14.1 or 15.0 port for Sparc64. I haven’t tried the Bonslack, but I did almost get Gentoo installed. And Debian had a kernel panic at the time of install when running apt-get upgrade. I think they fixed it.

  • @nibrobb
    @nibrobb ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Hahah the option "d - play DOOM" at 26:10. A bit disappointed they didn't ship it with doom though

  • @stonent
    @stonent ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Those sleds look a LOT like ones used in Dell Equalogic PS6500 SANs. Same eject mechanism.

  • @Gentlemanspot
    @Gentlemanspot ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Yells 'PLAY DOOM" at screen!

  • @AureliusR
    @AureliusR ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Hmm, it's always been my experience that you should remove thermal pads if you're going to apply thermal compound. It's *probably* fine, but the thermal characteristics of the two materials are different, and it probably won't conduct heat as well. Down the road it might be worth pulling that heatsink, scraping off the old thermal pad, and either replacing it with a new thermal pad or good, high quality thermal compound,

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      Yeah I think you're probably right, I've been meaning to just do thermal compound as you say.

  • @oldschooldude8370
    @oldschooldude8370 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Slightly off topic but Sun created java which is literally everywhere today.

  • @jonathankovacs1809
    @jonathankovacs1809 7 หลายเดือนก่อน

    If I may ask how does one reinstall Solaris 10? I have inherited a Sun Netra T2000 and of course I did not get the admin credentials the original owner/sys admin passed away 😞How can I reload the OS so that I can use this system? any help would be appreciated. I have looked all over the internet could not get a proper answer!

  • @whuzup3
    @whuzup3 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Does anyone know if the cpu has to be inserted in any orientation? I can see the dot and the notched corner on the cpu but nothing on the board to show how it should be installed.

  • @shrikedecil
    @shrikedecil ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The top of the CPU and the bottom of the heatsink are specifically machined flat enough for solid thermal contact ... such that the tiny dings from scraping with a screwdriver are something to consider.

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yeah, I figured the scrapes from the screwdriver were better than having build-up from the old thermal compound. It's definitely a risk but these machines won't ever be on for more than a few hours and I would keep an eye on temps if I had them on for long periods.

    • @runninggames771
      @runninggames771 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Isnt that what thermal paste is for?

    • @shrikedecil
      @shrikedecil ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@runninggames771 You want as much of the CPU and the heatsink as you can manage touching *directly*.
      Yes, thermal paste is precisely because there's always grooves and non-flatness, and CPU-paste-heatsink is a lot better than CPU-air-heatsink.
      But the *goal* is actually CPU-heatsink.
      "dings" can screw things up. Imagine a marble under a table plate. There's an area now with *thick* paste. That's no good.

  • @user-wu4cw5ed5w
    @user-wu4cw5ed5w ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I was wondering throughout watching an entire video, could those Sun Fires be used as routers?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      oh yeah you could throw pfsense on there or something. it'd be an expensive router power bill though 😆

  • @worskaas
    @worskaas ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Why not use a SCSI to SATA Bridge Adapter so that you can use a small SSD drive. I think that will save a lot of waiting time and save on power and noise. Or is there a SSD drive with a scsi interface that you can plug in?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I had trouble finding an adapter, any SCSI to SATA adapters you would recommend?

    • @ezramiller8296
      @ezramiller8296 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@clabretro I went down that rabbit hole as well😂. Unfortunately. I didn’t find any. Growing up, I don’t remember seeing SCSI drives, let alone ultra wide SCSI drives. But that was probably because scsi drives weren’t used in home systems.

  • @markpriceful
    @markpriceful ปีที่แล้ว +1

    With lack of ALOM login, don't you still have access to the system console (to get to ok prompt) on the system's DB9 serial port? Or is the serial console locked to only being accessed via ALOM?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      That's what I had expected, but I don't get any output from the DB9 port. I also read you can wait 3-4 minutes after the ALOM login times out and it should drop you to the ok prompt, but no luck there either. I'm sure there's a way to do it, it'll just take some more experimenting and research.

  • @onGlobalproductions
    @onGlobalproductions ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Hah Sunpci Nice!! Try upgrading win xp to win 7, failed for me, but thats a nice card to play many hours with it.
    And play Pinball on a solaris box 😊

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      Ha, nice! Probably gonna start with Windows XP first then see where I get.

    • @andrewnoonan5786
      @andrewnoonan5786 ปีที่แล้ว

      There was a native port of Doom for Solaris.

    • @andrewnoonan5786
      @andrewnoonan5786 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@clabretro xbill is always fun to play. ;)

  • @DouglasWalrath
    @DouglasWalrath ปีที่แล้ว +1

    would a scsi2sd work with these?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว

      It might, I just picked up a BlueSCSI that I'm going to try eventually.

    • @DouglasWalrath
      @DouglasWalrath ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@clabretro filling a server with BlueSCSIs would be nuts

  • @LeeZhiWei8219
    @LeeZhiWei8219 ปีที่แล้ว

    Also! I wonder. Since some of the Ultrasparc servers do have a pci/pci-x/pcie slot. Can we put a GPU in it, to see solaris booting from open firmware. And maybe usb keyboards and mouses?

    • @clabretro
      @clabretro  ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Yeah! I believe it's possible. I'm not sure which GPUs are compatible, but it's on my list to hunt one down eventually and try that out.

    • @onGlobalproductions
      @onGlobalproductions ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Xrv100, Xvr600, xvr1200 are compatible, i know have them myself in similar system

    • @andrewnoonan5786
      @andrewnoonan5786 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@onGlobalproductions xvr-1200 is a nice card. Had one in my Blade 2000 for many years.

    • @andrewnoonan5786
      @andrewnoonan5786 ปีที่แล้ว

      Generic usb keyboards are an issue due to simulating the stop-a used to interrupt a sparc and drop back to the prom.