Server Rebuild

So all the hardware for my new server arrived yesterday.

The first hurdle was that the power connectors on my old Antec True power supply are different. The PSU has a 20 pin main power connector (instead of 24) and 4 pin 12v CPU connector (instead of 8). I did some searching through the manual and it indicated that if I install the connector at at the bottom and leave some holes open it will work.

I was curious what risk I might be facing doing this so I went googling. Turns out the additional pins are there just to provide higher current carrying capacity. See here http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html. Now this guy's estimates on the max power for each connector are far outside what I will be running. As I am using the built-in graphics hardware the machine will be using much less power than the potential maximum. So I decided to give it a go and upgrade if the wires/connectors got hot.

I pulled all the old Pentium 4 parts out of the case and began sorting out the wires. The case has a window and a cold-cathode light plus an illuminated window fan which are nice but generate a load of wires. I began tidying these up with cable ties to get them out of the way. I can't do all of them until I get all the drives in there and this won't happen until after I retire the old server. 

Robin Helping

The next challenge the CD drive. The old PC had an IDE drive which is fine for the few times I would use it but the new motherboard has no IDE connector! The solution was unfortunately to rip my desktop open and steal the DVD drive out of that just long enough to install the OS.

I left all the drive wires loose and only put in the new 2TB drive that will be the system drive for the new server. I removed the old floppy drive at the same time and I found covers (from the old motherboard box) for the hole where the floppy drive went. While at it I found spare covers for the expansion board spots where the old video and wireless card went (don't need these any more).

Cleaned out

Robin helped me plug all the case connectors on (HDD light, power switch power LED, reset switch etc). It was getting on for bed time for Robin so I sent him on his way and continued with the installation of the fron USB connectors. No firewire on the new motherboard so I just left that one loose. I connected the USB to the USB 2.0 connector (not 3.0) as I'm not sure of compatibility - will check that later.

Next step is boot! I connected the server to a screen, pulled the wireless USB keyboard/mouse thing from my desktop and plugged it into the new server, plugged it in, turned on the power switch at the back and hit the power switch on the front panel. I put in the ESXi CD and it booted!

ESX goes through its thing, asks me to sign in blood and then tells me there are no drives it can install on. It basically doesn't seem to recognize the SATA drive. I reboot, go into BIOS and sure enough the BIOS sees it. I do some googling (from my work laptop as my desktop is in pieces) and find an article saying that ESXi doesn't support SATA on the Z77 chipset and you have to use a USB drive! But I checked this - other people said it was compatible!

After a while it occurred to me that the ESXi CD is one I downloaded ages ago to install on the old HP box. I put the DVD back into my desktopm boot it and go to the VMWare site and there is an ESXi 5.0 Update 1. I download and burn that, move the DVD drive back to the new server and try to boot again. Phew it now detects the SATA drive and we are in buisness.

About 5 minutes later ESX is installed. Step 1 complete.