Got this server and don't know what to do with it....

[IG-88]

OK. I got this server and I need some ideas on what to do with it. The problem is I've never messed with one like this before. It's fairly old but I was assured it works.

So....I thought I could get some ideas from you all. Here is some pics:

Maybe it should just go to the trash....

[MonMotha]

Looks like that's just a SCSI cage.  It holds a bunch of hard drives, nothing more.  You'd need a SCSI card and PC to hook it up to.  If the drives in there are reasonable size, you could perhaps make yourself a nice RAID array.  If the drives aren't reasonable size, then it's likely not worth enough to deal with since SCA drives are expensive as all get out.  You could try ebaying it.

[somunny]

I've got a PCI SCSI card (I think) that you can have.  Just pick up shipping.  Let me know.

edit:  Found it - Adaptec 12J3093

[leapinlew]

Sweet! Probably only costs about $100 a month to run. 

[Falkon215]

Yikes.What a monster.

[Turnarcades]

Makes me glad I don't know dick about networking.

[evilfuzzle]

ive got one of those, it already had the scsi card in it so all i did was got heaps of small harddrives i had lying about (20 of em) and tossed them all in, BAM! you got yourself a Raid array

[IG-88]

I've got a PCI SCSI card (I think) that you can have.  Just pick up shipping.  Let me know.

edit:  Found it - Adaptec 12J3093

Ya, I could probably use that, thanks! I'll PM you with the info.

I'll probably need help hooking it all up tho, and I have no cables. What do I need from the card to the card to it?

[IG-88]

ive got one of those, it already had the scsi card in it so all i did was got heaps of small harddrives i had lying about (20 of em) and tossed them all in, BAM! you got yourself a Raid array

Cool! I'll open it later and get some pic for us too look at. Its got 6 drives already.

I doubt I'll be able to Ebay it one piece. It weighs a ton. I'd have to part it out.

Sweet! Probably only costs about $100 a month to run. 

Energy hog 'eh?

[evilfuzzle]

well for it to be a raid they all have to be the same size but you can just make some sort of cluster. research it first as i am not particularly familiar with other methods of fabricating these systems

[leapinlew]

IG-88

take a good look at that thing. It's probably not worth it to run. It probably has some limitations that make the thing not worth it. Such as, it may not support large disc drives or something.

[IG-88]

I've got a PCI SCSI card (I think) that you can have.  Just pick up shipping.  Let me know.

edit:  Found it - Adaptec 12J3093

Ya, I could probably use that, thanks! I'll PM you with the info.

I'll probably need help hooking it all up tho, and I have no cables. What do I need from the card to the card to it?

Ok that didn't make any sense. What I meant to say was what do I need from the card to a PC? (I think)

[ratzz]

Start a hosting business?

Not sure really ... If you can fit a monitor in the side of it .... I say MAME IT!

[IG-88]

There ya go. It's big enough for a mini cab!

We have a plan! 

[ChadTower]

Arrays like that are as much about duplication as they are about capacity... so unless you have some data you need 100% uptime on 24/7, that monster isn't for you.

[Ioargra]

It really depends on your needs. But if it is old and has like say 6 drives of 60 gigs each for 360 gigs...

Well you can buy a new 1 TB drive for $110ish now (there's a sale at dell this very moment for a seagate 1 TB SATA drive for $109).

So if its space you are interested in, most likely its not worth it.

In fact, if you get the PC SCSI card that someone was talking about, just the cable to connect the card to the server (looks like a version of external SCSI from first glance) , could be $50-$100+ !

Its probably old enough and heavy enough that there's not much call for it on ebay, although you could search ebay and see if there's any similar items going and what bids they are fetching.

And as others have mentioned, the power requirements are going to be steep. A significant cost to run it.

However, if your data fits within the size of the hdds there and you want to run a raid version that protects your data, then you might find a use for it. If it is HDDs in there, it looks like they are also hot swappable, which is something thats also important for 24/7 uptime of data.

Just keep in mind that RAID only protects from certain types of hardware failure. If windows craps up and decides to delete a partition table, then you are stuck even with raid. As a result, if data security or uptime is paramount to you (the only reasons I could see using this) you'll want to have backups in place as well, like external drives backing up the array, and then maybe even offsite copies, etc etc.


My suggestion: first find out exactly what you have (brand, model of the case), and look into those cages to see the kind/size of the hdds.
Then you probably can figure out what you'd need to hook it up to a computer and how much it would cost.

[ark_ader]

Give it to a charity shop.