Random Hardware specs...

Just a collection of hardware comparisons, that I spent a bunch of time looking up at some point in time....maybe someone else will benefit. 

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HP SmartArray RAID Cards: The P430, P830, P440 and P840 all use the same uncommon double-wide SFF-8087 8 lane connector.  p430 and p440 are the same base controller, p430 was released mid-gen and supports traditional supercap backed flash whereas the p440 cache plugs into the motherboard which has a system central battery backup of a pair of 18650s.

HP SmartArray P440

-one internal x8 wide mini-SAS port SFF-8654 8I

-the battery for the cache is plugged into the motherboard, and the cache module is plugged into the the motherboard.  The battery is not plugged into the cache module like in prior models

-without a battery plugged in, during post one is not able to access the menuing system

-without a cache module, during post one is not able to access the menuing system

HP SmartArray P430

-one internal x8 wide mini-SAS port 

-12 Gb/s 6Gb/s SATA

-DDR3 1600mhz

HP SmartArray P420

-6 Gb/s SAS & SATA

-2 internal x4 wide port connectors

-DDR3 1333mhz

HP SmartArray P410

        -3 Gb/s SAS, 1.5 Gbp/s SATA

        -2 internal (Mini-SAS) x8 wide port connectors

        -DDR2 800mhz

HP SmartArray P430 & P420 share the same cache module; DDR3

Dell Perc H200 (LSI 9211)

-6Gb/s

Dell Perc H310(LSI 9211)LSI SAS 2008 (B2) 

-6Gb/s

IBM M1015 (LSI 9211-8i)

IBM H1110 (LSI 9211) LSI SAS2004

-single port

Dell Perc H330 (LSI 9300  SAS3008)

        -12gbps SAS, 6gbps SATA, 4kn

        

Dell H710 (LSI 9207-8i), LSI 2208, SAS 6gbps PCIe 3 some of them

Dell H310 (LSI 9211-8i), LSI 2008

HP LSI 9217-4i4e 8-Port SAS 6Gb/s

From CloudNinjas

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AMD EPYC 7002 "Rome" socket SP3

7542    2.9/3.4ghz  32core  128mb  225w  CPUMark: ????? ~$550

7532    2.4/3.3ghz  32core  256mb  200w  CPUMark: 53051 ~$530

7502    2.5/3.3ghz  32core  128mb  180w  CPUMark: 50298 ~$300

7502p   2.5/3.5ghz  32core  128mb  180w 

7452    2.3/3.6ghz  32core  128mb  155w  CPUMark: 47951 ~$300

7F72    3.2/3.7ghz  24core  192mb  240w  CPUMark: 52110 ~$500

7402    2.8/3.3ghz  24core  128mb  180w  CPUMark: 46028 ~$300

7402p   2.8/3.3ghz  24core  128mb  180w   

7352    2.3/3.3ghz  24core  128mb  155w  CPUMark: 40096  ~$300 

7F52    3.2/3.7ghz  16core  256mb  240w  CPUMark: 39923  ~$300

7302    3.0/3.3ghz  16core  128mb  155w  CPUMark: 33002  ~$200

7302p   3.0/3.3ghz  16core  128mb  155w

7282    2.8/3.3ghz  16core   64mb  120w  CPUMark: 29846  

AMD EPYC 7003 "Milan" socket SP3

7573x   2.8/3.6ghz  32core  768mb  280w

75F3    2.8/3.6ghz  32core  256mb  280w  CPUMark: 68505

7543p   2.8/3.7ghz  32core  256mb  225w  CPUMark: 

7513    2.6/3.6ghz  32core  128mb  200w  CPUMark: 59285

7473x   2.8/3.7ghz  24core  768mb  240w  CPUMark: 59280

7453    2.7/3.4ghz  28core   64mb  225w  CPUMark: 50575

74F3    3.4/4.0ghz  24core  256mb  240w  CPUMark: 60666

7443    2.8/4.0ghz  24core  128mb  200w  CPUMark: 57193

7413    2.6/3.6ghz  24core  128mb  180w  CPUMark: 50223

7373x   3.0/3.8ghz  16core  768mb  240w  CPUMark: 

73F3    3.5/4.0ghz  16core  256mb  240w  CPUMark: 46103

7343    3.2/3.4ghz  16core  128mb  190w  CPUMark: 44189

7313    3.0/3.7ghz  16core  128mb  155w  CPUMark: 42032 ~$600

7303    2.4/3.4ghz  16core   64mb  130w

LGA3647

4109t  2/3ghz      8core  11mb    70w    CPUMark: 10348

4110   2.1/3ghz    8core  11mb    85w    CPUMark: 10131   2400mhz

4112   2.6/3ghz    4core  08.25mb 85w    CPUMark: 6446?

4114   2.2/3ghz   10core  13.75mb 85w    CPUMark: 13082

4116t  2.1/3ghz   12core  16.5mb  85w    CPUMark: 15187

4116   2.1/3ghz   12core  16.5mb  85w    CPUMark: 15065

5115   2.4/3.2ghz 10core  13.75mb 85w    CPUMark: 14649  

4208   2.1/3.2ghz   8core  11mb    85w   CPUMark: 11384

4209t  2.2/3.2ghz   8core  11mb    70w   CPUMark: 11080 

4210   2.2/3.2ghz  10core  13.75mb 85w   CPUMark: 13340  2400mhz

4214y  2.2/3.3ghz  12core  16.5mb  85w   CPUMark: 16190

4215   2.5/3.5ghz   8core  11mb    85w   CPUMark: 14439

5215   2.5/3.5ghz  10core  13.75mb 85w   CPUMark: 15624

LGA2011

E5-2603v4  1.7ghz      15mb   6core  85w CPUMark: 4695

E5-2608Lv4 1.7ghz      15mb   6core  50w      

E5-2609v4  1.7ghz      20mb   8core  85w

E5-2640v4  2.4/3.4ghz  25mb  10core  90w  CPUMark: 12398

E5-2650v4  2.2/2.9ghz  30mb  12core 105w  CPUMark: 13776  $7

E5-2660v4  2.0/3.2ghz  35mb  14core 105w  CPUMark: 16070 $12

E5-2680v4  2.4/3.3ghz  35mb  14core 120w  CPUMark: 17951 $14

E5-2683v4  2.1/3.0ghz  40mb  16core 120w  CPUMark: 17744 $25

E5-2690v4  2.6/3.5ghz  35mb  14core 135w  CPUMark: 19620 $22

E5-2695v4  2.1/3.3ghz  45mb  18core 120w  CPUMark: 19574 $40

E5-2695v3  2.3/3.3ghz  35mb  14core 120w  CPUMark: 16566

E5-2660v3  2.6/3.3ghz  25mb  10core 105w  CPUMark: 13219

E5-2630v3  2.4/3.2ghz  20mb   8core  85w  CPUMark: 10426

E5-2603v3  1.6ghz      15mb   6core  85w  CPUMark: 3817

E5-2418Lv2  2.0/2.0ghz  15mb   6core  50w

E5-2430Lv2  2.4/2.8ghz  15mb   6core  60w

E5-2450Lv2  1.7/2.1ghz  25mb  10core  60w

E5-2650Lv2 1.7/2.1ghz 25mb  10core  70w    CPUMark:7475

E5-2640v2   2.0/2.5ghz  20mb   8core  95w    CPUMark:7785

E5-2630Lv2 2.4/2.8ghz 15mb   6core  60w    CPUMark: 6701

E5-2628Lv2 1.9/2.4ghz 20mb   8core  70w    CPUMark 7181

E5-2648Lv2 1.9/2.5ghz 25mb  10core  70w    CPUMark: 8828

E5-2430v0   2.2/2.7ghz  15mb  6core  95w

E5-2620v0 2.0/2.5ghz 15mb  6core  95w    CPUMark:5290

E5-2630Lv0  2.0ghz      15mb  6core  60w

E5-2640v0   2.5/3.0ghz  15mb  6core  95w    CPUMark:6318

E5-2650Lv0  1.8ghz      20mb  8core  70w

E5-2660v0 2.2/3.0ghz 20mb  8core 95w    CPUMark 8104

L5420  2.5ghz 12mb  4core   50w    cpumark:3502

L5520  2.26ghz   8mb  4core   60w    cpumark:4377

L5530 2.4ghz    8mb  4core   60w    cpumark:4351

L5630 2.13ghz  12mb  4core 40w    cpumark:4420*

LGA1150

E3-1220Lv3    1.5ghz  4mb  2core   15w   CPUMark 2070 NO-GPU  $32

E3-1230Lv3 2.8ghz 8mb  4core   25w   NO-GPU  $60

E3-1240Lv3 3.0ghz 8mb  4core   25w cpu mark:7486  NO-GPU $70

E3-1265Lv3 3.7ghz 8mb  4core   45w  $50

E3-1268Lv3 3.3ghz 8mb  4core   45w  $45

E3-1275Lv3 3.9ghz 8mb  4core   45w  cpu mark 8901  $75   

E3-1286Lv3 4.0ghz 8mb  4core   65w  $150

E3-1285Lv3 3.9ghz 8mb  4core   65w  $130

i3-4160       3.6ghz  3mb  2core   54w  CPUMark: 3500  $15

i3-4160t      3.1ghz  3mb  2core   35w  CPUMark 3130

i3-4150t      3.0ghz  3mb  2core   35w  CPUMark: 2867    

i3-4330t      3.0ghz  4mb  2core   35w  CPUMark 3098  $15  

Celeron 1037u 1.8ghz  2mb  17w  CPUMark: 1737 

Celeron 1007u 1.5ghz  2mb  17w  CPUMark: 1379 

Atom D2700    2.1ghz 1mb   10w  CPUMark: 841

Celeron 847   1.1ghz 2mb   17w  CPUMark: 985 

LGA1151

P G4400  3.3ghz  3mb  2core/2thread  54w  HD 510 CPUMark  2593

i3-6100  3.7ghz  3mb  2core/4thread  51w  HD 530 CPUMark 4173  $35

i3-6100t 3.2ghz  3mb  2core/2thread  35w  HD 530 CPUMark 3630  $30

i3-6300t  3.3ghz 4mb  2core/2thread  35w  HD 530 CPUMark 4040  $50

E3-1225v5 3.7ghz 8mb  4core/4thread  80w  HD 530 CPUMark 5917  $37

E3-1240lv5 3.2ghz  8mb  4core/8thread  25w  NoGPU CPUMark 6446 $60

E3-1260lv5 3.9ghz  8mb  4core/8thread  45w  NoGPU CPUMark 8226 $80

LGA1155

i5-2500t     45w  4core/4threads 2.3/3.3ghz 6mb HD2000 CPUMark 4608

i5-2390t     35w  2core/4threads 2.7/3.5ghz 3mb HD2000 CPUMark 4262 

i3-2120      65w  2core/4threads 3.3ghz 3mb HD2000 CPUMark 4064

i3-2130      65w  2core/4threads 3.4ghz 3mb HD2000 CPUMark 3926

i3-2120t     35w  2core/4threads 2.6ghz 3mb HD2000 CPUMark 3160

P g2020     55w  2core/2threads 2.9ghz 3mb HD CPUMark 2759

LGA1156

i3-550 73w 2core 4threads 3.3ghz 4mb cache HD CPUMark 2829  

Core2Duo

e8400     65w     2 core 3.2ghz     CPUMark 2281

AMD Phenom II X4 P940 1.7ghz     35w    4core     cpu mark:1820

Momentus XT (SATA drives with SSD cache)

ST1000LM014 1TB 64MB/8gb 5400rpm

STBD750100         750gb 32mb/8gb        7200rpm

ST500LM000         500gb 64mb/8gb     5400rpm

https://www.servethehome.com/current-lsi-hba-controller-features-compared/

DDR3 speeds

Friendly name Industry name Peak Transfer Rate

DDR3-800 PC3-6400 6400 MB/s

DDR3-1066 PC3-8500 8533 MB/s

DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 10667 MB/s

DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 12800 MB/s

SFF 8484 sas 4 wide connector

LSI 2004 4x SAS Lanes

LSI 2008 8x SAS Lanes

LSI 2116 16x SAS Lanes

LSI 2308 8x SAS Lanes

LSI 3008 8x SAS lanes

LSI 3408 8x SAS lanes (NVMe support via "Tri-Mode"

PCIe 2.0 x8 lanes = 4Gb/s

PCIe 3.0 x8 lanes = 7.8GB/s

SFF-8087=internal 4x SAS lanes (rectangle)

SFF-8088=external 4x SAS lanes (rectangle)

SFF-8642=internal 4x SAS lanes (smaller rectangle, fragile)

SFF-8644=external 4x SAS lanes (smaller square)

SAS2/SATA3=6gbps=750MB/s

8x SAS lanes x 750MB/s=6GB/s (48Gbps)

8x SAS lanes x 1.5 GB/s=12GB/s (96Gbps)

NVMe SSD's get FASTER

 Most of you know SSD's are way faster than spinning, traditional hard drives, as there is no moving parts, just memory chips.  Many of you are aware that NVMe is way faster than SSD's, as the SATA controller is bypassed and the I/O happens right on the PCI-e bus.  Now there is a newer generation of NVMe hard drives, and they have roughly double the speed of first generation NVMe drives.  This new speed is all thanks to the newer PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and NVMe 1.3 protocol.

HP EX950

Micron 2300

Toshiba KXG60ZNV

M.2 SATA SSD: Western Digital SA530, just to show some speed differential.

Samsun SM953 NVME, just to show more speed differential.

Also I really like cards like pictured below.  This particular one allows the use of both M.2 SATA (also known as NGFF) and NVMe.  To use a M.2 SATA drive one plugs a SATA data cable that would normally be used for a hard or optical drive into the card.   This card can be purchased from Amazon or Microcenter for less than $23 (make note if it comes with a heatsink or not). 

In my case I have an HP server that is old enough where it will not boot to NVMe.  Running a single SSD in a server can be difficult do to the logistics of the hard drive backplane/RAID controller etc.  Especially if that server is a 1 or 2U machine with a RAID card, and one would much prefer running the SDD by a controller other than the RAID controller.  More than once I have done sketchy things like using velcro to secure a drive where it was never intended.  This card addresses all of those issues.  This is especially imporant for those of us running ESXi v7, where it isn't really supported to have the OS running from an SD card. 

 

Mac Pro "TrashCan"

 Posting mostly because the hardware is interesting.  This MacPro known as late 2013 or 6,1, or as most people refer to it: "The Trashcan".  In this particular case two of them are running VMware ESXi v6.5 which is supported by VMware and Apple says it is legal to run as many virtual Mac VM's.  Apple claims they only support 32gb of RAM (8gb * 4 slots), but these have 64gb, and others on the internet say it will do 128gb.  The CPU is also upgradeable.  I did successfully test DDR3 FB ECC RAM out of an HP ProLiant G7. The hard drive is a NVMe,

Showing one of the GPU's

NVMe drive

One bank of ram

The other bank of RAM, "flipped" out for service mode.

Running ESXi v6.5

SuperMicro Cloud Computing "SuperServer" "MicroCloud"

Need a lot of servers in a really small space?  How does putting 24 servers into 3U's of space?  SuperMicro might have a solution.  This particular one is very long in the tooth, but I figure it is worth the share as many of us didn't know the existance of such a beast.

Each of these 3U chassis hold 12 blades.  Each blade contains two computers (yes two distict computers sharing one circut board).  Each server contains four DDR3 RAM slots, one Intel Xeon E5-26XX CPU, one 2.5" SATA port, two network cards, and a shared IMPI and KVM port.

Motherboard Specs:

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X10SLE-DF

The chassis:

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/system/3U/5038/SYS-5038ML-H24TRF.cfm

100Gbps Ethernet Switch!! :O

 

SuperMicro, yes SuperMicro is in the switching game, and the price is SIGNIGICANTLY cheaper than others.  They are Nvidia Cumulus compatible.  The CLI is very Cisco like, IMHO the support pages and documentation from SM is VERY lacking.  This one is a SSE-C3632SR, thirty-two 100gb ports, plus one 1gbps for management, and one 10gbps.  They can be ordered with air flow in either direction (reverse air flow (the air is sucked in from the rear and blown out the front for mounting it in the rear of a rack)).

The original firmware was released in 01/21 and has had four revisions since, the latest being 12/21.  Interestingly, the 10Gbps didn't show up in the web GUI until after updating the firmware. 

Repurposing/reformatting used NetApp Drives (520 -> 512 sectors)

 TLDR:

From a Linux System:

sg_scan -i  <--shows what drives are attached to the system

sg_readcap /dev/sg#  <--shows information on the drive in question

sg_format -v --format --size=512 /dev/sg# --six  <--reformats the drive in question to 512 sectors

NetApp and other manufactures will often format their drives to a different sector size, 520 is most common.  Unfortunately most computers/Operating systems can't deal with them; most only speak 512, or even 4k.  In my case I have a bunch of Toshiba 900gb SAS 10k RPM drives with NetApp firmware on them.  Interestingly the SAS controller doesn't even show them at post.  Using my trusted PartedMagic bootable thumb drive, the normal tools "Disk Health", "Partition Editor", and "Erase Disk" don't even see the disks.  They do show up in the hardware inventory though.  The solution is to do a low level format of the drives and resetting them to 512 sectors.

Open a command prompt; type: "sg_scan -i"; this shows what drives are attached to the system, in my case the physical drives start with "sg" then a number.  In my case it shows SG0 and SG1.  

Next verify what the drive specifications are:  "sg_readcap /dev/sg0"; in my case it shows that drive is set to a sector size of 520.  

Then type: "sg_format -v --format --size=512 /dev/sg0"; in my case I got a message about being illegal.  Normally this would work, but something peculiar about how NetApp treats the drives.  To get around this add the "--six" parameter.   This switch uses 6 byte MODE SENSE/SELECT to probe disk, instead of 10 byte mode; no idea what that means, but whatever it works.

The process took me about 7 hours on a PCI-e LSI SAS2008 Fusion controller doing a pair of 900gb 10k drives.  Reboot the machine, the drives show up at post, and are usable by the operating system.

Bonus Linux commands

type: 

"smartctl --all /dev/sg#" this will show further details on the drive including the hours of usage, power cycles, etc. 

"smartctl -H /dev/sg#" this will show health statics

"smartctl -t /dev/sd# short (or long)" this will conducts a smart test, FYI the short test takes about 5 minutes and the long about 2 hours on a 900gb 10k SAS drive

Free AD Blocking

Probably old news to most readers by now, but still deserving of a quick write-up.  

PI-Hole is a free (donation-ware) software that was initially designed to run on Raspberry Pi hardware.  The popularity of this software and use case meant there was enough demand for the product, that it was also developed for Linux and container environments.  Pi-Hole is a local DNS (and optionally a DHCP) server to put on the network that will compare all DNS lookups to a publicly maintained list of AD servers.  When browsing the web or even YouTube, many of the ads will be replaced with a blank box.  

Think of like this...a user goes to a webpage, that computer does a DNS look up, and returns the IP, then the computer displays that webpage.  On that webpage there are calls to other internet servers that host the ads to be displayed, which also require a DNS query.  If a PI-Hole is acting as the DNS server, and that internet ad server is on it's list, instead the users' computer getting the IP information back, it gets a "I can't find this server" response.

Why run a DNS filter?  Well ads can be very annoying so there is that.  Also a sizeable chunk of malware comes through "side-jacking" or "ad-jacking"; where the ads being sent to us actually contains malicious code.  Then bandwidth, simply not having to download the ads can yield savings on bandwidth.

I don't have any Raspberry Pi hardware, and didn't want to invest in that eco-system.  So I first tried using a Windows10 VM running Docker for Windows.  I didn't have any luck, something to do networking.

I then installed it as an application on  Ubuntu VM, using this YouTube Video from "Craft Computing" I ignored all of the recursive stuff in favor of the more basic setup.

Installation Steps:

Install Ubuntu Server 20.04 (https://ubuntu.com/download/server), my VM is only 1vCPU, 4gb RAM, and 20gb disk

Install Pi-Hole - sudo curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Set the Web Admin Password - pihole -a -p [password]

For my home-lab, and maybe some of you also already have a local DNS server and would rather not migrate to only a PI-Hole DNS server.  Not a problem just setup a "Conditional Forwarder".  Under Settings-> DNS--> Conditional Forwarder:

Local Network = your network address IE: 192.168.100.0/24

IP address of your DHCP server (router) = your DNS server (yes it says DHCP server and router...)

Local domain name = your.domain.local 

After two months of usage, I have almost no issues to speak of.  Once in a while when doing a Google search, sometime the the first result is shopping AD for that very same item, which maybe what one wants, well it is blocked.   Not a big deal.  I have never had to actually log back into the PI-hole for restarting system or changing settings. It doesn't catch all ads, but the basic settings catch a large chunk.  Ad servers after are another "whack-a-mole" game. 

LoadBalancer.org

LoadBalancer.org  Is one of many layer 7 load balancers on the market today.  I got turned onto them because they have an alignment with Cloudian object storage devices.  Think of Cloudian, as an on premises S3 storage buckets.  They are great for "cheap and deep" storage.  Cloudian nodes are not load balanced natively, and during jobs such as backups where it is the target, a single node can get over worked while the other nodes are bored. This is normal behavior when one is relaying on round robbing DNS for distributing load.

The LoadBalancer.org product is significantly cheaper than some of their competitors.  Their support is based out of the UK, so it is a bit more difficult to get a support person on the phone if one is in a different time zone.  They offer both virtual appliances and physical.  

I did a proof of concept built as an appliance, running on a retired VMware ESXi host that had a 10gb networking.  From beginning to end, I had it functioning in roughly an hour.  Super easy and straight forward, instructions for many use cases are laid out for users on their support site.  For the POC it did it's job by alleviating the "hot node" issue and allowing backups to take less time as multiple Cloudian nodes could do work at the same time. 

The physical appliances are rebranded Dell PowerEdge servers.  I had several problems bonding the 10gb NICs on our appliance.  Support was not much help as they know their product really well but not so much the network switch side of things.  Our issued ended up being odd behavior out of the Cisco Nexus 9k.  Word of advise: when re-using ports on a Cisco 9k run the "set default" command on the port before configuring it for it's new purpose.  Something was sticking in the configuration and the team was not cooperating until doing this for each port.

When using multiple VLANs the appliance breaks out the VLAN as a separate interface.  Think of it, and manage it just as if it was a separate physical NIC.  Also when looking at performance graphs keep in mind the difference between MBps and mbps.

Repurposed/Recycled Sophos Firewall

 This Sophos XG210 came to me to be recycled, after pulling the cover off I noticed that it has DDR3 RAM, an SSD, and a VGA port.  I then said myself: "Hey wait a minute, this looks like a normal PC".  Hooked up a VGA cable and a USB keyboard, powered it on; I was greeted with a very familiar American Megatrends BIOS, then it booted into a specialized Linux OS.  Next I used my PartedMagic bootable USB boot drive to erase the drives then install Windows 10 just as a proof of concept.  Windows saw all the hardware, including all the NICs!

Intel Celeron G1820 CPU at 2.7ghz

8gb DDR3 RAM

Intel 120gb SSD hard drive

six 1gbps network ports

USB 3.0 ports

There is an internal PCI-e slot, that could be used but might require some creativity.

Repurposed/Recycled Citrix SD WAN Appliance

 I recently got three of these Citrix CB-140 SD WAN devices to recycle but I decided to play with them a bit first.  Open the hood and a SuperMicro motherboard is in there!  It has a mSATA slot, the smallest SATA SSD drive I have ever seen, it literally is a thumbnail sized circuit board that plugs into a SATA port with two small power leads.  Then a 16gb USB drive plugged into the USB header.  Six total SATA ports.  8gb of unregistered ECC RAM.  Seven 1gbps RJ45 network ports plus remote management. A quad core Intel Atom C2558 CPU @ 2.4ghz.  Room for two 3.5" hard drives. 

I upgraded the RAM to 16gb erased both drives, verified that the NICs actually work (those white chips are physical switches for detecting LAN cable disconnects, I had issues with those back on some older RiverBed appliances.  I then was able to install both Windows 10 and then VMware ESXi v6.7.

I will probably end up selling these. Even though they are a tad bit too noisy to be in the living room as a media player; they would be a pretty energy efficient VMware server, Plex Server, FreeNAS, or PFSense Firewall.

The thumbnail sized SSD drive plugged directly into the SATA port.