Supermicro SuperServer 5086B-TRF 8-Way System no boot, no display

[WOODSTER63]

Hi people! I stumbled across what I thought was a heckuva deal to start my home-lab project, I realize the server in question is over a decade old and a discontinued model, however in its day this thing was a real hot rod, if there is anyone out there that can help me navigate the troubleshooting process (I have NO experience with servers of any kind) and unfortunately, this thing came equipped with more bells and whistle's than the law allows, I need to solve this VGA issue first so I can at least see whats going on as its trying to boot up, any help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

[artlessknave]

lol. 2800W. I would be scared to even turn that on...
did you try the IPMI? or are you trying to use the VGA? sometimes those die, especially on old, likely abused, hardware.
hard to help or speculate on your fancy new spaceheater without a bit more info

 

[WOODSTER63]

lol. 2800W. I would be scared to even turn that on...
did you try the IPMI? or are you trying to use the VGA? sometimes those die, especially on old, likely abused, hardware.
hard to help or speculate on your fancy new spaceheater without a bit more info

Whats IPMI? I took a good look at it today and saw that there were some jumpers missing so I sent for some they should be here tomorrow

 

[WOODSTER63]

Whats IPMI? I took a good look at it today and saw that there were some jumpers missing so I sent for some they should be here tomorrow

and "Yeah" I kinda held my breath the first time I started it up it made a HELLUVA racket!!

 

[artlessknave]

that there were some jumpers missing

who steals jumpers?

Whats IPMI?

out of band managmeent. HP calls it ILO, dell calls it idrac, IBM calls it...uhh i dont remember.
connect a network cable, get K/V/M over IP from the comfort of any computer. no monitor needed.
this is how datacenters are managed. it will be a little old on that system, so might need supermicro's IPMIview.

im not even sure what purpose that thing was for. its really huge (5U is monstrous) and doesnt have many drives. does it have a load of PCIe or something?

 

[Koop]

im not even sure what purpose that thing was for. its really huge (5U is monstrous) and doesnt have many drives. does it have a load of PCIe or something?

I guess for compute? Only 16 drives but up to eight CPUs apparently, I guess using the proper CPU board as seen here. Chassis looks to be designed for the proprietary boards only obviously...

It says 2x BPN-SAS-I28A backplanes.

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/BPN-SAS-I28A.pdf

Not sure what these SAS connections are? Apparently not SAS? Maybe someone who knows this hardware better knows what's going on inside this thing.

IPASS?

But all this for only 16 drives, RIP. Does not seem worth it if your goal is NAS related.

 

[Koop]

As @artlessknave said though you should be able to get in via IMPI via the connection provided on the baseboard. See Chapter 2 Page 1 of the manual you linked.

Connect there and get it on your network. Then you can scan for it using an IPMI software utility like IPMIView.

 

[artlessknave]

eight CPUs apparently,

good lord. 8 x8 CPUs? definitely a space heater. you wont be running that for for very long. might need a 240v connection to even even turn it on...

insufficient power could be a reason you arent getting a display, actually. often the server powersupplies need 240v to go about 1000w. I would be *extremely* careful where you plug this in, as that could be hard on your circuits.

Ive never even heard of these CPUs...guess they must be 8 count specialties or something.

at least it isn't ddr2 old.

I ran across someone else looking at once of these monsters.

Help Building an 8x Intel Xeon E7-8870 SuperServer

Here's a Server that ran Cinebench 11.5, and can score a 40+ Third highest score in the world records of Cinebench R11.5 http://hwbot.org/benchmark/cinebench_r11.5/rankings?start=0#cores=#start=0#interval=50#mediaType=#rankBy=teams#displayMode=complete#region=apac#locationScope= Region : World Wi...

linustechtips.com

passmark doesnt even appear to have them in their database, so if nothing else you could try to passmark it....
looks like they would likely perform below the e5-4600s, which look like the replacement. those range b/w 3000 and 20000 CPU marks which...is better than I was expecting.

 

[Koop]

good lord. 8 x8 CPUs? definitely a space heater. you wont be running that for for very long. might need a 240v connection to even even turn it on...

insufficient power could be a reason you arent getting a display, actually. often the server powersupplies need 240v to go about 1000w. I would be *extremely* careful where you plug this in, as that could be hard on your circuits.

Ive never even heard of these CPUs...guess they must be 8 count specialties or something.

at least it isn't ddr2 old.

I ran across someone else looking at once of these monsters.

Help Building an 8x Intel Xeon E7-8870 SuperServer

Here's a Server that ran Cinebench 11.5, and can score a 40+ Third highest score in the world records of Cinebench R11.5 http://hwbot.org/benchmark/cinebench_r11.5/rankings?start=0#cores=#start=0#interval=50#mediaType=#rankBy=teams#displayMode=complete#region=apac#locationScope= Region : World Wi...

linustechtips.com

passmark doesnt even appear to have them in their database, so if nothing else you could try to passmark it....
looks like they would likely perform below the e5-4600s, which look like the replacement. those range b/w 3000 and 20000 CPU marks which...is better than I was expecting.

Holy crap listen to the fans go in that video hahaha

 

[artlessknave]

Holy crap listen to the fans go in that video hahaha

eh. thats pretty quiet. I have some isilons. they sound like that. then they get louder.
and louder.
AND LOUDER
and just when you think surely they must be done...they get louder again.
and then louder still again.
when they finally sound like they might make orbit, they steady out. at full speed. like 15k.
standing behind them is like being in a friking wind tunnel.
needless to say, i had replace those (they were powered by the backplane and without whatever isilon software controlls them they just went full bore)

 

[Koop]

I have some isilons.

I spent about five years deploying isilon clusters of many kinds- I know EXACTLY what you mean hahaha.

I also have tinnitus.

Coincidence? Hmmmmmmmm

 

[artlessknave]

we are completely off topic now but..

the damn fans were like 1 amp. each. they wont even run of a motherboard header. not enough juice. so thats 3 AMPS per box. JUST for fans. *shudders*
I was able to replace them with just regular supermicro PWM fans used in their servers and was able to just plug em straight to the board.
WAYYY better. the run down, but can run up when needed. I looked at like noctuas and did some testing but they just didnt do enough airflow.

 

[WOODSTER63]

can anyone walk me through connecting a pc to the server using ipmi? ( I need "exact" instructions

 

[Volts]

It was "fun" ($$$$$$$) to do enterprise licensing for MS SQL or Oracle on those.

 

[artlessknave]

can anyone walk me through connecting a pc to the server using ipmi? ( I need "exact" instructions

1. plug in IPMI port to network
2. IPMI port gets DHCP IP Address
3. you type in IP address to either web browser or IPMIview.
4. ???
5. Win?!
its just a web interface, and is designed to be relatively easy to use. as this is old and x8, you might have better time with IPMIview, but the web page should at least repond. if it doesnt, then it's pretty much dead. you might not have the password, but there are ways to work around that; if its dead, though, that's pretty much the end

the only other real alternative is to try a video card, if it has any PCIe slots for one.

 

[Koop]

Any luck @WOODSTER63 ? Did you figure this all out?