What to do with a bunch of old servers?

So I just acquired 11 SuperMicro SuperServer 5013C-T's and have no idea what to do with them.

They have 4GB's DDR, with 2.4Ghz CPU, dual 1GB Nic's and 2x 120GB Hard Drves.

I want to add them to my lab but not sure yet what to do with them. As far as server OS's I am currently playing with Server 2008 R2.

Any thoughts on how I could maybe lab up on some of this? Thanks!

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Comments

exampasser

They might work well as Linux boxes, I'd probably run CentOS on a few of em.

Overdash

That's an interesting thought, what services should they host? Like a web server or something? Thanks

nhan.ng

send some to me

alan2308

1. Dynagen or GNS3. They should run a bunch of routers each comfortably. And with dual NIC's you have options on how to break them all out to a switch.

2. Running multiple operating systems for a lab. Server 2008R2 is out of the question if they're running P4's, but you still can run Server 2008, 2003, and 2000, Desktop Windows variations, various Linux distros, various BSD's, Solaris/Open Solaris variants, etc. With 4GB of memory you should be able to run a host OS and a VM or two on each.

3. Send me a couple so I can do 1 and 2.

exampasser

Overdash wrote: »

That's an interesting thought, what services should they host? Like a web server or something? Thanks

You can set up a proxy server(works great along when used with ssh server for getting past firewalls), samba server, and/or a vpn server just to name a few. Experiment and have fun.

exampasser

alan2308 wrote: »

1. Dynagen or GNS3. They should run a bunch of routers each comfortably. And with dual NIC's you have options on how to break them all out to a switch.

2. Running multiple operating systems for a lab. Server 2008R2 is out of the question if they're running P4's, but you still can run Server 2008, 2003, and 2000, Desktop Windows variations, various Linux distros, various BSD's, Solaris/Open Solaris variants, etc. With 4GB of memory you should be able to run a host OS and a VM or two on each.

3. Send me a couple so I can do 1 and 2.

Darn you beat me to it, I was about to comment on the fact that Server 2008R2 can't be used on 32-bit processors.

demonfurbie

super computing

10 nodes 1 control bewoulf cluster

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster

and youll need

http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/bookshelf/articles/how_to_build_a_cluster.html

Overdash

Thanks guys! All wonderful suggestions. I would love to give some away to you guys (because I got them free) but I have already decided to donate them to Hackers for Charity when I'm done playing with them.

CodeBlox

Still not too late to spare one!!! I'll cover shipping

haha only kidding. Sounds like you should have quite a lab.

nhan.ng

did i tell you im' from hacker for charity?

can i claim my free servers now?

Overdash

nhan.ng wrote: »

did i tell you im' from hacker for charity? can i claim my free servers now?

Haha,

Then it should still get to you if I send them straight to Jinja, Uganda

nhan.ng

nah send them to my place. I'll wipe it out, reload the os at home before i bring it back to the office and put them into production