We’re getting rid of the old server!  It’s up for auction, to MUUG members in good standing only.

We’re taking bids for the rest of the month by email.  Emailed bids must be received by me no later than Monday 2022-Feb-28 23:59:59 to be considered eligible.

We’re doing this as a “blind auction”, where everyone submits their bid to me (Adam Thompson), and at the end of the bidding period, I’ll contact the highest bidder.  If they’re unable to follow through for any reason, it goes to the second-highest bidder, and so on.  We cannot issue a receipt for tax purposes.  The MUUG board (excluding board members who entered bids themselves) shall be the only, and final, avenue of appeal for anything related to this auction.

Since we already know some of the board is planning to bid, and I am not, send your bids to me directly: athompso@muug.ca (or my usual address, they both wind up in the same place), and not to board@.  Please provide name, email, phone#, and dollar amount.  If you don’t receive a confirmation from me within a few days, post to roundtable letting me know something’s wrong.  And/or try a different email provider.

The server is about 6yrs old, it’s a 1U rack-mount server from ASUS with 12 x 4TB NAS HDDs, 2 x 2.5” SSDs, a Xeon (E3 v3) CPU, 32GB of RAM, 2 x 1G & 2 x 10G(SFP+) ethernet ports.  To reiterate that point, we’re selling it with 48TB of mostly 5400rpm SATA “NAS”-type hard drives (and two SSDs) included.  All the drives will be ATA Security Erased before you get the unit.

(This could make an awesome 40TB FreeNAS unit for storing backups!)

The winner can come pick up the server from my place in north Winnipeg, where it’s currently stored.  If you can’t come pick it up, there are ways to get it to you but you might be on the hook for delivery charges (modest, if you’re in Winnipeg).  You’ll be expected to get the server out of here by March 7^th (one week after bidding closes), one way or another.

-Adam

(see below for lots more words)

Detailed server specs:

• ASUS RS300-H8-PS12
• 1U rack server
• integrated ASUS P9D-MH/SAS/10G microATX motherboard
• Xeon E3-1230v3 (any E3-1200v3 processor is supported)
• 32GB RAM (4 x 8GB DDR3 Unbuffered ECC)
• 1 low-profile PCIe slot is usable in this chassis using a riser (included)
• 4 x SATA 6GB/s & 2 x SATA 4GB/s on motherboard, pre-wired to drive bays
• 8 x SAS 6GB/s (supports SATA III) on embedded LSI2308 controller, pre-wired to drive bays
• 2 x Intel I210AT 1gbps ethernet
• 2 x Broadcom BCM57840 NetXtreme II 10gbps ethernet (see notes)
• Built-in ASMB7-iKVM remote server management with dedicated 100M ethernet port
• integrated 400W 80PLUS Gold power supply – looks proprietary?
• 4 “warm-swap” carriers holding 3 x SATA HDDs each (see notes)
• Proprietary mounting rails are included
• 12 x 4TB “NAS”-type HDDs.  Mixture of WD RED, Seagate IronWolf, and Hitachi something-or-other.
• 2 x 250GB SSDs.  Intel 545S & Samsung 850 EVO

NOTES

• The HDDs range in age from original to recently replaced.
• The server must be powered off to replace drives, despite the fact it looks like hot-swap at first glance.
• Linux bnx2x kernel driver bugs in some versions of some distros affect the ability to use the onboard Broadcom NetXtreme II 10-gigabit NICs.  They’re fine in Debian 9, but unusable in Debian 10.  Believed to work fine under FreeBSD (FreeNAS) and other non-Linux kernels… VMware is anyone’s guess.
• 1U rack-mount servers have fans running between 10krpm and 24krpm.  It will be very loud.
• It can only be operated horizontally (e.g. in a rack).  It’s also fairly heavy because of the 12x 4TB drives.
• The onboard video is, as is usual for servers, unsuitable for desktop use.
• Original user manuals are provided.
• No warranty.  There might be a bit of warranty on one or two drives, but don’t count on it.  Otherwise… It could die the moment you plug it in.  It could eat your family for breakfast while you’re at work.  It could start WWIII.  MUUG guarantees nothing more than if we take your money, you’ll get a very large quantity of mostly-metallic molecules in the shape of a server.  Having said all that, it ran continuously for 6 years, the only things that died were the various drives, and it was still working perfectly when I removed from the rack at Les.net earlier this month.

Pricing/value considerations: (all prices taken from Newegg.ca today)

• E3-1230v3 goes for $300 today.  A similar modern server CPU (E-2124) runs $270.
• 32GB of Unbuffered DDR3 ECC goes for $190 today.  32GB of DDR4 ECC runs $308.
• 4TB NAS HDDs go for $100 today.  That’s normal pricing, no age or scarcity effects.
• 1U “barebone” servers of a similar class/category run around $440 today.  (That one doesn’t have 12 x 3.5” bays, but… meh, close enough.)

So to rebuild this server with brand-new parts, you’d be looking at almost $2200.  THIS server, however, is used and there’s no warranty, so… bid based on what it’s worth to you!