Keith wanted to find out about blade systems (sorry knife and Snipes fans) and mapreduce, so he went and bought one. This blog chronicles the fun and pain he is going through to get his blade system up and running. It’s newest post at the top, so start at the bottom or use the peachy Archive link below. Keith is lead coder on a simulation game. Being a small outfit, he wears many hats, some at a jaunty angle. Hobbies are electronics, web tech, beer, some art and burning wood. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-118617-14"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}Tumblr (3.0; @keithmarsh)http://bladered.com/Oracle’s download servers were down for 48 hours.  Very professional and reassuring. When I...http://bladered.com/post/569356861http://bladered.com/post/569356861Tue, 04 May 2010 00:50:42 +0100The PC I was setting up as a Spacewalk has died with a disk failure.  Arse biscuits. Start again....http://bladered.com/post/569345036http://bladered.com/post/569345036Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100Spacewalk: I’ve learnt provisioning.  It’s boring.  I’ve learnt PXE, DHCP,...http://bladered.com/post/496637263http://bladered.com/post/496637263Sun, 04 Apr 2010 23:43:43 +0100spacewalkprovisioninglinuxserverpxedhcpkickstartdnscentos<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzv29xh7cy1qzr5c1o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>Here’s the cool part of iLo - you get to see the console booting up but in a web page.  There’s also another tool that lets you mount a disk image .iso as a CD drive on the blade remotely.  This allows you to do an operating system install remotely. \o/</p> <p>I’ve got PXE booting and installation almost working (god that’s not fun - I won’t elaborate - just read the <a title="PXE" target="_blank" href="http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Installation_Guide/ch-pxe.html">fun manual</a>) only it says it can’t find the kickstart file when it is DEFINITELY THERE!</p> <p>I’ve got a Centos machine VMed on my Windows 7 machine in the sitting room.  That’s running DHCP, TFTPD etc.  I’m VNCed into that from my netbook in bed.  Lazy admin.</p>http://bladered.com/post/473435069http://bladered.com/post/473435069Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:22:45 +0000iLOPXEDHCPTFTPDVNCThe three new servers arrived.  Spent the evening trying to discover the static IPs they were...http://bladered.com/post/469923651http://bladered.com/post/469923651Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000amazonchefcloudec2eucalyptusopscodekickstart4 GB, no disks (got some spare from an old work server), dual 3.2GHz processors.  £130 for all...http://bladered.com/post/466584375http://bladered.com/post/466584375Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:23:00 +0000HPBL20pBladep-ClassSo imagine you remove the keyboard, screen, floppy and CD or DVD from your PC.  And you’ve got...http://bladered.com/post/466808506http://bladered.com/post/466808506Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzpcscgEJ31qzr5c1o1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>You’re not on the guest list.  Only Safari could get me past this point.  Firefox, Opera and Chrome flatly refused to even let me acknowledge and skip this.  And IE8 (special bus) just crashed ffs.</p> <p>The username and password for the iLO interface is printed on the case of the blade.  Nice thinking Mr H and Mr P.</p> <p>What a world of wonder awaited when I finally logged in.</p>http://bladered.com/post/466347978http://bladered.com/post/466347978Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0000Arse.  I’ve got a duff enclosure I was thinking.  Time to do what everyone does when they...http://bladered.com/post/466284170http://bladered.com/post/466284170Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000<a href="http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00209014/c00209014.pdf">iLO Manual</a>http://bladered.com/post/466255379http://bladered.com/post/466255379Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000The enclosure comes with a management module which is basically a little webserver built in (not...http://bladered.com/post/466252526http://bladered.com/post/466252526Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzp9j4gZqf1qzr5c1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Powered on for the first time aaaaand, nothing happened, except a little orange light on the blade enclosure box saying <strong>check polarity</strong>.  EEK wtf!  Quick check with a meter confirmed that + on the power supply was indeed positive.  Very relectantly, I change the cables over temporarily (wearing rubber washing up gloves - electricity scares the bollocks out of me) and the red light became green!  Fans started.  Gordon’s alive!</p>http://bladered.com/post/466218201http://bladered.com/post/466218201Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0000Installation Manuals: HP kindly keep their docs online, so its easy to find out how much it’ll...http://bladered.com/post/466233682http://bladered.com/post/466233682Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:00:00 +0000<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzp93xF52j1qzr5c1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The missing power supply modules arrived, but they didn’t come with in the enclosing rack full of monitoring electronics they live in.  Cheapest on eBay is £650!  All I need is 48 Volts and plenty of Amps.  Time to find a standalong power supply nearby.</p> <p>And I got one!  Went to Caterham to pick it up.  It’s a quality piece of German kit, ex-telecomms, £60, and nice and quiet.  Game on.</p> <p>After a bit of traditional bit of British-Bodgery, I hacked some meaty cables from the bus bar that came with the blade enclosure.  Frighteningly thick and chunky, like they’d use  in a Texan prison.</p>http://bladered.com/post/466201637http://bladered.com/post/466201637Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0000HPp-ClassBladePowerPSUWhile waiting for the PSU to arrive, I wanted to choose an operating system.  Had to be Linux...http://bladered.com/post/464455477http://bladered.com/post/464455477Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000BladeHadoopMapReduceCluster<img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kznqxq1tiS1qzr5c1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Blade enclosure arrived!  Problem, power supplies not with it.  Bugger, no playtime.</p>http://bladered.com/post/464416110http://bladered.com/post/464416110Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kznqog6w2K1qzr5c1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>My blade server arrived.  It’s so long!  70cm to be accurate.  Heavy too.</p>http://bladered.com/post/464404793http://bladered.com/post/464404793Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0000I've bought a blade server!: Just 45 quid for a dual xeon 3.2GHz system with 2GB mem!  No disks.  A...http://bladered.com/post/464389875http://bladered.com/post/464389875Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000I bought a box for blades!: This one looks pretty complete.  It’s not an empty box....http://bladered.com/post/454132803http://bladered.com/post/454132803Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:20:00 +0000What Are They?: Here’s a link describing what a blade server is.  Basically, lots of computers...http://bladered.com/post/454123778http://bladered.com/post/454123778Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:10:00 +0000