[rescue] Transplanting a Sun Fire V210 motherboard - PSU requirements?`

[microcode at zoho.com]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 05:55:27PM -0800, Robert Novak wrote:
> Anyone got advice on the power supply for a Sun Fire V210 server?

Not sure what you're asking...are you asking what you can use in place of
the standard PSU? The PSUs are available on ebay (I know, since I had to buy
a few). I wouldn't try using anything else, given they're still available
and a fairly critical part.

> I have a pair of V210/V240 motherboards (375-3150-04), with 3GB RAM
> and a pair of 1ghz processors from what the labelling says. Let's
> assume for the sake of discussion that this is all I have, no cases,
> drives, backplanes, power supplies, cables, because... well, this is
> all I have.

You need to be very careful with cooling. The mobo is checking fan speeds in
all locations and checking temps in various places. If you don't have the
sensors and the fans at the right speeds and temps you can expect complaints
from OBP/ALOM. On Linux it may not matter but if you run Solaris you'll get
constant annoying warning messages on the console until you fix whatever's
bothering him.

> Some initial googling suggests the 10 pin power supply connector next
> to the 24 pin one may not be a standard PC/ATX one, but I haven't dug
> enough yet to confirm.

Check sunshack.org for the system engineer handbooks. They should have
drawings. As was pointed out to me by a list member, the connectors are
fairly standard, nothing esoteric. I need a connector for one of my PSUs
also (the one that goes to the front card) but haven't had the time to go
scrounge one. Looks like a bog standard ATX power connector.

> I may try hacking up something (assuming I can get enough cooling) to
> make them work as a cluster of some sort, or I may just throw them up
> on eBay, but I figured I'd ask here in case anyone else had tried
> transplanting one fo these boards before.

The parts are definitely worth more than the servers. I would not try
running these boards without a case since airflow and sensor placement are
critical. You could probably do ok selling the mobos. People need RAM and
CPUs too although the 1.0GHz is the bottom of the line.

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