Compaq Alphaserver DS20 - Revitalizing the Mammoth (Part 1)
Compaq Alphaserver DS20 is my first server in the collection. This server is not an x86-compatible computer. It is built on a separate alpha architecture. The server is old by modern standards, it was 1999, but at that time it was a very strong computer. Its configuration is as follows: processor: Alpha EV6 - 500 MHz, 64 bit, 4 megabytes of cache memory! 7 Winchesters, SCSI Ultra320, the total amount of 160 gigabytes! RAM is a maximum of 4 gigabytes (I have one and a half gigabytes). Also on the server there are two power supplies, if one fails, the server automatically starts working on the second. Each power supply is 675 watts! In 1999, this server cost 19,000 USD! On the Internet, I found information that such servers were at the Pentagon, and 128 such dual-processor servers, clustered, were recognized as the fastest computer in 1999! At that time, I just started to work (play) on computers, and I would not even be able to imagine such performance, and especially disk size and amount of RAM.
The server came to me in a very terrible state, it was stored for some time in the barn (well, that without the hard drives). In addition, he was covered with dust, the back of the case also began to rust. When I received it, it all started with a general cleaning.
')
Separately, I want to say that the server is very heavy, weighs about 50 kilograms, so I took it out in the yard, cleaned everything and collected it at home. This whole procedure took several days. When I removed the server covers, there was a spider inside:
I took the whole server apart for parts, the case and the side covers, and I also washed the plastic parts in the yard with water, and then it all dried out well in the sun. And all the electronics, if possible, wiped with alcohol. It was worse with the body and power supply units, as the back of the server began to rust. I had to clean the back of the case with fine emery paper, then cover it with WD-40 liquid. And when everything was dry, I painted the back of the server with black spray paint. The power units behind just brushed off with sandpaper. This is what the server case looks like now:
And these are power supplies, behind them there are 12 centimeter coolers. Each unit provides 85 amps on the +5 volt line! The blocks are very heavy.
Motherboard and processor board. The server could have two processor boards, I have only one.
There are 6 64-bit PCI slots on the motherboard and one ISA bus. There are also SCSI, IDE and floppy interfaces. Interesting situation with USB. There are microcircuits on the motherboard, which are labeled as USB controllers, but the USB connectors themselves on the back of the computer are not unsoldered. It is necessary only after installing the system to see if the system itself finds a USB controller, then it makes sense to try to unsolder the USB.
Cleaning the server from dirt and dust was only one problem, another problem was that the server was not working. I was warned about this even when I took it. The previous owner did not understand the reason for the server crash. And the breakdown was like this: if the server was turned on, it started up, but after about half a minute it turned itself off. And it was not a simple pushing of a button or something else like that. I managed to repair this damage only in a month! At first, I started reading manuals on the server. In the "problems" it was written that, indeed, the server can be turned off 30 seconds after the start, if you have problems with voltage, coolers or temperature. With the voltage, everything was fine with me, the coolers were also spinning normally, and nothing seemed to overheat, at first glance everything was fine, but then what was the matter? Understanding further with the server and the documentation for it, my attention was attracted by one board, which was mounted separately inside the server case:
A button to start the server is connected to it, wires from the power supply also fit here, and there are two loops connected to the motherboard. But the most interesting thing is that there are 4 LEDs on this board: “5v ok”, “cpu fan ok”, “sys fan ok” and “temp ok”. And after turning on the diode "sys fan ok" immediately turned off! Everything coincided, in the manual they write that the server can be turned off if something is wrong with the coolers, and here it is immediately obvious that there is something wrong with the system cooler. But worse is that it actually turns! All coolers spin normally! Here the worst began, what is wrong? The board says that with a system cooler something is not good, but it works. The cooler, by the way, connects directly to this board. The connector for its connection has only two contacts: +12 volts and ground. There is not even a speed sensor (which could be the cause of a breakdown). And then there are only two contacts, the voltage flows, everything is fine. And over this problem, I puzzled about a month. Having considered everything is logical, I put such a picture. When you press the server power button, the electronics on the board turns on the power supply, which, in turn, turns on the entire computer, everything works, but the board itself at this moment begins to analyze the situation, and then she does not like something with a cooler, it shows LED, that something is wrong, and after 30 seconds, sends a shutdown signal to the power supply - and the server turns off. Obviously, there are two ways to solve the problem: to understand why the board does not like the cooler, and the second is to deceive the board so that it cannot give a turn-off signal to the power supply. At first I tried to deal with the cooler, but it did not work, I put other coolers, more and less powerful, spread the legs of the power supply to different contacts — nothing helped. Therefore, I took the "fool" fee. But this is also not a simple task, nothing was clear here, so I started looking for manuals for all the chips that were on it. Finding manuals for electronic components perfectly helps the website www.alldatasheet.com. It turned out that there is a microcontroller on this handkerchief, a microcontroller is a microcomputer, a processor, RAM and permanent memory, I / O ports - and all this in one chip! I thought that probably this microcontroller "counts" the time of 30 seconds, and then sends a turn-off signal to the power supply. A friend told me that you can turn off the microcontroller from power, then it will not work, and, obviously, no one will take the time and the server will not turn off. So I tried to do it, found a power contact, measured it for testing, indeed, there was +5 volts, then I unsoldered the contact, turned on the server and ... It turned off after 30 seconds. :( It was sad. Out of desperation, I started to turn off the power in turn for all the chips, and when I turned off some kind of chip, the server did not turn off! It was a victory. :) Here it is, this chip that spoiled my nerves so much, already sealed power foot:
Now the server is turned on! Finally, you can play with him. :) But the first minute of joy passed, and the server continued to resist - he did not display anything on the screen! Just stood the blue screen and the cursor blinked on top. But it was already relatively simple, on the Internet I read that he can display information not on the screen, but into the terminal, which must be connected to the COM port. On the second day, I soldered a null modem cable and connected the server to an old laptop with Windows 2000, where I launched a terminal program. Took settings from the Internet, “speed” - 9600 bits, “flow control” - no. Turned on the server and saw the server startup messages in the terminal program!
512 Meg of system memory
probing hose 1, PCI
probing hose 0, PCI
probing PCI-to-ISA bridge, bus 1
bus 0, slot 5, function 1 - dqa - Cypress 82C693 IDE
bus 0, slot 5, function 2 - dqb - Cypress 82C693 IDE
Testing the system
Testing the Memory
System Temperature is 21 degrees C
initializing GCT / FRU at offset 1b8000
AlphaServer DS20 500 MHz Console V5.4-23, May 19 1999 14:48:15
CPU 0 booting
(boot dk * 100.1.0.2001.1 -flags A)
failed to open dk * 100.1.0.2001.1
What to do next, I suggested a friend from the Internet. You need to press "Ctrl + C" to interrupt the download attempts and enter the SRM console, and there execute the "set console graphics" command, which will switch the output from the terminal to the monitor. Here is what the first launch looked like. The old data still hang on the laptop in the terminal, and the new data is already displayed on the monitor.
Separately, I want to say about the SRM-console, it is something like the operating system and BIOS combined. Here you can change the configuration and settings, as well as review the configuration of the server and devices. You can test the server and do a lot of different things. I know only a small fraction of what can be done there, because I have not yet found the manual for the SRM console. And if you type the alphabios command in the console, the server BIOS will start. Further, within a few days I had already mastered it, the FreeBSD and OpenVMS operating systems for alpha systems were found, but none of them was established. :( FreeBSD reached the partitioning of hard drives, and for some reason did not see any, and when I called any installation function, I crashed into the console. And OpenVMS wanted to update the BIOS, which I could not do, because the update program hangs.
But recently, I was given two DVDs full of operating system images for alpha servers. So we are waiting for new adventures. In the next part, I will write how I put the operating systems on this server (when I can do this, as long as the situation is not at all good)
The server came to me in a very terrible state, it was stored for some time in the barn (well, that without the hard drives). In addition, he was covered with dust, the back of the case also began to rust. When I received it, it all started with a general cleaning.
')
Separately, I want to say that the server is very heavy, weighs about 50 kilograms, so I took it out in the yard, cleaned everything and collected it at home. This whole procedure took several days. When I removed the server covers, there was a spider inside:
I took the whole server apart for parts, the case and the side covers, and I also washed the plastic parts in the yard with water, and then it all dried out well in the sun. And all the electronics, if possible, wiped with alcohol. It was worse with the body and power supply units, as the back of the server began to rust. I had to clean the back of the case with fine emery paper, then cover it with WD-40 liquid. And when everything was dry, I painted the back of the server with black spray paint. The power units behind just brushed off with sandpaper. This is what the server case looks like now:
And these are power supplies, behind them there are 12 centimeter coolers. Each unit provides 85 amps on the +5 volt line! The blocks are very heavy.
Motherboard and processor board. The server could have two processor boards, I have only one.
There are 6 64-bit PCI slots on the motherboard and one ISA bus. There are also SCSI, IDE and floppy interfaces. Interesting situation with USB. There are microcircuits on the motherboard, which are labeled as USB controllers, but the USB connectors themselves on the back of the computer are not unsoldered. It is necessary only after installing the system to see if the system itself finds a USB controller, then it makes sense to try to unsolder the USB.
Cleaning the server from dirt and dust was only one problem, another problem was that the server was not working. I was warned about this even when I took it. The previous owner did not understand the reason for the server crash. And the breakdown was like this: if the server was turned on, it started up, but after about half a minute it turned itself off. And it was not a simple pushing of a button or something else like that. I managed to repair this damage only in a month! At first, I started reading manuals on the server. In the "problems" it was written that, indeed, the server can be turned off 30 seconds after the start, if you have problems with voltage, coolers or temperature. With the voltage, everything was fine with me, the coolers were also spinning normally, and nothing seemed to overheat, at first glance everything was fine, but then what was the matter? Understanding further with the server and the documentation for it, my attention was attracted by one board, which was mounted separately inside the server case:
A button to start the server is connected to it, wires from the power supply also fit here, and there are two loops connected to the motherboard. But the most interesting thing is that there are 4 LEDs on this board: “5v ok”, “cpu fan ok”, “sys fan ok” and “temp ok”. And after turning on the diode "sys fan ok" immediately turned off! Everything coincided, in the manual they write that the server can be turned off if something is wrong with the coolers, and here it is immediately obvious that there is something wrong with the system cooler. But worse is that it actually turns! All coolers spin normally! Here the worst began, what is wrong? The board says that with a system cooler something is not good, but it works. The cooler, by the way, connects directly to this board. The connector for its connection has only two contacts: +12 volts and ground. There is not even a speed sensor (which could be the cause of a breakdown). And then there are only two contacts, the voltage flows, everything is fine. And over this problem, I puzzled about a month. Having considered everything is logical, I put such a picture. When you press the server power button, the electronics on the board turns on the power supply, which, in turn, turns on the entire computer, everything works, but the board itself at this moment begins to analyze the situation, and then she does not like something with a cooler, it shows LED, that something is wrong, and after 30 seconds, sends a shutdown signal to the power supply - and the server turns off. Obviously, there are two ways to solve the problem: to understand why the board does not like the cooler, and the second is to deceive the board so that it cannot give a turn-off signal to the power supply. At first I tried to deal with the cooler, but it did not work, I put other coolers, more and less powerful, spread the legs of the power supply to different contacts — nothing helped. Therefore, I took the "fool" fee. But this is also not a simple task, nothing was clear here, so I started looking for manuals for all the chips that were on it. Finding manuals for electronic components perfectly helps the website www.alldatasheet.com. It turned out that there is a microcontroller on this handkerchief, a microcontroller is a microcomputer, a processor, RAM and permanent memory, I / O ports - and all this in one chip! I thought that probably this microcontroller "counts" the time of 30 seconds, and then sends a turn-off signal to the power supply. A friend told me that you can turn off the microcontroller from power, then it will not work, and, obviously, no one will take the time and the server will not turn off. So I tried to do it, found a power contact, measured it for testing, indeed, there was +5 volts, then I unsoldered the contact, turned on the server and ... It turned off after 30 seconds. :( It was sad. Out of desperation, I started to turn off the power in turn for all the chips, and when I turned off some kind of chip, the server did not turn off! It was a victory. :) Here it is, this chip that spoiled my nerves so much, already sealed power foot:
Now the server is turned on! Finally, you can play with him. :) But the first minute of joy passed, and the server continued to resist - he did not display anything on the screen! Just stood the blue screen and the cursor blinked on top. But it was already relatively simple, on the Internet I read that he can display information not on the screen, but into the terminal, which must be connected to the COM port. On the second day, I soldered a null modem cable and connected the server to an old laptop with Windows 2000, where I launched a terminal program. Took settings from the Internet, “speed” - 9600 bits, “flow control” - no. Turned on the server and saw the server startup messages in the terminal program!
512 Meg of system memory
probing hose 1, PCI
probing hose 0, PCI
probing PCI-to-ISA bridge, bus 1
bus 0, slot 5, function 1 - dqa - Cypress 82C693 IDE
bus 0, slot 5, function 2 - dqb - Cypress 82C693 IDE
Testing the system
Testing the Memory
System Temperature is 21 degrees C
initializing GCT / FRU at offset 1b8000
AlphaServer DS20 500 MHz Console V5.4-23, May 19 1999 14:48:15
CPU 0 booting
(boot dk * 100.1.0.2001.1 -flags A)
failed to open dk * 100.1.0.2001.1
What to do next, I suggested a friend from the Internet. You need to press "Ctrl + C" to interrupt the download attempts and enter the SRM console, and there execute the "set console graphics" command, which will switch the output from the terminal to the monitor. Here is what the first launch looked like. The old data still hang on the laptop in the terminal, and the new data is already displayed on the monitor.
Separately, I want to say about the SRM-console, it is something like the operating system and BIOS combined. Here you can change the configuration and settings, as well as review the configuration of the server and devices. You can test the server and do a lot of different things. I know only a small fraction of what can be done there, because I have not yet found the manual for the SRM console. And if you type the alphabios command in the console, the server BIOS will start. Further, within a few days I had already mastered it, the FreeBSD and OpenVMS operating systems for alpha systems were found, but none of them was established. :( FreeBSD reached the partitioning of hard drives, and for some reason did not see any, and when I called any installation function, I crashed into the console. And OpenVMS wanted to update the BIOS, which I could not do, because the update program hangs.
But recently, I was given two DVDs full of operating system images for alpha servers. So we are waiting for new adventures. In the next part, I will write how I put the operating systems on this server (when I can do this, as long as the situation is not at all good)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/93530/
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