r/HomeDataCenter

So,I messed up. I just got a DELL PowerEdge R920 with a terabyte of RAM to use as a centralized file staging server for my other servers. I was trying to install the OS when it told me to reseat RAM DIMM module E. So, without powering it off, I pulled out RAM DIMM module H and after realizing my mistake put it back in and reseated the proper module. It now won’t boot at all and gives a VLT0304 and VLT0204 error codes. One is just board voltage being outside of range and the other is for RAM DIMM module H having PG voltage out of range. I have done every trouble shooting steps I can think of including trying to boot in minimum boot configuration (CPU1, 1 RAM stick, 1 PSU, everything else removed. Still get the same errors, even though the offending CPU and RAM are gone. I think it might be the motherboard but I can’t be sure. I’m new to real servers and of course this is the first time I mess up like this, normally I only so much as open a computer when it is off and unplugged.

Help? I don’t know exactly with what but if repairs are possible where? If replacement of parts are needed where and how? Suggestions, advice, I need help. I live is Peoria, Arizona if that helps with recommendations.

I'm new to home lab, and wanted to create a system to hold/host documents and have it accessible across the internet. Ideally, like obsidian or notion but I'm more than happy to start with a simple file sharing system like OneDrive.

How difficult is this?

How long would it take (in hours/days)?

How expensive is it?

Do I need to hire a professional (if so what type)?

Thanks in advance.

A month ago I posted about turning the Cavium CN6640-SNIC10E into a working dual-port 10GbE card with no vendor firmware. Here's what changed since, plus a clarification and a request.

WHAT'S NEW

- Prebuilt card image in the releases. No more building OpenWrt for hours: download the image, run install.sh.
- The host module now installs through DKMS, so it survives kernel upgrades.
- Card temperatures show up in sensors with no serial cable, plus an estimated power draw.
- Rewritten quick start, one block from git clone to a working oct0. Hardcoded paths are gone.
- Requirements fixed: "Above 4G decoding" is NOT needed. Secure Boot has to be off.

SECOND-HOST RESULTS

Same card re-measured on a different machine and peer (Dell R720 + HP NC523): 9.64 Gb/s TX and 9.93 Gb/s RX aggregate across both ports, matching the first rig. Each port alone reaches line rate, but the two together share about 10 Gb/s per direction, because the card sits on a PCIe Gen2 x4 link.

A CLARIFICATION ON "NOTHING FLASHED"

The card OS always runs from RAM and is never written to flash. There are two ways to boot it:

- Over serial (boot-clean.sh): nothing is written to the card at all. Power it off and it's exactly as it was.
- Serial-free (the default): a one-time step saves the u-boot environment to NAND, so the host can boot the card on its own. That is a write, but restore-bootapp.sh puts the stock env back.

So "fully reversible" holds either way, and "nothing flashed" is strictly true only for the serial path. The docs now say this plainly.

KNOWN ISSUES

- Heavy TX collapses RX under full duplex. Still hunting the cause.
- ARP broadcasts sometimes don't leave the card after a reload (static neighbour entries work around it).
- Hot-plugging a DAC can leave TX stuck until the service is restarted.

BETA TESTERS WANTED

So far this has only run on my own card. If you have an SNIC10E in a drawer, I'd love to know if it works on yours. You need a Linux host with Secure Boot off and a USB-serial adapter for the one-time provisioning. Useful feedback: host model, kernel version, whether install.sh worked first try, and iperf3 numbers.

Report here, even just to say "it worked": https://github.com/nicologiuliani6/cavium-cn6640-snic10e-octeon-ii-nic/discussions/1

Repo: https://github.com/nicologiuliani6/cavium-cn6640-snic10e-octeon-ii-nic

Docs: https://nicologiuliani.site/docs/cavium-cn6640-snic10e/

Write-up: https://nicologiuliani.site/blog/cavium-cn6640-bar2-datapath/

SMALL SPOILER

After the first post someone reached out asking if the same approach could open up a Sophos XGS 107w firewall. I've been working on it and it's almost done. More soon.

If you want to support the work, GitHub Sponsors is here: https://github.com/sponsors/nicologiuliani6

This is a bit long winded, just skip to the last paragraph for the short version.

Hey, I just started getting into home lab and home data center stuff. I slowly been setting up a media server pipeline to rip my DVDs and Blu-rays by sending them from the ripping machine to a staging machine. I’ve set up some 10G network stuff for a backup machine and the media/ripping machine and connected them to a Mikrotik CRS-354. I want to be able to rip, extract, transcode, and backup the data at the same time because I’m impatient. So, I got a Dell PowerEdge R920 to act as a staging machine using its 1tb of RAM to create a tmpfs shared with samba. However, if I connect the R920 with 10G it will be a bottleneck when the backup machine is running while other machines are ripping, extracting, and transcoding video. I am also considering a dedicated transcoding cluster which would make the bottleneck worse. So, I decided to use 40G. Thought setting it up would be similar to the 10G. I have returned a bunch of stuff due to incompatibility and have decided to ask the people who use this stuff what they use. I’ll post Frankenstein rack pictures when it’s all properly installed, still waiting on some servers to complete it.

TLDR; I have a Mikrotik CRS-354 and want 40G networking for an DELL PowerEdge R920. I don’t mind used off eBay, just that it works. I don’t care if it’s fiber but it is a 2.5m run from switch to where the card would be. I have a budget of $200-$250. Any recommendations for a cable and network card that work together?