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I'm new to servers and a friend of mine just gave me 7 free servers from the early 2000's and 2008.

3x 1950 Poweredge (III) Single 2.0ghz CPU 4 cores. 2gb RAM. 64 bit architecture.

1x Unnammed server, 24gb RAM, 2 cpu's total of 8 cores. 8 slots for HD's. 64 bit architecture.

1x Storage array server, no OS, just place to put 12 HD's.

2x late 1990's early 2000's "Boxx" server with dual cpu's 1.6ghz 1core each, 32 bit. Not usable for this, I think..but free :)

Is this enough to try to setup KVM, and a shared storage NAS/SAN to use? The 24gb server and storage array mention scsi on them.

Do these old servers have a purpose anymore for testing environment? I'm hoping to get some new/beefy ones in the future and replicate the architecture I'm hoping to learn from these.

My goal is to setup VM's on one, probably the beefier 24gb one.

Run CentOS 7 + KVM, then setup VM's of CentOS 7 for HAProxy and WebServers.

Setup one of the 1950's or Boxx as controller for the NAS/SAN and connect them to the VM to use for shared storage.

Lastly, in the pretend scenario gotta add a new server, I would plug in another 1950 to expand on power/resources, pretend a new mysql server, webserver, or storage.

Thank you for your insight. I feel this thread could be closed because it's too "specific", and I'll have to find a forum to post this question on. But, if possible, provide some insight. Thanks again.

Darius
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    You can certainly play with them, and you might learn something - about ancient hardware! - but consider that you have these servers primarily because they literally were not worth the cost of listing on eBay. – Michael Hampton Mar 21 '18 at 03:31
  • @MichaelHampton I agree they're not worth more than their metal these days. Is your recommendation then to toss them and get some more current hardware to learn from? Or is this ok, and just play with them. This question came up because you said "about ancient hardware" lol. – Darius Mar 21 '18 at 03:36

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Sorry my reputation is not allowing me to add a comment. It seems the only reasonable option for you is to connect 24GB server with the 12 bay drive-shelve using SCSI cables, so you will be able to extend the server space. Next, you can set up iSCSI on the 24GB server to provide block devices to other servers via TCP/IP. Also you can build NAS with Samba or/and NFS.

Mikhail Zakharov
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    If you are going to use storage array server as a storage extension for others, I would suggest using StarWind VSAN Free to present the storage via ISCSI. Check it here: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-virtual-san-free – batistuta09 Mar 24 '18 at 08:13