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Questions tagged [hardware]

Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system.

There are multiple, physical components that are required for a computer to function. This is collectively referred to as the "hardware". The most notable components inside of a computer system is the RAM, Hard Disk (or hard drive), CPU, and Power Supply.

Outside of the case, however, hardware exists as well. Some of these components include the keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

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What is the command to flash a NIC link light?

I remember using a command line tool to flash a NIC's link light to identify it. I can't remember for the life of me what it was.
rjmoggach
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Server Room Temperature Control

We have a makeshift server room that contains a rack with half a dozen servers and some network equipment. The room is cooled by a dual-hose portable a/c unit that is vented into the attic. At this time the portable a/c unit can not keep up with the…
Brandon
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Physically Identify the failed hard drive

So, let's say your server had 6 healthy hard drives. A drive fails (will not mount/detect, drops out of raid with errors) or is failing (SMART getting worse, etc). You need to swap out the bad drive. When you open the case you see.. six identical…
privatehuff
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How to find out details about hardware on the Linux machine?

-i.e - how to get a full list of hardware components in command line (on a machine with no window system) Thank you.
Evgeny
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Does a 500 watt power supply always use 500 watts of electricity?

Does a 500 watt power supply always pull 500 watts? Or does it depend on the load being placed on the computer? It's a n00b hardware question. I'm trying to figure out how much it costs to run my compuer without buying a meter that actually measures…
Jim
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What is the use case of a SD slot on motherboard?

My HP Proliant ML110 G7 has a full-size SD slot on the motherboard. What is its use case? The PDF manual mentions it on page 10: item 17 just to show its placement, but nothing more. In a later revision (Gen 9), it is said the slot is not…
FarO
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ZFS best practices with hardware RAID

If one happens to have some server-grade hardware at ones disposal, is it ever advisable to run ZFS on top of a hardware-based RAID1 or some such? Should one turn off the hardware-based RAID, and run ZFS on a mirror or a raidz zpool instead? With…
cnst
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Poor internal database - replace it or chuck hardware at it?

So - we have an internal company database, the usual kind of stuff: manages clients, phone calls, sales deals and client agreements/schemes. It's an Access 2000 front-end, and an SQL Server 2000 Standard back-end. Single server, dual Xeon 3.2GHz,…
tomfanning
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What risks are there with mixing SSD models in RAID?

Aside from one type of disk bottlenecking the other, are there any other problems with mixing SSD models in RAID? My problem is, I need to upgrade the storage in a server with 4x Samsung 845DC EVO 960GB in RAID10. These drives are not available…
IsAGuest
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HP plan to restrict access to ProLiant server firmware - consequences?

I've been a longtime advocate for HP ProLiant servers in my system environments. The platform has been the basis of my infrastructure designs across several industries for the past 12 years. The main selling points of ProLiant hardware have been…
ewwhite
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Is it necessary to burn-in RAM for server-class hardware?

Considering the fact that many server-class systems are equipped with ECC RAM, is it necessary or useful to burn-in the memory DIMMs prior to their deployment? I've encountered an environment where all server RAM is placed through a lengthy…
ewwhite
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What happens when the USB key or SD card I've installed VMware ESXi on fails?

An SD (SDHC) card installed in an HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server running VMware ESXi just failed :( I encountered some ominous looking messages on the vCenter console and in the HP ProLiant ILO event log... Lost connectivity to the device ...…
ewwhite
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Reliability of ssd drives

The main advantage of SSD drives is better performance. I am interested in their reliability. Are SSD drives more reliable then normal hard drives? Some people say they must be because they have no moving parts, but I am concerned about the fact…
Dani van der Meer
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What are the performance differences between Raid 0,1,5,6,10

I have heard/read different performance stories on the various raid flavors. I am curious what the agreed upon best answer is.
James Moore
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Why are enterprise SAS disk enclosures seemingly so expensive?

I will begin by stating that I do not believe this is a duplicate of Why is Enterprise Storage so expensive?. My question is specifically about SAS drive enclosures, and justifying their expense. Examples of the types of enclosures I'm referring to…
Sam Elstob
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