I just wanted a cheap Epyc server...
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- Grab yourself a Rocks Glass and set of Whiskey Stones at craftcomputing.store for when your BIOS updates fail.
So much wasted potential. The saga of the Quanta T22HF Dual-Node Epyc server somehow continues, as a couple viewers of the channel managed to get their hands on the BIOS updates needed to bring Epyc Rome support to these boards. And somehow even the simplest task for this server still managed to go sideways.
But first... What am I drinking???
Highland Park 12... because every failed BIOS update needs Scotch.
If you have a Quanta T22HF and want to try this update yourself, BIOS files and Documentation can be found here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...
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Think you can do better? Here's the Quanta T22HF with Epyc 7351P CPUs and rails: ebay.us/je8UK6
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Wow, that merch plug at the very beginning - have a downvote.
This is a great indication for me to never recommend Quanta to my clients.
I've made a habit, after quite a number of problematic BIOS updates from much more mainstream vendors, to always dump the known working bios to a file via the flashing utility or an SPI programmer, before updating... such a bummer :(
HP will acknowledge a server, even give you a changelog on the drivers and BIOS... wait, you want to download them? That will be $2000 for a year of support.
Reach out to Rossman, Quantas lack of support may actually be illegal in some states like Cali with right 2 repair laws.
Thanks for taking one for the team this time, hopefully next time will be the one :)
The fact they have no BMC reset header is mind boggling to me. All other major brands have them for this reason. This way their techs don't have to RMA an entire server when a bios update fails and instead they can just reset the BMC, login to IPMI and then reflash the bios on site.
I guess what we learned from this is this is why we need right to repair and never buy Quanta servers new or used.
If companies like this are going to deliberately make their old kit unusable by withdrawing docs, bios updates, etc. then they should have to take back the equipment at their cost for proper recycling, rather than getting to dump their now useless crap in the used market.
All companies are the same. I had an issue where a company refused to provide firmware for a device that still worked. On their website, they claim to be "green" and "environmentally friendly," but in reality, they're saying, "We can't profit from that device anymore, so buy a new one even if the old one still works. We get new money, and we don't care about the electronic waste."
Last 5 or so minutes of this video is crucial and needs to be shared in the industry. Companies that intentionally create e-waste is so irresponsible. And to spend active efforts to thwart the secondary market from giving hardware new life is absurd. This is one reason I like purchasing old HPe equipment because they keep their files on their website and its easy enough to find. Shame on Quanta.
Customer: Yeah so I have this Quanta server. Can I have the documentation and BIOS for it please?
19:50
If anyone has a bricked motherboard, router or other device which stores its firmware on a standard EEPROM, there's no need to buy an expensive dedicated EEPROM programmer. A Raspberry Pi can be used to read/write EEPROM chips, and does an excellet job. Just connect the right pins up to the chip and off you go.
And that's why I only use SuperMicro, ASRock Rack, Gigabyte and HPE Servers. HPE of them is also shitty with their BIOS/BMC support, allowing you only to download them if you have an active support contract, but the others just give you everything you could want. The neat part about HPE is that even if they don't support homelab use-cases their hardware usually always just works. So far I've never had an issue with an HPE system that uses HPE certified components. Much nicer to use SuperMicro, ASrock and Gigabyte stuff tho, despite the jankiness of ASR and Gigabyte.
Great video as always Jeff, As head Curator of the unofficial Bristol museum of enterprise computing in the UK (or shed full of junk as my wife calls it) I know first hand how our hobby can simply lead us to "throwing good money after bad" as they say. It's great to share these bad experiences so we can tick that idea off the list. Brilliant. I am currently sipping a UK Brewdog Triple Hazy Jane IPA at a rather cheek enpinkening 9.5 volts and will be also trying a scotch dismount in honor of your helpful video with a Talisker Skye I picked up last month when visiting the Northern parts of my island at their distillery, in my opinion the best part of the UK. Keep em coming.
I'm sorry for your loss.
Soon as you said investigate the BMC I was like, "Oh, oh no...". Cut to the scotch...
Thank you for posting this. We need a t-shirt for all of us who have been here. Hardware manufacturers who make stuff so proprietary that it ends up as e-waste rather than in a home lab or reused for education should be named, shamed and fined.
If I was you, I'd be beyond more frustrated than you. I've had some very harsh Epyc situations myself. I think you made it nicer because you wanted to keep your cool and share a video with us. As someone, on my other channel, who's uploaded a LOT of DIY for automotive... suck projects like this, I didn't always have the heart to post it.