Compaq Proliant 7000 Server - Full overview and troubleshooting guide

[@HyperDroids]

Hi, Dom. I love the setup. For the past couple years I've had the idea of setting up a full retro server rack with servers running Windows 95, Server 2003 and Windows XP to compliment the modern rack I own with today's bells and whistles and modern day software. Although the tech of today and tomorrow is the main focus of my attention, I also have an appreciation for the old. This Compaq Proliant 7000 that you have is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Talk about a beauty. You've inspired me to make this retro rack a thing and likely use this exact server (given how cool, unique and fitting it is for its time period). The question now is "where shall it be located within the server room and how will I go about setting it up?". I thank you for giving a full tour of the server. Not only its hardware but also the software it comes with and runs. It gives me a far more intimate understanding of how it works, even leading me to comprehend how it would have been used in its heyday. And given how few videos there is online about this thing, it's a blessing that someone like yourself took the time to document all the quirks and features. Regardless of the servers I choose in the end to buy for my own rack, I'd either way like them to be running 24/7 with some services from back in the day (perhaps even host a retro website or two - who knows?). And with that, I'll have to take the cost to run into account, particularly given the expense of electrical consumption here in Europe. At 36:02 you show the COMPAQ Power Supply Viewer and, among other thing to note, the "Power Consumption" indicator itself. What's the server's hourly consumption? Is the "518.84W" referring to the total amount of watts used over the period of time it's been on or is it the per hour rate? Also, do you plan on making more videos on this server or others like it? Thanks again and keep up the good work!

[@dom80TA]

Hey there! Glad to hear my video gave you inspiration! I currently don't run my 7000 daily, I care about it too much to risk something breaking lol! I do think it and other pre 2000 Proliants would be more then able to run 24/7, however, my only concern are the SCSI drives, they are not reliable with their age and they are becoming very hard to come by. That being said I have always wanted to have it running constantly! As far as power consumption, I believe the 518W amount its used total! I have a video up now of ALL my systems, but have not been able to find anything as cool as the 7000! IMO it is the coolest server built, next to the Proliant 8000 (If I ever find one of those you can expect a whole movie on it too!)

[@robertsandoval6725]

You seem to really enjoy the exploring and setting up. I might suggest setting up NT4 Small business server it is an all in one Domain system. email server, DNS server, Web srv, and Proxy srv. managing machines and what they can do its setup for a machine to join the domain and it automatically installs whatever you want on the clients. you control their access to the web ect. theres so much more. I think you might enjoy it. I have a ProLiant 6500 fully loaded. that i ran when net access dropped from 1500 to 300 a month LOL. you inspired me to think about firing it back up. the duplexing you saw was for hard drives. thanks again for sharing your enthusiasm.

[@dom80TA]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Our machines are pretty close together in terms of age. Always awesome to see someone else who cares for an old server!

[@CheapSushi]

What an awesome server! I love this big old server designs. I was a tiny kid when this came out but for some reason it's one of my favorite computing eras.

[@dom80TA]

Me as well! Its fun knowing we were young and this thing would have been top of the line at the time lol

[@RickDeckardt]

That kit is sweet, reminds me of my old hp9000 that I had to part with. From the good old days.

[@rafaelgruber6133]

I've been searching since 2020 for such a server, without luck.

[@RetroTechIIfx]

Neat video. I also have a vintage Proliant, a Compaq Proliant 1500. Quite a bit older than the 7000, it has Dual Pentium 133mhz chips and 80mb RAM. These machines can be difficult to get going esp if they sit for too long. But once you get them working they will just run and run. I run NT4 on mine.

[@dom80TA]

Nice! I believe I had one of those at one point as well, not 100% sure the model, it did have dual pentium pros.. I wish I had it still! These kind of machines are becoming incredibly hard to find. Only a few years ago I remember seeing loads of ML350 G3 and similar, and now I haven't seen one for sale anywhere in ages.

[@YG-cs4jp]

Hi Dom, Thanks for the video. I just got a Compaq proliant 1600 and was looking for some videos on how I can upgrade and I landed on this video. Unfortunately we have different versions and I'm not able to follow. I live in Ottawa and was wondering if you know places I could get parts for the server

[@dom80TA]

Glad you liked the video! I had a 1600 at one point. It is a nice little machine for sure. Sadly parts for these machines are becoming super hard to find, as well as the actual servers too! What parts are you after? Im in ontario as well and have some extras kicking about!

[@o_gajo_da_polvora5043]

Have you had any experience with Linux on one of those old ProLiant? I have a ML530, will try some things today

[@dom80TA]

I have not actually! I hear it is pretty good on them though, with lots of older support. You have a G1 ML530? I had one of those models a while back, they are cool!

[@o_gajo_da_polvora5043]

@@dom80TA Yeah, It's completly loaded, unfortunally I do not have 4gb of ram installed (just 2.5) but it is still interesting, and does great things even if you want to use it as a NAS.

[@dom80TA]

@@o_gajo_da_polvora5043 2.5 is still lots for its age! Where abouts are you located? It would be awesome if you made a video on it

[@o_gajo_da_polvora5043]

@@dom80TA Oh I'm from Portugal xD. Would love to talk to you more about these beasts

[@dom80TA]

@@o_gajo_da_polvora5043 of course! always happy to help out and enjoy talking as well! I have facebook for social media, thats about it though

[@GuteNacht655]

Hello, which Compaq Management Software version are you using? I have the 4.3 and 5.3 which version is right for the Proliant 7000?

[@dom80TA]

I believe i am using 4.22. go with the lower revision. it will tell you if its compatible when you go to install!

[@ogdan1173]

Nice server. Do you are can try Linux for server ?

[@dom80TA]

You can run Linux on these, but I prefer the Windows perioud correct operating systems!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

Dom do you know where i can find hard drives for the server

[@dom80TA]

Did you end up getting it?! I have a few ones spare kicking around, if you have a electronic recycler near you, they may have some extras for cheap but they can be hard to come by now!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

@@dom80TA yes i.did ...but the guy say that he has only one. hard disc ..power supply i found here in greece ...im waiting them this week butbi cannot find other hard discs. ...do you know some to sale them..and.shipping thanks

[@dom80TA]

@@costasaroniadis3376 We may be able to work out a deal if you are interested! I have some really good ones here, Seagate Cheetah, all tested working, I keep them as backups! Do you have a Facebook or something so we can chat?

[@costasaroniadis3376]

@@dom80TA yes why not ..im interest if yoy like you can find me at fc or send me a message at mail [e-mail].. how many do you have?

[@dom80TA]

@@costasaroniadis3376 Ill have to check! I have around 6 spare ones I think? Used to have a lot more, but the 9gb ones that came with it fail quite often, were looking at almost 20 year old hardware here, and these things spin 15000 rpm and get HOT! They dont last too long sadly. Ill see if I can find you on FB!

[@GuteNacht655]

What exactly does installing the drivers from version 5.5 mean? Install the drivers from the CD Smart Start 5.5 via the device manager? Or do you mean configure the array and create a system partition via the Smart Start 5.5?

[@dom80TA]

you will need to use smart start to configure a disk partition before you install. you can also run the cd from windows ect and it will install a bunch of goodies for you as well

[@GuteNacht655]

@@dom80TA Hello I managed to do it, all Compaq tools now work, including the Insight Manager.

[@dom80TA]

@@GuteNacht655 excellent! what server are you running? A 7000?

[@GuteNacht655]

@@dom80TA yes 3x 7000

[@joshuastrandberg871]

I just picked up 2 of these today

[@dom80TA]

awesome! can i ask where abouts you got them and your location? if you need help with anything feel free to reach out!

[@joshuastrandberg871]

@Dom I got them from an auction service in grand rapids michigan! If I need help I definitely will get in touch!

[@dom80TA]

@@joshuastrandberg871 No way! I'm just across the border on the Canadian side. Do you know the specs on your machines?

[@joshuastrandberg871]

@Dom each has 4 pentium 3 500mhz/100 fsb xeons and I am unsure of the memory size at the moment

[@dom80TA]

@@joshuastrandberg871 That's a great find! If you'd consider selling one I'd be interested

[@кирилборисов-с4и]

крассавчик все круто бро подписался лайк прожал

[@dom80TA]

Thank you!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

Hello my friend very nice video...i have found the same server but missing the power supply...im thinking to buy it ...

[@dom80TA]

Thank you and nice find! Where about are you located if I can ask? Power supplies for this system are pretty easy to find on Ebay.. I believe you can also use the more powerful units from the Proliant 8000 as well but haven't tested this!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

@@dom80TA hello Dom im from greece and today i found and the power supplys and the server is about 80 kilometres near of me the seller say to me that the server has the windows NT 4 i thing ...did you ever try to install some version of linux

[@dom80TA]

@@costasaroniadis3376 Awesome! You're more then welcome to message me for any help with it! I've never been a big fan of Linux and haven't tried it on this machine, I doubt anything would work on Linux with it.. Even Windows Server 2003 was missing a lot of the features. I highly suggest Win2000 server!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

@@dom80TA this is my mail if you like send me a message

[@costasaroniadis3376]

[e-mail]

[@jjohnson71958]

give it windows me

[@dom80TA]

I dont think there are drivers for that sadly. It may be able to hack the programs onto it but I doubt it would work perfectly!

[@nirv]

Hi youtube you piece of garbage website. Stop deleting my comment. I'm trying to help this guy out.

[@dom80TA]

Hey there I'll post a reply and see what happens, this is the first comment I've seen from you on here lol! I don't like KZbin much either...

[@nirv]

@@dom80TA I think it worked after major modification. Sort comments here by date.

[@dom80TA]

@@nirv sounds about right lol.. what was your comment originally? I've had a couple users having issues with the comment section recently

[@nirv]

@@dom80TA I'm seeing my comment there 48 minutes ago. I said 1:23 - if it's any help...... etc etc. Sort comments by date and you'll see it. I had to change DOT C--- to DOT MOC (reversed). KZbin is one of the most censored websites I've ever seen and I've been online since 1995. I shouldn't have to sit there and edit a comment 12 times before it finally gets through. hi youtube. HI.

[@dom80TA]

@@nirv yes I totally agree with you I'm not seeing your comment though on my side for whatever reason and you're telling me about censorship I just made a mix of my favorite artist for my favorite album that was released and KZbin won't even upload it because it's their songs like I don't make any money off this channel it just does a little Hobby but yet there's other videos from other people uploading the same songs? It's honestly crap and that's why I don't use this platform much at all