Supermicro X11SSL-F

[unoproph]

Good day. I’ve been in tech a long time but never messed with IT hardware. Over the weekend locally I found a good deal on a small home server I thought would be a great start for network major storage and great uptime. It was a server with a Supermicro X11SSL-F, Xeon E3-1220 V6, 16 GB ddr4 ecc ram at 2666, (2) 1 TB Seagate enterprise hard drives all for $50. Looks unused and the person I bought it from said they bought it new a couple years back to open a business and never did. They are just wanting the server out of their room. So i take this home and plug in a 1050TI as I only saw VGA on the motherboard, and nothing. No output for the PCI 3 x16 slot through the 1050 TI through HDMI I also grabbed my 750 TI and same issue. So my question is… do I need to unlock the PCI slot in the bios. If so it is hard? Reading the Supermicro manual is not clear to a new server hardware user. I don’t have any monitor to output the VGA through so before I spend $50 locally finding one at Goodwill I want to make sure it’s warranted.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Solaris17]

you need to change the display output precidence, its in the BIOS from onoard to pci-e im not remoted into my servers atm but if you need anyhelp lmk.

 

[unoproph]

you need to change the display output precidence, its in the BIOS from onoard to pci-e im not remoted into my servers atm but if you need anyhelp lmk.

Assuming this machine was never used. And knowing I’ve never done this can I just direct connect a cat cable into the back of the machine with my laptop and then use what to control the server and change the bios? And I did find an old vga monitor but no vga cable. Hoping to find one to borrow from the office tomorrow.

 

[Solaris17]

Assuming this machine was never used. And knowing I’ve never done this can I just direct connect a cat cable into the back of the machine with my laptop and then use what to control the server and change the bios? And I did find an old vga monitor but no vga cable. Hoping to find one to borrow from the office tomorrow.

ugh, no. to setup the BMC (IPMI) you will need to configure it in the BIOS. even if it was already configured and you knew what the IP was to access it you would need the password to do so, and would need to hope its still the one on the sticker on the mobo. If not then it would need a reset.

So gonna need a VGA cable either way.

EDIT:: its possible IPMI is in DHCP mode (by default) but then you would need to find it on your network using like advanced IP scanner. then if THATS the case you can get the password off the sticker on the board.

Try powering it up with the cat cable connected to the lone LAN port. it will be by itself on one side of the back of the board, it will have a different orientation (right side up) than the other two. which will be right next to each other.

 

[unoproph]

ugh, no. to setup the BMC (IPMI) you will need to configure it in the BIOS. even if it was already configured and you knew what the IP was to access it you would need the password to do so, and would need to hope its still the one on the sticker on the mobo. If not then it would need a reset.

So gonna need a VGA cable either way.

EDIT:: its possible IPMI is in DHCP mode (by default) but then you would need to find it on your network using like advanced IP scanner. then if THATS the case you can get the password off the sticker on the board.

Try powering it up with the cat cable connected to the lone LAN port. it will be by itself on one side of the back of the board, it will have a different orientation (right side up) than the other two. which will be right next to each other

So I got it working. I needed the vga cable. Next step to look at either throttlestop if I can increase its performance that way or look at getting a e3 1245 v5 under $40 for an upgrade.