Old XEON machine recycle or not?

Hardware
1

Hallo,
we’ve an old server standing in a corner … now we tested it - OK running
Is this machine usable to iPFire ?
inxi says:

Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: Supermicro model: X9SCI/X9SCA v: 0123456789
serial: 0123456789 BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2.3a date: 01/06/2021
CPU:
Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Xeon E31270 bits: 64 type: MCP
L2 cache: 8192 KiB
Speed: 2901 MHz min/max: 1600/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2016 2: 1827
3: 1863 4: 1771
Memory:
RAM: total: 7.75 GiB used: 200.2 MiB (2.5%)
Array-1: capacity: 32 GiB slots: 4 EC: Single-bit ECC
max module size: 8 GiB note: est.
Device-1: DIMM_1A size: 2 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s type: DDR3
detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits total: 128 bits
manufacturer: Micron part-no: 9JSF25672AZ-1G9K1 serial: FD9D0DB9
Device-2: DIMM_2A size: 2 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s type: DDR3
detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits total: 128 bits
manufacturer: Micron part-no: 9KSF25672AZ-1G6K1 serial: 2978DB62
Device-3: DIMM_1B size: 2 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s type: DDR3
detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits total: 128 bits
manufacturer: Micron part-no: 9JSF25672AZ-1G9K1 serial: 0D5709DB
Device-4: DIMM_2B size: 2 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s type: DDR3
detail: synchronous bus width: 64 bits total: 128 bits
manufacturer: Micron part-no: 9KSF25672AZ-1G6K1 serial: DEAB464B
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 00:25:90:27:49:76
Device-2: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: 00:25:90:27:49:77
Device-3: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:25:90:27:49:78
Device-4: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: 00:25:90:27:49:79

But there are some other problems and we don’t know is this a knockout ??

:~# grep . /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/*
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/itlb_multihit:KVM: Mitigation: VMX unsupported
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/l1tf:Mitigation: PTE Inversion
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/mds:Mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/meltdown:Mitigation: PTI
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spec_store_bypass:Mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spectre_v1:Mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/spectre_v2:Mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, RSB filling
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/srbds:Not affected
/sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/tsx_async_abort:Not affected

Thank you for every tip !

2

Hi,
This is great. It even has 4 port ethernet.
IPFIRE will work on this

3

we think so too - but what is with that hardware vulnerabilities ?

4

Hi @rowihei

That is because Intel, and to a lesser extent AMD, processors have been found to have a variety of vulnerabilities in their design - so hardware issues. You can see the status in the IPFire menu System - Hardware Vulnerabilities.

They will either be

Green - Not affected
Blue - Mitigated
Red - Vulnerable

Your items appear to be Not Affected or Mitigated which means the processor has the problem but software patches to the kernel etc have been able to mitigate the vulnerabilities.

See the following wiki and blog links

https://wiki.ipfire.org/configuration/system/vulnerabilties

https://blog.ipfire.org/post/meltdown-spectre-the-chaotic-story

https://blog.ipfire.org/post/more-on-intel-s-hardware-bugs

5

thanks for clarification - now we will try it in productiv enviroment …
… in BIOS we disabled intel Hyper Threading and intel Virtualization Technology
… installed iPFire 2.25 Core155 and now let’s have a look:

2021-05-21-ipFire-test
2021-05-21-ipFire-test1013×533 72.1 KB

Is this an acceptable risk or not ? KVM we don’t need on IPFire

6

Xeon E31270 is an 80W CPU.
I doubt it will use anything like that most of the time, but larger server boards with many components will generate unwanted heat too. Power supplies tend to be more efficient near full load, so again doubt if running efficiently.

I have some Dell Optiplex with dual/quad CPUs and most measured 40W - 60W.
These older PCs and servers are not great environmentally wise. That’s the only real issue I’ve experienced.
The advantage can be availability of cheap hardware including replacement components.

1 Like
7

Any Intel cpu based system will have very similar results.

An AMD based system will likely have fewer but it will also still have some blue that has been mitigated.