[Android] tripLr:
OR ,How did I end up with a 'Cloud in a Box' for the same cost as a new high end laptop or desktop ?

OR why I use Fedora Server instead of Ubuntu ?

OR how did I decide to Host a server for Developers ?

( because its much faster )

Along the way of becoming a "senior member" on XDA ( I am 51 yrs old by the way ), I asked a lot of questions of developers.

I was interested in rooting my samsung galaxy note 4,(910v) 2 things happened about the same time.

When it upgraded to 6.01, Verizon locked the bootloader , and Cynanogenmod went belly up.

So after 2 years of watching and waiting for a bootloader unlock, reading forums, and lineageos14 came out and thanks to this thread

https://xdaforums.com/note-4-verizon/development/howto-bootloader-unlock-upgrade-to-t3398144

and to these Devs !

ryanbg, @beaups

I was able to unlock my 910v

and upgrade to Lineageos 14 , Thanks again @hsbadr

https://xdaforums.com/note-4-verizon/development/lineageos-t3557795

After a while I noticed a couple of devs ( @_mone ) and some users asking really good questions as lineageos15 came out ( @ripee )

And more and more I was curious about compiling a build. @_mone kept posting how-to build LineageOS, @ripee kept at it , and after @_mone posted some screenshots of Oreo built on the note 4, @mikey387 built a xda thread, and THE CODE on github, and @_mone did some awesome AICP builds, @ripee took over builds from @mikey387... now were running Pie thanks to people posting code on github !

Meanwhile I had a HP laptop, at the time that cost about $1200 us, but alas, it was an amd64 dual core Athalon and at the time I was experimenting with Linux, because it would BARELY run windows 7.

But LXDE linux (lxle) ran JUST AWESOME. It was a derivative of Ubuntu.

I used to build and compile kernels for FreeBsd for a server I built to replace a router way back in 2001 and 2002, so this truck driver decided to polish up some kernel compile tools on my laptop , I first tried Debian Linux as I was familiar with it back then, while deciding against the current BSD clones, as they didnt have the modern ( today ) hardware support that Debinan did.

OMG Debian was tough. Actually got it running, and tried to compile a kernel ( kernel.org ) using ( https://kernelnewbies.org/KernelBuild ) it took about 18 hours for my amd and all the hardware on the old laptop.

So after several installs ( dozens of versions of linux ) I could not get the handle on my system because the drivers were so buggy. (nvidea)

So, I started with an idea,

I really wanted a high end computer to develop and from my computer building days,

I started looking at ebay for multi-cpu computers, and discovered ,

There is a HUGE amount of used servers pulled from the cloud service companies for sale.

Dual cpu Xeon, Quad cpu Xeon ..

After days and weeks of Ebay, Google, and Amazon, I settled on

Dell r810 Quad Xeon server about $450 delivered

Example : eBay http://bit.ly/DellR810 8x4 cores, multithread 64 core ! 32 GB ram,

Alas the hard drives ( three 10,000 rpm SAS 300gb ) were not enough storage

Back to eBay, 1 tb SCSI 7200 rpm drives, $30 each !

I found out I had a bad scsi hard drive back plane, which is why it probably got surplussed, because drives kept failing,

I got eBay dell r810 back-plane server pull $35

And I kept buying memory 8 sticks of ecc pc-133 server memory, last purchase was 128 gb, for about $300 total

But the hard drive only had 1 port for sata and 6 for SCSI and Sata was version 2 and USB was version 2. Very slow compared even to a modern PC.

This time I went to ALI express ( where I bought my note 4 motherboard )

for : 4 port sata3 controller

5 port USB 3 controller

4 port USB 3.1 controller ( alas wouldn't work because the server is PCIe 2.0 and the 3.1 card was PCIe 3.0 )

I found a deal on a NVME controller from asus ( didnt work because again PCIe3.0 )

I was able to test a 300 gb intel nvme ssd ( all i can say is WOW)

Problems:

This girl makes a constant howl when compiling on hot days,

So i have to engineer a cart, with AC and air filtration built in, because its a dust dust magnet, and a space heater for my office !

The old built in mobo Matrox video card was sLOOOOW ! On a Terminal I think it actually slowed down the compiles !!

Yes i know your supposed to ssh into the server, but after seeing someone

mod a dell r810 server for dual sli videocard on youtube https://youtu.be/IC0_snmK65w Cool !

I decided against his hack, as it only supplies 12 v, and I need both 12 v and 5 v.

So, when I got the back plane, they sent me an extra backplane power cable.

I got my volt meter out, found the grounds, the 12 v, and 5 v, and got the solder gun out,

and wire splitter cables for hard drives, and made another cable to run to the back,

where I could power the eSATAp bracket, the USB 3 5 port, and the 3 internal 1 TB SSD's I got the system booted on.

Currently

Fedora server 29

288 GB,

3 ea 1 TB ssd for booting and compiling Android with about 8 users

5 ea 1 TB scsi 7200 drives in raid 5 3.5 TB logical volume for compile storage and user backups

1 ea 1 TB scsi drive for system images

remote ssh access

web remote management access

fail2ban automatic firewall ssh ban

Whats next ?

Upgrade path for this wonderful workhorse

16 port scsi or two , with the current sata ssd drives availabe for under $89 that are out,

Switch to m2 keys and maybe build replacement backplane for m2 ssd, I think about 30 will fit in the little bay area for 6 there are now.

And put my Sound Blaster live card I found in a scrap heap in !

Credit to XDA for the discovery, the community, the users , developers, and idea shakers !

Please watch my below reserved for the continue of the how to !!

Thanks

triplr