For those interested for the one I was able to get into, it is running NFVIS Version: 4.1.1-FC1 which is from March 2020:
$127 Cisco ENCS5412/K9 Xeon-D 1557 (12 core), 32G ram
- Thread starter RobstarUSA
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I can help you get into it if you want, PM me if you want me to show you. I'm on Telegram and Discord, either works for me.
The version of NFVIS that's on there is really not worth running tbh (unless you were lucky enough to get a later version). Mine came with the very first version of the 4.x series and it shows. If I can't find a way to update, I will definitely be going to either proxmox or esxi.
There are a couple of different NIM that would make this interesting. It looks like the NIM-SS is just a PCIe to sata bridge and if it gets detected should give you another two SSD on the device.
Also, what is the fan noise like on these when booting/ idle with a 3rd party os?
I have a lab in my office and if this is reasonably quiet I will need to keep an eye out for some more.
Also, what is the fan noise like on these when booting/ idle with a 3rd party os?
I have a lab in my office and if this is reasonably quiet I will need to keep an eye out for some more.
I found the easiest way to get into NFVIS was to use the CIMC to mount a Linux Live ISO, boot from that, mount the internal SSD and remove the user.cfg as devz3ro pointed out.
After that I booted with rd.break to change the root password and the admin user password. The process that responds on port 22 is some sort of cisco proprietary SSHD but the real SSHD is listening on port 22222 at least in my ancient version of NFVIS. Need to disable the firewall to get to it though.
Maybe they made it better in the later versions, but mine was just a lousy wrapper for qemu that wouldn't even let you power off a VM if it was in the "wrong" state, like "starting up"
I added 1x MTA36ASF4G72PZ-2G3B1 to expand to 64GB, and these UCS-SD120GBKS4-EV work for the drive carriers. I'm not using the S3510s in the ENCS, I swapped with some drives I had laying around (3.8TB PM863, 1.9TB HK4R) and they work fine.
The Python code for configuring the switch is all in /opt/switch-confd
Fans are controlled by the CIMC CPU I believe, and they are the same volume with ESXi as they are with NFVIS, very reasonable for a 1U but I'm not sure I'd want it in the same room with me. If you disconnect 1 fan though the thing goes full blast and that's extremely loud. In normal operation it's about the same level as my 1U 48P gig switch.
After that I booted with rd.break to change the root password and the admin user password. The process that responds on port 22 is some sort of cisco proprietary SSHD but the real SSHD is listening on port 22222 at least in my ancient version of NFVIS. Need to disable the firewall to get to it though.
Maybe they made it better in the later versions, but mine was just a lousy wrapper for qemu that wouldn't even let you power off a VM if it was in the "wrong" state, like "starting up"
I added 1x MTA36ASF4G72PZ-2G3B1 to expand to 64GB, and these UCS-SD120GBKS4-EV work for the drive carriers. I'm not using the S3510s in the ENCS, I swapped with some drives I had laying around (3.8TB PM863, 1.9TB HK4R) and they work fine.
The Python code for configuring the switch is all in /opt/switch-confd
Fans are controlled by the CIMC CPU I believe, and they are the same volume with ESXi as they are with NFVIS, very reasonable for a 1U but I'm not sure I'd want it in the same room with me. If you disconnect 1 fan though the thing goes full blast and that's extremely loud. In normal operation it's about the same level as my 1U 48P gig switch.
I bought a total of 6 Cisco ENCS from the ebay seller. Some of them are really quiet and can be kept in a office no problem, and some of them have fan whine like the fan(s) are dying. All expected since it is used hardware. Of the total, 5 of them are V03, and 1 is V02. The V02 is the quietest, but the latest mfg date V03 was the second quietest (maybe different mfg fans? - didn't check yet).
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@turbo how did you manage install esxi 8? I flashed the esxi 8 iso onto a 2.5 inch ssd then powered up and pressed f6 during boot (with a local keyboard and display plugged in) and selected the 2.5 inch drive to boot off of it. Tried a bunch of different ways to create the image, but all hang during boot. I wanted to install esxi8 directly to the m.2 drive inside.
Tried both of these without any luck:
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U2-22380479.x86_64.iso
VMware-ESXi-8.0-20513097-Custom-Cisco-4.2.3-b.iso
Tried both of these without any luck:
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U2-22380479.x86_64.iso
VMware-ESXi-8.0-20513097-Custom-Cisco-4.2.3-b.iso
Found a way to go to recovery mode if cimc has locked you out, and you cant get in with default credentials. hook a console cable to the cimc port on the front, and load your terminal program, when it prompts, press *** press enter, type in boot current recovery . press enter
it will need a password and user , the user is admin .the password is password. iv tried it on all the boxes i bought and it works great
at the recovery shell prompt,
recovery-shell# interface dedicated "ip address" "subnet mask" "gateway"
recovery-shell# update "ip address here" CIMC_3.2.9.bin
downloading firmware image "CIMC_3.2.9.bin" from " ip address "
download firmware image done,
recovery-shell# reboot
.
it will need a password and user , the user is admin .the password is password. iv tried it on all the boxes i bought and it works great
at the recovery shell prompt,
recovery-shell# interface dedicated "ip address" "subnet mask" "gateway"
recovery-shell# update "ip address here" CIMC_3.2.9.bin
downloading firmware image "CIMC_3.2.9.bin" from " ip address "
download firmware image done,
recovery-shell# reboot
.
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How I reset mine was a little different:
I hooked up a local console to the encs (using the vga port -> monitor + usb keyboard) then booted up. At the boot screen I pressed F8 to edit the cimc configuration. The only password required to get there is the bios password which I had because I set it (encs came with the bios password cleared). Once inside the cimc setup menu, there is a option to set a new password but I never got it to work, so I toggled down to the "restore factory defaults" option and pressed space bar to check the box. Saved, rebooted, then went back into F8 to this time set the IP / SNM / GW etc. After configuring the desired network details I saved and rebooted once more. Once rebooted I just opened up a firefox session (chrome gave some error) on my pc to the configured IP and I was able to login with the default: admin / password.
Do you happen to have the CIMC_3.2.9.bin and / or the latest bios? I would like to update all of my hosts to the latest available cimc / bios if possible. Right now they are all over the place, some latest, some older.
I got ahold of a newer BIOS image, ENCS54_BIOS_3.06.SPA from 2022 but it seems to be broken. Upon installing it, it's no longer possible to get into the BIOS setup. It puts up a message saying "Set BIOS password in CIMC" with seemingly no way to do so. Clearing the CMOS, resetting BIOS to factory default, clearing the password, setting the password (don't forget to "commit" after setting) all do nothing to remove this prompt that's impossible to get around.
Seems to be the same issue referenced here, I ended up going back to 2.9 after trying everything I could think of to no avail, which worked fine. It might be intentional if Cisco doesn't want people messing around with BIOS settings other than the ones available in CIMC?
Seems to be the same issue referenced here, I ended up going back to 2.9 after trying everything I could think of to no avail, which worked fine. It might be intentional if Cisco doesn't want people messing around with BIOS settings other than the ones available in CIMC?
Just bought a pair of these as well - hopefully with the PoE capable power supply since that can turn this into a nice appliance overall.
Has anyone investigated if the NIM slot does have a 10G option that will work in it? That’s the only piece I am really looking forward to at this point.
Has anyone investigated if the NIM slot does have a 10G option that will work in it? That’s the only piece I am really looking forward to at this point.
I bought 6 of these encs units, and I have some that are very quiet and some that are noisy. After switching internal fans around, I found that it's not the internal fans that produce a loud noise. For me, on the noisy units, it's the fan of the power supply. I took one of the psus apart and the picture below is the part number. I went to buy one and unfortunately there are many different connectors to buy. I'm going to take it back apart and find out what one it is. It's VERY quiet on the ones with good psu fans.
Some power supply observations...
The non-POE power supply appears to be a LiteOn model PS-2421-2-LF, which also appears to be the same 400W power supply as used in the Nexus 2200 series products, ASR1001 products, etc. YMMV, but if you don't need POE, this appears it might be a cheaper alternative than the actual PWR-5400-AC part number.
My ENCS happened to have a POE power supply (PWR-5400-POE-AC) which appears to be a Delta DPS-500AB-12 B. So far I haven't found any alternative options on that one... but will keep looking.
Edit to add: Here's a reference image from my PS:
The non-POE power supply appears to be a LiteOn model PS-2421-2-LF, which also appears to be the same 400W power supply as used in the Nexus 2200 series products, ASR1001 products, etc. YMMV, but if you don't need POE, this appears it might be a cheaper alternative than the actual PWR-5400-AC part number.
My ENCS happened to have a POE power supply (PWR-5400-POE-AC) which appears to be a Delta DPS-500AB-12 B. So far I haven't found any alternative options on that one... but will keep looking.
Edit to add: Here's a reference image from my PS:
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I was able to install TrueNAS Scale 23.10.1 on these. Seems to do just fine. As mentioned in previous posts. The only available network ports i was able to get functioning is the MGMT CPU Port, and the 2 SFP Ports. I haven't attempted to setup a ZFS Pool using the two 2.5" Hard Drive caddies as i'm waiting for the caddies to arrive. I'll post an update once i have confirmed if this can be done.
Thanks!
Thanks!
I am working on a simple ISO that can bootstrap the switch module, but in the meantime you can run NFVIS in a VM and pass through the “Marvell Ethernet Controller” should be PCI device 0e but I have seen it show up as 0b after messing around with various settings in the BIOS.
truenas core and ZFS does work both with RDM and passing through the Lynx Point SATA controller through ESXi so I see no reason that truenas scale wouldn’t work on the bare metal though I haven’t tried it.
truenas core and ZFS does work both with RDM and passing through the Lynx Point SATA controller through ESXi so I see no reason that truenas scale wouldn’t work on the bare metal though I haven’t tried it.
That's the one! Here's the lcpci output from ESXi 8 for the device. This device is only needed to bootstrap the switch module, once the switch module comes up you'll see link come up on both ports on the XL710
0000:0e:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device be00
Class 0200: 11ab:be00