Supermicro 8-node MicroCloud fully loaded

[BLinux]

this looked like a good deal to me.. it has about $4K in DDR4 RAM alone. 8 nodes of Xeon D1541 8-cores CPUs...

LOADED SUPERMICRO 5038MD-H8TRF MicroCloud 8-NODE SuperServer | eBay

 

[SPCRich]

This is why we don't shoot with tilt-shift lenses...makes that thing look super tiny.

 

[Samir]

This is why we don't shoot with tilt-shift lenses...makes that thing look super tiny.

LOL!

 

[TeeJayHoward]

I've got a fully loaded E3 MicroCloud. It's pretty freaking awesome. Downsides to these over a traditional blade enclosure:

1) Cable management is a beast. The only shared bus is power, so you've got cables out the wazoo connected to the rear, and removing a single blade can be a chore.
2) No integrated switch. You'll need traditional network infrastructure.
3) Compared to traditional height/width blades, you only have a single PCIe slot. Do you want Infiniband? SFF-8644? An x8 M.2 adapter? Phi? Better choose, you only get one.

Aside from that, it's typical SuperMicro awesomeness. Available SATA port for a SuperDOM or similar. Internal USB if you want to boot off a thumb drive. Quality components. Low fan noise. Decent power draw. IPMI per blade. Excellent airflow design. I spent a fortune on mine new years ago, and don't regret it at all.

 

[BLinux]

I've got a fully loaded E3 MicroCloud. It's pretty freaking awesome. Downsides to these over a traditional blade enclosure:

1) Cable management is a beast. The only shared bus is power, so you've got cables out the wazoo connected to the rear, and removing a single blade can be a chore.
2) No integrated switch. You'll need traditional network infrastructure.
3) Compared to traditional height/width blades, you only have a single PCIe slot. Do you want Infiniband? SFF-8644? An x8 M.2 adapter? Phi? Better choose, you only get one.

Aside from that, it's typical SuperMicro awesomeness. Available SATA port for a SuperDOM or similar. Internal USB if you want to boot off a thumb drive. Quality components. Low fan noise. Decent power draw. IPMI per blade. Excellent airflow design. I spent a fortune on mine new years ago, and don't regret it at all.

thanks for sharing your experience. do you have a way to quantify the statement "low fan noise" and "decent power draw"?

 

[TeeJayHoward]

thanks for sharing your experience. do you have a way to quantify the statement "low fan noise" and "decent power draw"?

I've never ran the MicroCloud without the two 846s humming along under it, but I believe I last measured the noise level at 60dBA @ 3' for the full rack. You can hold a conversation in the same room without raising your voice. I've got a noisy Infiniband switch running in the rack right now, so I can't re-measure. IIRC, under light load, the MicroCloud pulls 3A. Of course, this is with E3v3s, not with D1541s, so that number will likely be different.

 

[Robert Fontaine]

You guys have an entirely different concept of quiet than I. I remember starting up my first server in the basement and thinking that a Cesna was taking off. Did not pass the wife test. Not sure what I would do with a rack of blades but it would be fun to play with.

 

[MiniKnight]

Easier to service maybe, but I'd rather microblade over microcloud. Who wants to have A+B network + IPMI + 1/4 power per node?

Microblade with the switch and higher density is 14 blades in 3U and switch at 10G. That's 14-28 Xeon D nodes. Less expansion per node but 10G switch. https://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-microblade-review-part-4-dual-node-xeon-d-compute-blade/

That's why the Microblade is everywhere and the microcloud is less popular.

At $8k that'd still be a steal.

 

[Patrick]

If someone were looking for a Xeon D-1541 microblade (and in northern California) I know a guy who has one...

 

[frogtech]

Dual Xeon-D blades? Now that's cool. What kind of chassis do those go in, this same 3U microblade one? Wonder how power consumption, heat, and noise levels are.