Turn an old Google Appliance into an ESX server
So, you’ve got an old Google Appliance kicking around? Maybe from an expired Google Enterprise Partner Program (GEP) agreement? Why not turn it into an ESX server.
Once your license has expired, you’ll want to do is check with Google and make sure they don’t want the hardware back (they never do, but best to check). It’s safe to say that doing this is going to void your warranty.
The first thing you’re going to need to do is reset he password on the BIOS so that you can change the boot order. The easiest way to do this is to open the chassis and remove the jumper labeled PWRD_EN. The jumper is located just behind the memory towards the rear of the server. The next time you boot you can hit F2 to get into the BIOS.
With the BIOS now open, set the option to boot form the front USB ports. You’re going to want to flash the BIOS with a newer, non-branded one. A Google appliance is just a Dell PowerEdge 2950 with a yellow coat of paint and a snazzy front bezel. Head over to the Dell site and download the latest BIOS (I used 2.6.1). Once downloaded, run the utility to create a BIOS update floppy disk.
With the floppy disk in hand, connect an external USB floppy drive to one of the front USB ports and boot from your BIOS update disk. The update will give you an error message saying that a Dell PowerEdge 2950 BIOS cannot be applied to a Google Enterprise Search Appliance. Fear not, when the update exits it’ll leave you at a DOS prompt. Run the following command:
020601 /forcetype
It should complete successfully and reboot. Remove the floppy drive, enable visualization support in the BIOS and then install ESX. If you don’t have a USB CD drive handy, check out my guide on installing ESX from a USB Key.
Awesome instructions! Worked perfectly. I had recently come into acquisition of some old GSA’s. Knowing that they were Dell 2950’s I just couldn’t figure out how to get past the BIOS update issue. Once I was able to use the command above everything worked great and I now have a beautiful, bright yellow, server. Thanks for your help. I hope someone else finds this useful.
Glad you found it useful Tom!
Does this procedure affect the functionality of the GSA? I acquired a GSA from a now defunct group where everone got laid-off and wanted to recover the password. Is the GSA running Redhat and if so is there a known password recovery procedure?
Thanks
Also, I moved the jumper and can now get into the BIOS. However, there is a bios password set. Is there a way to reset this to none?
Hi Mark,
Formatting the GSA will turn it into any other PE2950.
I didn’t bother to try and recover the BIOS password they used, or the console root password.
If the group is defunct the chances are the license on it will have expired anyway. You could boot from a linux distro on a USB key or similar after clearing the BIOS password. Chroot the installation and change the password that way. Probably not worth the effort to brute force the password.
Let me know if you need more details.
Mark,
Just take the jumper off and leave it off . That will remove any BIOS password. If it hasn’t worked chances are you’ve removed the wrong jumper.
Fantastic instructions Dave…I am about to try it out on a search appliance I have acquired. Do you know if you are able to re-create a RAID 5 on the 5 hard drives?
Hi Ryan,
That’s exactly what I did. Ended up deleting the existing configuration and created a RAID5 array on them (added in a hot spare too).
My BIOS jumper configuration is different than you explained: “remove the jumper labeled PWRD_EN. The jumper is located just behind the memory towards the rear of the server.”
Mine has a jumper next to the cmos battery labeled CLR_CMOS with 3 pins. With the server off, I moved the jumper over, waited a minute, then put it back. I was then able to get into the BIOS on reboot.
I got to the part where I do: 020601 /forcetype
It put a bunch of numbers on the screen, and just sat there for 10 minutes or so. I pulled the power, rebooted, and it came back up with the old google bios.
Do you have any other suggestions on how to flash the BIOS?
Hi Joe,
How unusual. Is it a Dell PE2950 chasis?
If you get the service tag of the system and enter it into the Dell website, what does it detect the system as?
Joe, I bet it’s not a dell – I have the same thing – I reset the cmos as you did and when i open up the chassis it all has gigabyte all over the place – I think ours are the newer ones – I’m able to get the machine running on a UBCD – but i’m stuck at the lan drivers and I know that BIO needs to be updated but I can’t seem to find any BIOS that will stick.
Here’s what i have:
BIOS Date: 09/24/04
BIOS Type: American Megatrends
BIOS ID: 63-1029-001199-00101111-040201-ie7501-GA8IPXDR
Any help is greatly appreciated.
-e
I’d like to reuse the GSA as well, (hey, it’s a perfectly good 2950!) but we don’t have the key to the bezel, which apparently isn’t supplied with the device, and Dell was no help. How did you all remove the bezel?
We have plenty of 2950s at work, and they all use the same key so we just used one of those.
What number is on the lock? If you’re in the UK, and I have a matching key I’ll post you one.
We have an old GSA that I’ve been trying to update the BIOS on for a couple of days now and I can not get it to work. I’ve followed all of your steps up to the point where after booting to a usb drive and running the PE2950-020601C.exe file it just sits there after I get the warning message that this bios can not be applied to the appliance, I reboot and add the 020601 /forcetype command after the .exe file and it still bombs out. I’ve verified that this is indeed a dell power edge server via the service tag number. Any ideas?
Hi Clem,
I wonder if you have a PE2950 v2 / model B or similar?
Maybe there’s a slightly different BIOS you need to use?
Earliv…I have same issue. Looks like we’ve got the same appliance. I’ve even had issues with installing 64bit OS’s. So, something tells me…cause I haven’t identified the processors other than 2.6G and 4 cores (Which I would think are 64bit capable). Hump!
Anyway, just so people know a solution to flash would be great. I’ve checked other BIOS on Dell site for the 2950 and none to speak of. The BIOS dates from 2004…quite awhile ago.
I’m gonna try to see if I can get a WHEL on here. Also Dave…the bootable USB…had issues there as well. Obviously not the same GSA beast. 🙁
Thanks for posting information however!!
Not all 2U GSAs (1001/1002s) are Dell 2950s. The older GSAs are Custom Giagbyte servers based on the Gigabyte GS-SR222 server and Gigabyte GA-8IPXDR-E motherboard.
The older Gigabyte-based GSAs come with 2 x 32-bit Intel Xeon 2.66GHz Hyperthreading CPUs, 12GB of RAM, 5 Western Digital 250GB PATA hard drives and a 3Ware Escalade 7506-8 Parallel ATA RAID Controller. Their front bezels are locked with security screws (not keyed locks) and have to be drilled out.
The newer GSA 1000 models are Dell 2950s. They all came with 16GB of RAM and 6 Western Digital 250GB SATA drives. The Dells are the ones with the keyed front bezels, the flip-up tabs on the top to remove the cover and are dual-power supply capable (but have only one).
If you are shopping for these on eBay beware, there are losts of the older Gigabyte-based models availble for roughly the same price as the newer Dells. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the memory (12GB vs 16GB) and the screw vs the lock on the left side of the front bezel.
oh, and great posts by the way!
Thanks for the information. We’ve got 2 or 3 GSA’s at the moment, all of which are 2950s. I guess I’ve just been lucky!
I think that they made the vendor switch in late 2006 or early 2007 … I should have probably mentioned that in the other post. There are just still a lot of the old ones flying around on eBay as well, so hopefully this helps people purchase the correct ones and not toss $500 out the door. 🙂
@C.R> Research; we are looking for few GSA’s (Dell 2950 equivalent) for a charitable research project, any costs associated with this acquisition would be covered and all efforts would be highly appreciated… look forward to your assistance
Thank You
J.C.
Just wanted to include my thanks for this article. Was a great help!!
Thanks for this process, I was able to use it on an old IronPort to bring it back to life as a Dell server once again.
I had to mod the autoexec.bat to stop the update process from starting, as once the updater had failed, it did some funky stuff after it exited, and I couldnt type anything at the command line.
Cheers,
I just bought a PE2950 GSA and did everything that you suggested. I got to the point where you type 020601 /forcetype and it says “bad command or file name”. Any advice?
Ron,
Are you in the directory with the right files? does DIR show you the 020601 executable?
This worked great, but out of curiosity, using the ESXi 4.1 Dell Customized disc, it fired right up and recognized as Google Appliance.. is there any real benefit to running with the Dell bios?
I already flashed it, but was just curious for the future if I end up with another…
Hi Dan, I don’t think those were around when I last had a spare GSA kicking around. Glad to know that worked for you though!
Yay! Followed and worked. used a Unetbootin FreeDOS USB key + 020700.
We found some of the same appliances here. Using Dremel to make the screws into flatheads and removing the battery inside for 2 mts or so resets the BIOS password. You can then set the firmware to all defaults and enable the USB and Legacy USB support. We have been able format the drives with the RAID controller and boot LiveCD image from Fedora.
Hi,
I have try to remove the bios password.
It’s working but when I go to boot sequence in bios menu. (Google BIOS 1.5.1)
I have only 2 option: HDD or LAN.
Any one please advised ?
Have you attached a USB CD drive and checked to see if USB is enabled in the BIOS ?
Thanks, this worked. And yes, those old Gigabyte-based GSA’s kinda sucked. The newer PowerEdge 2950 ones are cool. Anyone up for modding and replacing the fans with quieter ones? I could use the assistance.
Many thanks!
Worked like a charm!
I would be interested in knowing how to quieten the fans down, or if quieter replacements are available. Although I may just colo mine and be done with it :p
Has anyone tried to re-use a newer R710 based google unit?
Sorry, not me. Once ours start to go EOL I’ll give it a go though.
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