Two weeks ago, I stumbled upon a "Craft Computing" video discussing a 2-node Quanta server. This was perfect timing as I was looking to expand my infrastructure but was constrained by the space in my half rack. I saw this as my only option.

In this blog, I will detail all the challenges I faced and the numerous trips back and forth to the data center.

Chapter 1 - Ordering the Server

After extensive research, I found the Quanta T42S-2U, which houses 4 independent nodes, each with relatively recent processors and 128GB of RAM. I found several options on eBay and opted for the cheapest one. Since I already had a large server, it didn't make sense to go for something much larger.

€300 for the server and €200 for shipping later (ouch), the server arrived a week later.

Chapter 2 - The Troubles Begin

Upon receiving the server, I noticed two things: the transport protection foam had expanded and opened, filling the connector of 2 of the 4 nodes with plastic. It wasn't too serious; I managed to clean it with alcohol. The second issue was the absence of rails in the boxes, which was inconvenient but didn't stop me from installing it in the data center. After contacting the supplier, my rail set was dispatched the following week.

Once the server was plugged in, and after losing a set of ear, I booted into the BIOS and began configuring the server. I set up the BMC IP to access the server remotely without a monitor and attempted to log in to the interface with the generic admin/admin credentials, which didn't work. After trying all combinations and searching online, I decided the easiest solution was to boot from an ISO containing ipmitool. After flashing a USB stick with a rescue Linux distribution, I accessed the IPMI tool, reset the password, and saw everything was functioning well before shutting down and unplugging the server.

Chapter 3 - BMC Configuration

The following weekend, I installed it at the data center, restarted it, and found that my BMC configuration had disappeared. After searching for documentation on the manufacturer's site, I realized they had decided not to provide any...

I ended up navigating through all the menus and finally found a button to preserve the configuration on the flash disk. However, it's crucial not to forget to click this button—a mistake I would make later...

Chapter 4 - BMC Crash

Once the server was set up and the 4 BMCs configured, I went home to finalize the configuration, a big mistake...

Back home, I started configuring everything. Things went smoothly for 2 of the 4 nodes, but as I was loading the ISO through the online console for nodes 3 & 4, the BMC crashed and rebooted. Unfortunately, on these nodes, I hadn't clicked the "preserve config" button hidden in two submenus...
I lost control over these nodes and faced two options: drive 1.5 hours back to the data center or find the administrator account password.

Chapter 5 - BMC - Default Creds & Brute Force

As mentioned, the server manufacturer doesn't seem to like documentation, which was problematic since I desperately needed the default password. Fortunately, having access to two other nodes allowed me to find the default username, "administrator".

Now, I just had to find the password... After much searching, no passwords worked. I found an exploit with IPMItool that exposed the HMAC buffer and auth key. So, I wrote a script to generate an HMAC from a database of passwords and compared the result with the server's output, hoping for a match...

Unfortunately, after 18 million passwords, none matched. I had no choice but to hit the road back to the data center...

Script here if you need it

Chapter 6 - BMC Watchdog

Once my OS (Proxmox) was installed, I noticed the server rebooted every 5 minutes. After some investigation, I discovered the BMC's watchdog was active, and my OS wasn't communicating with it. The watchdog checks if the OS has crashed, and since the OS wasn't signaling that everything was fine, it assumed the server had crashed and thus restarted it. After correcting this in Proxmox, everything worked well.

Chapter 7 - Up & Running

After many struggles and three round trips to the data center, the server is finally up and running! If only the manufacturer had provided documentation... it would have likely saved me a lot of timeand gas...

If you have any questions about your Quanta server, I probably have the answer, so don't hesitate to write me an email!