Yesterday, I received my pre-built HL15 and managed to install it in my rack using the (longer) server rails that were sold as an accessory. This is my first rack and my first server, so I had no experience with installing server rails and the server itself, thus heavily relying on the manual and of course approaching everything with a lot of caution, so that I don’t damage anything). Thus some of the things that I am mentioning here might appear obvious, once you have experienced them, but I can assure you they weren’t at the time to a noob like me.
- The manual section for installing the server rails was excellent and extremely helpful. I was a bit confused about the leaflet (1 page) that was included with the rails themselves. That one talked (in step B) about sliding the inner rail forward until it clicks into the locked position [of the server chassis]. I just assumed that these rails are for various server models and the “clicking in” didn’t apply to the HL-15.
Additionally step D of that leaflet mentioned securing the outer rails with optional screws in the rack. Since there weren’t any optional screws included, I skipped that part as well. Additionally I actually like the fact that the outer rails had a bit of play in the rack to compensate for the slight tolerances, when putting the rack (a StarTech 25U 4-post open rack and indeed afterwards the HL15 slid smoothly into the rack. But if those screws are important / useful for something, I’d sure like to know.
Okay the next two points are a bit embarrassing, but here we go:
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I had a bit of trouble when trying to remove the lid of the case at first and I wasn’t sure, if I was doing it right. Perhaps the manual should include one or two pics with some arrows here. In the end (and after watching a Youtube video), I figured I was doing it right all along and just applied quite a bit more force with my thumbs and the lid gave way and came off. Not a problem, once you know the the sides of the lid have quite a bit of friction on the case. But having an indicator in the manual sure would have helped to overcome my initial caution.
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After putting the HL15 in my rack, connecting everything and toggling the power switch (on the power supply), nothing happened, except the IPMI LED on the motherboard started to blink. A casual search for a power button revealed nothing (remember this unit was already built into a rack and the backside was not lit by anything). Only after carefully parsing the manual, there was this sentence “After that you can turn on the power switch and the press the round blue power button to turn on.”, which revealed that there apparently was a power button somewhere and then eventually I found it. Except it didn’t appear blue, while turned off and certainly not in the darkness of my rack, so it took a while to see it.
My recommendation here is to include a picture of that power button of the back side and label it accordingly, like you do with the picture for all the other components on the back of the unit. -
Finally I had a bit of trouble finding the standard IPMI password for my unit. The manual states that “the default password would be on a white sticker on the side of the unit.” So I was looking for a sticker on the inside (and outside) chassis of the unit and didn’t find it. Only after checking the Supermicro website ( https://www.supermicro.com/support/BMC_Unique_Password_Guide.pdf ) and finding this thread ( IPMI Password (not found) ) I realized that it was on the motherboard. (Kind of logical of course, once you know it.)
Since apparently I’m not the only one that was confused by this (see various threads on the forum), I suggest you add a little more info to the manual on this (including a photo) and/or point to the document from Supermicro.
All in all I am very happy with my unit so far and the difficulties I encountered could be easily mitigated by making the manual a bit clearer in those parts that I mentioned. Since it is a PDF, the only cost would be the employee-time that needs to be spent. I believe that would help a lot to make the experience for new users, such as myself, even smoother than it has been.