Phase 1 – Hardware Build

## 📝 Phase 1 – Notes \& Observations

- **Chassis:** Dell OptiPlex XE2 (repurposed)

- **Switch:** Ruckus ICX7150-C12P

- **NICs detected:** Onboard Broadcom (tg3), single-port Realtek ✅

- **NIC issue:** LinksTek X540-T2 dual 10GbE showed *EEPROM checksum invalid* → decision: return/replace

- **Drives installed:** SSD (OS) + 3× HDD

  - **SATA map (physical):** HDD P5, HDD P6, ODD P4, ODD P5

  - **Finding:** Proxmox initially saw only **2/4** drives

  - **Suspects:** cabling/port mapping, BIOS SATA mode

- **BIOS:** Boot order verified; next step to confirm all disks visible in BIOS

- **Power:** Stable under load; fans/temps nominal

### Troubleshooting log (highlights)

- dmesg | grep -i tg3 → onboard NIC up

- lspci -nn | grep -i ethernet → Realtek present, X540 enumerates but EEPROM fault

- Proxmox GUI → only 2 HDDs listed under Disks

### Next actions

- Re-seat/re-map SATA: test ports P4/P5/P6 one by one

- Ensure **AHCI** (not RAID/IDE) in BIOS for all SATA ports

- Replace/return the X540-T2; proceed with 1GbE NICs for Phase 2–3

- After drives fixed: create ZFS pool for VM storage

**Note:** IPs/hostnames in docs are sanitized for security; production uses different ranges and credentials.