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I have inherited some equipment in a test lab.

It's a bulk load of abandonded equipment. I have no passwords for any of the machines and can completely wipe them.

I have zero data centre background and I just need it up and running to test some windows apps running on w2k3/w2k8 with a SQL server and IIS.

I have three 2850s which I just re-installed by DVD.

I'm now looking at two 2950s. The have no DVD or keyboard or mouse input (but they do have USB input).

Basic question I know but I just need to get on these servers and install a new OS. What is my best bet? Should they accept USB keyboards.

I could probably setup a PXE server and get on them with WinPE.

There is an IP KVM switch but I don't have the password to access it Poweredge 2161 DS-2. I have no idea how to get that operational.

So whats the best way to get access to these machines?

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The Poweredge 2950s will accept USB Keyboards and mice, and that'll get you into the BIOS at least. I know they'll also work with a USB cdrom drive (this is how I install on mine) so I would presume a USB DVD drive would work too. If I remember correctly it won't show up in the boot order list unless a CD is actually in the drive when you boot the system. I don't remember the key sequence for the BIOS (sorry, not going to reboot mine to find out for you) but it tells you in the bootup screen. F2 I think. The VGA ports in front and back are duplicates in case your rack is only accessible from one side or the other, so you can use whichever one is convenient .

As for the 2161 DS-2, the original 2161 DS apparently had an involved password reset process. According to the DS-2 manual, the default serial port setting is 9600 8-n-1, no flow control, Username "admin", blank password, so if the previous owner reset it before abandoning it, try that. The manual also says contact support if you've lost the password, so I'm guessing the password reset process hasn't changed.

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