rising (Dell Wyse Z90DE7 thin client)
Summary
Wanted a small machine with a PCIe slot for SCSI expansion. Something like a Thinkcentre tiny, but even those have very little space for cards. So I found this thing.
Notes
- The Mini-PCIe socket does not support mSATA drives.
- I received a Matrox Epica TC48 (quad displayport) graphics card with the thin client. It's not supported in Linux (good enough for a console though).
Hardware
| Make | Dell |
| Year | 2013 |
| Model | Z90DE7 |
| Chassis | Wyze Z90 Extended |
| Power Supply | 19V 3.4A |
| Processor | AMD G-T56N |
| Memory | 8GB DDR3 HMT351U6CFR8C |
| Ports | DVI |
| DisplayPort | |
| 2x USB A 2.0 | |
| 2x USB A 3.0 | |
| RJ-45 LAN | |
| 2x Front USB A 2.0 | |
| 3.5mm headphone jack | |
| 3.5mm microphone jack | |
| Graphics | Radeon HD 6320 |
| Storage | 8GB Apacer SATA DOM |
| 8GB Apacer SATA DOM | |
| 16GB M.2 NVME Intel Optane MEMPEK1 | |
| Int. Peripherals | |
| Ext. Peripherals | |
| Dimensions | |
| Length/Depth | 22.5 cm |
| Width | 6.8 cm |
| Height/Thickness | 22.5 cm |
| Weight | 1.67 kg (3 lbs 11 oz) |
Software
| Operating System | |
| Unique applications |
Log
A fanless 'thin' client
I bought this on ebay looking for a small machine withe PCIe slot.
Initially didn't post or was posting on the PCIe graphics card. I opened it, removed the card, and reseated the memory and it came up.
BIOS has a silly default password "Fireport" (case-sensitive). Embedded Windows accounts I didn't bother to get into.
Made a JST to SATA power adapter and installed an SSD. Did a little planning on adding a drive mount bracket.
Drive bracket and SCSI card
I fabricated a drive bracket from a bit of sheet metal. It's a bit flimsy, but I just put a bit of foam on the drive where it could bounce against the RAM.
The bracket was cut with a sheet metal nibbler. I made the bends by center punching along the bend line. Then I bent the sheet over the edge of a steel block.
Trying to put Embedded Windows back on
Dell still makes the Embedded Windows Firmware available, but it is for 16GB storage device. Mine only came with 8GB. I got a SATA to M.2 adapter card, and installed a 16GB SSD. The adapter is slightly bigger than the stock SSD and rests on a screw post, but the bend wasn't too severe.
I tried the latest Wyse USB Firmware tool, but no matter what it would not recognize drives on Windows 10. I saw mention of a specific older version on the Parky Towers Z90D7 Updating Page so I tried 1.19.0.4. The executable firmware files wouldn't run on Windows 10, nor could I get 7-zip to extract them. I was able to extract them with file-roller on my Linux machine.
I spent a bunch of time playing with the 4 versions Dell makes available (0895, 0896, 7064, 7092), but I never got a successful install. One of my early attempts produced a lot of errors, but finished. When I tried to boot the Windows install it would fail.
Eventually I gave up trying to have an Embedded Windows install. It's not what I intended the machine for (a tiny SCSI capable host), and it was just taking up time with the only benefit being a chance to play with a unusual Windows version.
A new plan for a FreeIPA server
I decided I want to improve my Kerberos setup, and part of the issue is that it is annoying to enroll machines and stuff. So obviously we move to FreeIPA. I need some hardware to run it on, and this thing seems reasonable.
In order to prep I dropped the SCSI card, and the SSD got moved to the other Z90DE7 (pharaoh). In this machine I installed both 8GB Apacer SATA DOMs, and my little Optane drive with a PCIE to M.2 adapter.
I haven't decided exactly how the storage will go, but I thought maybe some kind of redundant OS drive and then have the data on the optane for speed. Maybe some regular copying of the data to the redundant drives as well.
It still has the mini-PCIE slot free so maybe I can do something fun with that later.
The plan is to put a Debian on it. It might end up being unstable (sid) because the freeipa-server package is still in experimental.
Some active cooling
I got some little 50mm blowers. Decided to install one one the heatsink. It sucks air through the lower section, and blows it over the upper section. My PCIE to M.2 adapter happened to have some nicely spaced pads with 3.3V on them so I used a 2-pin fan header there to power the fan.
It's a bit loud at 3.3V on the desk. I might make up a little resistor adapter to stick in line. The final position will probably be under a desk, so it won't be quite so bad.
Later I noticed that, if I have a DisplayPort monitor attached, the 3.3V rail remains powered so the fan stays on. Not a problem with this eventually headless machine. It is something to watch out, and test for if you don't want that behavior.
Debian and messy disk partitioning
My disk setup is weird. I have two 8GB SATA DOMs with mdraid partitions for /boot and /. They also have a space for the EFI system partition, but only the first one actually gets an EFI partition.
Then I put a 16GB PCIE Optane which carries /var and a 2GB swap.
The main goal is to have some redundancy, and to keep data access fast. I think freeipa puts most data in /var.
I also considered getting a Mini-PCIE to M.2 adapter and a second 2242 (shorter than 2280) Optane so that /var can be mirrored, but that will wait.
Debian unstable and freeipa from experimental
I started with a stable Debian 12.4, then upgraded to trixie (testing). After removing one old kernel, I rebooted. I added the experimental repository, and upgraded to sid (unstable).
I set a static IP and updated DNS on my network.
Installing freeipa-server isn't currently possible without building your own tomcat9-user. However, the package was removed because there can be only one, and it is tomcat10-user. I reverted the changes in "Also drop tomcat9-user and tomcat9-common".
sudo apt install build-essential devscripts sudo apt-get build-dep tomcat9 apt-get source tomcat9
Do things to revert the changes. There's probably a better way to do this directly from the git repo/commit, but it was easy enough to just re-add the files.
cd tomcat9-9.0.70 debuild -i -us -uc cd .. sudo dpkg -i *.deb
Make sure you don't have the tomcat10 stuff installed since two tomcats might get into a fight.
After installing things I used aptitude to manually mark the experimental versions of dependencies for install, and could finally install freeipa-server.
Wiping unstable, Trying MiniPCIE to M.2 SSD
Due to the xv security incident I wiped this machine's unstable install.
I wanted to create a mirror with a second 16GB optane. I got a MiniPCIE to M.2 adapter which should allow a 1x connection. The adapter looks correct, but it did not function. In BIOS I enabled the Wifi card, but it did not change anything. Not sure if this is a limitation of the Optane not working with a single lane, an issue with the adapter, or something peculiar about the Dell.
It might be possible to use a PCIe bridge to put both SSDs on the full size slot. I only found one card (Glotrends PA20, ASM2812 based) that seems to fit the bill, but it is $98. Way out of budget for a machine in this class. It does suggest the ASM2812 based cards with X8 connectors might work at X4, but even the cheapest are $60.