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Node quick-start guide

Air-cooled 4- and 8-GPU rackmount servers. From unboxing to a verified first boot.

Applies to: Node X4, Node E4, Node X8, Node E8, Node X8-6, Node H8

Safety first. Never open a power supply or work on mains wiring; use a licensed electrician. If you see coolant or smell burning, power off and unplug immediately. Your components’ manufacturer documentation takes precedence over this general guide.

01Unbox and inspect

  1. Inspect the shipping carton before you open it. If it is crushed, punctured or wet, photograph it first.
  2. Unpack on a clean, dry surface and keep all packaging. You may need it to ship a part back under the manufacturer’s warranty.
  3. Check the system for visible damage: dents, loose parts rattling inside, or bent connectors.
  4. Report shipping damage to [email protected] right away, with photos. Do not power on a system that looks damaged.
  5. Let the system reach room temperature before you power it on if it arrived cold, so no condensation forms inside.

02Site requirements

  1. These servers are loud and produce a lot of heat. Install them in a server room or data center, not an office.
  2. An 8-GPU server can draw several kilowatts. Confirm with your facility that the rack, PDUs and cooling can supply it, typically from 200–240 V circuits.
  3. Plan front-to-back airflow, with cold aisle in front and hot aisle behind.

03Rack installation

  1. Check rack depth and free rack units first. GPU servers are deep and heavy: use two or more people, or a server lift.
  2. Install the rails, mount the server from the bottom of the rack up, and lock it in place.
  3. Use blanking panels in empty rack units so hot air doesn’t recirculate.

04Power

  1. Connect every power supply. Many servers need all supplies connected to power the GPUs at full load, and spreading them over two PDUs adds redundancy.
  2. Plug each power supply into its own outlet or PDU socket, not a shared power strip. Never use extension cords for a GPU system.
  3. If you are not sure a circuit can carry the load, have a licensed electrician check it. Don’t modify circuits, outlets or breakers yourself, and never open a power supply.

05Management controller (BMC)

  1. Connect the dedicated management port (BMC / IPMI) to your management network.
  2. Find the BMC address in the BIOS or on your DHCP server, log in to its web interface, and change the default password straight away.
  3. Use the BMC’s remote console to power on, watch the boot and install software without a monitor attached. Keep the BMC off public networks.

06First boot and software

  1. Your system ships with the operating system and software you chose on your quote, for example Ubuntu with the NVIDIA driver, CUDA, PyTorch and vLLM, or Windows.
  2. On first boot, create your user account, connect to the network and install updates: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. Reboot afterwards.
  3. Kernel updates can need a matching NVIDIA driver. If nvidia-smi stops working after an update, reinstall the recommended driver with sudo ubuntu-drivers install and reboot.
  4. Keep work in Python virtual environments or containers so system packages and the driver stay stable.

07Multi-GPU checks

  1. Run nvidia-smi topo -m to see how the GPUs connect to each other and to the CPUs.
  2. For multi-GPU training, test GPU-to-GPU communication with the NCCL tests before running real jobs.

08Verify the system

  1. Run nvidia-smi. Every GPU you ordered should be listed with its full memory size and no errors.
  2. Check the CPU and memory with lscpu and free -h, and storage with lsblk.
  3. Confirm PyTorch sees the GPUs: python3 -c "import torch; print(torch.cuda.is_available(), torch.cuda.device_count())".
  4. Run a 15–30 minute load test of your real workload while you watch temperatures with nvidia-smi -l 5. GPUs should hold steady well below their throttle point.
  5. Write down the serial numbers of the system and its GPUs (nvidia-smi -q | grep -i serial). You need them for any warranty claim.

09Getting help

  1. For setup, configuration, performance and troubleshooting questions, use the AI technical assistant in the chat (bottom right of any page). Paste exact error messages and command output for the best answers. It is best-effort, so verify before acting.
  2. Hardware faults (a dead part, failing memory, a GPU missing after basic checks) are covered by the component manufacturer’s warranty. The assistant can help you identify the failing part and its serial number.
  3. Warranty terms: see our quote and order terms at /terms/.