Re: PE2950 + LSI SAS1068E MPT SAS won't recognize 2 TB drive in bay 1
On 12/10/2010 11:46 AM, Daryl Herzmann wrote: Hi All, Anybody have a thought on this? Having this issue isn't the end of the world, as my software raid array simply rebuilds after every reboot ;) Hopefully once OMSA for RHEL6 comes out, I can try updating everything and see if that helps. thanks, daryl On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Daryl Herzmannakrh...@iastate.edu wrote: Hi all, I have been happily using a PE 2950 for a while now and decided to swap out its front 6 3.5 SATA drives for Seagate 2 TB Barracuda XT's. Well, I can't seem to get the controller card to recognize the drive in bay 1 (second drive). The strange part is that once RHEL6 boots, about a minute after boot, the drive magically appears !?!? Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: mptsas: ioc0: attaching sata device: fw_channel 0, fw_id 1, phy 1, sas_addr 0x12210100 Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: scsi 0:0:5:0: Direct-Access ATA ST32000641AS CC13 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sd 0:0:5:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0 Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sd 0:0:5:0: [sdf] 3907029168 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB) Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sd 0:0:5:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sd 0:0:5:0: [sdf] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sdf: sdf1 Dec 3 17:50:13 xxx kernel: sd 0:0:5:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk Of course, this causes trouble when I attempt to have that drive in a RAID5 :) Anyway, I've tried moving drives around, etc. No luck. The controller will recognize smaller sized drives though, including a 1 TB one. I recently ran OMSA update_firmware, so I believe I am up to date. Any ideas what would be causing this? thanks! daryl ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq MIght be because you are hitting hte 2.19 terabyte barrier due to LBA limitations: http://www.storagereview.com/western_digital_caviar_green_3tb_review_wd30ezrsdtl Might be an oddity in the cards frimware. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: SAS6i/R issues on CentOS5 ?
On 12/3/2010 2:58 PM, Stroller wrote: On 3/12/2010, at 2:33pm, Jeroen Wunnink wrote: ... Recently we switched over to Dell R210's with SAS6i/R cards. We have these configured with 2x SATA disks on RAID-1 But we're running into issues where arrays are throwing out disks under heavy load in CentOS5 or both disks as we found on a crashed server this morning which was brand new installed yesterday. We've seen the same in Dell R410's throwing out one or two disks from the array under heavy load with this raidcard. What RAID controller / driver is this, please? By what controller I don't mean SAS6i/R - I can read that ;) - but what original manufacturer? LSI? Adaptec? or??? Thanks, Stroller. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chromeie=UTF-8q=SAS6i/R+chipset http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chromeie=UTF-8q=SAS6i/R+chipset it's an LSI LSISAS1068 http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/standard_product_ics/sas_ics/lsisas1068e/index.html ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Memory required for Dell SC1425 1U server?
On 12/3/2010 8:12 AM, Mark Watts wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On 12/03/2010 12:22 PM, Alastair Sherringham wrote: Hello, I have a Dell SC1425 1U server. It has 512 MB (it is 5 years old) and want to upgrade the RAM. I bought 4x 1GB RAM but it does not boot - POST error no memory modules. It looks like I have the wrong RAM, even though I thought I was being careful and checked the system technical specifications here : http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/sc1425/en/ug/f3593aa0.htm#wp1053748 72-bit, ECC, PC-3200, Unbuffered, DDR II SDRAM, DIMMs, rated for 400-MHz operation Six 240-pin 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, or 2 GB I bought : Kingston ValueRAM memory - 2 GB : 2 x 1 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR2 http://www.dabs.com/products/kingston-valueram-2x1gb-400mhz-ddr2-ecc-r-4NR6.html?refs=5230-4294960364-4294952679-35471-42749 DIMM 240-pin / 400 MHz ( PC2-3200 ) ECC / CL3 Unbuffered So - digging a bit. Looking closely at the System Installation : http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/sc1425/en/it/index.htm The System Memory section says : You can upgrade the system memory by installing combinations of 256-, 512-MB, 1-GB, and 2-GB registered memory modules. Wikipedia says registered is another name for buffered. So - is this my problem? The tech specs say unbuffered but the System Installation says buffered (registered). The RAM I bought matches the tech specs but is unbuffered and the system seems no RAM on boot. Can anyone confirm that my RAM should be *buffered*? This sort of confusion (and it appears to be in the official docs as well) has happened before and is very frustrating. Thanks for any help. Cheers, -- Alastair Sherringham Digital Vision UK t: +44 (0)20 7734 8282 f: +44 (0)20 7292 6969 ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq Using the Crucial memory chooser, they're saying you can use their PC2-5300 ECC Registered dimms, and you can have up to 16 GB (4x4GB). http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=PowerEdge%20SC1425 I suspect the 16GB limit is facilitated by a newer bios than the ones shipped when the documentation was written. (Note that you can only have dual-ranked dimms in slots 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B, leaving the last 2 empty, to get 16GB: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/sc1425/en/it/j3350c60.htm#wp1056051) Either way, I believe you need ECC Registered ram, not unbuffered. (Most Dell PowerEdge servers have used ECC Registered ram) Mark. - -- Mark Watts BSc RHCE Senior Systems Engineer, Secure Managed Hosting www.QinetiQ.com QinetiQ - Delivering customer-focused solutions GPG Key: http://www.linux-corner.info/mwatts.gpg -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkz47KEACgkQBn4EFUVUIO3p2wCfUYaHVeJ/Tkov1/6tSp6+j6cT AfcAniVAGyJgwmmnxqyYj10OApuIW7QU =I/N8 -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq the server most assuredly doesn't like your ram..stick with crucial..and i goofed everyone pulled up the wrong machine..:) ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: PowerEdge T710
Debian isn't a bleeding edge distro but one built for stability. I'd wager they had the enterprise in linux long before redhat coined the enterprise linux term. Ubuntu is a good bleeding distro as is fedora..:) On 11/2/2010 1:37 PM, Drew Weaver wrote: Yes but 2 months after squeeze comes out there will likely be a new controller that won't be supported until Debian 7. They really should update their drivers between releases. -Drew -Original Message- From: Mark Petersen [mailto:mpeter...@peak6.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 12:04 PM To: Drew Weaver; 'Hermidio A. Rodriguez Chavez'; linux-poweredge@dell.com Subject: RE: PowerEdge T710 If you install firmware-nonfree it should see the bnx2 NICs. You may have to use backports (makes installing hard) or specify a driver for it to detect the raid controller though, depends on which controller you have. I'd just run squeeze, everything should work there and hopefully it will be the stable release by the end of the year (wishful thinking I'm sure) but it depends on your requirement. Mark -Original Message- From: linux-poweredge-boun...@dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-boun...@dell.com] On Behalf Of Drew Weaver Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 10:33 AM To: 'Hermidio A. Rodriguez Chavez'; linux-poweredge@dell.com Subject: RE: PowerEdge T710 It probably also will not see your NIC card. We gave up on Debian. -Drew -Original Message- From: linux-poweredge-boun...@dell.com [mailto:linux-poweredge-boun...@dell.com] On Behalf Of Hermidio A. Rodriguez Chavez Sent: Monday, November 01, 2010 4:49 PM To: linux-poweredge@dell.com Subject: PowerEdge T710 Hi all, Thanks in advance. i have this dell server and i like install debin Lenny on it, i have configured a RAID 0 enviroment but when the OS install arrive to the disc detec, it say that isn't a hard disc. I need extra driver for it? Please Help Me. Hermidio ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq __ See http://www.peak6.com/email_disclaimer.php for terms and conditions related to this email ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: PERC S300 - can it be made to work?
PERC s100-s300 are FAKERAID: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/Dell_Software_RAID_Functionality_White_Paper.pdf http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/Dell_Software_RAID_Functionality_White_Paper.pdf?dgc=CJcid=24471lid=566643acd=10550055-1225267-u0t1619549f9fp25549c0s441 On 6/26/2010 10:59 PM, Rodrigo Trevisaneli wrote: Well, I started that thread and DELL told me this board will not run in Linux. They will send to me a SAS 6/iR (I guess) as replacement. I dont know about this alternative methods. Here, I was in hurry to put that server in production, so the solution was: remove the board, install 2 disks in the Serial ATA ports on the main board, and setup a software RAID1 with CentOS 5.5 64. As I could understand (may be wrong) this board does a Software RAID in Windows, so I could not see any advantage in keep this board in Linux, since Linux already has built in Sofware RAID. -Rodrigo Message: 1 Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:48:08 +0100 From: Duncan Gibb duncan.g...@siriusit.co.uk mailto:duncan.g...@siriusit.co.uk Subject: PERC S300 - can it be made to work? To: linux-poweredge@dell.com mailto:linux-poweredge@dell.com Message-ID: 4c251608.3050...@siriusit.co.uk mailto:4c251608.3050...@siriusit.co.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Hello Can anyone give me a definitive statement wrt the status of PERC S300 SATA controller support for Linux? I found an inconclusive thread on this list last month: http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2010-May/042244.html and rumour from two months ago that it might be supported by the mpt2sas driver: http://www.delltechcenter.com/thread/3474701/ mpt2sas doesn't support it in the binaries we have to hand, and I can't see how or where in the current mainline kernel source. I also found people claiming it's hardware-identical to the fully-working SAS 6/iR controller we thought we were getting (both PCBs are marked UCS-61 and look the same to the untrained eye). Is there a Linux driver of any kind available anywhere? A JBOD-only driver that we have to compile ourselves would be absolutely fine. Is it possible to re-flash the hardware with the SAS 6/iR firmware? Cheers Duncan -- Duncan Gibb - Technical Director Sirius Corporation plc - control through freedom http://www.siriusit.co.uk/ ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: PERC S300 - can it be made to work?
I would not expect this card to work reliably due to it being fakeraid. Take the replacement or get a real hardware raid card form either areca or 3ware(however lsi now own 3ware so you may have to be careful there to). On 6/26/2010 10:59 PM, Rodrigo Trevisaneli wrote: Well, I started that thread and DELL told me this board will not run in Linux. They will send to me a SAS 6/iR (I guess) as replacement. I dont know about this alternative methods. Here, I was in hurry to put that server in production, so the solution was: remove the board, install 2 disks in the Serial ATA ports on the main board, and setup a software RAID1 with CentOS 5.5 64. As I could understand (may be wrong) this board does a Software RAID in Windows, so I could not see any advantage in keep this board in Linux, since Linux already has built in Sofware RAID. -Rodrigo Message: 1 Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:48:08 +0100 From: Duncan Gibb duncan.g...@siriusit.co.uk mailto:duncan.g...@siriusit.co.uk Subject: PERC S300 - can it be made to work? To: linux-poweredge@dell.com mailto:linux-poweredge@dell.com Message-ID: 4c251608.3050...@siriusit.co.uk mailto:4c251608.3050...@siriusit.co.uk Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Hello Can anyone give me a definitive statement wrt the status of PERC S300 SATA controller support for Linux? I found an inconclusive thread on this list last month: http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2010-May/042244.html and rumour from two months ago that it might be supported by the mpt2sas driver: http://www.delltechcenter.com/thread/3474701/ mpt2sas doesn't support it in the binaries we have to hand, and I can't see how or where in the current mainline kernel source. I also found people claiming it's hardware-identical to the fully-working SAS 6/iR controller we thought we were getting (both PCBs are marked UCS-61 and look the same to the untrained eye). Is there a Linux driver of any kind available anywhere? A JBOD-only driver that we have to compile ourselves would be absolutely fine. Is it possible to re-flash the hardware with the SAS 6/iR firmware? Cheers Duncan -- Duncan Gibb - Technical Director Sirius Corporation plc - control through freedom http://www.siriusit.co.uk/ ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
No more AMD servers?
I can't find one in the tower section. AMD is gone. Any ideas anyone? ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
testing
making sure i'm getting through. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Adding 3rd Party RAID card halts Linux boot
On 4/17/2010 2:09 PM, Nathan Milford wrote: Howdy I have a Dell PowerEdge 2950-III (BIOS: 2.6.1) with a PERC6i (FW: 6.2.0-0013, DRIVER: 00.00.04.08-RH2) that is built into a single RAID5 array happily running CentOS 5.4, and has been running happily for some time. We use it to dump impressions data and DB snapshots to. (Possibly useful info: we use LVM and we're at kernel 2.6.18-164.11.1.el5) I recently installed a RockerRAID 2314 PCIe card (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/usa/rr2314.htm) and got an eSATA JBOD chassis (http://www.rackmountmart.com/html/SA4001.htm) to add a little more cheap storage for less important data. Brought the RocketRAID's BIOS up to date (v2.5), built the latetst driver from source, loaded it and everything was peachy. I built a RAID5 array with a spare on the live system with the Web-based Management System (v1.4-10), formatted and mounted it. Yay. We hadn't begun really using the volume yet when I rebooted the machine a few days later for a memory upgrade and it hung on boot at the following screen: Booting 'CentOS (2.6.18-164.11.1.el5)' root (hd0,0) Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83 kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-164.11.1.el5 ro root = /dev/obnas/root [Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1e00, size=0x1d6b1c] initrd /initrd-2.6.18-164.11.1.el5.img [Linux-initrd @ 0x37cb5000, 0x33a982 bytes] So, I power cycle the machine, went into the Card's BIOS and delete the array and it booted fine. I think the RocketRAID is confusing GRUB or something like that when it has a bootable volume. So I went through the all the BIOS settings, boot orders, array settings on the RocketRIAD BIOS etc.. no luck. I have a ticket open with HighPoint (makers of the device) but it is the weekend so I don;t expect a reply for a while. I've got a crazy week up ahead before I am out of the office for surgery so I want to try to get this done. My gut feeling is that it is a common enough problem with add-on cards that have their own BIOS and i am either dense or an awful researcher. I would greatly appreciate anyone's insight. Any thoughts? Nathan Milford Operations Engineer Outbrain ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq The issue is the rocketriad is a FRAID or fakeraid and you need a binary kernel mode driver for it to work. If you want more port get a non-raid sata card or either get another perc, 3ware, areca. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/16/2010 4:35 AM, Tino Schwarze wrote: Hi there, On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:52:04AM +0100, Tino Schwarze wrote: I mailed my sales rep yesterday explaining my concerns and got a reply today that he'll ask the marketing department for an official statement. I got an answer today (German, English translation below): [...] Ich kann Sie voll und ganz verstehen. DELL hat sich entschieden an dieser Stelle den gleichen Weg zu gehen wie die Konkurrenz (HP,IBM). Das heisst auch bei den anderen werden Sie dort kein Glück haben was diese Sache an geht. Zur Zeit kann ich Ihnen dann nur den Perc 6i empfehlen solange dieser noch zur Verfügung steht. Falls Sie hierzu noch weitere Fragen haben sollten, dann rufen Sie mich bitte kurz an. Vielen Dank für Ihr Verständnis. P.S. ich hätte Ihnen gerne eine andere Auskunft gegeben :-/ Rough translation: I do fully understand you. DELL decided to go the same route as it's competitors (HP, IBM). Which means you'll be out of luck there as well regarding this issue. For the time being I can only recommend the PERC 6i as long as it is available. Please call me if you've got further questions. Thank you for your understanding. PS: I'd rather given you a different information. End of translation. Tino. I think i'll clal hpo and see if what this person is saying is actually true. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/12/2010 3:44 PM, Sabuj Pattanayek wrote: Hi, Anyone know if the H200 also has this problem, e.g. I think this is currently the lowest configuration on the R510? Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/Storlink/H200/en/UG/HTML/features.htm#wp1043338 I'll say yes it does suffer from this nonsense. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/12/2010 3:44 PM, Sabuj Pattanayek wrote: Hi, Anyone know if the H200 also has this problem, e.g. I think this is currently the lowest configuration on the R510? Thanks, Sabuj Pattanayek ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq whoops i was wrong: According to the linked document: Unsupported Drives Drives that are not certified by Dell are reported in the *BIOS Configuration Utility*, also known as CtrlC. To view unsupported drives: 1. In the *BIOS Configuration Utility*, navigate to the *SAS Topology* screen. 2. Select the unsupported drive and press AltD to view the *Device Properties *screen. The drive is marked as *Uncertified* in the *Device Properties *screen. Drives that are not certified by Dell are not blocked and you can use them at your own risk. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: help configuring a db server
On 2/11/2010 12:11 PM, Paul M. Dyer wrote: Actually, Dell AMD sells a 6-way CPU. So, the CPUs can be 2-core, 4-core, 6-core, 8-core. I am not sure, but I imagine the AMD CPUs are still at better prices than Intel. Paul - Original Message - From: Eric Rostetterrostet...@mail.utexas.edu To: linux-poweredge@dell.com Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 3:35:06 PM (GMT-0600) America/Chicago Subject: Re: help configuring a db server Quoting John G. Heimjh...@math.wisc.edu: to go) and mysql. We have databases for spamassassin bayesian rules, drupal, moodle, imp (webmail), and our own private data. Our private data is pretty small with the biggest table containing under 10,000 records. We do have a table with about 4,00 PDF docs in a blob field. I think we can get a machine with a quad core, 32 Gb of RAM, and 300 Gb disk Sounds fine to me. I recommend, when possible, a minimum of 1 CPU and 1 GB memory per database. Since you mention 5 databases, that means 5 CPUs (cores) and 5 GB memory minimum. Since you can't buy 5 cores, a single quad core would be okay (a dual quad core even better). But your spec sounds fine to me. for under $6000. But I'm confused about disk. I would think disk pspeed would be fairly important. How can I configure a machine with a fast disk? What are my options from Dell in that regard? Get the fastest RAID controller you can and are comfortable with, and as many of the fastest disks you can afford as you can fit in the machine. Since you want to stay under $6000, using SSD or FusionIO is probably out. I would think (haven't verified) that you could buy 4 (or 5) 15K RPM SAS drives in your price range, setup as a RAID 10. If not, try 10K RPM SAS drives. If that fails, well, there is always SATA... I personally like to buy 7 drives: 2 RAID-1 for the OS, 4 RAID-10 for the MySQL databases, and 1 hotspare. But, if you need to keep costs down, you can dump the RAID 1 and just do 5 drives (RAID 10 plus hot-spare). You'd have to spec all that one Dell's web site to see if it comes in under $6K. If not, just start dropping down until you hit your mark (from 7 drives to 5, from 15K SAS to 10K SAS to SATA). Prices yes, performance and power usage..no AMD right now can only really compete on price. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/10/2010 12:20 PM, Eric Rostetter wrote: Quoting Mirosław Jaworskim...@ikp.pl: We anxiously wait for further lock-ins. I had a slippery slope rant in my last email, but I decided to remove it before sending... See you think a bit alike... The funny thing is, when we ran DEC and SUN stuff, all Dell ever told us was why we should switch to their Industry Standard hardware; how great it would be to use Industry Standard equipment because we could buy stuff off-the-shelve and not have to buy from a specific vendor; how using their Industry Standard computers would remove software incompatibilities and such... So much for Dell's Industry Standard hardware, huh? Wonder what their new sales pitch will be now? Maybe they can steal a line from the diaper commercial (yeah, think about it...)... Dell -- We're a big kid now... Anyway, again, I don't much care, I'll just buy anything new with the older PERC 6 cards for now. I know the bandwidth is better in the new PERC cards, but I can deal with the current speed... If/When Dell only offers lock-in PERC's, well, I'll figure out what to do then... that's when you don't order a raid card from dell and go third party..until Dell has their motherboards reject non-Dell hardware ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/9/2010 5:17 PM, howard_sho...@dell.com wrote: Thank you very much for your comments and feedback regarding exclusive use of Dell drives. It is common practice in enterprise storage solutions to limit drive support to only those drives which have been qualified by the vendor. In the case of Dell's PERC RAID controllers, we began informing customers when a non-Dell drive was detected with the introduction of PERC5 RAID controllers in early 2006. With the introduction of the PERC H700/H800 controllers, we began enabling only the use of Dell qualified drives. There are a number of benefits for using Dell qualified drives in particular ensuring a positive experience and protecting our data. While SAS and SATA are industry standards there are differences which occur in implementation. An analogy is that English is spoken in the UK, US and Australia. While the language is generally the same, there are subtle differences in word usage which can lead to confusion. This exists in storage subsystems as well. As these subsystems become more capable, faster and more complex, these differences in implementation can have greater impact. Benefits of Dell's Hard Disk and SSD drives are outlined in a white paper on Dell's web site at http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pvaul/en/dell-hard-drives-pov.pdf -Original Message- From: linux-poweredge-bounces-Lists On Behalf Of Philip Tait Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 4:31 PM To: linux-poweredge-Lists Subject: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers I just received my first Gen11 server, R710, with H700 PERC. I removed the supplied drives, and installed 4 Barracuda ES.2s. After doing a Clear Configuration in the pre-boot RAID setup utility, I can perform no operation with the drives - they are marked as blocked. Is Dell preventing the use of 3rd-party HDDs now? Thanks for any enlightenment. Philip J. Tait http://subarutelescope.org ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq This is common reasoning given for any vendor that starts practicing lock-in. Dell has just gone down that road. I'll either not buy Dell servers OR order them without your controllers and use some of my own. Over the years proprietary solutions are only cash cows and rarely if ever really live up to the claims put forward by the vendor. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/6/2010 8:57 AM, Drew Weaver wrote: We haven't noticed this yet on R710s but ours have PERC6, As a customer of Dell who has hundreds of these, if we do notice this, we will be using something else in the future. It is plain too expensive, too slow, and too difficult to get drives if we need additional drives for our Dells, I also agree that SATA is SATA. Thanks, -Drew It's not the perc6's that blacklist non-dell drives..only the h7x and h8x series. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party Anythings not permitted in Dell's
On 2/6/2010 10:40 AM, Linda A. Walsh wrote: I got an earful for ordering barebones machines -- Ordered the workstation equivalent of the 610/710 with same processor. But you can't buy a machine that's dual processor ready unless you buy the processor from them now. They changed to a daughterboard setup on the workstation, so if you order it with 1 cpu expecting to upgrade later, you are SOL -- you have to buy a daughterboard from Dell, which, they won't sell you without a CPU. On the disks -- even though the machine has a SAS controller, if you don't order SAS disks from them they don't send you SAS connectors, but 2 separate SATA and power connectors that won't connect to a SAS drive. You need to buy the SAS connector separately from them later on. Used to be they just had the 1 connector that fit both SAS and SATA, but they made it so you have to buy SAS up front to get the connectors. They are getting real bad on this type of Dell only stuff in all areas, not just servers. Of course they refused to sell the disk caddies when the new systems came out -- because they were the only ones who had them at first. They aren't selling PC's anymore, as they are breaking the PC standards by including proprietary nonsense. They seem to be trying to go more that direction as time goes on -- I suspect the writing is on the wall for them and they are trying to squeeze more blood out of customers to stave off the inevitable. That is a really poor outlook as it only means they've given up trying to compete in the free market and think they need to use these underhanded methods in order to compete now. When they've lost confidence in their ability to compete on a level playing field, what does that say about them as a company? It's very sad, as I've been a Dell loyalist since the mid 90's. -l ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq That's a sign of desperation in my book. Now it's not only servers but workstations? Looks like I need to re-evaluate my recommendations. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/5/2010 7:16 PM, Steve Thompson wrote: On Fri, 5 Feb 2010, Philip Tait wrote: Is Dell preventing the use of 3rd-party HDDs now? This better not be true. We have an R710 on its way in which non-Dell drives are to be installed. If this is true, the R710 will be going back to Dell, and it will be the last Dell machine we ever order. Steve ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq Let us know if that turns out to be the case. Will most assuredly influence my recommendations for future client purchases. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: Third-party drives not permitted on Gen 11 servers
On 2/5/2010 7:35 PM, Mark Walkom wrote: This thread Brandon mentioned earlier explains it a little - http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19314432/19649799.aspx From the thread; /Yes, while on the surface I don't like the sound of it, the truth is that Dell-certified drives have a special firmware on them that allows them to respond correctly to advanced requests made by the controllers so that operation of the machine can be guaranteed. Having been a technical analyst for Dell servers, I can tell you that many issues arise from the use of non-certified drives. So, while I don't like it, I can understand it. Besides, Dell doesn't make the drives - they are made the top drive manufacturers, but in order to guarantee compatibility/reliability, they put a Dell-specific FW on them. Just a thought :)/ Perhaps it's more the cost of the 'official' drives that is the issue here, maybe Dell can make the prices a bit more reasonable. I know I'd be happy paying for the drives if they had technical benefits that weren't offset by stupidly high prices. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq Unless they have modded the firmware of the chipset(which you can buy cards based on the LSI 2108 at many vendors) there's no reason for this. If they have modded the firmware and the drives firmware to do advanced things all the more reason to NOT buy their drives and the h-series of cards..if they get persnickety about that then it's time for another vendor. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
Re: SAS6i/R RAID Disks failing
On 12/15/2009 6:08 PM, Monty wrote: On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Todd Lyonstly...@ivenue.com wrote: ... The firmware is supposed to be fixed in the latest released drives that the Tivo uses, double check that there hasn't been a really recent firmware release since you last updated your firmware. Having seen the warning about updating the firmware and destroying RAID configs combined with the problem reports and performance issues we've seen, I think I'll just swap out the disks for other brands and deal with the firmware updates when I can be as destructive as I want. Since the original post I've seen identical dropouts of Dell-supplied WD Enterprise model disks, too. In these cases the disks showed reallocated sectors in their SMART data, but were below the SMART failure threshold. I think the 'wrong' disks don't help reliability, but on the whole the fact the SAS6i/R is a low end largely software based RAID card means that events such as sector remapping and TLER are not shielded well from the OS and drivers, resulting in the disks dropping out of sync or causing errors, rather than it all being handled by the card hardware and therefore largely invisible to the OS. You get what you pay for - as they say. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq The SAS6I/R is NOT a software or FRAID card. It's not in the league of the Areca or 3Ware(now LSI) but it's most assuredly not a FRAID card. ___ Linux-PowerEdge mailing list Linux-PowerEdge@dell.com https://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-poweredge Please read the FAQ at http://lists.us.dell.com/faq
