Is there a way to make Supermicro JBOD enclosures power on/off with the main server?

[dba]

I have a Supermicro chassis and motherboard, LSI RAID cards, and three Supermicro JBOD drive enclosures, each containing a Supermicro "JBOD Board" to power the fans and drives. It would be wonderful if the JBOD enclosures automatically powered on and off when the main server did - and with each of the above devices bristling with tiny unused connectors, I would not be surprised if there was in fact a standard way of doing exactly this.

Is there a way?


Also: If there are any annoying shopping links in the above text, then blame the site, not me - there appears to be a new 'feature' at work on servethehome.com.

 

[Patrick]

I have a Supermicro chassis and motherboard, LSI RAID cards, and three Supermicro JBOD drive enclosures, each containing a Supermicro "JBOD Board" to power the fans and drives. It would be wonderful if the JBOD enclosures automatically powered on and off when the main server did - and with each of the above devices bristling with tiny unused connectors, I would not be surprised if there was in fact a standard way of doing exactly this.

Is there a way?


Also: If there are any annoying shopping links in the above text, then blame the site, not me - there appears to be a new 'feature' at work on servethehome.com.

#1 I struggled with this and gave up. I solved this using a long power signal wire off the ATX power supply years ago. It worked, but was a really clunky solution. Have not tried with the JBOD boards.

#2 Point taken on the links. I did a forum update and you should not have seen them (turned off for registered users) but some setting got changed in the update. Also, all users can turn them off. Traffic wise, forums are hitting the point where they need to get moved to a bigger server, but the $0.25/ month they are generating in advertising revenue was not going to support that. I net spend a lot of money on STH but with the house now I am trying to limit how much I spend to keep the site going so it does not spiral into a black hole for cash. You should not see them anymore. Let me know if you do. Feel free to give me a PM/ call if you see anything strange like that again.

 

[LFletcher]

I assume nothing has really changed in this space lately?

Chenbro have a similar card to Supermicro, but I imagine it acts in the same way with regards to remote powering on, http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?sku=76

I'm not overly familiar with JBOD enclosures, so I assume you power them on before the main server and just leave them on? I imagine there's no need to reboot them for anything.

Seems strange that there wouldn't be an easier way of getting the main server to power the enclosures on and off.

 

[Mike]

Don't they have a feature to automatically turn on when power is applied? Those sockets with a main output that triggers the secundary's, perhaps that's a possibility.
Else a relay circuit to pulse the spliced leads, but i'm a hobbybob.

 

[RimBlock]

How about an external box containing a switch wired to multiple externally facing 3.5mm jack plugs.

The chassis (including the main server) have rear PCI brackets with a 3.5mm jack which connects to the motherboard power jumpers.

By connecting cheap 3.5mm jack leads you can control easily which JBOD and server chassis power on with a single switch.

I am sure there is a bit more development that would need to be done to account for resistence, cable length etc but the basic idea could be interesting.

My AV amp uses a 3.5mm jack cable to control my power amps power on / off function.

Alternatively you could try one of these but will probably need to extend the connecting cable... may I suggest using a 3.5mm jack .

RB

 

[TheBay]

Is it an ATX Power supply on the JBOD?, cut the wire on pin 14(ATX 20 Pin) or pin 16 (ATX 24Pin) (usually green) and join it to pin 14 or 16 (ATX20/24) on the PSU of the main chassis, that tells the PSU to go on and off.

Also have a look at Supermicro part number: CSE-PTJBOD-CB1

Exact model number of the Chassis will help

 

[LFletcher]

Haven't got anything at the moment, was just starting to have a look around at the options.

I quite like what x-case did with their one, Buy 48 drive JBOD systems online at X-case

What to keep things as quiet as possible, so was avoiding the Supermicro cases (although I do like them).

 

[Cipher]

Sorry to raise this one from the dead, but I was searching for an answer to this exact question when I came across this post.

Has anyone come up with a solution for this issue? I'm currently using the CSE-PTJBOD-CB2 JBOD Power Board and have this exact issue where I must manually power down the JBOD chassis it's installed in whenever I turn off my main server in a second chassis. Similarly, I must manually turn on the JBOD chassis before I turn on my main server.

 

[Rand__]

Can't you use an external master slave power strip? Should be rated for total max load o/c but would be easiest (if not as elegant as an internal solution o/c)

 

[K D]

The easiest way I can think of is using the JBOD3 board. My "storage Head" is virtualized. I have a few other VMs that start before the storage VM. One of those has a script that powers on the JBOD via ipmi on startup and powers off during shutdown. So the JBOD is on before my napp-it VM starts and is turned off after the napp-it VM is shutdown. That takes care of when I have to shutdown and restart the whole stack.

 

[Cipher]

Thanks guys.

KD, I wasn't aware that the JBOD3 board had this functionality via IPMI. That's perfect for me as I'm almost always powering on/off my main server via IPMI. I'm going to see if I can find one for a decent price online as they seem expensive compared to the regular JBOD1/2 boards.

 

[Patrick]

@Cipher wow!

I saw the title of this thread on my phone and was thinking... I thought ehy is @dba asking?

Great to see the old threads are still relevant. Shows that they are being used.

 

[Evan]

@Patrick i was amused by the comments of traffic and costs all those years ago.

Thread though is certainly still containing relevant info

 

[cheezehead]

To prevent inrush issues, we used switched PDU's with the power-on delay option this works for the power loss recovery scenario. The manually power on in a specific order was never a concern...it's a server, it's on 24//7. If you did want to automate this, most PDU's could be scripted via SNMP or their management platform do this on demand.

 

[acp]

The easiest way I can think of is using the JBOD3

What is the jbod3 board?

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Rand__]

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/CSE-PTJBOD-CB3.pdf

 

[kapone]

I know it's an old thread...but...

How about a poor man's equivalent of CSE-PTJBOD-CB3?

I'm using a "motherboard"... specifically the X9SPU-F, but I'm fairly sure any other Supermicro (or different brand) board with IPMI will work as well. There is NO CPU/RAM on the board, just the board connected to the PSU, front panel, fans and IPMI. Works exactly like the CB3 (unless you want to do something esoteric with the I2C functionality on the CB3.

Pros - The X9SPU-F was ~$15.
Cons - It seems to consume ~15 watts with just the BMC powered on, with no CPU/RAM etc. I suspect the PCH is powered as well, accounting for the high power consumption. However, given the price of the CB3...~$150, it'll take 10 years or more for the CB3 to break even.

Another plus would be if you want to use one of those PCI-E powered expanders...the slots have power..

 

[BLinux]

I know it's an old thread...but...

How about a poor man's equivalent of CSE-PTJBOD-CB3?

I'm using a "motherboard"... specifically the X9SPU-F, but I'm fairly sure any other Supermicro (or different brand) board with IPMI will work as well. There is NO CPU/RAM on the board, just the board connected to the PSU, front panel, fans and IPMI. Works exactly like the CB3 (unless you want to do something esoteric with the I2C functionality on the CB3.

Pros - The X9SPU-F was ~$15.
Cons - It seems to consume ~15 watts with just the BMC powered on, with no CPU/RAM etc. I suspect the PCH is powered as well, accounting for the high power consumption. However, given the price of the CB3...~$150, it'll take 10 years or more for the CB3 to break even.

Another plus would be if you want to use one of those PCI-E powered expanders...the slots have power..

will the motherboard without CPU/RAM be able to turn on the PSU to power the backplanes? will it power the fans?

 

[kapone]

will the motherboard without CPU/RAM be able to turn on the PSU to power the backplanes? will it power the fans?

Yes and Yes.

 

[Aestr]

Pros - The X9SPU-F was ~$15.

Another pro is it doesn't require a ridicously pricey bracket and cable to have the IPMI port flush with the rear of the case. I have a CB3 at home and I just snake a cable through an open pci slot, but it does bother me to look at.