FS: Dell R620/8SFF w/ H710 RAID or IT mode SAS controller and miscellaneous stuff

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Sogndal94

Senior IT Operations Engineer
Nov 7, 2016
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Not sure why no one is buys these servers. Over here in Europe they go for the same price for a less config on ebay. If it was not for the fact i have two of the same model, i would be interested. :)
 
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747builder

Active Member
Dec 17, 2017
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got any links for the crossflashing of the h710 done to the yours above? is there a path to crossflashing it back to stock if i need to??
 
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BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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got any links for the crossflashing of the h710 done to the yours above? is there a path to crossflashing it back to stock if i need to??
As for flashing H710 to IT mode, see this video playlist, more specifically videos #4-6:

Flashing IT mode firmware on Dell 12th gen Mini Monolithics - YouTube

As for flashing back to Dell stock firmware, I don't know as I never tried it. Knowing what i know now, I would never use the Dell firmware, even if I wanted a RAID controller, I would just use the LSI MegaRAID firmware instead of Dell.
 
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Sogndal94

Senior IT Operations Engineer
Nov 7, 2016
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As for flashing H710 to IT mode, see this video playlist, more specifically videos #4-6:

Flashing IT mode firmware on Dell 12th gen Mini Monolithics - YouTube

As for flashing back to Dell stock firmware, I don't know as I never tried it. Knowing what i know now, I would never use the Dell firmware, even if I wanted a RAID controller, I would just use the LSI MegaRAID firmware instead of Dell.
As i have two of those h710p in my home lab, i wonder what did you find in the default firmware?
-Sogndal94
 
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BLinux

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As i have two of those h710p in my home lab, i wonder what did you find in the default firmware?
-Sogndal94
i have an upcoming video to show this, but it is with a H710 (not P version), with the SAS2208 Rev D1 chipset... turns out, Dell firmware is crippled, and even with a Rev D1 chipset, it only runs with PCIe 2.0 speeds, not PCIe 3.0! As soon as the firmware is changed to LSI firmware, it runs at PCIe 3.0! That's 4GB/s vs 7.8GB/s PCIe bandwidth difference theoretically.
 
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747builder

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Dec 17, 2017
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unfortunately Dell seems to cripple the firmware of its raid controllers for some reason. how does one load the LSI firmware instead of the Dell Firmware? there's to vagueness about how to do it on these mini controllers.
 
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BLinux

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unfortunately Dell seems to cripple the firmware of its raid controllers for some reason. how does one load the LSI firmware instead of the Dell Firmware? there's to vagueness about how to do it on these mini controllers.
it's not something that can be done with publicly available tools that i know of. the way i ended up doing it is by writing my own tools.
 
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747builder

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Dec 17, 2017
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it's not something that can be done with publicly available tools that i know of. the way i ended up doing it is by writing my own tools.
so say i buy one of your servers and i need to revert to raid version of the card, what are my options? just buy another card?
 
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Sogndal94

Senior IT Operations Engineer
Nov 7, 2016
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Norway
so say i buy one of your servers and i need to revert to raid version of the card, what are my options? just buy another card?
I think it should not be a issue to reflash the cards to RAID version. But the easiest and cheapest would be to buy the version you want, and sell the non-raid ones(I think they are worth more).
 
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BLinux

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so say i buy one of your servers and i need to revert to raid version of the card, what are my options? just buy another card?
well, i think most people who would be interested are seeking the HBA IT mode server for something like FreeNAS/unraid, etc. As for flashing it back to RAID firmware, I haven't done it so I don't know for sure. I would think these are worth more and you can buy the factory RAID card for cheaper.
 
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fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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it's not something that can be done with publicly available tools that i know of. the way i ended up doing it is by writing my own tools.
care to publish them, or am I going to have to spend the next week updating lsirec's python scripts with the new 2208 offsets to publish a public guide?
 
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jd.developer

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Jan 12, 2020
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I don't have exact numbers, but I think it's around 100W or a little less. what is low power to you?
I know this was posted awhile ago, but it's possible to get an R720 to run in 65W. To do so: slim down the server to 64gig, 1 CPU, and then use the internal header for a hard drive (instead of the bays). This is what I did to convert one to a local router with a Xeon V2670, a daughter board network card, & 1 full height 10g card. The key was keeping drives out of the bays & reducing the number of memory sticks (I used 4x 16Gig ECC rDimm).

This assumes you set the power policy to be managed by the system (set it to maximum savings) & you adjust the fan policy to maximum power saving. If you add drives to the bays, the server will run the fans for a minimum amount (even if it's a SSD that's low temp) and the power will run between 70 and 85W. Supposedly, the fans run more aggressively on later bios versions, so it might be possible to put drives in the bays with an older version.
 
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BLinux

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I know this was posted awhile ago, but it's possible to get an R720 to run in 65W. To do so: slim down the server to 64gig, 1 CPU, and then use the internal header for a hard drive (instead of the bays). This is what I did to convert one to a local router with a Xeon V2670, a daughter board network card, & 1 full height 10g card. The key was keeping drives out of the bays & reducing the number of memory sticks (I used 4x 16Gig ECC rDimm).

This assumes you set the power policy to be managed by the system (set it to maximum savings) & you adjust the fan policy to maximum power saving. If you add drives to the bays, the server will run the fans for a minimum amount (even if it's a SSD that's low temp) and the power will run between 70 and 85W. Supposedly, the fans run more aggressively on later bios versions, so it might be possible to put drives in the bays with an older version.
Those are great tips! thanks!
 
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