Dell C6100 Advice

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Kevin Baker

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Apr 3, 2015
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I just purchased a C6100 and pretty excited about getting it up and running. I'm a little confused with two issues.
1 - It didn't come with any Raid Cards, so I'm confused at what I need if I go down the SAS Mezz card route. I purchased a SAS Mezz card (part Y8Y69), but it didn't come with the brackets, bridge card, cables or the battery. Then I see there are PCI cards that appear to come with everything, thou I'm a little concerned the PCI card won't fit. Has anyone added these?

2 - It came with two 1100 power supplies, as I'm reading the manual (page 59) reads for 4 system boards with 1100 W Power Supplies I can have up to two processors, nine hard drives and nine memory modules... does this mean for each node these are my limits? If so then why 9 hard drives when 6 is the max? even with the 1400w PS, it still maxes out at nine memory modules. Each node could have up to 12 memory modules, but according to the manual 9 is the max.

I'm just a little over my head here and would welcome any advice.

Thanks,
Kevin
 

Chuckleb

Moderator
Mar 5, 2013
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The slot should accommodate most low profile cards and in general, server-oriented cards have that as an option.
 

PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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What are your goals for the storage? The on-board and SAS mezz card are both SATA 2 and have no cache so you're stuck using them as RAID 0,1,10 pretty much. If you want SATA 3 you can put in an M1015 for around $50 and buy two cables that will reach from the installed card to the mid-plane. I would have a look in the C6100 thread for all sorts of options.
 

Kevin Baker

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Apr 3, 2015
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Zankza - thanks for the feedback, won't worry about power :)
PnoT - I'd be running Raid 10 with 6x 600GB drives.
 

PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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Zankza - thanks for the feedback, won't worry about power :)
PnoT - I'd be running Raid 10 with 6x 600GB drives.
The on-board is going to top out at about 660MB/sec due to it being SATA 2 but the sky is the limit if you put in a cheap HBA and some cables.
 

Kevin Baker

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Apr 3, 2015
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yeah, I think the 660MB will be okay.. I am still a little confused on a battery for the SAS Mezz Card, does it require one? Is it optional? Am I setting myself up if I don't have one??
 

PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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yeah, I think the 660MB will be okay.. I am still a little confused on a battery for the SAS Mezz Card, does it require one? Is it optional? Am I setting myself up if I don't have one??
Are you running SAS drives and not SATA hence the reason you bought the SAS mezz?
 

Kevin Baker

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Apr 3, 2015
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no, I'm running SATA drives, for some reason I thought I could use either (SAS or SATA)... is this not the case?
 

PnoT

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Mar 1, 2015
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no, I'm running SATA drives, for some reason I thought I could use either (SAS or SATA)... is this not the case?
Ok, that clears things up a bit. The on-board you can only use SATA but with the mezz you can run SAS or SATA. I wouldn't even bother with installing or buying those mezz cards because the built-in RAID is just as good for those purposes with SATA drives. If you want an HBA go with an M1015 as they're cheap and work with everything and if you need hardware raid (cache) the IBM 5015s are cheap as well.
 
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PnoT

Active Member
Mar 1, 2015
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Guess I have a different board or something. I've attached the manual page of what I have in the BIOS.
Do you have the XS23-TY3 motherboard? It for sure has on-board RAID and a reference can be found here:

"I enabled RAID in the BIOS (BIOS: Advanced -> IDE -> Config Sata#1 = RAID)"

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/dell-c6100-xs23-ty3-sata-on-board-raid.1727/

I believe there are 2 different motherboards for this unit along with multiple data center (DC) editions that are out there.
 

Kevin Baker

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Apr 3, 2015
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I have that set in my BIOS, but I may have another issue. When I start the Node, during the boot, it stays at Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 3 for about a minute, then says Not Detected and then goes to Auto-Detecting AHCI Port 4 for about a minute, then says Not Detected. In the BIOS for both the RAID and AHCI this happens. On the front, on my HD lights are green, they never change color or flicker. On the board I've doubled checked to make sure the sata cords are connected correctly. Any ideals? Also in the BIOS under IDE Confit, it reads Not Detected next to each of the AHCI Port 0 through Port 5.

Just replaced all SATA cables with same result.

Ok.. DUH!!! I had SAS drives on SATA drives. I'll replace the SAS with SATA to see if I can get the RAID to work.
 
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