Cisco C240 M5 - 2x 6132 / 128gb / sas3508 - 240$

[Cruzader]

A listing i stumbled across, not amazing enough of a deal to be worth it for me to import them to Europe.
Would expect somebody else here to be interested tho, its a great deal in general for sure at 240$

Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server TWO Xeon Gold 6132 CPU 128GB DDR4 RAM CIMC Clear-NO HDD

- 26sff model (should be 2 or 4 nvme/u.2)
- 2x Xeon 6132
- 4x 32gb 2666v
- looks like vic1457 quad sfp28
- M5HD raid card (lsi 3508)
- Both risers
- 2x 1050w

9 left now, lets see how long before that is at 0

 

[clethbridge]

I’ve been eyeing those but just can’t justify it - I already have six M4 gen and three M5 but these were so cheap I almost went for it anyway.
There have been a few threads about these over the years but a few notes:
The IPMI is solid but slow
There are no drivers for the mlom or PCIE Cisco network cards for illumos/solaris
The network cards have some fun virtualization tools built in
You don’t need UCS manager, intersight, or anything else to use these boxes, they’re fine standalone (unlike the blade chassis)
They’re pretty quiet at low loads
Many of the PSUs work on 110-240, but not all. Check the labels.
The rear rj45s are 10Gb

 

[Cruzader]

I’ve been eyeing those but just can’t justify it - I already have six M4 gen and three M5 but these were so cheap I almost went for it anyway.
There have been a few threads about these over the years but a few notes:
The IPMI is solid but slow
There are no drivers for the mlom or PCIE Cisco network cards for illumos/solaris
The network cards have some fun virtualization tools built in
You don’t need UCS manager, intersight, or anything else to use these boxes, they’re fine standalone (unlike the blade chassis)
They’re pretty quiet at low loads
Many of the PSUs work on 110-240, but not all. Check the labels.
The rear rj45s are 10Gb

I had 8x M5 in use previously and they were great servers.
Like you said there was no need to use UCS etc, just installed esxi on them and they were happy.

I used the 40gbe cards since they came with the ones i had and was esxi8 supported (and support splitting to 4x10 from nic).
i ended up replacing them with 2U4N nodes since i just used them as pute compute, 12U saved in rack and a few hundread watts in consumption less.

 

[OstJoker]

Nice find. Quite expensive trays for SSD...$10 each on ebay. (((

 

[DarkNova]

Any idea about idle power consumption on these?

 

[clethbridge]

Any idea about idle power consumption on these?

ide power is just under 100w with 256 GB ram and ten 1.6TB enterprise ssds in my case.

 

[clethbridge]

Nice find. Quite expensive trays for SSD...$10 each on ebay. (((

Yeah you might as well get that tray with an SSd already in it for a little more!

 

[DarkNova]

Thanks, how's the fan noise?

 

[Cruzader]

Nice find. Quite expensive trays for SSD...$10 each on ebay. (((

Yeah the cisco metal trays cost a bit, i 3d printed this one.

Thanks, how's the fan noise?

For being a server its in the lower end id say.
My switches were louder than these.

 

[clethbridge]

They’re much quieter than an icx6610, I can tell you that!

 

[Koop]

Nice find. Quite expensive trays for SSD...$10 each on ebay. (((

I have a bunch of extras that I will happily sell for cheaper than ebay. With screws. I guess I should make a WTS topic.

These can only do a few NVMe drives from what I recall. I don't see the NVMe cabling in the photos.

 

[gregsachs]

edit: wrong trays, these should be correct:
74-113290-01

Cisco UCS C220 C240 C480 ML C4200 M5 SAS SATA 2.5" Hard Drive Tray 74-113290-01 | eBay

Description<br> Feature：<br> 1. Used-like new<br> 2. DP/N: 74-113290-01<br> 3. High Quality, Low price and Fast shipping from US<br> <br> Compatible with: <br> Cisco UCS C220 C240 C480 ML C4200 M5<br> What is included:<br> 1x caddy<br> 4x screws<br> NOTE:<br> Please make sure what you need are...

www.ebay.com

Rails look like about $40

Cisco UCSC-RAILB-M4 Ball Bearing Rail Kit C220/C240 M4 800-43376-02 CALC S&H | eBay

Model: C220 M4 / C240 M4.

www.ebay.com

And based on the label, these are NOT the NVME enabled units, except the two rear and two of the front, if you get a card:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c240m5-sff-specsheet.pdf

 

[Koop]

Here is a lot of 50 trays, with screws, at about $1.50 each:

Lot of 50 Cisco 2.5" Drive Caddy 800-35052-01 C220 C240 C460 M2 M3 M4 w/ Screws | eBay

Lot of 50 Cisco 2.5" Drive Caddy 800-35052-01 C220 C240 C460 M2 M3 M4 w/ Screws.

www.ebay.com

Rails look like about $40

Cisco UCSC-RAILB-M4 Ball Bearing Rail Kit C220/C240 M4 800-43376-02 CALC S&H | eBay

Model: C220 M4 / C240 M4.

www.ebay.com

And based on the label, these are NOT the NVME enabled units, except the two rear and two of the front, if you get a card:

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c240m5-sff-specsheet.pdf

Wrong trays. Not M5.

 

[Whaaat]

Thanks, how's the fan noise?

Dumbest fan profile I've ever seen. Can ramp up to maximum RPM under slightest load change, then decrease speed slowly in 20sec steps.

I used the 40gbe cards since they came with the ones i had and was esxi8 supported (and support splitting to 4x10 from nic).

>20W idle consumption and no RDMA support - thanks but no thanks

 

[Cruzader]

>20W idle consumption and no RDMA support - thanks but no thanks

its one of those almost free cards that you pay for while using instead for sure.

I generaly estimate cost for something by 2year use, and keeping them was cheaper than replacing.

 

[ano]

the ciscos are kinda meh vs hpe and other stuff with the mlom nic's imho

but can be had CHEAP which is good. no pcie bifurcation though, kinda made them useless for me :| have 6? 8 in lab

 

[Koop]

the ciscos are kinda meh vs hpe and other stuff with the mlom nic's imho

What's the difference? Available options?

 

[chrgrose]

The great thing about Cisco servers is no one seems to want them, so prices tend to be much lower than HP/Dell/SM on the second-hand market.

 

[rune-san]

The great thing about Cisco servers is no one seems to want them, so prices tend to be much lower than HP/Dell/SM on the second-hand market.

I don't even understand it myself. I admittedly have a ton of experience with the UCS platform, but I think it's great. From an composable standpoint I like UCS Managed / Intersight Manged leaps and bounds beyond HPE Synergy. But even standalone like this the CIMC is perfectly fine, and the VIC cards are great if you want to use SR-IOV, or present FCoE.

I have some M6's so I'm not in the market for this, but I think Cisco M4 and up UCS servers are some of the best options on the used market for home lab users that actually want / need a rack server.

 

[Cruzader]

The general homelab market will blindly search for dell or hp.

Cisco, quanta, gigabyte and huawei especialy get heavily discounted as they both commonly come out of scale deployments and have lower demand.

Especialy in Europe dell tends to get put at a massive premium, simply since people are willing to pay it.
The average homelabber will rather pay 500-700 for a R730 than 300-500 for a G10 or M5.