Dell 3-Node AMD DCS6005

[kdieiev2013]

I observe strange issue, when I connect 2 ethernet ports on board I get 1Gbps link, I can use straight or crossover cable without any problem.
But I am unable to get it working with any switch at 1Gbps, only one working setting is 100Mbps/Half-duplex hardcoded on switch port,
as I understand I have some issues with EEPROM, I plan to use BOOTUTIL -DEFCFG,
when I manually set speed/duplex via ethtool nothing change,
Please tell me is it safe to manipulate with EEPROM, could anybody share with me working hex-DUMP, so I am truing to flash it,
I am install test windows x64, I think that may be after instaling Intel`s drivers I will get advanced features to set, but unfortunately
install program cant recognize that my mobo had Intel 82576 controller.
I saw before some people play already with net configuration, may be YOU can post it here, thanks

just replace my cisco switch with another model, and Gig`s start to working, this not EEPROM issue, i think it negotiation capabilities problem, strange to see it in 2010, can anybody provide guidance in troubleshooting issue related to power drain, my mobo sometimes suddenly reloaded, i guess that my ATX modified power supply is not sufficient for 2x2387 + 16x2GB, board just swith-off, and i need to reconnect power cord to power-up the server, i plan to meter amperage in +12v bus

 

[StopDropRoll]

Thank you to everyone in this thread for all the info.

Picked up one of these with 96gb of ram and one 250gb drive for $385. I live in a single bedroom apartment with my fiance, so this should be interesting...

Ordered some Evercool EC-8038s

I will probably only be using one node for a while (no need for the others). If I cannot figure out a way to get it to a reasonable volume I will look at building an enclosure for it.

Is there a way to under-clock the processors?

 

[Joseph Jozwik]

Hello,
Just chiming in on the C6005, I purchased 3 of these form the same retailer on ebay as their warehouse had a warehouse full of them. Each server has 3 nodes, 48gb ram 2x 1.8ghz 6-core opertons. The ads I purchased didn't mention the real model number I didn't realize till I drove them home. The lack of the mezzanine adapter is a bummer.. I have been using them with vSphere 5.5 and XenServer 6.2. I was a die hard vmware snob, but when I got these there was a real shortage of storage. So the majority of them I installed XenServer which support real thin provisioning and linked clones out of the box without having to buy a license and write your own API calls.

I have been running LACP without any problems for awhile so that helps somewhat with the IO as I have to use a lot of network storage.
I have started testing a pcie quad msata controller card by Addonics. XenServer also support standard linux MDADM raid configs, but these addonics card can support raid-10 with msata and they are pretty cost effective.

 

[Mazza]

Hi everyone,
I also want to say thanks for all the great information everyone has posted. This forum has been really awesome in helping me learn a lot about the DCS6005.

My plan is to install ESXi 5.5 on two of the nodes and likely turn the third into a NAS using OpenFiler or similar. I'm almost ready to pull the trigger on the purchase but I am not sure what's the best drive arrangement and thus which drive sizes and quantity I should get.

I'm kind of still new to VMware so this will be my learning and future test environment. No systems will be super critical but ideally I'd like Hard Drive redundancy so I don't loose any of my VM's and other data if a drive fails.

I was thinking to configure each node with at least two drives in a RAID1 config but will ESXi recognize the built-in Dot Hill Virtual Raid (VRA). It sounded like a few of the other posters had issues during the install and I wasn't sure if those were ever resolved. I also happen to have two spare 2TB NAS drives I'd like to RAID1 together for the OpenFiler and play with hooking up iSCSI LUN's and NFS shares to the VM's.

I'm curious how others are setting up ESXi on their nodes and if anyone has recommendations on how I can achieve the setup I'm ideally hoping for while keeping the cost low.

Thanks!

 

[StopDropRoll]

Does anybody have an extra fanplug/dead fan they would be willing to sell me or know the model number? I was switching out the fans for mine when I cut the wrong end of the Delta's cable.

 

[MrBlackSwe]

I also bought two of these just recently. Today I managed to "brick" one of the nodes.
I was looking to update the BMC. Found a newer version that was supposed to work with these, ran the flash and the server just powered down. Now It won't power on.

Any ideas I could try? The two remaining nodes are running just fine. I have not yet done any cmos reset's since I have no documentation available om where the pins are.

 

[MrBlackSwe]

Does any one have a manual for these things? Or do you know which pins disable the BMC? I took a working BIOS chip from another node and now I can power on the node, however, it goes black as soon as it tries to verify the BMC.

 

[Mike]

You could try hot-reflashing?

 

[MrBlackSwe]

You could try hot-reflashing?

That was my plan. I dumped a working bios from another node to a bootable usb-stick, but like I said, it never gets that far so I could do a boot. It just goes black after "BMC Initializing". That is why I would like to disable the BMC all together, which should be possible with some jumper combination.

 

[hatchi]

I 've seen a couple reports of the blade 2 running hot, but I actually had an issue after swapping out the "jet 9k" fans with some desktop 3K fans that the SR5650_TEMP on blade 1 would stay around 90C without any load on the server, and with a little load, it'd hit the 98C mark and shutdown. I ended up buying a couple 30x30x10mm fans and attached those to the heatsinks of the SR5650s, and now I'm staying down below 60C, which is a great improvement. I used the power header next to the memory, and so far it looks like it's going to work out well.

View attachment 65

Hi Alan,
I am having the same issue with node 2 (the one down in the right)

after you installed the fans did you close the chassis or you left it open ?
because in y case i need to put the server in a rack and it must be closed

Thanks

 

[Alan Mattson]

Hi Alan,
I am having the same issue with node 2 (the one down in the right)

after you installed the fans did you close the chassis or you left it open ?
because in y case i need to put the server in a rack and it must be closed

Thanks

I sent you a PM reply, but for visibility, the answer is yes you can close the case. The little fans are only 10mm high, and therefore are still lower than the sides of the chassis, which means you can put the top on it no problem.

 

[hatchi]

I sent you a PM reply, but for visibility, the answer is yes you can close the case. The little fans are only 10mm high, and therefore are still lower than the sides of the chassis, which means you can put the top on it no problem.

Thanks Alot

i did exactly as your instructions,
I used a hard wire to secure the fans on the heatsink

the thing that took time is connecting the fans to the power it was hard task a little bit

after that i managed to lower the temp to less than 66 degrees which is great and the server is really stable now

I did it on 2 servers

 

[hatchi]

OK now the tempreture issue is fixed i had on the lower right nde (the same one I did the fan hack for ) the network cards are no longer being recognized.
that happened before installing th fans 1 day

i am thinking it has to do with tempreture increase but not sure.

anyway the problem now is that on that server no network cards being recognized (they are not present)
anyone faced such an issue or know how it can be resolved

Thanks

 

[spyrule]

Hello Everybody,
I just purchased the Dell C6105 6x 6 Core 1.8Ghz CPU 144GB Server for $500 after delivery.

Should get it in two weeks or so....

So, my plan for this chassis is to consolidate a bunch of other smaller servers, and hopefully my NAS (Xpenology).

I know I'll have to purchase a Riser card, and 9 x HDD Caddies. My current NAS has 6x hdd's running in what is essentially Raid 6, but I'd prefer to to upgrade that to 10 drives with dual hot spares.

Two nodes will be ESXi 5.5, and I'm hoping to throw in two 4port 1Gig Nics (or maybe dual 10Gb SFP cards... if the price is right).

I've got a M1015 controller, does anybody know if this will fit in the case ? (I'm thinking Node3 (nearest the PSU), which should give more room for the card in theory)....

Also, has anybody tried installing the second power supply ?

 

[StopDropRoll]

Hello Everybody,
I just purchased the Dell C6105 6x 6 Core 1.8Ghz CPU 144GB Server for $500 after delivery.

Should get it in two weeks or so....

So, my plan for this chassis is to consolidate a bunch of other smaller servers, and hopefully my NAS (Xpenology).

I know I'll have to purchase a Riser card, and 9 x HDD Caddies. My current NAS has 6x hdd's running in what is essentially Raid 6, but I'd prefer to to upgrade that to 10 drives with dual hot spares.

Two nodes will be ESXi 5.5, and I'm hoping to throw in two 4port 1Gig Nics (or maybe dual 10Gb SFP cards... if the price is right).

I've got a M1015 controller, does anybody know if this will fit in the case ? (I'm thinking Node3 (nearest the PSU), which should give more room for the card in theory)....

Also, has anybody tried installing the second power supply ?

That is a GOOD deal. I am VERY jealous!

 

[spyrule]

On the subject of one of these sleds, what would I need to allow an M1015 controller to "use" all 12 HDD trays in the C6105 ?
I don't have the server in front of me, so I'm unsure how this would work (the card says it can control 32 SAS/Sata HDD's so it can somehow do it...)

 

[lemieuski]

I ordered a pci-x riser and intel dual gig nic for my storage network. The top node is easy but how do I access the bottom two nodes?

 

[spyrule]

Does anybody know the part # for the front button switch to power on the nodes (specifically the 1 and 2 ports). Sadly I just got mine, and I guess the package was dropped, and those two switches are basically not working...

I'm assuming the small 2 lead red/black wire is the switch to turn on the node ?

Also, for some reason I was getting no video, but I reset the bios by pulling the battery for an hour. After that it finally showed me a post and video.

Does anybody know/have documentation on the jumpers on the motherboard?

Lastly, is it the upper or lower RJ port that contains the IPMI data ?

 

[spyrule]

I had an issue with an older DCS box and I needed to switch jumper to enable the 2nd nic.

Do you happen to remember WHICH jumper that was?

 

[spyrule]

One simple question... how the hell do you get INTO the BIOS on these things? I get no prompt, F1, F10 and DEL don't seem to work... wth?