Dell 3-Node AMD DCS6005

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Patrick

Patrick

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Hey all. I just got a not from Dell that the FTP site mentioned on p9 seems to be a dev site and those are not BIOS to use on these machines. Am confirming but wanted to pass along the information.

If they are the wrong files may end up editing the posts so others do not find and brick platforms.
 
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gmac715

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Feb 16, 2014
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Patrick said:
Hey all. I just got a not from Dell that the FTP site mentioned on p9 seems to be a dev site and those are not BIOS to use on these machines. Am confirming but wanted to pass along the information.

If they are the wrong files may end up editing the posts so others do not find and brick platforms.
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Thanks for the heads-up. I plan to use the bios files I downloaded here ([editing since I got the tip that these are risky development firmware see: http://forums.servethehome.com/proc...00-dell-3-node-amd-dcs6005-13.html#post29346]) to flash a bad bios chip at some point this week, so I certainly hope these are the proper bios files on this site.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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gmac715

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Patrick said:
I was told that was not supposed to be external facing and that the Dell rep did not think they were the right files for these machines.
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That is interesting. I tried searching for the bios files for the DCS6005 on the Dell site but I couldn't find them nor did the Dell Support site recognize the service tag number.
 
K

Ken

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Feb 10, 2014
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fnc1 said:
Found some rizers on ebay for around 18 bux.

Is anyone using quad port nics in their box? Any cheap sources out there?
Cheapest I've found for low profile 4port nics is ~97.00
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I know nothing about these, other I searched for them based on a mention by someone else - no idea on quality, other, but at $100/ea for a new i350 quad PCIe card they *seem* like a pretty good deal...

Winyao WYI350-T4 RJ45 / PCI-E Network Card Adapter - Green - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

My searches only show sellers, no comments by users - caveat emptor...
 
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fnc1

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Sep 23, 2011
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Do the slots in these definitely require half height / low profile cards? or can a full profile card be used?
 
Patrick

Patrick

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All, just got off the phone. Sounds like it would be very unwise to use the ftp link posted earlier so I did make edits to the posts for two reasons:
1. Those were development images and likely to not work well with these boards (sounds like they may be for different platforms). I know Google can find these buried links years down the road so I did not want to have a linked resource that someone could read a few posts out of context and try.
2. It was requested the links were removed to help stop unauthorized access to development images.

Sorry I had to do that one. It was suggested that a safer method would actually be doing the firmware dump and restore method.

Also, these seem to be a smaller run product which is why they are not at as many resellers.

Finally, I do not read PMs (I do not think I have access to) so any links that may be in (non-public facing) PMs will not be edited.
 
K

Ken

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For reference, I deducted S/H from asking price and offered that to the seller, he accepted and I felt like I got my server shipped for free.

The server was as described, in good shape, was well-packed, and arrived soon after I paid for it - a good seller in my book.
 
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javi404

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Jan 24, 2014
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@Patrick. I posted a link to dropbox that has the contents of the ftp and also backup images of a BMC and BIOS image. Perhaps someone can compare the files. Those backups were taking from working a working node. Not sure what page it is on now but it is in an appropriately named folder on dropbox. I have not compared those images to the ones on the ftp site.
 
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IzzyCC

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Mar 6, 2014
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fnc1 said:
Those of you who bought this auction:
Dell C6100 C6105 Cloud Server 6X 1 8GHz AMD 6 Core Hex Core 144GB RAM 3X 250GB | eBay

Did you receive the HDD Sleds??
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I got 3 trays with the 3 drives, but the other 9 were empty. If you look in their little dislcaimer at the bottom of the auction "All trays & blanks are used for photo purposes only and do not come with units, unless stated within the product description." So I guess I wasnt one of the lucky ones that got all full 12 trays.
 
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gmac715

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Feb 16, 2014
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IzzyCC said:
I got 3 trays with the 3 drives, but the other 9 were empty. If you look in their little dislcaimer at the bottom of the auction "All trays & blanks are used for photo purposes only and do not come with units, unless stated within the product description." So I guess I wasnt one of the lucky ones that got all full 12 trays.
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Did you try contacting the seller? Maybe the seller has some that he will send you since they are a heavy seller of these servers and parts.
 
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fnc1

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Sep 23, 2011
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I did talk to the seller (I made an offer for no hdds, got mine with 0 sleds) seller said it was in the disclaimer that it came with no extras, even though I wanted the sleds just NO Hard Drives... The seller offered them at 5 bux a piece... anyway, I found someone selling 12 for 40 bux on ebay shipped talked with him, and he sold e 12 for 35.00 shipped.
 
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teCh0010

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Jun 17, 2014
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Does anyone know if these will use ECC fully buffered DDR2? I have a bunch of 4G sticks harvested from HP blades. HP Part number 398708-061, Samsung part number M395T5160QZ4-CE66. I could order one unloaded and save a bit of cash.
 
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teCh0010

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Followed up with the seller, it looks like these won't take fully buffered dimms. The installed memory is DDR2 PC-5300P and fully buffered is PC-5300F and has the notch in a different position. Sucks since I have 24 4GB sticks of DDR2 PC-5300F.
 
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rstrecker

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It appears one of my nodes has a corrupted BIOS. I am able to install ESX 5.5 but when I try and pull that host into vCenter it fails. When looking at the BIOS supplied information on the host, a portion of the information is scrambled. Any ideas how to resolve this?
 
Thanos

Thanos

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Jun 16, 2014
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hi guys, I purchased one of these boxes recently but I have problems with two of the nodes. On the first node I managed to install ESXi 5.5 U1 on a USB that I've attached on the internal USB port (it works with the "ignoreHeadless=TRUE"). That's it. The second node has the BMC "not working" and doesn't respond to 'ping' or 'ipmitool' or the http/https interface... The other one I get no (BIOS/boot) console (I can use the BMC web on this one). I tried to be aggressive and flash the BMC firmware with the files I downloaded from the link another user has posted but it doesn't let me (booted from a FreeDOS USB).

I'm so puzzled on the 3rd node. I can see the BMC but not the BIOS console when it boots. Unless I "make it" flash it's BIOS and 'reset' itself.. So many problems. I was happy at first because it makes such a great platform for a home lab (I will use it as an ESXi cluster). But now, I understand that there's no safe site to download BIOS and BMC firmware (am I right?)

Has anyone managed to flash these nodes? BIOS and BMC? Or found a way to clear the config of BIOS/BMC (even without having access to a console?). On Monday I plan to try using the COM1 port of each node to see if there's a way from that port. But without proper documentation to do it, I may end up with 3 expensive noise makers...
 
Thanos

Thanos

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Status update for whom it may be useful :)
two of the nodes are setup with ESXi 5.5 update-1. One of them is functional in terms of the compute part as well as the Web access of the IPMI interface. The second node is functional only for the compute part. The IPMI interface is responding only to ipmitool (from a Mac) but not via the Web interface. I have no clue how this can be fixed. Both nodes can see the 4 disks attached to them. No issues there. And I have ESXi installed on a USB (Sandisk Cruzer 8GB) in the onboard USB port. Now, the 3rd node is useless so far. The funny part is that it's IPMI is OK (web and use from a tool like 'ipmitool'). But when it powers on, there's no VGA output and there's continuous 'beep' till I power it off.

I removed the 'button' battery to reset the BIOS to the default settings. Nothing.. IPMI reports "VBAT = 0 Volts" while the other 2 nodes have a value and reported as Normal this is reported as "Lower Critical".
Without documentation I have no clue what it is. I have opened a ticket to TYAN for help on the S8208 board so as to make sense of all this. They replied after a couple of hours (!) saying that I should seek support from DELL since this board was made for DELL. Not very helpful since Product Support from Dell doesn't recognize the Service Tag of this box...

I will open a ticket with Dell. Just for the fun of it. It's a big disappointment that it's so damn hard to get a proper manual for a board. If anyone has a user guide for *this* specific board please share it.
I'm expecting a USB-to-serial cable tomorrow to connect it the COM port of the board. Just in case that I get something done via the old days ways...

By the way, since some guys have expressed the thought to install and experiment with VMware's VSAN on these boxes, wait for 5.5 update 2. It appears that the AHCI driver will be "updated" in Update-2. I could not get it to work in 5.5 update 1. (Kernel times out on trying to use the SATA drives...). Other than that, I think this server is a bargain simply for the amount of DRAM (in virtualization it's the best asset to have ;)).

I will report back with news on this front. Or I will purchase an extra barebones server to replace the failing node...
 
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