Dell C6100 XS23-TY3 2U 4-Node (8 CPU) Cloud Server

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

shanghailoz

New Member
May 10, 2013
9
0
0
I've got several of the c6100's in different chassis's off of taobao. There is a 3rd gen box now which fits better than the previous ones.

Haven't bothered getting the smaller ones, as they're expensive on their own, and the sellers are a bit reticent to sell without a motherboard.
Last I checked (this week) we were still negotiating on ordering a small sized case, but they wanted 800rmb odd.

I've been trying to source the PCI-e mezzanine card's but other than photo's, seems hard. Sellers don't have :(

The motherboard is supermicro / tyan ? so should be able to source a riser from them possibly. I took a quick look at their risers, but didn't see anything.

I use mine as "hackintoshes".
Only issues - the network driver is crappy - AppleIGB.kext, so you need to use wifi or usb based ethernet.
Will do a writeup and some photos of some of mine, and upload at some point this week.

I have L5639's in my main one, and 64G ram. They make for fairly decent render boxes. (Yeah, I'm cheap).
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
Here is a crazy idea.... and I don't have a C6100 in front of me at the moment so cannot confirm if it is just stupid :) but, has anyone tried cutting down a PCIe x16 riser to see if it would then fit and work in the mezzanine slot ?.

I appreciate the normal size slot on the riser board would be facing the wrong way etc, but just to see if it would work as it could then be something to build on.

RB
 

shanghailoz

New Member
May 10, 2013
9
0
0
Won't work, the power pins are different in the mezzazine slot when compared to x16 slot.
I've finally got one of the sellers to sell me 2 of the mezzanine to PCI cards, so will take pictures once I receive this week.
Bit painful though, as I had to buy 2 cases from him to get them.

I have a mini chassis, and a normal size chassis coming.

Hopefully they fit better than the 1st gen models!

I have a flickr set of random c6100 photos here, which shows 3 of the different cases available, will up more photos including the skinny one once I receive it this week.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheedl/sets/72157638573092513/
 
Last edited:

s0lid

Active Member
Feb 25, 2013
259
35
28
Tampere, Finland
I've finally got one of the sellers to sell me 2 of the mezzanine to PCI cards, so will take pictures once I receive this week.
Bit painful though, as I had to buy 2 cases from him to get them.]
Do you have a DMM so you can measue the pinout for those riser cards? Pictures just might not cut it if they got more than 2 layers.
 

shanghailoz

New Member
May 10, 2013
9
0
0
While I don't have the connector yet, I do have the mezzanine extender ( DELL JKM5M/ 0JKM5M Neon, Mezzanine Bridge Board (T0TJY) ) and have taken a couple of photos:





Pin pitch size is same as mini pci-e, although not compatible.
Marked on the connector side, are the numbers 3259.

There are 27 connectors on the left side of the connector, and 23 on the right side.
So, its a 50 pin connector.
 

AERuffy

Member
Dec 12, 2013
99
18
18
Just passing by to let you guys know the C6100 independent power supply problem has been solved awhile ago, business savy Chinese have been selling each nodes as individual boxes all over the place, dirt cheap:
DELL C6100Ö÷°å·þÎñÆ÷L5639 L5520¹¤×÷վ̨ʽ»ú12ºË24Ãß³Ì48GäÖȾ-ÌÔ±¦Ãø
DELL C6100 ¹¤×÷Õ¾¡¾L5639 CPU 12ºË24Ã̡߳¿ÓÎ÷¶à¿ª¡¢¹Ò»úÉñÆ÷-ÌÔ±¦Ãø
DELL C6100¹¤×÷Õ¾ÓÎ÷¹Ò»úÉñÆ÷(XEON 12ºË24Ãß³Ì/16G/MACºÚÆ»¹û)-ÌÔ±¦Ãø


As you can see from the pics, C6100 nodes can now hook onto standard PSU.

These boxes cost something like USD$200 each on the lowest options. Pay a bit more for 2nd cpu, more ram, graphic cards etc.

Keyword: "C6100" on taobao
Man i want one of these so bad. I need to set up a hyper-v/exsi cluster for learning, but don't want or need the TY23 cloud servers, nor do i need a full c6100(noise/space/heat)

Two of those up there would fit in my TV Stand, and could be cooled with 120mm fans. Anyone know if these can be gotten in the US?
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
There is BuyFromTaobao: We buy and ship items from taobao.com to you which offers a proxy service (freight forwarders) in English but I have not personally tried them so have no idea of their quality or charges.

I can possibly act as a proxy for people wanting one of these. If there is enough interest then I will make a thread in the appropriate section of the forums.

Things to note though...
  • You will most likely get no guarantee from the seller (or me as I am just forwarding for you).
  • There is no guarantee what C6100 gen board you will get or its firmware levels (MegaRAC BMC or Dell branded, brickable if you try to flash etc).
  • They are likely to be 'just enough to get it working' rather than being fairly robust and of good quality. The picture of the power on switch connector is a fine example where the jumper has been cut to stretch it over the two pins rather than using the correct connector.

RB
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
The second looks like they are using an HP Proliant D160 G6 power supply (506077-001). Anyone want to comment on how noisy it is likely to be as there are a fair few available on Ebay for US$20-$50 at the moment (used).
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
those dl320 power supplies are cool, the shuttle uses a similar one. 500 watt in a slim stick (two for hot swap). the fans go really fast since there is only one tiny square fan
 

axemann

New Member
Jul 7, 2013
25
3
3
Hey guys! Long-time lurker, first time poster here...

I'm looking to grab one of these from the 'Bay, but it seems like every time I do a search, the prices keep creeping ever-skyward. Must be the joys of economics. :p

Anyway...

Can anyone who's purchased a unit recently from seller ESISOINC tell me if their units typically have the sleds with the mezzanine cut-outs, come with drive blanks (not trays, gonna boot this sucker from SAN), DCS nodes, PIC18 vs PIC16 FCB, etc.?

I don't mind dropping the cash for one of these, but contacting them has been a bit of a PITA today. I'm also afraid if I try to do the whole email/phone dance with them to get answers, the price will eventually creep up to where I'm paying $1200 for a box that was $800 4-6 months ago. :eek:

Thanks to everyone for assistance, and also for the wealth of knowledge gathered here!
 

PersonalJ

Member
May 17, 2013
127
11
18
Hey guys! Long-time lurker, first time poster here...

I'm looking to grab one of these from the 'Bay, but it seems like every time I do a search, the prices keep creeping ever-skyward. Must be the joys of economics. :p

Anyway...

Can anyone who's purchased a unit recently from seller ESISOINC tell me if their units typically have the sleds with the mezzanine cut-outs, come with drive blanks (not trays, gonna boot this sucker from SAN), DCS nodes, PIC18 vs PIC16 FCB, etc.?

I don't mind dropping the cash for one of these, but contacting them has been a bit of a PITA today. I'm also afraid if I try to do the whole email/phone dance with them to get answers, the price will eventually creep up to where I'm paying $1200 for a box that was $800 4-6 months ago. :eek:

Thanks to everyone for assistance, and also for the wealth of knowledge gathered here!
I don't know about the mezzanine cut-outs but my C6100 I bought from them a week ago came with a full set of caddies and screws when over the phone I was told it would come with a single caddy and HDD.
 

darkconz

Member
Jun 6, 2013
193
15
18
Some DCS models does not have the mezzanine slot available. This is due to the datacenter that it went into did not require such slot. These were custom built C6100's rather than the Dell standard C6100. The likely hood of that specific one able to upgrade with official Dell C6100 firmwares is rather low (but there are some success stories in here). The reason being, these aren't official Dell C6100's but are custom ones. They are supported by the DCS team which is specialized in these DCS systems.

Hey guys! Long-time lurker, first time poster here...

I'm looking to grab one of these from the 'Bay, but it seems like every time I do a search, the prices keep creeping ever-skyward. Must be the joys of economics. :p

Anyway...

Can anyone who's purchased a unit recently from seller ESISOINC tell me if their units typically have the sleds with the mezzanine cut-outs, come with drive blanks (not trays, gonna boot this sucker from SAN), DCS nodes, PIC18 vs PIC16 FCB, etc.?

I don't mind dropping the cash for one of these, but contacting them has been a bit of a PITA today. I'm also afraid if I try to do the whole email/phone dance with them to get answers, the price will eventually creep up to where I'm paying $1200 for a box that was $800 4-6 months ago. :eek:

Thanks to everyone for assistance, and also for the wealth of knowledge gathered here!
 

IM0001

New Member
Dec 18, 2013
3
0
0
Hello all.
At my current workplace, we had ordered 4 full Nodes with 96G ram in each sled. A nice piece of kit (sadly without any raid cards) but perfect for our current task for the moment.

However it turned out a few sleds would randomly lock up just sitting idle with ESX5.5 running. Only 2 of them locked up and one Node had a fan error issue.

So we moved the bad sleds into the bad node case and sent it back for RMA. The company we purchased them from swapped out the 2 bad sleds and also flashed both the bios and BMC around on all 4 of the sleds to match before sending them back to us.

Now back in our hands, the full Node no longer has any crash/hard lock issues, however now the IPMI will not allow Remote Console to work at all. The browser page gives the "Install Java" error I have seen a few others on here run into. (When Java is clearly installed and working on all the other working nodes).

Tried IE 6-11, Google Chrome, Firefox, Windows XP,7,8 and all sorts of versions of Java. Nothing changed.
Flashed the bios from 1.69->1.71 No Change.
Flashed the BMC from 1.29->1.33, 1.30, and 1.25. No Change.

One last chance at possibly fixing this before a full replacement is ordered is to flash BMC 1.11 for the C6100.

So I have seen around tidbits of the internet as well as from their (mostly retarded) support guy that 1.11 SuperRac might work, however their support guy may/may not have 1.11 available and all my searches across the internet has not run across a 1.11 file for download.

Can anyone possibly post or PM me a link to 1.11 so I may try flashing that to the BMC as a final effort? I have seen a few get the new sleds and report they have had it before flashing to a newer BMC version, but it would be wonderful if 1.11 could somehow bring back these BMC's from hell and actually allow them to be useful again.

(Funny tidbit, 2 of the 4 sleds in this node were good and their IPMI worked properly before the Vendor got them and flashed them from 1.33 back to 1.29 and the bios from 1.71 to 1.69, funny that.)