We decided to go with dual 10GB SFP cards, hopefully this will give us the performance we need. I just ordered my server, now waiting for it to come in.
Dell C6100 XS23-TY3 2U 4-Node (8 CPU) Cloud Server
- Thread starter Patrick
- Start date
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I bought it from a guy on Ebay, not sure if he wants to be named or not. If you are interested I can let him know.
C6100 3.5 Chassis (4 x motherboards and 1 power supply)
32GB Ram
8 L5520 CPUs
8 Heat sink
1 power supply
1 LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i (DPN 03NDP)
1 Fanout cable
12 drive trays
1 Rails
2 1 meter SFP+ twinax cables
2 10 Gigabit SFP+ Dual Port (DPN TCK99)
Total= $1600
I have one DCS and one normal C6100. YMMV but both updated to the latest firmware fine.
I posted a link to the guide i used somewhere earlier on this thread but i used a FreeDOS USB boot stick to do so and went straight to the latest versions. It was a calculated risk with the DCS nodes as i had 4 in a C6100 and one spare node i brought as a barebones spare. So if i bricked one i was only out the barebones node and wouldnt have done the others.
Edit: Upgrading Dell C6100 BIOS | Copy Error (aka Altered Realms)
Only issue i ran into was that i couldnt update the Fan controller firmware. That was actually on my normal C6100 not the DCS one. It had an older Fan controller.
I only upgrade to standardise my nodes as i was upgrading to L5639's on 3 of them and that required the update and i wanted to have all nodes on the same firmware in case i needed to swap things out in future. No upgrade of CPUs and i wouldnt have updated the firmware.
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Picked up a C6100 XS23-TY3 3.5" chassis with 8x L5520s, 24GB of RAM per node and 4 drive sleds tonight for $400! Found it on Craigslist and emailed the guy for 10 days before he finally responded, he had the email going to an email address he never checks. He was asking $500 and all I did was ask what he had to have for it and he threw out the $400 figure. Feel a little guilty, but I am extremely happy with it. It is complete overkill for my needs but I couldn't say no to it.
So, Maybe I did... I spoke to Loddy(ESISO) and she said all they have presently are DCS, and she wasn't able to tell me if my unit was any different. How do you tell if they are DCS?
What I can tell you is that my BIOS and BMC were both version 1.04 and with some due diligence I upgraded them both using a bootable USB stick to the latest version. I ran through every version available on the Dell Support site, and "NONE" of my units are bricked.
The biggest issue with the unit for me is that it does not have the mezz cutout so I am not able to purchase the network cards unless I want to cut the carriers to support.
Sorry, Hit the submit button a bit early...
Seagate 4TB 7.2K 3.5" SATA PN: STBD4000400
Available new for 158.50 at:
Seagate ST4000DM000 4 TB 3.5" HD - Internal, Bare Hard Drive (not Retail Package)
I know I read on this forum somewhere about this question, but can't seem to find it. Will the SAS Mezz card accept 4tb drives. I finally got around to dropping 4 x 4tb drives in my 6100, but they show up as 2tb drives. Does a firmware upgrade fix this? If so, does Patrick's live cd LSI update work with the mezz card?
Thanks for the answer. Just don't feel like wasting my time if its a lost cause.
Thanks for the answer. Just don't feel like wasting my time if its a lost cause.
The LSISAS2008 version of the mezzanine card does. It's the one with the heatsink.
The number one reason I am hesitant about getting a DCS model is that it seems that iKVM may not work.
After that, processor capability with a newer BIOS.
I don't care about a louder fan, because the server will sit in its own room in the basement.
And if the nodes have a mezzaninie card slot the cutout could be done manually.
I think I read someone did it with a dremel. That wouldn't be a problem.
So basically I am asking does your iKVM work?
If so, I might reconsider getting one from ESISO if there is not some major thing I am missing.
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I have a DCS node from ESISO, I did the bios upgrades and I run L5630's in my nodes.
Additionally, I've had no issues with iKVM...I use it all the time as my rack is located outside of the house.
The mezz slosts don't have cutouts, but like you mentioned you can dremel those out. I currently have the mezz slots on my servers loaded with the 1068e card so I can run SAS drives.
What good CPUs can you recommend for the C6100 with 3.0+ Ghz clock?
I dont know much about serverprocessors, but I read that the C6100 supports 55xx och 56xx, does this mean ALL processors that has 55xx/56xx?
What does the letter before 55xx mean? I see some with E, X and W (W55xx).
I dont know much about serverprocessors, but I read that the C6100 supports 55xx och 56xx, does this mean ALL processors that has 55xx/56xx?
What does the letter before 55xx mean? I see some with E, X and W (W55xx).
Yes, any 55xx or 56xx series processor should work.
E: Enterprise
X: Xtreme
W: Workstation
L: Low Power
(these may not be the exact meaning as I have not recently looked up the Intel official documentation but should be close enough
).RB