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

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MACscr

Member
May 4, 2011
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jared said:
Woot...got my server..and the HP DL caddies fit perfectly even WITH the EMI gasket.

Dang....one of the black side case handles broke off....that sucks i kind of liked that handle, and cant find the part number anywhere online to replace it.

Dang....My service tag is completely missing?....looked all over and cant find the 7 digit code anywhere on this thing!
--
Jared

edit: not sure why wordskim linked the HP DL caddies like that..but..those aren't the right ones. The first post has the correct ones in case anyone wonders.
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Are you talking about the 2.5 inch caddies?
 
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jared

New Member
Aug 22, 2013
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MACscr said:
Are you talking about the 2.5 inch caddies?
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Yep,
You can find the info you if you need it for the 2.5" caddies on the very first post of this thread. Patrick has all that detail.
Basically, I am using HP DL series caddies in my Dell poweredge C6100. They work fine, only short coming so far is the LED light fiber strands dont reach all they way back to the backplane, so there is no differentiation of color when the hdd lights up.
It seems the Dell caddies pretty much makes contact with the LEDs on the backplane its self so the LEDs colors dont mix up and light up both the LED strands that light up the caddies front side when trying to see what the hdd is doing.

not that it matters anyways. I just keep tabs on the built in software monitoring.

In the end, I only paid $6 per HP DL series caddie as compared to dells, $20ish.

I enjoy saving money by making proprietary stuff do what the manufacturers don't want you to do. =)
 
M

MACscr

Member
May 4, 2011
119
3
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jared said:
Yep,
You can find the info you if you need it for the 2.5" caddies on the very first post of this thread. Patrick has all that detail.
Basically, I am using HP DL series caddies in my Dell poweredge C6100. They work fine, only short coming so far is the LED light fiber strands dont reach all they way back to the backplane, so there is no differentiation of color when the hdd lights up.
It seems the Dell caddies pretty much makes contact with the LEDs on the backplane its self so the LEDs colors dont mix up and light up both the LED strands that light up the caddies front side when trying to see what the hdd is doing.

not that it matters anyways. I just keep tabs on the built in software monitoring.

In the end, I only paid $6 per HP DL series caddie as compared to dells, $20ish.

I enjoy saving money by making proprietary stuff do what the manufacturers don't want you to do. =)
Click to expand...
Oh, I knew about those. Was just hoping you had magically found an alternative for the 3.5 inch ones.
 
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doofoo

Member
Aug 28, 2013
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doofoo said:
Ugh.. Going back and forth with a few different vendors. So far I can't get service tags out of them, they just say they aren't supported by Dell. Has anyone with DCS C6100's (service tag not recognized by dell website) been able to update BMC, etc? I just want to make sure I can use IPMI and have no major issues, not being able to upgrade sucks.

Got a reply from one vendor.

Lookup lists:


WCYH11Base, Server, DCS 6100, V11, 3.5, Data Center Solutions
81TFG1ASSEMBLY..., BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., SERVER, SERVER CHASSIS..., 6100, V11, L10, 3.5

It shows up via the dell service tag lookup, but says Data Center Solutions.. Are these upgradeable? On the dell site, it shows Ship date as 7/3/13.. This can't be right? Maybe it's when they sold from the leasing company to the vendor who has it? Drivers show BIOS, BMC firmware, etc. Just want to be sure I'm good to go.
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Can anyone provide input to this? I've heard from a few people that this is how theirs showed up and they could update BIOS, etc. Just throws me off that it says Data Center Solutions in the service tag lookup details.

Should I be able to look up the service tag of the individual sleds inside the C6100 chassis as well? It looks like they are just SERVICETAG.1, .2, .3, .4. When I look up the chassis, it comes up in the dell service tag lookup tool. But not the individual sleds.
 
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MACscr

Member
May 4, 2011
119
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doofoo said:
Can anyone provide input to this? I've heard from a few people that this is how theirs showed up and they could update BIOS, etc. Just throws me off that it says Data Center Solutions in the service tag lookup details.

Should I be able to look up the service tag of the individual sleds inside the C6100 chassis as well? It looks like they are just SERVICETAG.1, .2, .3, .4. When I look up the chassis, it comes up in the dell service tag lookup tool. But not the individual sleds.
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Why are you needing the service tags again? All the updates available are pretty much listed in this thread. You arent actually expecting any support from dell are you?
 
Krazos

Krazos

New Member
Jun 6, 2013
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Hi!

I have a problem installing 2 nodes. They are on a network where DHCP doesnt work (we are working on this), And I cant set static ip through the BIOS because that might brick the board Ive heard.

Ive tried to connect my laptop with a DHCP server installed to the BMC card, but it wont get any ip, seems like the BMC refuses to work with DHCP. And yes, DHCP is enabled in BIOS on the BMC.

Anyway, I wonder, If I update the BIOS.. Can I set a static ip in BIOS then? I dont want to brick any board (Obviously). If an BIOS update would fix this problem. If so, How do I update BIOS and firmwares?
 
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doofoo

Member
Aug 28, 2013
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MACscr said:
Why are you needing the service tags again? All the updates available are pretty much listed in this thread. You arent actually expecting any support from dell are you?
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It was my understanding that certain models that have service tags that do not show up in the dell service tag lookup tool are not able to be updated with 100% reliability. You may brick your nodes upgrading these. If I was not correct, and I can use/upgrade any of the models for sale on eBay then I'm all good. ;)
 
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zane

Member
Aug 22, 2013
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Krazos said:
Hi!

I have a problem installing 2 nodes. They are on a network where DHCP doesnt work (we are working on this), And I cant set static ip through the BIOS because that might brick the board Ive heard.

Ive tried to connect my laptop with a DHCP server installed to the BMC card, but it wont get any ip, seems like the BMC refuses to work with DHCP. And yes, DHCP is enabled in BIOS on the BMC.

Anyway, I wonder, If I update the BIOS.. Can I set a static ip in BIOS then? I dont want to brick any board (Obviously). If an BIOS update would fix this problem. If so, How do I update BIOS and firmwares?
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Try setting the BIOS option to dedicated and not shared. Just off the top of my head I think this is under the remote settings. Ive had this issue before with a dell server (not c6100).
 
tby

tby

Active Member
Aug 22, 2013
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doofoo said:
It was my understanding that certain models that have service tags that do not show up in the dell service tag lookup tool are not able to be updated with 100% reliability. You may brick your nodes upgrading these. If I was not correct, and I can use/upgrade any of the models for sale on eBay then I'm all good. ;)
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My mrrackables unit arrived yesterday with matching good tags on the sleds but an unknown chassis tag. It was on a PSU blank in the top position so who knows where that really came from, since it's my understanding that a single PSU configuration should use the top spot. Do they put a service tag sticker for the chassis anywhere else? Seems weird to have it on a part that is replaceable and potentially not present.

Guess I'll see what happens when I fired it up and check the firmware later today...
 
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jared

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Aug 22, 2013
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Ok, so i got my server up and running, its quite funny as its in my laundry room utilizing a "closet maid" brand wall rack system for holding everything up.
I will need to get pictures here soon.

In the meantime, I have 4 OCZ agility 3 SSDs setup using on-board raid from ctrl-I during boot up.
Odd part is, while in the raid config, I have them setup as raid 5, and it shows normal and good....
However, i installed vmware ESXI 5.1U1 to a thumb drive, and the system boots off that...but when i go to create a new datastore it shows all the hard drives separated and the Raid 5 seems to be missing.

So i head back into raid config on the bios, (ctrl-I) and now its showing the raid as "Rebuild" which according to dell means the raid will be rebuilt within the OS"

Not sure what that means, as I dont have the option of rebuilding the raid within ESXI 5.1u1 that I know of.
I will keep looking, and I will post pictures of the server on the wall soon =)

IF anyone has any ideas for me that would help a ton
Thanks
--
jared

edit: i wonder if maybe i need to get a LSI 9260-8i to do this?
Edit#2: I just checked and the raid config shows normal this time after I rebuit it last night, seems to have stayed put, but still no luck seeing it in esxi 5.1
 
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PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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It means that you are using the Intel on-board "raid" function, but only Windows has drivers that will recognize this as a raid array. Linux, Solaris, ESXi, and pretty much anything else just ignore Intel's chipset based raid and treat the drives as separate devices.

If you want raid underneath ESXi you have to use a supported raid controller card. ESXi does not support any form of "software" raid (or, as Intel's chipset based solution is sometimes called - "fake-raid").

Interestingly - modern Linux systems will sorta work. If a modern Linux finds an Intel chipset-raid array (because it recognizes the raid-headers written onto the drives) it will treat it as an mdadm array (Linux software raid). It still sees individual disks and does not use the chipset raid drivers, but it will work correctly with the array as a software raid. Of course, this doesn't help you with ESXi.
 
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jared

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Aug 22, 2013
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PigLover said:
It means that you are using the Intel on-board "raid" function, but only Windows has drivers that will recognize this as a raid array. Linux, Solaris, ESXi, and pretty much anything else just ignore Intel's chipset based raid and treat the drives as separate devices.

If you want raid underneath ESXi you have to use a supported raid controller card. ESXi does not support any form of "software" raid (or, as Intel's chipset based solution is sometimes called - "fake-raid").


Interestingly - modern Linux systems will sorta work. If a modern Linux finds an Intel chipset-raid array (because it recognizes the raid-headers written onto the drives) it will treat it as an mdadm array (Linux software raid). It still sees individual disks and does not use the chipset raid drivers, but it will work correctly with the array as a software raid. Of course, this doesn't help you with ESXi.
Click to expand...



HAhah
Piglover you are AWESOME!
I was just getting on here to report my findings same as what you said.
It appears i will need to get that LSI 9260-8i afterall...aarg..there goes another $300
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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You should check out the M5014 they were like $66 (no battery) but with ssd you don't want the battery as it causes many issues, though IBM wrote a paper saying samsung ssd must have write back caching otherwise the volumes drop during patrol/cc scan.
 
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PimpSmurf

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Aug 4, 2013
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I have a question myself. I'm using a LSI 9240-8i with raid 5 on my primary node. It appears that it needs special wires to connect to the backplane (?) so it can control the HDD lights. Is this available or should I be looking for a software solution for RAID drive failure alerts?

In retrospect, I wish I had gone with another mezz card instead of the PCIE card. I could have used Raid 1E instead of raid 5, and the cables I ordered were too long so it's restricting airflow. :(

jared said:
HAhah
Piglover you are AWESOME!
I was just getting on here to report my findings same as what you said.
It appears i will need to get that LSI 9260-8i afterall...aarg..there goes another $300
Click to expand...
Linux software raid would almost certainly be more efficient than the Intel fake raid anyway.
If raid 0/1/1E will work for you, there are cheap solutions with the mezzanine card available. Unless you are putting many disks on, raid 5 isn't going to be much more efficient for space if I understand correctly. Raid 6 gives protection from 2 drives going out at the same exact moment, but raid 5 + 1HS can protect against two in relatively short order.
 
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Clownius

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Aug 5, 2013
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Im probably about to grab a second one of these. Anyone know a good seller with 2.5" versions? Im looking at an SSD build this time rather than using SaS. i just found out how damned power hungry those SaS drives are. Im pulling 700W (3A) at boot time...............

The need to ship to AU without charging the nation debt though with can be hard to find.
 
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Clownius

Member
Aug 5, 2013
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Ok found one. Got a 2.5" version with the redundent PSU's already. Win Win. Drives, Raid card and some RAM and im set
 
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