Dell c6145 Notes, Tips, and Stories

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jared

New Member
Aug 22, 2013
38
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Amazing Answer!

I think I am sold, now I just have to get the wifey to be willing to let me to spend more money after I save it up, HAHA.
I would probably just stick with the single node for what I need at this time, although that "cluster in a box" sounds like a super fun project.
At least I know where to go for the heat sinks once it time to buy.

Once I get it, I will start adding my stories here too =)
Thanks dba

--
jared
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
20
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Here is a c6145 system block diagram (estimated)

The system works with one CPU on socket1. (w/o PCIe slot1/2)
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
20
6
3
FIXED rate fan control (FCB version 1.21)

There are three jumper pins on FCB(fan control board) marked as J2 near the MLB side,
they are described "fan speed control jumper" on the hardware manual.
I found some jumper patterns cause the fans to fixed speed rate.

no jumper: automatic(default)
J2.A:6200rpm
J2.B:7300rpm
J2.A+J2.B:8600rpm
J2.C:10000rpm
J2.C+J2.A:11200rpm
(<<<(HDD side) J2.A J2.B J2.C (PSU side)>>>>)
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
20
6
3
Changing the zoning of expander

I have a 2.5in expander, that zoning is upper12, lower12.
I changed its zoning to upper4(HDD1-4), lower20(HDD5-24) by below operations.

**** Fault operations may cause your expander to unusable! PLZ be careful! ****

1. Get xutil.exe tool from "DELL PowerEdge c8000 Expander firmware 1.0.3.0",
located in XTOOLS\xtools_xutil\rel\windows.

2. from administrator's command prompt, get expander's sas address.
C:>xutil -i get avail
1) at (SAS2x36) (500605B0:000272BF) (0.0.0.0)

If you dont see any expanders here, your sas card may not be used to update firmware.
(I used SAS2008 mezzanine card)

3.upload(expander->host) original mfg(manufacture) configuration file.
C:>xutil -i 500605b0000272bf up mfg orig3.mfg 3
where 500605b0000272bf is a sas address of expander found in 2.

4.check if md5 of orig3.mfg is DF72E080CBB69EFA75AF75858AEF677B
If not matched, stop continueing.

5.download(host->expander) sample mfg file (attached to this post)
C:>xutil -i 500605b0000272bf down mfg samp3upper4lower20.mfg 3
Initializing Interface.
Expander: at (SAS2x36)
Image Validation: Passed
Checksum: Passed
Current Version: 01.01
Replacement Version: 01.01
Pre-Validation of image is successful.
Are you sure to download file to expander?(y/n):y
Downloading File.Download Complete.
Post-validating.......Post-Validation of image is successful.
Download Successful.

6.power-off your server and restart.

For more information, readme.txt in attached file.

http://z.apps.atjp.jp/memo/c6145zoning.zip
 

ouest

New Member
Jul 17, 2013
11
1
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Hi,

the difference between sata and sas, and that sas has got 2 channels.

in spec sas, he said we could use 1 disk in the same time by 2 hosts.

Channel 1 -> host 1
Channel 2 -> host 2

How can someone configure it? Or it could be?

Thank you.
 

zoroyoshi

New Member
Dec 10, 2013
20
6
3
Hi;

The SAS drive cage in c6145 does not have secondary channel for sas-drive.

BTW, the ability of 2-channels of sas is for fault-tolerance of cables or expanders or external raid-controllers,
connecting each channel to another host may require some special softwares/drivers to handle disk correctly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ouest
Jan 25, 2016
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Hi !
I was looking for a non expensive server on ebay and I managed to find all the pieces to make a dell poweredge C6145 exepted the rack mount (the piece that connects the motherboard to the motherboard, don't know how it's called sorry). I wonder if there is a piece that allows to connect a normal pto that motherboard without going throught the piece that connects the two motherboards. I just would like to run one motherboard no two...
Tanks Gabriele Anastopoulos.
 

Radian

Member
Mar 1, 2011
59
5
8
Anyone know where to find a C6145 chassis? I've got 4 6300 CPU's from an old cluster that I'm looking to house in a quad motherboard. Ebay seems to be selling fully populated units for mega$, I have the motherboard so just need the case or a means of interfacing a PSU to the Dell MB.

Cheers
 

Radian

Member
Mar 1, 2011
59
5
8
Issues with upgrading BMC - has anyone had issues upgrading firmware on the BMC? I've got a C6145 (ended up getting the complete chassis), and while it works with 4 CPU's I can't get IPMI to work properly. I can flash BIOS but BMC stuck at 1.04 (flashing gives an error "check dell header"). Anyone had success with theirs?

I notice that the middle plane interface board (where tray connects to PSU and drives) seems to have a cable missing from the IPMB connector, is this required for flashing BMC?
 

Pezhman Darabi

New Member
Nov 18, 2016
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c6145 Power capping:

I am testing out different CPUs in the c6145. So far:

1) Quad AMD 6128 - runs great. 86GB/S memory bandwidth, even with only half of the DIMM slots filled. 1.22TB/S peak cache bandwidth.
2) Dual AMD 6276 ES version - runs a lower than its rated speed. The 2.3 GHz CPU runs at 1.87GHz when placed under load. I suspect that the BIOS is capping total power consumption, even though I have this feature disabled. Cache bandwidth benchmark is showing lower than expected throughput - just 1.38TB/Second peak
3) Quad AMD 62xx ES version - 12 cores per CPU. Runs at 1.7GHz under load. Lower than expected cache bandwidth, as with the 6276ES.
 

Pezhman Darabi

New Member
Nov 18, 2016
2
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1
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Hi
I bought a c6145 with 16*8 GB Hynix 1333Mhz ram and 4 6276 Opteron CPUs for computational purposes. now I've assembled the system but the monitor doesn't show anything. can u help me with this? which parts are necessary for first run?
I tried 4 CPU, 2 CPU, 16gb ram, 64gb ram in different ways but nothing appeared.
it restarts 3 times with no display, vga chip and cpus get warm, sounds they work.
may I miss a cable connector or smth else..?
 
Last edited:

frogtech

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2016
1,482
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So what's the final verdict on the storage system capabilities on this? It's a shame they used an expander instead of just doing straight through cabling; they were able to do it with the C6100 so not sure where they got choked up in doing it for this... anyway.

It's a little unclear to me as SAS2 is 6.0 Gbps...if the LSI card previously mentioned in the thread was able to get 6.0 speeds I wonder if that means that the speeds are determined by the controller and not the backplane/expander.
 

valer_1

New Member
Feb 2, 2018
1
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Hi everyone!
I have single motherboard from c6145 server with CPU and RAM.
My goal is to run this board separately, without other server parts. I would be very grateful for any information that can help me. Especially need power connector pinout information.
Thanks.