Hot swap bay screws: I officially dislike them

[Patrick]

For the third Saturday this year I found myself doing 100 drive-drive tray combinations. I now am a firm believer in using only three screws for SSDs.

In sets of 4-8 trays, it is not so bad. But undertakings like this seem to take 2 hours to complete by the time clean up is done.

One trend I have started to see is the removal of drive tray screws. One of the latest Supermicro servers we have has a new 2.5" tray design (on two of the 26 2.5" drive bays) that is screw-less. I did try the new trays and they are compatible with existing slots.

Likewise, I have heard that Chenbro is moving to more screw-less designs in the near future. Perhaps the next version of Intel chassis will be screw-less.

I think this will be an official main site post, however 350-400 screws per day is just about my limit. I know there are people who have greater endurance but I found my maximum.

 

[JeffroMart]

I hear you, during manufacturing runs we will build a few hundred servers at a time, and installing screws to hot swap drive trays is the worst. One thing that will help is to at least have a powered screw driver. These guys help out at least a little in terms of time spent:

Panasonic EY7410LA2S - 3.6V Cordless Drill & Driver Kit

 

[cesmith9999]

a year and a half ago we bought over 4000 servers with SSD's... there was not enough supply so we had to buy the servers without SSD and then add them later... 4000 * 5 * 4... @Patrick we all agree with you. everyone took a little bit of time adding SSD's to caddies.

do you have part numbers to the new trays?

Chris

 

[coolrunnings82]

4000 servers? Holy crap! Where do you work if you don't mind my asking?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[nthu9280]

Guess we will get a heads-up in about a year reg 20k ssds hitting the secondary market @cesmith9999

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Patrick]

do you have part numbers to the new trays?

I do not have the part numbers and they are in use in a DemoEval machine that there is a company on right now. Let me see if I can get a P/N tomorrow.

 

[Patrick]

Strike that. Took me 1 minute to find @cesmith9999

MCP-220-00117-0B

 

[cesmith9999]

Guess we will get a heads-up in about a year reg 20k ssds hitting the secondary market @cesmith9999

don't get your hopes up... those servers will run for another 5 years...

Chris

 

[cesmith9999]

Where do you work if you don't mind my asking?

Seattle Area... could be any of many companies... Microsoft, Expedia, Amazon, Google, Blue Origin, Harmon. take your pick...

Chris

 

[jgreco]

I hear you, during manufacturing runs we will build a few hundred servers at a time, and installing screws to hot swap drive trays is the worst. One thing that will help is to at least have a powered screw driver. These guys help out at least a little in terms of time spent:

Panasonic EY7410LA2S - 3.6V Cordless Drill & Driver Kit

The Panasonics are nice but a little hard to get ahold of. Milwaukee makes a very similar tool, and it is readily available at many hardware stores, can be found for less online, and comes in various versions such as the 2101-22 with two batteries and a charger, or the 2101-20 which is just the bare tool.

In the shop we usually use these with DuraSpin 9 inch #2 EA0128 bits, also available at many hardware stores, which allow you to easily reach into nooks and crannies in a crowded server chassis. Lightly magnetized with a tool magnetizer, these are amazingly flexible,

The Supermicro trays are compatible with a #2 bit but some others aren't, and for close-up work something like a Wiha bit set works better anyways.

Screwless trays are better, yes, but if you've got to do thousands of screws, a power screwdriver doesn't "help out at least a little", they actually let you go home at the end of the day without a ruined wrist.

 

[cheezehead]

Pretty slick supermicro screwless trays.

 

[ttabbal]

I've always hated them. I actually used some screwless hot-swap bays on my last build because I didn't want to deal with them. Downside is, you can't get the density with the screwless cages. It's nice to see some of the manufacturers finding a way around that problem. If I had to do this stuff professionally, I'd probably be even more insane than I already am. And that's saying something!

 

[dba]

For the third Saturday this year I found myself doing 100 drive-drive tray combinations. I now am a firm believer in using only three screws for SSDs.

In sets of 4-8 trays, it is not so bad. But undertakings like this seem to take 2 hours to complete by the time clean up is done.

One trend I have started to see is the removal of drive tray screws. One of the latest Supermicro servers we have has a new 2.5" tray design (on two of the 26 2.5" drive bays) that is screw-less. I did try the new trays and they are compatible with existing slots.

Likewise, I have heard that Chenbro is moving to more screw-less designs in the near future. Perhaps the next version of Intel chassis will be screw-less.

I think this will be an official main site post, however 350-400 screws per day is just about my limit. I know there are people who have greater endurance but I found my maximum.

Absolutely agree. After all, those little SSD drives aren't going to vibrate themselves free are they, and they certainly don't weight enough to require being screwed down.

 

[Airbozo]

I've played with the supermicro screwless trays and love them.

Wish they would fit my other servers as well...