Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 - Rackmount DAS

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T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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Is this the same member here? Looks like Ive seen these goodies before :D D:
 

unclerunkle

Active Member
Mar 2, 2011
150
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Wisconsin
Seems like a pretty decent deal. Even supposedly comes with a SFF8088 cable.

Just wish it was more than 12 x 3.5" and 4 x 2.5" drives.
 

PithyChats

Active Member
Feb 3, 2015
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Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 Rack Mountable Das Array 70F10000UX | eBay

260 + 43 for shipping, bringing it to 303, the cheapest I've seen anywhere.

Front drive bays are SAS only otherwise I would've bit a long time ago.

I have these running with Sata drives. Works just fine. Does come with 1 or two SAS cables 1M, depending on whether you get the 1 or two controller model. This is not quiet, fans run about 12k by default, but can be quieted down in Windows or Linux using SES (Thinkserver storage array utility). Unfortunately I have not found a way to quiet them down using the serial interface.

By default this does not come with caddies or the expansion bays needed for 4 x 2.5" drives.
 
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Dajinn

Active Member
Jun 2, 2015
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Oh really? Interesting. Just googled, this is the 1 controller module.

Does it come with caddies for the front that are usable and not just blanks?
 

PithyChats

Active Member
Feb 3, 2015
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Oh really? Interesting. Just googled, this is the 1 controller module.

Does it come with caddies for the front that are usable and not just blanks?

Unfortunately it just comes with blanks.

If you are stateside, Caddies are cheap on Ebay, you want IBM part 03X3969.

If you are in Canada I might be able to help you out, as these are harder to find there.
 
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Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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Last deals for the DAS chassis on Ebay was $200 shipped.
But I didn't like to spend another 12 x $14 on disk trays.
 
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Dajinn

Active Member
Jun 2, 2015
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I don't understand why these come with blanks and not usable trays...only Lenovo would do something like that.
 

PithyChats

Active Member
Feb 3, 2015
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I don't understand why these come with blanks and not usable trays...only Lenovo would do something like that.

Not that I am trying to defend Lenovo per se, but all the big players do this. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Cisco etc. The idea is that if you buy a hard drive for the system you will get a unit that has possibly custom firmware and has been validated for the system. You then get the caddy with the drive. Of course this is maddening for those who want to use their own drives, but as far as the manufacturers are concerned, all non-validated hard drives have no warranty so you would not want them.

Unfortunately Lenovo does not make it easy to just buy the caddy. Neither does HP, while Dell will tell you that you cannot order just the caddy, then sell it to you anyways.
 
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cbiggers

New Member
Nov 8, 2015
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I have these running with Sata drives. Works just fine. Does come with 1 or two SAS cables 1M, depending on whether you get the 1 or two controller model. This is not quiet, fans run about 12k by default, but can be quieted down in Windows or Linux using SES (Thinkserver storage array utility). Unfortunately I have not found a way to quiet them down using the serial interface.

By default this does not come with caddies or the expansion bays needed for 4 x 2.5" drives.
What controller are you using? It is a Lenovo or generic? I can't seem to see them in Windows but the SA120 is detected by the controller in the bios.
 

MiniKnight

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2012
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Lenovo does pretty hardcore drive locking in its servers. I don't know about these external DAS.
 
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PithyChats

Active Member
Feb 3, 2015
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What controller are you using? It is a Lenovo or generic? I can't seem to see them in Windows but the SA120 is detected by the controller in the bios.

I have used both. With a standard LSI controller, the SES commands and associated utility (Thinkserver storage utility) don't seems to work, but the drives show up and work fine.
 

dstanding

Member
Jan 27, 2015
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Morristown NJ
I've got one of these running in my system. Controller is an LSI SAS9200-8e. Thinkserver control utility works perfectly, can monitor/control no problem. Drives are currently 9x4TB RE4.
 

cbiggers

New Member
Nov 8, 2015
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I've got one of these running in my system. Controller is an LSI SAS9200-8e. Thinkserver control utility works perfectly, can monitor/control no problem. Drives are currently 9x4TB RE4.
What firmware is yours running? I put in a SAS drive i had lying around and it detects it fine. I put in a few small sata drives and a Samsung 850 pro and it wouldn't detect it. I wonder if it just needs a newer drive or what.
 

dstanding

Member
Jan 27, 2015
97
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Morristown NJ
What firmware is yours running? I put in a SAS drive i had lying around and it detects it fine. I put in a few small sata drives and a Samsung 850 pro and it wouldn't detect it. I wonder if it just needs a newer drive or what.
My IOCCs are running FW 1007. I have no trouble detecting any of the SATA drives I own.
 

cbiggers

New Member
Nov 8, 2015
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My IOCCs are running FW 1007. I have no trouble detecting any of the SATA drives I own.
Crazy. I have 3 and have opened 2 up. 1 is at home, 1 is at work. I couldn't get the one at work to dectect any drives, I just tested the one at home. I put an 8tb seagate archive in it and it doesn't detect it. I do have the little 2.5 sata enclosures for the back though. The SATA SSDs detect fine. No matter what I do it won't detect any sata HDs in the front bays though.

If anyone has a clue what the issue could be it, i'm all ears.
 

alex1002

Member
Apr 9, 2013
519
19
18
I have this unit, sitting in my server room. I purchased it for a Funny reason. It came with two power supplies which fit their servers also. This unit was sold brandnew for $299 at the time, while the PSU for the Lenovo servers were going for $449 each. I got this instead and pulled the PSUs. I did play with it, it takes the SAS/SATA drives, you just to get the Lenovo Trays, you also need the HP 2.5 adapters that will make 2.5 work in this unit. I also tested with LSI card and make a raid 10 with ssd caching enabled (cachecaid) It did work great.

Heres the original Lenovo trays (I highly recommend these vs the oem, the oems work but the led lights never show correctly so you cant let if the drive is on or dead.
Original Lenovo RD330 RD630 3.5" HDD Tray Caddy 03X3969 31050780 RD530 RD430
This is the adapters you need to make ssds 2.5 to work in enclosure
hp 654540-001 2.5" SAS/SATA/SSD to 3.5" Drive Adapter FOR 651314-001 F238F tray
 
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cbiggers

New Member
Nov 8, 2015
21
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I have this unit, sitting in my server room. I purchased it for a Funny reason. It came with two power supplies which fit their servers also. This unit was sold brandnew for $299 at the time, while the PSU for the Lenovo servers were going for $449 each. I got this instead and pulled the PSUs. I did play with it, it takes the SAS/SATA drives, you just to get the Lenovo Trays, you also need the HP 2.5 adapters that will make 2.5 work in this unit. I also tested with LSI card and make a raid 10 with ssd caching enabled (cachecaid) It did work great.

Heres the original Lenovo trays (I highly recommend these vs the oem, the oems work but the led lights never show correctly so you cant let if the drive is on or dead.
Original Lenovo RD330 RD630 3.5" HDD Tray Caddy 03X3969 31050780 RD530 RD430
This is the adapters you need to make ssds 2.5 to work in enclosure
hp 654540-001 2.5" SAS/SATA/SSD to 3.5" Drive Adapter FOR 651314-001 F238F tray
I have thrown every sata HD I have inside it. The controller never detects them. Seems a lot of people have had good luck with it seeing SATA drives, but I have 3 of these and no controllers see them. The unit does as I connect in with the console cable but the drives are marked as failed. Its an awesome DAS but I may just have to sell these as a loss since I can't make sata drives detect.