Supermicro 6027 X9 Servers - Are X10 Nodes Compatible?

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Servergeek

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Feb 23, 2021
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I was wondering if it is possible to put X10 nodes in a Supermicro 6027 server that has X9 nodes. As long as they are similar can you pop the X10 nodes in? Or are they wired differently from the X9 nodes? These are the 4 node 2u chassis from Supermicro.

Was looking at these servers to run a couple different things and they seem to be somewhat reasonably priced for the X9 models.
 

RimBlock

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Sep 18, 2011
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I was wondering if it is possible to put X10 nodes in a Supermicro 6027 server that has X9 nodes. As long as they are similar can you pop the X10 nodes in? Or are they wired differently from the X9 nodes? These are the 4 node 2u chassis from Supermicro.

Was looking at these servers to run a couple different things and they seem to be somewhat reasonably priced for the X9 models.
Not from what I have seen.

I have a Supermicro SuperServer 6027TR-DTRF which comes with the X9DRT-HF nodes.

Connectivity between the nodes and the main chassis backplane is via a midplane card which generally handles drives and power.

I have been playing with my unit quite a bit and this is what I have found.
  • The X9DRT-HF nodes come with SATA only midplane cards.
  • Upgrading to X9DRT-HF+ 1U nodes will give you the HF+ board (with more ram slots, no PCIe slots, 10G network add-on card option and SAS midplane).
  • The X10 node midplane card I got for SAS compatibility will not work with this chassis as the power connector is on the top of the card and with the X9 midplanes it is on the bottom.
  • The X9DRT-HF+ 2U nodes will not fit the 4 blade chassis as there bits of metal inside which act as runners for the top nodes. The 2U HF+ nodes do not have a slot on the side of the node sled to take this in to account so will not slide in. The X9DRT-HF 2U nodes sled only comes up to 1U height on the sides so does fit.
  • Some of the x9 nodes come with the BPN-ADP-E16-L midplane card which enables all 12 drive access by a single node. I have one but have not tried it yet.
  • X9DRT-HF+ 1U / 2U nodes are readily available on EBay. One I bought came with an unlisted 64GB SATADOM and nodes including the 10G network card are not uncommon. They tend to be around $100 or less
  • X9DRT-HF nodes are less easy to find and expensive. These tend to be around the $250 mark each.
My unit is currently running 1x X9DRT-HF node and 1x X9DRT-HF+ (1U) node. The X9DRT-HF has a midplane from a second X9DRT-HF+ node I purchased.

The Supermicro SuperServer 6028TR-DTRF units are readily available on EBay and support the X10 nodes. Just a bit pricey for me when I have to get all new CPUs and DDR4 ram. Most of the stuff for my X9 nodes I already had lying around.

HTH
 

Servergeek

Member
Feb 23, 2021
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I was more curious because I have a bunch of 2011 stuff and wasn't entirely ready to go full into 2011-3 and DDR4 yet, so I wanted to see if it was possible to mix the blades. So there's a separate power board too? I thought all they had was a backplane that plugs into the SAS board which is the same between the generations.

Is it possible to go the other way? Get a 6028 chassis and use X9 nodes with that? Or will the midplanes not physically work with the X9DRT-HF nodes?
 
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