The Dell PowerEdge C6220 Thread

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c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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So what I did on my 3.5" nodes was:
SATA III 1 - SSD1
SATA III 2 - SSD2
SATA II 1 - HDD1

The Intel 602 PCH if you are using SATA SSDs works well. You just do not have enough 6gbps ports because that was the generation where Intel added a 3gbps SAS controller on the PCH.

Which cables did you use? I am also using a HBA and see that this is the cable that is referred to 85C6Y
 

c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Hey everyone, those who are using a LSI card, how did you tell your system to recognize the drives from the LSI card instead of the Mobo ports?

Here is the scenario:

1. The LSI card has a SAS cable plugged into the SAS port of the Mobo to the LSI card

2. The LSI card is seen by the BIOS but no physical drives

3. The BIOS sees the hard drives but as attached to the Mobo (ACHI)





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Jb boin

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May 26, 2016
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Some pictures i took few months ago when we recieved our first C6220, you can see that the cable has 2 SAS ports on the RAID card side and on the motherboard side one SAS and two SATA (i didnt even remember it was that way) :


In my case, its the RAID card that sees the disks, they dont show up in the BIOS as far as i recall.
 

c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Thanks! It looks like you're using the cable that just plugs straight into the motherboard. Once you plugged the cable into the motherboard, do you recall having to do anything else? Or did the system just know to look for the drives on the LSI card instead of it being onboard drives?
 

c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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I bought the 85C6Y cable and tried to use it with the Dell H710 (LSI) card. However, same issue, the BIOS shows the hard drives. During POST when I go into the LSI setup interface, no drives are found.

I can't figure out if there is a certain setting I am not figuring out on how to force the C6220 to read the drives from the LSI card instead as onboard drives. I've tried multiple boards and multiple H710 cards / cables. The only thing I can think of is the C6220 only works with the LSI 9265-8I card. However, I am not sure why Dell would ever make it so it only works with a specific card.

Anyone not using a LSI 9265-8I?
 

Jb boin

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Maybe a jumper or DIP switch somewhere to modify, i would in my case be interested in doing the contrary : Bypassing the RAID card and use the motherboard SATA controller to verify if my issues are related to it or not.
 

c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Maybe a jumper or DIP switch somewhere to modify, i would in my case be interested in doing the contrary : Bypassing the RAID card and use the motherboard SATA controller to verify if my issues are related to it or not.
Turns out, unlike the C6100, the C6220 only works with specific controllers. While I had no luck using multiple different H710's, the LSI 9265 worked without changing any settings. I have never seen a system hardcoded like this but it seems to only work with specific controllers.

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Dario

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Sep 3, 2016
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Hi,

I don't find on internet dba and bels about C6220. I want compare it to the Dell R720 or R620.

Thanks!

@Jb boin
 
Last edited:

Jb boin

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May 26, 2016
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Hi,

I don't find on internet dba and bels about C6220. I want compare it to the Dell R720 or R620.

Thanks!

@Jb boin
I dont have R620s or R720s and i operate these on a datacenter so i cant be to precise on that but with all four nodes idling its not excessively noisy but when rebooting or having some load the noise level gets quite high and if you dont have four nodes its locmed at full speed which is noisy.

I wouldnt recommand these for a silent environment, its not the most practical formfactor to tune fan speed and optimize cooling, R610/710 are probably doing better in this aspect.

Another point is the chassis length, its longer than a classic 2u server which might be a problem on small cabinets.
 

skedaddle

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Jun 18, 2015
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I know this is a silly question. Google FU failed me. Can anyone tell me if I can use the 6220 nodes in the C6100 chassis? I'm assuming no but coworker asked. We use the C6100s in production and they perform pretty good and can't beat the price. Can anyone comment on the remote management for the 6220s - has it improved? We often have to reflash BMCs on the C6100 and the remote management leaves a lot to be desired. But you get what you pay for. Thanks in advance.
 
Oct 9, 2016
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Hi,
we have just bought a DELL C6220 + 384GB RAM and 8x Xeon E5-2670 v1.
The system has neither 10Gb nor Infiniband card. Also, I am totally ignorant about anything above 1Gb networking.

As far I have undestood I need 4 TCK99 boards which should be SFP+
Also I need a 4Ports 10Gbe switch with SFP+ ports. I have found a lot of cheap SFP switches but often sellers seems to write only SFP (without plus even is the SWITCH has SFP+ ports). Could you suggest a stackable cheap one ?
Also I need SFP+ transreceivers but which one should I buy ?
It seems exists 10Gb RJ45 cat6 , copper and fiber one.

Could you suggest a good combo ? 4 TCK99 + ???? Switch + ???? Transreceiver ? (Preferred 10Gb RJ45 but other wellcome)

Regards,
Giuseppe Chillemi

PS: On our network will coexist another HP DL 480 GS which will be connected via 10Gb networking
 

c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Check out the Cisco SG500X. There are 6 SFP+ Ports and I use 4 of them. Just check how many you can use while stackable (I believe it's 2). I personally use twinax. It is cheap and just as good if going short distance.

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obrienmd

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Oct 27, 2016
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Has anyone succesfully removed a PCIe SAS adapter (ours was 9210-8i) and used SATA? The manuals suggest once SAS is removed and all cables removed, the C602 onboard AHCI should cover 6 disks directly via the system board -> midplane hard connection. However, without the SAS adapter none of our SATA drives (fully populated) are seen.

I've pored over the manuals and this thread, but I'm not seeing anything... Tried AHCI/IDE/RAID options in BIOS.
 
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c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Has anyone succesfully removed a PCIe SAS adapter (ours was 9210-8i) and used SATA? The manuals suggest once SAS is removed and all cables removed, the C602 onboard AHCI should cover 6 disks directly via the system board -> midplane hard connection. However, without the SAS adapter none of our SATA drives (fully populated) are seen.

I've pored over the manuals and this thread, but I'm not seeing anything... Tried AHCI/IDE/RAID options in BIOS.
Strange, I am using the 3.5 model and confirm once the 9210 was not present the motherboard saw the drives as ACHI.

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obrienmd

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Oct 27, 2016
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And all ports (Mini-SAS and 2x SATA) on the motherboard were disconnected from everything?
 

obrienmd

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Oct 27, 2016
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Yeah, craziest thing is that the BMC logs (as viewed directly from BIOS) show drives as being pulled / replaced when I place them... But the AHCI controller has no idea they exist. I'm stumped and a little sad after spending $2k on this sucker :)
 
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c6100

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Oct 22, 2013
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Hmm, I assume you've tried other drive bays / motherboards? All the same result?

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obrienmd

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Strangely, booting into Ubuntu gives COMRESET errors... It sees _something_ on AHCI (maybe), but maybe ghosts, as even when only a few drives are connected it fails on ata1-4.

Have tried a variety of drives / caddies across both nodes.