The Dell PowerEdge C6220 Thread

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obrienmd

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Did a bit more digging. I think this may be due to my configurable SAS backplane, which does not allow "straight" SATA usage. I need both PCIe slots, so I'm grabbing a few SAS 2008 mezzanine cards to test...

Does this sound sane?
 

Jb boin

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We have successfully done than on two chassis with 4*2.5" disk nodes, upgrade the bios if it hasnt been done, try to restore it to default and check the midplane/backplane cabling as it could be pretty "funky" on the 3.5" version.

We just bought two of these 3.5" and they were cabled for 3 nodes so there is only 3 cables from midplane to backplane which are plugged to 4 disks each (one per disk row), the seller sent us a spare of these SAS to SATA+SGPIO cable (the model for the #1 node noted MB1) but the cables length make it impossible to plug them as a 4 nodes chassis with one column of disk per nodes, the only possible combination with these cables is this one :
c6220-3.5-3nodes-to-4nodes.png

Here is what it looks like cabled for 3 nodes : photo_1477052211098.jpg photo_1477052289958.jpg



To avoid risks of removing the wrong disk, we prefer to stick to 3 nodes per chassis and ordered another one, being able to use 4 disks per nodes instead of 3 is even better in the end.
 
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obrienmd

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Interesting, thanks! BIOS is upgraded, and cabling looks OK (but it is a bit hairy).

I'm going to wait for our mezzanine SAS2008 cards and see how that goes, then will dig into this further if necessary. Thanks again for the info dump!
 

GRichard

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Nov 2, 2016
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Hi guys, first post after a lot of lurking to solve problems and see reviews of stuff.

I bought a c6220 with 4 nodes off ebay, two of the nodes work great but the other two aren't playing nice.

One of them at boot shows DCS PEC bios rev 1.0.14 and has no bmc. So I tried to flash only to find out it wouldn't take it, flash mem #1 not found when I try to flash from dos. Trying to flash from windows tells me the system is not compatible, I tried every bmc revision available on Dell support. In the bios there is no Service tag number but on the back of the chassis there is one showing a standard c6220 on dell support site. My gut tells me this isn't since and must bo some sort of custom spec node since the boot screen shows DCS. The bmc led on the board is solid green, which tells us it is there but isn't booting. Also that node takes a long time to get to post, over 8 minutes (variable but always long) and shows configuring memory during all that time. I tried removing ram and leaving only minimum and using know working from another node, it didn't change the pre post problem. Any clues to what I could de next? Is it bricked for good? It came in this way so I'm not too worried about sending it back. Almost forgot, I upgraded bios to 2.5.3 now it shows bmc as ff.ff

The other problematic one has no vga. At boot is shows BANFF12. I can get logged in with the bmc, it's version 1.12 and bios is 1.0.14. If I start a vitrual kvm session I get a green screen with out of range displayed there instead of seeing post stuff. Any clues on how to fix that? Looks like vga drivers problems but I can't find anything usefull in the manual about that.

I would like to try to update that last node via bmc but I have no clue what file to upload...

Any help is really appreciated
 

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Jb boin

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Some of the last nodes i had were BANFF12 (or another number) and the others were JASPER2 (or something like that), they were shipped with a 1.0.14 BIOS if i recall correctly, i have been able to flash from DOS to 2.7.1 (its supposed to be only for C6220 II but it works fine on C6220 I as well) without any issues.

Havent tried to upgrade the BMC yet on these on i still have 4 other nodes to test and upgrade.


About the one without VGA, you mean that the VKVM is not working but the VGA port works if you plug a physical screen to it?
 

GRichard

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About the one without VGA, you mean that the VKVM is not working but the VGA port works if you plug a physical screen to it?
I meant if I use the vga port with a physical screen I get no signal and if I use BMC to get vKVM I get the green signal out of range screen.
I've since resolved that nodes' problem by removing cpu2 and using only bare minimum to post. Only 1 stick of ram in cpu1 slot A1. Got vga after that and updated bios and bmc. With the bmc updated I got rid of the green screen in vkvm and got vga port signal back. Then POST showed bios disabled cpu1 RAM slot A2 and A6. I swapped the ram in the slots with other sticks from the same node, same result, slots are still being disabled. I ran memtest and the ram sticks aren't the problem. I didn't need all the slots to be full so I just plan on leaving them empty and blame the vga problem to those slots being bad and locking up the boot with the old bios. Does that make sense?

I thought one had to update fcb first from node #4 then bmc then bios. I read that in a manual somewhere or maybe a readme file that came with an update package. Also though bmc had to be updated especially if you went up one bios revision 1.xx to 2.xx since the rev change might make the bmc not available. It's not the case since you went all the way with the most recent version (and one for v2) and didn't change bmc version and you don't have a problem.

My node that shows BMC not avalailable is a jasper one if I use to Asset Tag but shows DCS PEC when booting. I plan on doing more tests tomorrow to try to revive it. Will post results. If somebody has an idea I could try I'm all ears.
 
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Impire

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Nov 13, 2016
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Hello,

Does anyone know what type of hard drives the C6220 can support? I was going to buy the SATA III 12gb/s drives but don't know if the C6220 can take it.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

Impire

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Hello,

Does anyone know the safe BIOS to update to for the C6220? We tried to update to the latest version provided via the Dell website on one of the node but something must have gone wrong. It takes 2-3 minutes to pass memory test and now the system won't see the IMPI card any more.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 

GRichard

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Nov 2, 2016
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Hello,

Does anyone know the safe BIOS to update to for the C6220? We tried to update to the latest version provided via the Dell website on one of the node but something must have gone wrong. It takes 2-3 minutes to pass memory test and now the system won't see the IMPI card any more.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I have a node that did the exact same thing except it came in that way. From the helpme files that were included in early versions of the bios I gather that to make sure that problem doesn't occur there is an update order one has to respect. FCB (with node #4) then BMC then BIOS. You'll see once you've updated the fcb all the node will show the version change in the bios.

Might I ask where you got the system from? What name does it show at boot? How did you upgrade your bios?

To try to fix your problem you should try updating the bmc via dos. You can find early revision not available on dell's site here. But first you should check your asset tag on dell's site to know what you have on your hands system wise. Just a though, my faulty node wouldn't take a bios downgrade, since the bmc wasn't recognized the system showed as dcs pec and would not accept the operation. I got stuck at trying to find how to do a bios recovery (which isn't in the manual but I found it in the early bios updates) but again to no avail the system booted, got usb activity to the key (lights flashing) and then booted again, So my assumption is that it didn't find the file it was looking for.

In the end I returned mine to the ebay seller because it came in that way and I need the BMC to work and couldn't update it.

As for your first question, c6220 supports sata 3gbs and c6220II supports sata 6gbps. I've seen comments that say one could make sata 6gbps work on a c6220 with direct wiring from the back sas port to the backplane but I've yet to see actual proof it would and I am rather unsure it would work.
 
Oct 9, 2016
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I wish to add either 10Gbe and later Infiniband to my DELL C6220.
The idea is to use an half size 10Gbe ethernet card plugged on PCIe 2.0 16x riser and later an infiniband Connect-X mezzanine card.
Which 10Gbe networking card do you suggest to be compatible with my Dell c6220 and ESXi ?

HP NC522SPF ? (It has firmware issues which have been solved a month ago)
HP NC550SFP ?
Intel X520-DC1 or DC2 ?

Any other sugesstion ?
 

xebra

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Nov 16, 2016
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Hello,

Does anyone know the safe BIOS to update to for the C6220? We tried to update to the latest version provided via the Dell website on one of the node but something must have gone wrong. It takes 2-3 minutes to pass memory test and now the system won't see the IMPI card any more.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Just got a 4 node C6220 with 1.0.14 BIOS, 1.12 BMC and FCB firmware 11.09. I had the same problem.

I could not install windows (AHCI error) so i did a RHEL 6 boot disk and updated BIOS to 2.53. After that i made a 2nd boot disk with Windows 2k8r2 and updated the BMC to 2.53 using the PEC6220IIBMC253.exe. This took quite some time and i got a BSOD at the end :)

BMC looks fine after reboot. Will try to update FCB now
 

nbritton

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Nov 19, 2016
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Does the C6220 have iDRAC7? What equipment is supported by Dell's OpenManage software here?:

Dell OpenManage Ubuntu Repository

I'm thinking about getting a C6220 to setup an OpenStack lab at home. However, I have commissioning scripts that are dependent on racadm and syscfg. I'm not at all familiar with Dell's iDRAC hardware, does the C6100 have iDRAC6 and does the C6220 have iDRAC7? Dell seemed to imply that all 12th generation 6 series have at least iDRAC7 Express. Also I need IPMI 2.0 power control for OpenStack MaaS, I'm assuming these can handle that right?

Additionally, if I can handle 240 volts at home would it be better to get a Dell M1000e with perhaps M620 blades? I'm thinking I could set one of these up in my laundry closet by tapping into my dryers 240 volt 30 amp (7,200 watts) connection. Otherwise, I'm limited to a shared 120 volts 20 amp (2,400 watts) breaker since I can't modify my apartment's wiring.
 
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nbritton

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Does the C6220 have iDRAC7? What equipment is supported by Dell's OpenManage software here?:

Dell OpenManage Ubuntu Repository

I'm thinking about getting a C6220 to setup an OpenStack lab at home. However, I have commissioning scripts that are dependent on racadm and syscfg. I'm not at all familiar with Dell's iDRAC hardware, does the C6100 have iDRAC6 and does the C6220 have iDRAC7? Dell seemed to imply that all 12th generation 6 series have at least iDRAC7 Express. Also I need IPMI 2.0 power control for OpenStack MaaS, I'm assuming these can handle that right?

Additionally, if I can handle 240 volts at home would it be better to get a Dell M1000e with perhaps M620 blades? I'm thinking I could set one of these up in my laundry closet by tapping into my dryers 240 volt 30 amp (7,200 watts) connection. Otherwise, I'm limited to a shared 120 volts 20 amp (2,400 watts) breaker since I can't modify my apartment's wiring.
To answer my own question, no it doesn't. The C5000, C6100 and C6220 do not have any version of iDRAC. However, the C6320 does come with iDRAC8. The following link was helpful in determining which systems have DRAC, pages 35 - 40: http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-openmanage-software-8.4_Support Matrix_en-us.pdf
 
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Dariusz

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Have any of you tried replacing cooling for this server? I was able on C6100 to just plug in 4 pin PWN fans and verything was working straight away. Have any of you tried doing any fan mods?

Also any idea if a blade can be powered via ATX PSU ? Just wondering of getting 2x blade, 1k psu and hocking it up to ATX psu with custom cooling for little home render farm...
 

BLinux

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Have any of you tried replacing cooling for this server? I was able on C6100 to just plug in 4 pin PWN fans and verything was working straight away. Have any of you tried doing any fan mods?

Also any idea if a blade can be powered via ATX PSU ? Just wondering of getting 2x blade, 1k psu and hocking it up to ATX psu with custom cooling for little home render farm...
hi. thanks. can you please tell me more about the fan mod? what size and model/type of fan? and how did it change the cooling profile of the system? do you have the C6100 fully populated?
 

Dariusz

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Hey
I'm using Arctic F14 PWM PST fans. 8 fans in total. Atm I'm waiting for some metal sheets that I ordered before I can add 2 more node above it. Other than that my fan is 2 cm above the cpu heatsink + I added 2x 240mm fans for back flow or 220 cant remember. In any case the temperature is same as with stock fans so around 60-70c in full load but difference is that its silent and consumes a lot less power lol. You can work with it in the room

For the moment this is WIP progress on the cooling. But so far it was easy as hell. Just plug pwm fans and everything works straight away(Actualy I might have removed PWM/signal pins from connector not sure...). HP and its BMC system is a nightmare to get fans replaces. Dell dont care. Just plug n play as far as I can tell lol
DSC_02422k.jpg DSC_02412k.jpg

Was just wondering if I can get C6220 moded the same way Or did they do any naughty stuff with fans. Can any1 photograph thier fan labels + fan plugs/motherboard plug, what does it look like? Also if any1 can unplug all 4 fans and start node. See if there will be colling errors or Dell dont care? That would help me a lot !

Actualy if any1 can photograph in detail their render node that would be amazing ! fan plugs, power plugs, fans, fan cables etc etc...
 
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DiscoFrank

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Jan 11, 2017
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Hey everyone, thought I'd jump in on this thread.

I've got two of these chassis - one 4-node and one 3-node. The 3-node is working fine - touch wood - but the four node was delivered to me from a refurbisher with the disks wired up as a 3-node, meaning that that poor 4th node just sat there doing nothing.

They sent me an extra expander cable which I just tried to wire up, but after booting it with that in, the chassis will only let me power up one node before switching fans to max and refusing to do anything else.

Has anyone come across this problem previously, or have any idea where I may have screwed up? I've checked wiring, connections, removed power supplies, rebooted, etc.

Cheers.
 

Dariusz

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Reset bios try again maybe ?

Can you aslso take some pics of ur node/closeup ? Fan connectors/etc/etc?
 

DiscoFrank

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Jan 11, 2017
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Hi Dariusz, thanks for your reply.

The problem doesn't seem to be with the individual sleds, but with the chassis itself. It doesn't matter which node I power up, around 30 seconds after that, the chassis fans all switch to 100% and no other node can be powered on.

The disk bays are wired exactly as per the photos in jb boin's post from 29 Oct, above.

I'm at a loss, as the chassis had been working fine for two months prior to my trying to add this extra cable!
 
Oct 9, 2016
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Hi,
I wish to install ESX 6,5 but I have seen the latest supported one is version 5,5U2. Has anyone already tried installing version 6,5 ?