The Dell PowerEdge C6220 Thread

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Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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I do not have Dell C6220 , but I do have 5 x Intel quad nodes servers ( almost like the C6220 ).
Wait for Patrick to answer you question because he has Dell C6220 system.

My best guess is that you may need to load the Intel C602 PCH driver.
For my Intel nodes, here is the download link
Drivers & Software
This download provides support for the Intel® C600/C222/C224/C226 Chipsets on onboard SATA or SAS Controller in RSTe mode

I have to load the Intel PCH Drivers for the nodes to see the disks.
 

schammy

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Jan 2, 2016
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My best guess is that you may need to load the Intel C602 PCH driver.
Thanks for your reply but the BIOS doesn't even show the hard drives connected, it tells me all 6 SATA bays are empty. So at this stage it shouldn't be a driver issue.
 

schammy

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Jan 2, 2016
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Is there a jumper I need to tweak maybe? I'm at home now so the servers aren't in front of me but I was reading this article about installing an LSI RAID card (which again, mine do NOT have), and it mentions you have to set a jumper:

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/a...ts/poweredge-c6220_Reference Guide2_en-us.pdf

I'm wondering if perhaps these nodes used to have an LSI card in them so this jumper might set, and maybe it disables the onboard SATA or something.

The other reason I think maybe this card used to be in there is that there's a SAS cable going plugged in near the front of the node, going all the way to the back just waiting to be plugged into a card that's not there. Is this cable there by default for all servers regardless of configuration? Maybe if I unplug it, it will go back to trying to access via normal SATA?

I'm grasping at straws right now obviously... but I'm desperate. I'm going to try to contact Dell but since these were purchased used I'm afraid I won't be able to get any real support. Sorry to bogart this thread but it's one of the very few discussions I can find online of people who own this server so I'm hoping someone knows something.
 

Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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With my Intel quad nodes server which is very similar to Dell C6220 ( my guess ), only drives attached to SATA AHCI controller showed up in BIOS setting. If the drives connected to the PCH controller, then it would not shown up in BIOS.
 

Patrick

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I think the C6220 II has the configurable backplane. I am not sure how to set it. But I would guess that it has something to do with the backplane configuration.
 

schammy

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With my Intel quad nodes server which is very similar to Dell C6220 ( my guess ), only drives attached to SATA AHCI controller showed up in BIOS setting. If the drives connected to the PCH controller, then it would not shown up in BIOS.
Shouldn't they be hooked up to the SATA AHCI channel by default though? How were you able to choose what they were hooked up to?
 

schammy

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I think the C6220 II has the configurable backplane. I am not sure how to set it. But I would guess that it has something to do with the backplane configuration.
I found this article about that, looks like it's essentially like flashing the BIOS, e.g. in terms of being a PITA. It is something I will eventually try but trying to avoid for the moment as I doubt that's the issue. BTW, I did confirm I have the C6220 II in the BIOS but other than supporting newer processors and this option node/drive reconfig, there's not much different.

Dell PowerEdge C6220 II HDD zoning configuration utility v1.3 Driver Details | Dell US
 

Patrick

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Yea I am guessing that is what the issue is. I do not have one to test. I wonder if it would be easier just to get LSI cards?
 

schammy

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Jan 2, 2016
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I found some youtube videos posted by dell showing some servicing of various parts of this server. A few of them showed the nodes being removed from the chassis, and the long SAS cable I mentioned as well as the riser card that's in mine, neither one are shown in these videos. So I'm hoping that's the issue, having those (in particular the cable) plugged in is changing the way it expects to see the drives. Well, that's the next thing I'm going to try anyways. Then I'll try the HDD zoning tool reset.

I shouldn't have to buy LSI cards. The built in Intel SATA controller should work (otherwise why have it), but right now it's not.
 

schammy

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Jan 2, 2016
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I was planning to test my theory today but we had snow unexpectedly in Portland (very rare) so I was stuck at home since I live on a hill and don't have snow tires :)

We'll be testing tomorrow though. I'll update with details later.
 
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schammy

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Oh, I did notice on the ebay listing that I bought from, one of the pictures shows the extra SAS cable (The one going from the very right to the very left) and riser installed which is exactly what mine look like. I copied the image to here (so it doesn't disappear):

http://i.imgur.com/MHkINGu.jpg

Anyone here who has this server, do you remember if these were in your nodes also? I'm guessing no! (Unless you have a RAID card).


Unfortunately I can't tell the status of the jumper from this picture, which I mentioned might be the issue, as stated in this Dell PDF:

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_cloud_products/poweredge-c6220_Reference Guide2_en-us.pdf

Well, hopefully I can drive to the office tomorrow and get this figured out!
 
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schammy

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Turns out I just had to plug one of those SAS cables into the motherboard. Port highlighted in this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/0DzJdMC.png

There's only one port though, and each of these cables only does 4 drives (as labeled on the cables themselves). So unless I either install a RAID card or get a different cable, I can't use 2 of the 6 drive bays. For this first one I was configuring, that's fine as it's just going to be a load balancer, but the other one I have (and more I was planning to buy), I need all 6 bays. I'm wondering at this point if maybe it's not even possible to use all 6 drives without a RAID card, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Where I plugged it in, it's not an L-connector on this end of the cable so the cable then has to be bent down quite harshly to the point where it feels like something's about to snap in order to slide the server back in. That's pretty lame but gives me another clue that this probably isn't the default cable that's in here if you don't have a RAID card. Honestly I don't get why there's a cable at all. Clearly the backplane is connecting to this server through the slots on the front of the motherboard. Why do ANY cables need to be routed in here just to use the default controller? Dell designed the server and the motherboard, this just seems dumb.

From some marketing videos I saw of Dell's, I didn't see this cable at all on the inside, so maybe somehow it CAN work like that, but mine sure doesn't. I did test it, completely unplugging this cable from both ends and removed the riser card that was installed to see if anything changed in how the server handled the SATA routing / controller, but no luck.

If anyone here has this server without a RAID card, I'd be very curious to see what your server looks like on the inside.
 

DavidRa

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Turns out I just had to plug one of those SAS cables into the motherboard. Port highlighted in this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/0DzJdMC.png

There's only one port though, and each of these cables only does 4 drives (as labeled on the cables themselves).
I don't have one, but surely the other two drives would be addressable from the 2 SATA ports directly below that mini-SAS port?
 

schammy

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Maybe, but not with the cable I have in there. On the opposite end of the cable, there are also two mini-SATA ports, with the same port numbers (4 and 5) printed on the motherboards. The cables are plugged in on that side (one mini-SAS and two mini-SATA). I don't know where the heck they terminate but on this end of the cable it's just two SAS connectors but only one SAS port.
 

josh

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Oct 21, 2013
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Hi guys.

Can anyone that successfully installed a TCK99 in their C6220s enlighten me to the model of the bridge card? I tried using the C6100 but it seems that it a little too long so it raises the height of each node to a level where it bumps into the chassis or the node above. Such information is extremely elusive online.

Cheers,
Josh
 

frogtech

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Jan 4, 2016
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Is there any word on whether or not the backplane can negotiate SATA 6 Gbps speeds?
 

JeffroMart

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I bought a 9265 card and cable for mine, but it probably won't get here until next week, but once it does I'll update. I doubt it based on all of the documentation and other posts I've seen
 

frogtech

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Jan 4, 2016
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So after reviewing the hardware manual I can now see why the 6220 only negotiates at 3 Gbps. The midplane in this system is more of a cable extender coupled with power distribution. They ditched the midplane for each individual node in the 6220. So when you plug in HBAs to the C6220 nodes you plug directly into the mini-SAS and x2 SATA II connectors on board. The node slides into the midplane and the midplane has a SAS connector where you plug in a cable between it and the backplane.

You could probably get 6Gbps if you bypassed the plug-ins on the node and went straight to the backplane, to be honest. You just need 2 really long breakout cables.