Dell Powerege 1950 Gen II 1u

[Smokie]

Hey everyone,

I had previously posted about installing freenas on a poweredge R200 to get the standard reply of read the docs ect..

I am now looking for some advise on another machine I picked up, A Dell Poweredge 1950 Gen II 1U
I think this machine uses SAS SCSI drives and my question is would this be a problem? I like the idea that I could hot swap the drives.

Has anyone used one of these machines? Its of high spec, two quad core processors 32Gig of ram ect.


Thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

Hey everyone,

I had previously posted about installing freenas on a poweredge R200 to get the standard reply of read the docs ect..

I am now looking for some advise on another machine I picked up, A Dell Poweredge 1950 Gen II 1U
I think this machine uses SAS SCSI drives and my question is would this be a problem? I like the idea that I could hot swap the drives.

Has anyone used one of these machines? Its of high spec, two quad core processors 32Gig of ram ect.


Thanks

If it runs and meets the requirements, knock yourself out.

Just make sure the SAS controller works as a basic HBA. If not, replace it with an HBA.

 

[Smokie]

Thanks for your reply so after investigating a bit further I have discovered that the system has a PERC 5/I, INTEGRATED CONTROLLER CARD
so I will be using two 2tb Sata drives. Is there any issues using the above controller? I don't think I can remove or bypass it. If the system tries to use the raid controller would there be any specific details I need to check in the bios or something like that? I am not rushing into my build as I am trying to get everything ironed out as not to run into any problems.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ericloewe]

Thanks for your reply so after investigating a bit further I have discovered that the system has a PERC 5/I, INTEGRATED CONTROLLER CARD
so I will be using two 2tb Sata drives. Is there any issues using the above controller? I don't think I can remove or bypass it. If the system tries to use the raid controller would there be any specific details I need to check in the bios or something like that? I am not rushing into my build as I am trying to get everything ironed out as not to run into any problems.

Thanks in advance

The problem with that controller is that it won't work as a proper HBA, most likely.

The solution is to use the motherboard's SATA ports (surely it must have some) or get an LSI SAS 2008/2308 controller (IBM M1015, LSI SAS 9211, LSI SAS 9207, etc.) and flash it to IT mode.

 

[Smokie]

Ah ok I had googled it and came across what you are saying, I havent stripped the machine down to see if it has sata ports on the motherboard so I will investigate that tonight, I better look into picking up one of the controllers you have suggested. Thanks again for your quick reply.
I will continue investigating. One more thing, The machine can take two cpu's I have another one lying around, Would it be any advantage to install a second one?

 

[Ericloewe]

Ah ok I had googled it and came across what you are saying, I havent stripped the machine down to see if it has sata ports on the motherboard so I will investigate that tonight, I better look into picking up one of the controllers you have suggested. Thanks again for your quick reply.
I will continue investigating. One more thing, The machine can take two cpu's I have another one lying around, Would it be any advantage to install a second one?

If that means more RAM, sure. If not, it's doubtful you'll be needing it.