Free Dell T610

[traft]

Hello everyone,

I just inherited a free Dell T610 with the following specs:

iDRAC6 Express
Broadcom 5709 Dual Port 1GbE NIC w/TOE iSCSI, PCIe-4
Embedded Broadcom, GB Ethernet NICS with TOE
No Operating System
PERC 6/i SAS RAID Controller 2x4 Connectors, Internal, PCIe 256MB Cache
RAID 1/RAID 5 for H700 or PERC 6/i Controllers
160GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive-Entry
HD Multi-Select
Dell Management Console
Optical SATA for PowerEdge T61 0/T710
No Rails
PowerEdge T610 Shipping
Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit
Energy Smart Power Supply Redundant, 570W
Power Saving BIOS Setting
12GB Memory (6x2GB), 1333MHz Single Ranked RDIMMs for 1 Processor, Optimized
PowerEdge T610 Heat Sink for 1 Processor
DIMM Blank for PowerEdge T610
X5560 Xeon Processor, 2.8GHz 8 M Cache, Turbo, HT, 1333MHz Max Mem
DVD+/-RW, SATA, INTERNAL
No Second Processor
Power Cord, NEMA 5-15P to C13, 15 amp, wall plug, 10 feet / 3 meter
PE T610 Tower Chassis for Up to Eight 3.5-Inch Hard Drives and Intel 56XX Processors

I was also given 8 x 1 GB WD black SATA HDDs and 16 more GB of compatible memory (4 x 4GB DIMMS, the current ram configuration is 6 x 2 GB DIMMS). Since everything was free I have been considering using it for a Freenas build and plex server (docker). If I did that what would I need to add/change? I would guess replacing the Perc 6/i might be necessary since I did not see a JBOD option when in the controller. Also possibly adding SSD's for caching and a video card for hardware transcoding for plex. Are these correct assumptions? What am I missing? I appreciate your feedback.

If it's not good for Freenas I was also considering running proxmox but I'd rather not as I have a Xen Virtualization server colocated at the local datacenter where I run most of my VM's.

 

[joeinaz]

I would do the following:

1. Replace the PERC6 controller with a SAS controller that has been set to "IT Mode". If you are able to cable the backplane successfully continue.
2. Boot the system to see if the installed 160GB disk is recognized by the new controller. If so, continue.
3. Swap the 160GB Dell disk with one of the 1GB WD disks and boot the system. If the system boots with no error indicators, continue.
4. Identify the disk carrier (by part number) and try to find a quantity on eBay to house your 1TB WD disks.

Once the system has 8 of your WD disks installed and you can successfully boot you have to choose where to install FreeNAS. Test the installation by attempting to install FreeNAS on an attached USB key. After successfully installing FreeNAS on your system, the next step is a permanent home for your FreeNAS boot disk. If there is a free power connector and an available SATA port, find an inexpensive SSD and install it somewhere in the case. The 2nd option is to use the power and SATA connector from the CD for your SSD. The last and easiest option is to boot from installation on the USB key.

Good Luck!