Ode to the Dell C2100/FS12-TY

Mirfster

Doesn't know what he's talking about
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Now hopefully the RAM issue that I had initially doesn't come up at some point too :p
My MB/CPU combo didn't like DDR3L for some reason; I could run with a different CPU with my RAM no problem; I could run with my CPU and DDR3 non-low voltage. I ended up mixing the DDR3 (I had 2x8GB, not enough to run on) and DDR3L (8x8GB, what I bought) which forced the DDR3L to run at standard voltage and works without issue besides a message complaining about it.

UPDATE: I swear to god this thing is gonna give me a heart condition. I've started the burn-in testing using the SAS->SATA ports since the drives autonegotiate to SATA2 and they've hit 46C compared to the other drives at 40C. I guess I'm going to have to unquiet my BMC to get some higher fan speeds, good thing this thing is in an unused room.

As far as RAM goes, I personally exclusively use Samsung M393B2K70CM0-YF8 (Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-M3...398569?hash=item2ad16fe869:g:rLgAAOSwxm5dPigB). I tried best never to mix RAM to avoid any issues.

What drives are you using again? If they are SAS, expect them to run hotter. Especially if you are burning them in anyways.

In all honesty, I have always had my Critical Temp Warning set at "48" and really never had issues (for both SAS and SATA drives). Most people would say I was running too hot, but if you check the actual Vendor specs of your drives, you may be surprised at what temps they can really handle. Example: I have a server filled with 12xHGST 4TB SAS (HUS724040ALS640). Per the Specs, Ambient Operating Temps are 5 to 60 C; so personally I feel my setting of 12C below max is safe.

My Servers run 24/7 in my "basement office" not more than 6 feet from me (in a Dell Full Server Rack). However, when I first moved everything there a few years ago I did stick a standing fan in front of the rack running on low just because I had moved everything from my hot garage (concrete floors hold crap tons of heat during summer). This is not due to me worrying about any particular Server, it was because I have 4 of them running along with a Raritan KVMoIP, 1GB Switch, 10 GB Switch, UPS, Raritan PDU, 17" Dell Slide Out Monitor/KB/Mouse, etc..

I have considered exploring the Dell R730xd, since the C2100/FS12-TY are super antiquated; but just can't bring myself to it. Heck I still have 2 Servers with 24x2.5" bays I have been waiting to fill when SSDs get really cheap. :)

Last note, I still run FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE-201605240427... ;)
 

BetYourBottom

Contributor
Joined
Nov 26, 2016
Messages
141
As far as RAM goes, I personally exclusively use Samsung M393B2K70CM0-YF8 (Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-M3...398569?hash=item2ad16fe869:g:rLgAAOSwxm5dPigB). I tried best never to mix RAM to avoid any issues.

What drives are you using again? If they are SAS, expect them to run hotter. Especially if you are burning them in anyways.

In all honesty, I have always had my Critical Temp Warning set at "48" and really never had issues (for both SAS and SATA drives). Most people would say I was running too hot, but if you check the actual Vendor specs of your drives, you may be surprised at what temps they can really handle. Example: I have a server filled with 12xHGST 4TB SAS (HUS724040ALS640). Per the Specs, Ambient Operating Temps are 5 to 60 C; so personally I feel my setting of 12C below max is safe.

My Servers run 24/7 in my "basement office" not more than 6 feet from me (in a Dell Full Server Rack). However, when I first moved everything there a few years ago I did stick a standing fan in front of the rack running on low just because I had moved everything from my hot garage (concrete floors hold crap tons of heat during summer). This is not due to me worrying about any particular Server, it was because I have 4 of them running along with a Raritan KVMoIP, 1GB Switch, 10 GB Switch, UPS, Raritan PDU, 17" Dell Slide Out Monitor/KB/Mouse, etc..

I have considered exploring the Dell R730xd, since the C2100/FS12-TY are super antiquated; but just can't bring myself to it. Heck I still have 2 Servers with 24x2.5" bays I have been waiting to fill when SSDs get really cheap. :)

Last note, I still run FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE-201605240427... ;)

Yeah, I wouldn't have mixed the RAM if I could've avoided it at the time (had less money/didn't want to invest too heavily in my first project).

They are SATA drives, WD140EMFZ. I just shucked them the other day, they are 14TB and should also be Helium. They might be running hotter because I think they are a bit larger physically and may not be letting as much air pass, and combine that with them being on the right side, connected to the SATA breakouts, where they are further from the fans. I'll keep an eye on their temps but I did raise critical to 50C last night after some reading about it.

I couldn't even consider the R730xd, I think that's still over $1k on ebay. I have been looking at the R720xd a little bit because I saw a listing for ~$400 and I could consider not needing a new backplane ~$100 discount. I kinda have been thinking about if it could lower my power usage a bit (newer CPUs being more efficient). I could reuse my RAM since it's still DDR3, and it has more fans so if it lets me tweak the curves to be less aggressive I'd bet it could be pretty quiet.

I've also thought a little bit about rolling my own since I could then upgrade pieces as I go instead of the entire thing but I don't know enough about the market to be able to find good-quality cheap parts. An fully assembled unit (even if it's missing RAM or CPU) is a bit easier to deal with.

However, I'm not sure how much of a power savings I'd get if at all with an upgrade to an R720xd or even a DIY; so I don't know if I could consider it really worth it. But damn does looking at the newer design of the R720xd get me drooling a bit.
 

lukemart

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Jun 11, 2020
Messages
1
I have 6 6TB drives and i have my old 2TB (5) drives lying around but cramming all that in an old antec case is difficult and makes any maintenance when a drive failure occurs a pain. Missed out on the ebay supermicro 24 bays that went for like $300 in Jan 2015 as that would have been a good resolution. Did want to plop too much $$$ into anything now. When get into a real house next year and have more space will then invest more into an ideal setup. I could get a newer fs12 barebones variant for $120 or so off ebay but then getting the sleds and everything is $$$ (i have sleds but id sell off the older fs12 cheap to recoup and most buyers want them). and it doesnt make sense to me to drop $200+ into a c2100 with sleds at this time as some deal will pop up in the next 12 months on a supermicro with newer CPU support that would also be more power friendly.
 

Daisuke

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Jun 23, 2011
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I configured jails on a separate SSD and installed Plex Plugin. I currently run on L5640 and the hardware acceleration is not enabled. Can you please recommend the cheapest CPU I could get on eBay, supporting hardware acceleration? I found this page, but I'm not sure what model to pick for a good balance of power consumption and price.

Screen Shot 2020-06-28 at 2.41.08 PM.png
 
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BetYourBottom

Contributor
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Nov 26, 2016
Messages
141
If you are specifically referring to Intel QuickSync I don't believe any of the CPUs that would fit the C2100 motherboard have QuickSync.

If I'm correct on this then your only real option for hardware acceleration would be to purchase a cheap GPU that supports NVENC. I personally have looked at getting something like the Quadro P400 which is under $100 on ebay and should be able to support 2 encode streams at a time.
 

Pascal666

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Pascal666

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I spent a few hours doing that. Nobody that says they have it on their site seems like a legitimate business. The ones on Amazon for ~$150 have a photo of it but say it is for a 2.5" drives. I sent them a message and they confirmed it was for 2.5" drives. IDK.
There are two different sellers listed for that part on Amazon. IIRC the only two options are 12x 3.5" or 24x 2.5". The connectors are the same on both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives.

If you click the "Shopping" link near the top of the Google results you can see cheaper results.

Use a credit card. If you don't receive the correct part and they refuse to give you a refund, do a chargeback.
 

piperfect

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Jan 22, 2015
Messages
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There are two different sellers listed for that part on Amazon. IIRC the only two options are 12x 3.5" or 24x 2.5". The connectors are the same on both 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives.

If you click the "Shopping" link near the top of the Google results you can see cheaper results.

Use a credit card. If you don't receive the correct part and they refuse to give you a refund, do a chargeback.
I know how Amazon and Google and credit cards work. I was asking if anyone knows a good place to buy one.
For example where, did you get yours from?
 

piperfect

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Jan 22, 2015
Messages
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I configured jails on a separate SSD and installed Plex Plugin. I currently run on L5640 and the hardware acceleration is not enabled. Can you please recommend the cheapest CPU I could get on eBay, supporting hardware acceleration? I found this page, but I'm not sure what model to pick for a good balance of power consumption and price.

View attachment 39629
I would run Plex it on a recycled desktop PC in a rack chassis with an NFS mount to the media. The westmeres can do an x264 stream or two but they are terrible at x265. I switched to Emby a while back because it works better with HAProxy.
 

Mirfster

Doesn't know what he's talking about
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Oct 2, 2015
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3,215
Does anyone know where I can buy a KFF57 backplane?

C2100/FS-12TY Parts and Servers have been becoming much more rare, I would suggest maybe reaching out to some prior EBay Sellers and asking them. Worse case you could even consider buying a bare-bones unit so you have lots of spare parts. ;):
 

Comet Jo

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Oct 20, 2014
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Yeah back in 2017 when I had to get a different backplane for mine, ended up having to buy from an eBay seller in the UK!
 

NgtFlyer

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Feb 9, 2021
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So, forgive me for being late to the party. I have had my FS12TY since 2014. It has been extremely reliable over the years. The only events I have logged are a bad hard drive in 2016 and I had to replace the PERC battery late in 2020. My particular server was a Facebook node in its previous life and is the Quanta version.
I had read about the BMC update and just haven't really thought to mess with it since my server has been relatively quiet the entire time I've owned it. Fans always stay right around the 3100RPM mark.
Well, overnight, I was able to get a downtime window so I could do the BMC firmware update, thinking maybe it would run even quieter.
I followed the instructions and I am now on BMC 1.66. The fans are right back at 3100 RPM. Is this what is expected? It doesn't bother me as the server rack resides in a space where the noise does not disturb. It's still relatively quiet, I just wanted to confirm 3100 is the expected fan speed. My server has a single Xeon E5630L processor.

Also, another topic, these servers seem to have a good record for reliability. As my unit is now almost 10 years old, how long would one expect it to last? Should I plan to upgrade to a newer machine before I plan an upgrade to my current FS12TY? A new, set of much larger hard drives is planned. I would probably go with an R720XD with an H310 controller to IT mode if I go with a newer server.

Thanks for this great thread full of useful information for us C2100 owners.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
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Realistically, if something's been running this long, it's likely to run until it's no longer useful, aside from fans and PSUs, which are easily replaced. And disks, of course, but those are evil.
 

Pascal666

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Jan 28, 2018
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I just moved and now my FS12-TY appears to be dead. Both power supplies light up green, but the front buttons do nothing. The front fault LED is solid amber, the rear fault LED is solid green, and both ID LEDs are solid blue. The power supply fans are both running on low, but I can't get the system itself to power up. The Ethernet ports link up, but I can't ping the iBMC. I pulled the PCIe riser, 85M9R, and all SATA cables with no change.

I don't know what the JP2 iBMC Disable jumper is supposed to do. It seems to have no effect.

I tried the CMOS clear procedure with J24 and when I reapplied power the main fans came on and the power and HDD LEDs were solid green, but the fault and ID LEDs were still lit, the front buttons did nothing, and the system did not actually boot. Disconnecting and reconnecting power brought me right back where I started.
 

NgtFlyer

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Feb 9, 2021
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I just moved and now my FS12-TY appears to be dead. Both power supplies light up green, but the front buttons do nothing. The front fault LED is solid amber, the rear fault LED is solid green, and both ID LEDs are solid blue. The power supply fans are both running on low, but I can't get the system itself to power up. The Ethernet ports link up, but I can't ping the iBMC. I pulled the PCIe riser, 85M9R, and all SATA cables with no change.

I don't know what the JP2 iBMC Disable jumper is supposed to do. It seems to have no effect.

I tried the CMOS clear procedure with J24 and when I reapplied power the main fans came on and the power and HDD LEDs were solid green, but the fault and ID LEDs were still lit, the front buttons did nothing, and the system did not actually boot. Disconnecting and reconnecting power brought me right back where I started.

The system was moved and now is not powering on. This would indicate something has come loose in the move. The BMC has found a condition which is putting the system in shutdown state to prevent damage.

Unplug both power supplies
Reseat the Riser AND RAID card, reseat front panel connectors, make sure power supplies are locked in place. Reseat any mezzanine card you may have. Reseat the cables leading from your RAID card to your backplane. You may also want to pop and reseat all RAM, leaving them in the same sockets. You should not have to remove the heatsink or mess with the processor.

Basically, aside from CPU, if it has a connector, reseat it. Loose drives won't prevent a system from powering up but would obviously cause them to error out when the system does boot, so you know where to focus first. Good luck.
 

Jason Hamilton

Contributor
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Jul 4, 2013
Messages
141
I just moved and now my FS12-TY appears to be dead. Both power supplies light up green, but the front buttons do nothing. The front fault LED is solid amber, the rear fault LED is solid green, and both ID LEDs are solid blue. The power supply fans are both running on low, but I can't get the system itself to power up. The Ethernet ports link up, but I can't ping the iBMC. I pulled the PCIe riser, 85M9R, and all SATA cables with no change.

I don't know what the JP2 iBMC Disable jumper is supposed to do. It seems to have no effect.

I tried the CMOS clear procedure with J24 and when I reapplied power the main fans came on and the power and HDD LEDs were solid green, but the fault and ID LEDs were still lit, the front buttons did nothing, and the system did not actually boot. Disconnecting and reconnecting power brought me right back where I started.
Did you have any luck getting yours to power back up? We took a power outage overnight and I wasn't able to gracefully shutdown my servers before the batteries ran out. Mine is showing the same exact condition as yours. I've already reseated all of my ram but I'll try to reseat the riser card and the raid card as well as everything else I can come across.
As a precaution I ordered a standby mobo off of ebay this morning just in case.
 

Jason Hamilton

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Joined
Jul 4, 2013
Messages
141
Did you have any luck getting yours to power back up? We took a power outage overnight and I wasn't able to gracefully shutdown my servers before the batteries ran out. Mine is showing the same exact condition as yours. I've already reseated all of my ram but I'll try to reseat the riser card and the raid card as well as everything else I can come across.
As a precaution I ordered a standby mobo off of ebay this morning just in case.
Ok pulled everything including CPU and reseated it with no love. Guess I'll have to wait for the new mobo to arrive in and swap that in. Unless someone has some magic idea. I do have a Dell R720XD that I could try and move into but it has the h710mini in it for a raid controller so I don't think I can just plop in the LSI card from the C2100 straight into it as the cables look different too. Ugh
 
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