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FC630 1.8" drive bays supported processor configurations
Back a bit, I had intended to have one of my FC630's configured with eight 1.8" drive bays instead of the two 2.5" to allow for a few more drives for this particular server. As it turned out, apparently, the PERC controller was connected in such a way that in order for it to work, two CPUs were required, so since I want to run single CPU machines, that wasn't going to work. However, I was just looking at the FC630 manual, and in the first page after the table of contents, (Page 7), it says 'Single processor: Up to eight 1.8-inch SSDs'.
What controller/backplane combination would allow the 1.8" drive bays to function in a single CPU configuration?
DELL-Daniel My
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December 23rd, 2019 13:00
There is a configuration that uses the embedded SATA controller. When the embedded SATA controller is in a non-RAID mode acting as a pass-through controller it will support all 8 slots. When the embedded SATA is set to RAID mode it enables the PERC S130. In RAID mode the embedded SATA controller supports a maximum of 4 drives.
Subnet_Mask
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December 26th, 2019 18:00
Thanks - that clears it up a bit.
I still find it odd that Dell would have devised such a 'spread' of controller options - The fact that a 'simple' storage controller would require a second CPU is screwy. With the layout of the enclosure, personally, I think it would have made more sense to have one controller profile option - say, the H730 slim, and have that be applicable for ALL backplane configs, or have the H370 mini and reduce the 1.8" drives to six to make room for the controller under the drive bays. Or, as a third possibility, since there is no possible reason I can see to have more than one PERC controller in a FC630/M630, have the two controller interfaces - the 'Slim' one between the CPUs and the 'mini' one under the drive bays - both connect to the same 'data lanes', in such a way that you couldn't have both connected at the same time or else you'd get a hard halt on boot due to the conflict (and why would you?).
If you look at a R720 - There is the NDC - pretty much always a quad port, either four 1Gbe or two 1Gbe and two 10Gbe, then seven PCIe slots. If memory serves, four are active with one CPU and the last three are activated if you have a second CPU. So that being said, in a FC630/M630, with VERY limited expansion compared to a Rx20 or Rx30 or higher, why was the system designed this way? It seems, based on looking at the R720, that there would be plenty of PCIe lanes from one CPU for a Quad port NDC and two discrete PERC ports.
The idea that something as 'basic' as a RAID controller would require two CPUs to be able to function is 'goofy'.