PowerEdge 2950 with SAS controller and SSD

What size of drive controller backplane are you using?

 

Is it 2.5" or 3.5"  ?

How old is your 2950 server?

 

Also is it possible for you to try a magnetic (rather than SSD) SATA II drive to see if it is recognised? This way you know if it doesnt recognise SATA II fullstop or whether it is just SSD SATA II it doesnt recognise.

 

Thanks

What I meant to say was which 2950 backplane size are you using (rather than which SSD size).

 

Has your 2950 got an 8  *   2.5"  hard drive backplane  or an   x *  3.5"  one?

 

 

I have both the 2.5" and 3.5" SSD.

 

Yes, Normal SATA2 magnetic based drives work fine

 

 

It is very unusual for them to be disabled (after you enable them) during a reboot. The question is whether Dell are detecting and disabling SSDs somehow on their backplanes or whether the Samsungs are fully SATA II. While conducting my investigations on SSD I spoke to an engineer who has used the Samsungs in a server so it is possible using them but obviously not on Dells. You maybe need to look elsewhere for a server, as I will be doing if Dell have indeed turned off SSDs but not magnetic SATA II's. You cant stand in the way of progress (if Dell have done this) and people will look elsewhere if so. If the MTron SATA II's dont work, being designed specifically for servers and the fact they have been used on the 2.5" 2950 backplane before then I will smell a ginormous rat.

 

Is your 2950 hard drive backplane an 8 *  2.5" or x * 3.5" one?

 

I also found this .. it may be the reason for compatibility issues with these SSDs and different controllers.

 

http://www.dvnation.com/ssdfaq.html

 

Q: Do you carry SATA II SSDs?  Is there performance difference? 
A:  SSD performance is based ONLY on the manufacturer and series, NOT by the connector.  Think about it.  The bandwith of IDE is 133MB/s, yet no hard drive in the world can sustain that speed...Not even a 10,000RPM SATA II Raptor!  In other words, Western Digital COULD make an IDE Raptor of the same performance.  Example number 2: We carry an MTRON 32GB IDE (PATA) SSD that SUSTAINS A READ SPEED of 105MB/s!  Thats and IDE SSD that is MUCH faster than a SATA Raptor hard disk, and faster than most SATA SSDs as well.  Samsung has announced "SATA II" SSDs that will read at 100MB/s.  The MTRON PRO SSDs are SATA I, but read at over 110MB/s.  So in this case SATA I is FASTER than SATA II.  Remember what SATA II really is.  It's NOTHING.  It's an extra set of commands in the SATA command set.  The problem is, a company can just use SOME of those extra commands and call their drive SATA II.  A different company can use different extra commands and also call their drive "SATA II" but each drive can support completely different features

 

Thanks

 

Have you tried to put the SATA drives in IDE emulation mode.? I am wondering if that is how the MOBI Mtron was working on the case in the link in a post above.

 

The SAS controller doesnt have any kind of mode like that.

 

I dont see that opion in the BIOS as well but it would be pointless as the SAS controller works fine in our testing. We have decided not to use these machines as its not worth anymore time and trouble to try and get it working.

I put Samsung EVO 5x1tb in my 2950 gen II works like a charm no issues.