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PowerEdge T110 II/PERC H200 Drive Expansion Question
We have a PowerEdge T110-11 server with two 600 GB 15K SCSI drives in a RAID 1 configuration via a PERC H200 controller. This server is used in a production environment. We want to add an additional internal disk drive to the server, but that drive (or drives) will only be used for archival purposes. Archiving will only be done periodically, at defined intervals. The production side needs the speed and redundancy of the SCSI/RAID configuration. The archival disk will not. I am not sure what the PERC H200 supports beyond the two SCSI drives we have. How would you recommend we do this? Should we purchase two SATA drives and use them in a RAID 1 configuration like we have for the SCSI drives? All drives are backed up to a Dell RD1000 disk cartridge system, by the way. I'm not sure if we need RAID for this archive disk, since it will be backed up regularly. Others here are pushing for using an external USB drive for archiving, due to the very low cost.
Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
Anonymous
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May 26th, 2016 09:00
Hello.
T110 -II supports up to 6 hard drives. It would not hurt to set up those drives in RAID 1 or RAID 5 (for more than 2 drives) configuration just in case of failure before the archive is backed up. If your archive is not that important, you can set the drives in RAID 0.
Anonymous
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May 26th, 2016 11:00
You can cable it to the motherboard SATA connector. Make sure it can be detected. You can also connect to the controller then set up RAID 0.
JRN92
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May 26th, 2016 11:00
Thanks Robert. Sorry for a dumb question, but if we go with a single SATA drive (no RAID), would it be connected to the T-110 system board or to the PERC H200 controller?
JRN92
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May 26th, 2016 15:00
Thanks again. If we go with SATA drives, do I need to worry about what model/brand to get to ensure compatibility with the PE 110-II? Does Dell publish a list of drive brands/models that are certified for use with this server?
Anonymous
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May 26th, 2016 16:00
Yes, Dell has a list of drives that are compatible with a given system. See link: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/category.aspx?category_id=7748&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&mfgpid=204164
JRN92
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June 1st, 2016 13:00
Thanks Robert. In general with a PE T-110 II server, can we use any major brand of SATA drive or should we restrict ourselves to the models on the Dell list?
Anonymous
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June 1st, 2016 13:00
For optimal and reliable performance, it is advisable that you use those drives recommended and listed by Dell as compatible with the system. Other may work but with some issues like randomly going offline, undetected by the controller, showing as unsupported etc; you want to avoid all this.
JRN92
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June 1st, 2016 15:00
I sure do. We will work from the Dell list. Thanks again for your assistance with this.
Anonymous
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June 1st, 2016 15:00
You are welcome! Let us know when you have any further questions.
JRN92
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June 3rd, 2016 14:00
There is a new unexpected postscript to this adventure. As you know from the above, the drives currently in the PE T110-II are SAS (two drives in RAID-1) connected to the PERQ H200 controller. Our plan is to just add the SATA drive to the server by connecting it to the SATA port on the system board.
Today I was looking over the Dell PowerEdge T110-II owner's manual in preparation for adding this drive. At the top of page 70, under "Hard Drives" is the following statement: NOTE, the system's drive configuration must consist of either all SATA hard drives or all SAS hard drives; mixed configurations are not supported."
Does this mean that we can't add a SATA drive to the server? Thanks.
Anonymous
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June 6th, 2016 09:00
The limitation is imposed by the cables which are either SATA or SAS cables and in both cases drives can not be mixed. Since the SAS drives are connected to the H200 controller, you should be able to connect SATA drive on the motherboard.
JRN92
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June 6th, 2016 11:00
Thanks very much for the information, Robert. That's great to hear. Sounds like we're all set to install the drive within the next few days.