PowerEdge, various Q's: No reset button/jumper? No ACPI setting in BIOS?

Question

I have a number of concerns with the PowerEdge 2800 and looking for feedback from other owners.   Already called Dell but in the end didn't seem to have much more info than I did.   1. No power reset button.  This would not be an issue if I at least had access to reset jumpers on the motherboard.  The reason I need this is I have a phoneline-based remote reboot device that allows me to send a reset signal to a system - but only if I can connect to that jumper on the motherboard.  I can't find it anywhere on mine and I can't fathom how to access the add-in card where the power button is connected without unscrewing a bazillion screws on the front face plate.  What will I even find there?  Does anyone know if I will find what I'm looking for there?   2. My system is SCSI RAID using a 1x8 backplane.  There are no IDE/SATA connectors/channels on the motherboard.  I had to buy a PCI add-in card to add IDE/SATA support.  Not a big deal, but I found it odd to see a motherboard without even an IDE channel on it.   3. The OS I have installed is Windows 2000 Server SP4.  When I choose to shut down, the system fully shuts down and even powers off.  I don't want this behavior because there will be instances of remote management where restarting is necessary and if 'shutdown' is chosen by accident then there will be no way for me to start the system back up unless I set up a remote power on/off controller.  With some research I found the the issue is a combination of:   A) The system supports ACPI, and it's turned on by default, but there is no BIOS setting to turn it on/off.   B) The system is dual-CPU Xeon.  Windows 2000 does not support APM (Advanced Power Management) on dual-CPU systems and defaults to the shutdown behavior of the hardware (in this case, ACPI will shut down completely when such is chosen unless overridden by the OS, which in this case is not possible).   C) The only way to disable ACPI behavior in Windows 2000, even IF it were possible to turn off ACPI in BIOS, is to re-install the OS and hit F5 to go into some (undocumented?) option settings to disable ACPI support, but that might introduce IRQ issues and not guaranteed to resolve the shutdown issue.   None of these issues is critical to have the system up & running and have nothing to do with performance, but they really make it very difficult to adequately and reliably manage the system remotely in the case of MAJOR issues requiring resets.

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

1) This is a server not a desktop. It should be difficult to accidentally reset the system and as such there is no reset button or even jumper. I have never seen a server (namebrand) that has a reset button.

2) Same answer as #1. IDE and SATA are Cheap and unreliable storage. Servers use SCSI or Fiber. There is an embedded IDE controller that runs the CD drive, but it is not useable for anything else.

3) This is normal. If you choose shutdown/power off the system is going to do just that. I am sure that there is some registry setting in the OS that can disable the "Power Off" portion - just google for it. You can not disable ACPI.

LearnTheSkills · Answer

OK, it's a server and doesn't function like a regular computer (in other words, stripped of certain features), so how come also:

- There is also no visible or available power connections available inside the system? In other words, if I were to want to add a 2nd DVD burner, I can't. I called support and with their help could not discern that the system makes available any way whatsoever to connect additional devices that might need power except sliding more SCSI drives into the backplane.

- The system came without extra media bay rails, so even if I did have a power connector available I would not be able to house it in the media bay without properly-sized rails (standard size I had on hand did not fit, so now I have to go hunting...).

- The system came without any extra hard drive carriage assemblies for the hot-swap/backplane bay so even if I did add an extra SCSI drive I would not have the proper attachment to lock it in with unless I order the part from Dell (how many days?) Every quality CASE I have ever purchased (note: not a server but just case) has come with extra rails and, if I ordered a backplane, extra assebly parts to be able to slid in at least an extra couple of drives. This was not a $999 system but a multi-thousand $ server, so I would presume Dell could supply me with a few extra PLASTIC parts in the initial shipping (note that neither of these is an option DURING order placement.

I understand it's a "server" but all of this seems pretty limiting. I didn't order an over-sized/over-powered iPod, I actually want to DO stuff with the system besides I/O.

I don't want tape backup, so I prefer first backing up to hard drive media and then moving the backups over the network to another device or server. It seems impractical to use SCSI for the main backup because what if the on-board RAID/SCSI controller gets fried? Then I have no access to backup, either, and no way to boot the system (and, in that case, no way to know what the problem is remotely). Seems kind of silly for a server, the point of a server is to be able to put it somewhere and not worry about recovery in the case of problems, or at the very least be able to pinpoint issues remotely. With the configuration provided, the only way I can do this is to connect external USB drives. But the defeats the purpose of SECURITY in that then anyone can unplug & walk off with those drives which would contain backups of the system's data.

Mark_A_Smith · Answer

All server vendors limit your addition of options to the servers.  The main reason is for system stability.  Servers are mean to stay up and up and up.  If people are constantly adding 3rd party crud then system stability can suffer.   There IS a power cable attachement available that will plug into the drive backplane and has regular 4 pin power connectors for tape/cd/etc.   Media bay rails - all APPROVED hardware that will go into the media bay will ship with the proper rails.  See my first statement.   Hard drive carriers - see my first statement.  Dell does not want you adding some questionable 3rd party drive to the system.  A Dell SCSI drive options will ship with the proper carrier.  You CAN find the carriers on ebay and such though...   You CAN add SATA storage to the server.  Dell offers the Perc5 controller and the new MD1000 storage enclosure supports SATA drives (and SAS).  The main intention of the SATA drive support is to do exactly what you want to do - backup to disk.   Every hardware vendor (IBM, Compaq, HP, Dell, etc) servers are built pretty much the same way.  They limit the 3rd party hardware editions to help gain stability.  The other reason is to reduce support calls:   customer calls HP 'I can't access my 3rd party DVD burner that is attached to a 3rd party cable and 3rd party IDE controller - send me a HP tech to fix it' - yes people WILL expect the hardware vendor to support all of the 3rd party crud.

PowerEdge Hardware General

PowerEdge, various Q's: No reset button/jumper? No ACPI setting in BIOS?

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