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What is the Flexbay in a rack mount PE 2900 III?
I am looking at the 2900 III server and wanted to know what this config option meant: Integrated SAS/SATA RAID 5/1: Fault Tolerant Bkplane/Mirrored Flex Bay Does this mean that I can have 8 drives in a Raid 5 array and 2 in a Raid 1?
Dennis Smith
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January 28th, 2008 18:00
pcmeiners
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January 29th, 2008 13:00
incognito_user
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February 27th, 2008 02:00
Dennis - Maybe you can answer a few questions for me?
I am about to order a 2900III with 6 250 hard drives, for use as a server and a working computer, with some advanced capabilities. I currently am killing my higher-end pc trying to work it 24-7. I'd like to do the following things:
1. SBS 2003 is a definate, for network reasons. Could you actually dual-boot one of these with Vista, if needed???
2. Run (2) monitors on a better graphics card (some gaming, cad work?). This is the "working" part :)
3. I often have to recover data from bad hard drives, or just bad computers with good hard drives. The bad hard drives can get CPU-intensive, as the programs try to pry data out. One of the reasons I want to go to a server. My problem is where to put a removable drive tray for IDE (ATA) drives. I assume I could put it where the tape drive would go. Would that accept a standard 5 1/4" removable drive tray? External USB enclosures to not get the data off the drives quick enough (before they heat up).
4. Where to attach the IDE cable for that tray... Is the CD-rom a 2-channel IDE, or is it scsi? Would a double IDE cable do the trick on an IDE?
5. If that's not possible, I could install a PCI ata-133 card to accomodate the removable (temporary) ide drives. Do you know if the modem option (for faxes) is pci or pci-e? $69 seems expensive for a modem.
6. Using that 2nd 5 1/4 bay for a removable hard trive tray effectively kills my option for a 2nd dvd-burner - something I would like to have. Assuming that I eventually run out of IDE drives to recover, could I add the 2nd dvd-burner?
7. I'd like 4 of the 6 drives to be raid-10, giving me 500gb mirrored and striped. Can I configure the 5th and 6th drive to be single 250gb drives or a mirrored 250, or even a striped 500?
8. Finally - Can I use the #7 and #8 slots for anything? Maybe recovering bad SATA drives? Would I need additional hardware, or can/could/should I go with a this FLEX BAY thing - what could I do with that option? You cannot seem to order the flex bay without drives - I assume I could pick it up through parts, if needed.
Thanks, in advance, for anything you might be able to assist me with! :) At least I am making you think a bit...
-John
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February 27th, 2008 13:00
1. Dell doesn't support Vista on any Poweredge (desktop OS on non-desktop system), so you may not find drivers for all hardware (though once Windows 2008 is released it's drivers will probably work on Vista as well).
2. This system has no PCIe 16x slots, so you'd have to get a PCIe 1x card, which would limit you severely in the 'power' of such a videocard, unless you start using some PCIe riser (there was a thread on this for some other Poweredge with some success... do a search for it to find it).
3. You'd have to indeed go external USB as no current Poweredge servers support ATA.
4. the cdrom is/can be ATA, but several have reported issues getting the ATA controller to recognize hard drives on some Poweredge models.
5. You can add the card, but it may be tricky to find a spot where you can put the drive as the system is made for hotswap SAS/SATA drives (the 2nd 5.25" slot would work, but you cannot go with the flexbay option if you do this I believe). Also, this controller may not lend itself very well for hotswapping, so unless you go with an added ATA controller (not Dell supported) you may be forced to power off your system each time you want to swap the drive in this bay.
6. If you were to remove that you should be able to put in a 2nd optical drive (jumper everything for cable select obviously).
7. The PERC6 or PERC5 can do this just fine. For single drive setups you'd do a single disk raid 0.
8. see 5 and maybe check this.
Except for the number of drives you want, I'd strongly recommend looking into a Precision workstation instead. It's easier to add a videocard (replace it as it comes with one), can be purchased with a PERC5/6 as well, is built also for 24x7 operation (available with SAS drives) and you can get support for Vista on it.
incognito_user
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February 27th, 2008 14:00
Thanks for all of the helpful information.
The only thing I don't understand is the PCI-e slot differences for videocards. Any more info here? I just figured out the AGP slots, and they yanked those out of computers ;)
AS far as the PCI card - ATA/133 card goes, I have had luck in just doing a hardware refresh to recognize the drives (with xp, of course). This could take out the server ;)
In recovering the data, you don't have time to wait for a computer to boot up, let alone a server...
Do you know if the optional modem is PCI or PCI-e - it's $69, which is very pricy, if it's the former!
Thanks, again.
John
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February 27th, 2008 16:00
If it's connected as an ATA/SATA/SCSI drive during boot it may cause boot problems depending on the nature of the issue/failure (when the OS scans the drives to assign drive letters and one of the drives is sluggish to respond it could cause your OS to be slow to boot or prevent it from booting completely).
Dennis Smith
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February 29th, 2008 11:00
John,
Sorry I did not get to your post sooner.