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Please help me figure out what to do next! (Old corporate server into home FreeNAS!)

Hello,

 

I recently purchased a Xyratex HS-1235T Storage Server with a Xeon E5620 (4c8t) and 24GB DDR3 (3x8GB ECC) for just £40 delivered!!!!

 

My intention was to use it as a a super overkill Plex and general storage server for home use.  However I have already run into a few issues....

 

  • This is my first expeirence of actual server hardware
  • It's LOUD AS BALLS
  • No obvious way to mount HDDs - No sleds (could do bottom set of 4??)
  • Can't tell if the HDDs are detected
  • Not entirely sure how they are meant to be set up

However everything booted up fine and all the RAM etc was detected.  So I might just goahead and stick FreeNAS on a USB and see what happens.

 

My thoughts overall though are, assuming it can read them, just have 4 drives in there along the bottom row and hope they never come loose? Or some how find matching drive sleds?

OR

Salvage the CPU and/or RAM then attempt to find some other platform to use them in? 

 

Any help at all would be appreciated :)

 

 

Here's a few pics of what I am working with

IMG_20180531_194014.jpg

IMG_20180531_194055.jpg

IMG_20180531_194113.jpg

IMG_20180531_193725.jpg

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15 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Hello,

 

I recently purchased a Xyratex HS-1235T Storage Server with a Xeon E5620 (4c8t) and 24GB DDR3 (3x8GB ECC) for just £40 delivered!!!!

 

My intention was to use it as a a super overkill Plex and general storage server for home use.  However I have already run into a few issues....

 

  • This is my first expeirence of actual server hardware
  • It's LOUD AS BALLS
  • No obvious way to mount HDDs - No sleds (could do bottom set of 4??)
  • Can't tell if the HDDs are detected
  • Not entirely sure how they are meant to be set up
Spoiler

 

However everything booted up fine and all the RAM etc was detected.  So I might just goahead and stick FreeNAS on a USB and see what happens.

 

My thoughts overall though are, assuming it can read them, just have 4 drives in there along the bottom row and hope they never come loose? Or some how find matching drive sleds?

OR

Salvage the CPU and/or RAM then attempt to find some other platform to use them in? 

 

Any help at all would be appreciated :)

 

 

Here's a few pics of what I am working with

IMG_20180531_194014.jpg

IMG_20180531_194055.jpg

IMG_20180531_194113.jpg

IMG_20180531_193725.jpg

 

 

Soo... the reason the hard drives on the backplane aren't detected is you have no RAID controller... Those 2 internal mini SAS cables on the left side and the one on the right  of photo 3 are what I'm talking about.


Also, yes, you would need drive caddys to properly use that backplane. You could make them if you're really handy...but otherwise look around ebay for some.

There's no place like ~

Spoiler

Problems and solutions:

 

FreeNAS

Spoiler

Dell Server 11th gen

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

ESXI

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

Soo... the reason the hard drives on the backplane aren't detected is you have no RAID controller... Those 2 internal mini SAS cables on the left side and the one on the right  of photo 3 are what I'm talking about.


Also, yes, you would need drive caddys to properly use that backplane. You could make them if you're really handy...but otherwise look around ebay for some.

Ahhhh that is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Rather than me being completely dumb.  
 

OK - So would any kinda RAID controller/card work?  Like this Dell one on eBay?  Or will I need something more specific?

 

Shame about the drive caddys... Hmm - again do they have to be specific??

 

Cheers! 

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40 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Ahhhh that is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Rather than me being completely dumb.  
 

OK - So would any kinda RAID controller/card work?  Like this Dell one on eBay?  Or will I need something more specific?

 

Shame about the drive caddys... Hmm - again do they have to be specific??

 

Cheers! 

Hmmm... Well I can try to help...I have no idea what your level of tech knowledge is with computers so I'll assume you know about consumer computers already.

 

The thing you plug the hard drives into is called a backplane. A backplane is a convenient device that allows plugging and unplugging hard drives without having to open the case and remove cables.

 

The connection on the backplane is called a SAS (serial attached SCSI) which will take both a SAS or SATA drive...You can tell it is a SAS connector because the connector has that strange gap in the middle of the two data and power connectors here...

sas.PNG.cb3d8e3429e3730548e7b0b27bcf9898.PNG

 

That said you have what you call a SAS cable which would connect those drives to a RAID controller. In a standard case you would have up to 4 drives per cable. Many RAID cards out there handle 2 of those SAS cables which means 8 drives. You could connect more but you would need something called a SAS expander card. This expander allows you to connect the drives to it, then connect the expander card to the RAID controller.

 

Now this is where it might get complicated...not every backplane is created equal. Some backplanes have a SAS expander built-in. With a standard backplane that does not have an expander you would need a SAS expander card to put in your computer. This may or may not be your case.

 

From looking on some Google images it appears the cable on the right of photo 3 plugs into the small interface board it is laying next to. That board appears to be maybe an SFF-8088 interface? It is possible that all it does is allows someone to connect multiple of those model servers together to share the backplane.

 

Being that those cables on the right of photo 3 are zip tied together and in an orientation similar to some model LSI cards, I would assume those are the cables you're after.

 

 

 

Now onto that DELL card...while there is a remote possibility to make it work, you're already dealing with many unknowns so I would not suggest it.

 

Can you take the fan cage out and snap a few more photos of how the backplane is connected up? It might give a clue as to how things are connected to that backplane.

There's no place like ~

Spoiler

Problems and solutions:

 

FreeNAS

Spoiler

Dell Server 11th gen

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

ESXI

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

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36 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

Snip 

Thank you so much for this. 

 

Yup very familiar with consumer hardware and also workstations for video editing. But first time server person! 

 

I can indeed take the fans etc out and see what's under the hood. I shall do that in the morning if I get time before work! (in the UK and it's 11pm)

 

BTW I think you are correct about the SFF interface for expansion.  The solo SAS cable does go into it and it has two ports externally. 

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@Razor Blade

 

OK here we go! 

 

So we have a total of 3 SAS sockets two on the right (looking from the front to back of the server) one of these goes to the rear interface thingy.  

IMG_20180601_195102.thumb.jpg.b88b18f385fdda2d9481e0f66346d1cb.jpg

 

Then on the left we have the third socket! 

IMG_20180601_195113.thumb.jpg.ba9fb23e6e68151ce75aa59823d62aa9.jpg

 

My thoughts are that I'm going to need to spend at least £40 on a raid controller.  Plus the drive sleds seem to be difficult to get... Unless they're more universal than they appear!? 

 

 

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Depending on the brand, drive trays can span models of the same generation...but typically not span manufacturers or different generations. It looks like the backplane has no circuitry for a SAS expansion but it does plug into another board that might. 

 

If you're going for FreeNAS, what you'll want is a card that passes those drives to the OS. So what you'll want is essentially an HBA. If you have the means to do it, this is the guide I followed when I put together my FreeNAS box. https://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

 

You can find IBM M1015 on eBay for reletively cheap. Around $40USD or around 30 pounds shipped from China.

There's no place like ~

Spoiler

Problems and solutions:

 

FreeNAS

Spoiler

Dell Server 11th gen

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

ESXI

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

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@Bearded_Ed one thing to keep in mind is that for FreeNAS to properly function, it needs direct IO access to the HDD's. This is something that a RAID Card (in "RAID Mode") won't do, as it'll just present the "virtual" drives of whatever RAID type you select.

 

What you need is a SAS HBA (Host Bus Adapter) - they look just like RAID Cards but they don't have the onboard battery or RAM. The FreeNAS community itself has many suggestions for what works well. Here's one such:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hardware-recommendations-read-this-first.23069/

 

And another

http://www.freenas.org/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/

 

You can typically find cheap used HBA's on eBay for pretty cheap.

 

The alternative is to take a RAID Card, and flash it into IT Mode.

 

RAID Cards operate in two modes:

IR Mode - Initiator Receive - this is "RAID" mode

IT Mode - Initiator Target - this will force the RAID Card to operate as an HBA and will directly pass the disks to the Operating System

 

There are tons of guides online for flashing, say, a cheap IBM m1015, for example:

https://geeksunlimitedinc.wordpress.com/2017/02/16/flashing-lsi-hba-to-it-mode-or-ir-mode/

 

You can either cross flash a RAID Card, or you can simply buy an HBA that won't need any flashing. I have an LSI 9207-8e for my FreeNAS box (I use the 8e version because I have a 12-bay external SAS Bay, the Dell MD1200).

 

In your case, you could get a 9207-8i instead (e for external connectors, i for internal connectors).

 

Take a look at the various recommended RAID and HBA cards, and see what prices you can find.

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31 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Howdy! 

Thank you for all this, I honestly didn't know the differences between types of raid cards. 

What I am thinking is that I'll probably gut the server for its CPU and RAM. Which I can then transplant into a Dell T3500 workstation.  Because as mentioned in the above posts I also don't have any drive sleds! It's looking like I can get one of these workstations for the same price as a few sleds and the raid card. 

This will give me a more manageable chassis to work with in my home. To be honest this is probably what I should have done in the first place however... When I saw the amount of RAM for the price... I couldn't resist! 

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4 minutes ago, Bearded_Ed said:

Howdy! 

Thank you for all this, I honestly didn't know the differences between types of raid cards. 

What I am thinking is that I'll probably gut the server for its CPU and RAM. Which I can then transplant into a Dell T3500 workstation.  Because as mentioned in the above posts I also don't have any drive sleds! It's looking like I can get one of these workstations for the same price as a few sleds and the raid card. 

This will give me a more manageable chassis to work with in my home. To be honest this is probably what I should have done in the first place however... When I saw the amount of RAM for the price... I couldn't resist! 

You can find drive sleds (often called "drive tray" or "HDD Caddy") on eBay for pretty cheap.

 

Example, these "should" fit:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/IBM-3-5-SAS-SATA-Hard-Drive-Tray-Caddy-For-IBM-HIV-HS-1235T-Server/142797554797?hash=item213f65c46d:g:FJAAAOSw0cJa~Iku

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/3-5-SAS-SATA-Hard-Drive-Tray-Caddy-For-IBM-HIV-HS-1235T-Server-Lot-of-12/362309139591?hash=item545b4ebc87:g:FBoAAOSwWGda6gop

 

But if you still feel like gutting the server for it's parts, if that's easier for you? Go for it.

 

I'd suggest trying to sell any unnecessary parts afterwards, like the Chassis w/ motherboard and backplane, PSU's, etc.

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  • 2 weeks later...

These are so so very loud. I believe the sleds are common 

 

The loudness is what's holding me back from using mine. I am still trying to find management software for this. 

 

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