Got a Poweredge R710

[Psittac]

I recently got a Dell Poweredge R710 and am working on filling it out with everything I might need.  A friend of mine has recently got into server hardware, which he was introduced to by a co-worker/friend.  I will be taking it to his co-worker to have him set it all up but would like to have a plan in place and all hardware in hand when the day comes.  My main question is, how do I hook up a ssd for the OS while having all slot's on the backplane full And the optical drive full.  I will be getting an official windows server 2012 server license but was curious about whether that should be inside of a VM.  Should the spot for a thumb drive be the OS? (tech OCD friendly edit) *ESXi* or server 2012?  I don't even know the questions to ask here, I just want to know how to give him answers when he asks me what I want to do with it.

 

Goal's:

Secure Network

Guest Network for potential future LAN parties

Plex, File, Web, Game Server (discord TS etc)

optical drive for ripping disc collection

Maybe Virtual Machines, I'm just now learning about all of these thing's and don't want to be limited down the road and wish I could run VRM's

 

Equipment:

R710 6-bay 3.5" w/ 2x x5670, 8x8g ram, 6x3tb hdd, LSI SAS9260-8l, redundant 870w psu

 

will have: managed switch and nic's for pc's

 

 

[jdubya421]

I have the same server. I put CentOS on it. I have my 3 hard drives and I use a flashdrive for the OS, although I don't really want to. I plan to switch to an SSD soon for the OS. I recommend Linux over WS, but it's personal preference really. 

 

Why are you using 6 HDD for your setup? Why not do a 3 or 4 drive setup with RAID 5 or 10?

[Psittac]

Just now, jdubya421 said:

I have the same server. I put CentOS on it. I have my 3 hard drives and I use a flashdrive for the OS, although I don't really want to. I plan to switch to an SSD soon for the OS. I recommend Linux over WS, but it's personal preference really. 

 

Why are you using 6 HDD for your setup? Why not do a 3 or 4 drive setup with RAID 5 or 10?

Have 4 3tb drives and want more space

 

I have a ton to learn

[jdubya421]

Well, with your current setup you could easily run Linux on a flash drive and keep your storage capacity high. You could also buy 4 bigger drives and have a spot for an SSD. I can say that running Linux of a flash drive (the server only has USB 2 which stinks) I haven't had a problem. I use it mainly as a file server and a Plex server. 

[Salv8 (sam)]

1 hour ago, Psittac said:

My main question is, how do I hook up a ssd for the OS while having all slot's on the backplane full And the optical drive full.  I will be getting an official windows server 2012 server license but was curious about whether that should be inside of a VM. 

if the ssd is Sata and you have a spare port on the MB, hook it up there... if not then your RAID card can be configured to make a RAID of of the HDD array but not the ssd, this is different for every RAID card, look up how to configure RAID on your RAID card, that should help

note: during the installation of windows server, the system might not see the array or ssd, install the RAID card drivers then select the ssd

1 hour ago, Psittac said:

  Should the spot for a thumb drive be the OS?

if you mean that you should install the os from a USB, unless you a. have the disk and b. don't mind waiting longer for the os to install then it's better to install it via a USB

E

1 hour ago, Psittac said:

EISX or server 2012? 

EISX is meant for pure visualization environments, since you don't know if you are going to be working with virtual machines, it's better for you to use windows, in the future if you need to virtualise an os, just install some virtualization software on windows and do that

Edited March 14, 2018 by Salv8 (sam)
fucked up a question

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Psittac said:

EISX or server 2012?

 

25 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

EISX is meant for pure visualization environments,

 

ESXi*

 

 

Couldn't help myself, tech brain was screaming at that lol.

 

I would advise using a hypervisor as the base OS like ESXi or a Linux install using KVM then run VMs on top of that. I like to separate out major roles in to dedicated VMs for them to keep a level of isolation and configuration ease.

[Razor Blade]

As far as adding an internal HDD to the R710 there are 2 on board SATA ports. One is for the optical drive. The other was meant for a tape drive. However you could hook up a HDD to that SATA port instead but no guarantees whether an SSD will be detected. For power you could get creative...or if you want an OEM solution search for Dell part number GP700.

 

Personally I wouldn't use the DVD drive that the R710 comes with to rip media. It's really meant to load software onto the server and it is pretty slow...plus it doesn't read blu ray disks. Ripping the disks doesn't take a lot of CPU its the encoding into your desired format that you benefit from power. Maybe consider ripping your media from a VM using an external drive or even use a drive in your desk PC then transfer the MKV to your server for encoding. Just some ideas for you.

[Salv8 (sam)]

On 3/14/2018 at 4:24 PM, leadeater said:

ESXi*

Couldn't help myself, tech brain was screaming at that lol

bimbows sorver 1987

VMwore ESXE

ubintu server UNSTABLE 17.10

OSX server 

take your pick, I personally recommend bimbows...

?

[Psittac]

On 3/14/2018 at 7:49 PM, Razor02097 said:

As far as adding an internal HDD to the R710 there are 2 on board SATA ports. One is for the optical drive. The other was meant for a tape drive. However you could hook up a HDD to that SATA port instead but no guarantees whether an SSD will be detected. For power you could get creative...or if you want an OEM solution search for Dell part number GP700.

 

Personally I wouldn't use the DVD drive that the R710 comes with to rip media. It's really meant to load software onto the server and it is pretty slow...plus it doesn't read blu ray disks. Ripping the disks doesn't take a lot of CPU its the encoding into your desired format that you benefit from power. Maybe consider ripping your media from a VM using an external drive or even use a drive in your desk PC then transfer the MKV to your server for encoding. Just some ideas for you.

Thanks for the info and suggestions.  Had no idea what the other sata port was for esp with no other power sources.  I ended up ordering a molex to sata power adapter and will tie that into the power going to the dvd drive.  My friend who got me into this, which has the same server, just replaced the optical with an ssd.  I have no idea how to do any of this but when all of my part's are together I will have someone else set it all up for me.  Just googled that gp700 and that's exactly what I need, however it doesn't look like it's easy to find and way to expensive when you do.  Freaking epic though!

 

As for ripping disc's, my plan was to get a slimline BD-rom and use that, however I took your advice and will be using my external usb enclosure.  I was set on getting something internal on one of my machines due to several issues with the usb enclosure, though I recently solved them by accident.  With my old software I could rip BD's when my drive was in the enclosure but not dvd's, and I could rip dvd's when sitting next to the case hooked up hap hazardly but not BD's.  Before the enclosure when it was floppin around outside of my case I could rip both with the software, must have been some update or something that threw everything off.  Anyways I have switched software and can use it external.  This problem has been troubling me for a while because I hate jenky crap some times and on several occasions almost bought a new case for my x99 system just to have a properly mounted optical drive, hence the stress on using the r710's optical drive.  Anyways your advice along with the enclosure finally working has made my setup that much easier.  Thanks for the input!

[newgeneral10]

If you think you might want to do virtualization later, it may be better to go ahead and install something like ESXI or ProxMox now and install your CentOS or Windows server on that.  If you install it on the bare metal it could be difficult to switch later.

[Psittac]

41 minutes ago, newgeneral10 said:

If you think you might want to do virtualization later, it may be better to go ahead and install something like ESXI or ProxMox now and install your CentOS or Windows server on that.  If you install it on the bare metal it could be difficult to switch later.

So would that be on a thumb drive, then the OS is on the ssd?

 

What type of thumb drive if that's the case? I have a usb 2.0 32g thumb drive I could use. Or can pick something up

 

edit: I just googled the size requirement and 5.2g looks large enough, I was getting more at what usb standard is on this machine

 

edit again: google is a thing, just started looking.  I'm just weary of info I find because I don't know what sources to trust yet

[newgeneral10]

1 minute ago, Psittac said:

So would that be on a thumb drive, then the OS is on the ssd?

 

What type of thumb drive if that's the case? I have a usb 2.0 32g thumb drive I could use. Or can pick something up

 

ESXI, ProxMox, etc are Type 1 Hypervisors which mean they are Operating Systems designed for virtualization.  I believe you can install the OS (ESXI, etc.) on a thumb drive and be fine, but an SSD might lead to better performance and/or longer life.

 

I only really have hands on experience with FreeNas, which is mostly for a file server.  FreeNas is weird in that it takes up the entirety of whatever drive you install it on.  For that reason FreeNas is recommended to be installed on a usb stick.  I don't think ESXI or ProxMox do that but if they do then definitely  install them on a usb or small SSD so you don't waste precious drive space.

[dionkoffie]

minecraft server

 

 

 

 

 

 

on a serious note. Virtualisation isn't a bad idea. Could rent a few servers to some friends as long as they don't mind sharing one IP address. Or use it to host gameservers. 

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, newgeneral10 said:

ESXI, ProxMox, etc are Type 1 Hypervisors which mean they are Operating Systems designed for virtualization.  I believe you can install the OS (ESXI, etc.) on a thumb drive and be fine, but an SSD might lead to better performance and/or longer life.

 

I only really have hands on experience with FreeNas, which is mostly for a file server.  FreeNas is weird in that it takes up the entirety of whatever drive you install it on.  For that reason FreeNas is recommended to be installed on a usb stick.  I don't think ESXI or ProxMox do that but if they do then definitely  install them on a usb or small SSD so you don't waste precious drive space.

For ESXi USB or SD card is fine, once booted it's all in memory anyway. Newer HPE servers use dual SD cards in a mirror, USB drives were great but it was a bit annoying when they failed. Doesn't take the host down but any settings changes get reverted when you power it down.

[newgeneral10]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

 when you power it down.

 

but muh uptime

[Psittac]

Not sure if this will work, I'm assuming black and red are 5v and I'm also assuming this circuit can handle an optical and ssd.  Haven't turned it on yet, no ram. Going to stick it down with double sided tape.  Also would it be beneficial to go with a 240g ssd over a 120g? I have both on hand, perhaps as a scratch disk or a cache?

[newgeneral10]

I want to say this set up isn't going to work.  I think the power cables for optical drives don't have enough pins to power an ssd correctly.  You might want to double check that before you power it on

On 3/19/2018 at 9:22 PM, Psittac said:

Also would it be beneficial to go with a 240g ssd over a 120g?

Depends on what you want to do.  Personally, I think a 120 GB scratch disk would be fine but if you have a 240 GB, why not use more space?

[Dark]

Slim ODD power is plenty for an SSD.

 

It would be wiser to replace the ODD with a slim odd to 2.5" sata drive adapter though.

[Kered124]

Wait... ssds dont use the 12v line? I was under the impression you needed 12v,5v, and at least one ground reference for all sata devices. If the ssd only needs 5v I did some extra work when adding the ssd to my server!

[Psittac]

1 hour ago, Kered124 said:

Wait... ssds dont use the 12v line? I was under the impression you needed 12v,5v, and at least one ground reference for all sata devices. If the ssd only needs 5v I did some extra work when adding the ssd to my server!

The SSD is showing in the boot list, haven't done anything with it though.  Someone mentioned they only take 5v and my friend did the earlier suggestion of adapting the optical slim connector to a ssd, so only 5v

 

I can't even guess how you got 12v if it's the same server.  I know there are other cables but I wouldn't know which one to tap in to.

[Razor Blade]

AFAIK 2.5" form factor drives run on 5V

[Psittac]

On 3/19/2018 at 8:15 AM, newgeneral10 said:

If you think you might want to do virtualization later, it may be better to go ahead and install something like ESXI or ProxMox now and install your CentOS or Windows server on that.  If you install it on the bare metal it could be difficult to switch later.

I got ESXi loaded on a thumbdrive for it but nothing more.  This way it will be ready to go for windows server and what ever else I decide to put on it.  I'm kind of excited about what I might do with this thing.  I have everything in hand other than hdd caddies, but those are being cancelled on amazon right now because someone linked me the same thing on ebay for half the price.  But once those get here I'm good to go. (oh and I did run a memory test but can't exactly remember how I got to that screen, made it there one other time, so confusing)

 

On 3/19/2018 at 9:10 AM, dionkoffie said:

minecraft server

 

 

 

 

 

 

on a serious note. Virtualisation isn't a bad idea. Could rent a few servers to some friends as long as they don't mind sharing one IP address. Or use it to host gameservers. 

I'm actually going to run a minecraft server, though it's redundant because my friend has one on his similar server.  We have been playing minecraft for many years and haven't seen anything this amazing even when hosting on a desktop locally.  I might mirror his server or start my own.  I'm going to look at other potential server things I can do is for the game related.

 

 

On 3/19/2018 at 10:00 AM, leadeater said:

For ESXi USB or SD card is fine, once booted it's all in memory anyway. Newer HPE servers use dual SD cards in a mirror, USB drives were great but it was a bit annoying when they failed. Doesn't take the host down but any settings changes get reverted when you power it down.

I just ran to target and got a new 16gb sandisk thumb drive.  Kind of wishing I had got that sd reader but it would have bumped the price up to high and I didn't know what it was used for at the time.  But I did manage to use it to load the iso and overwrite the thumbdrive to be the new OS

[Razor Blade]

The card reader is kind of meh...way overpriced when you can find it on ebay. At least right now. IMO just put the thumb drive inside the case and call it a day.

 

If you haven't already found the support page for the R710 I would highly suggest checking it out.

 

I'm just going to leave this here...

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-r710/drivers

[Psittac]

I decided to forgo the esxi and go bare metal with windows server because  I couldn't properly leverage the cpu's with esxi

 

If I want to mess around with VM's I'll use one of my other machines, probably my x99

 

I have only had it up and running for a few hours this morning but wow windows server comes locked down and bare boned, each thing you want to attempt on it requires a good chunk of configuration.  But it'll give me something to do.

 

Also I'm getting some great speeds on my raid5 array, it almost hit's 1000MB/s on read and write sequential.  I didn't really look at the numbers until both of my friends started pining over my numbers, both of them RD'd into their servers and were getting 700-800MB/s read and 600-700 write.  I don't even know the setting's used on the card but I know that it's a 64k stripe and 64k sector for the format. Tomorrow morning my friend is bringing his R710 over to his friends house to back up his array and reformat all because of the numbers I got.

 

Going to set it back up tomorrow morning once I get it out of my car again and tinker with it.

[leadeater]

5 hours ago, Psittac said:

I decided to forgo the esxi and go bare metal with windows server because  I couldn't properly leverage the cpu's with esxi

You able to expand on this? Seems a bit odd? Was it just lower performance than you were expecting or limitations in ESXi free and the number of vcores you were allowed to assign to a single VM?