Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers
-
I'm not sure why, but our two DL380 G7 servers have two different part numbers O_o... (583914-B21 and P01227). I'm assuming (and hoping) that these two servers both take the same exact parts.
Each server is currently configured with two 146GB SAS drives in a RAID 1 setup (running Windows Server 2008 R2).
We'd like to upgrade these to be storage servers for all of our backups, so the initial thought is that we'll remove the optical drive from each and install the additional 8-bay SFF drive cages and populate all of the drive slots (the original two drives will still host the OS, and the remaining 14 drives would be pooled into one big RAID 10 array; on each server).
Each server currently has a P410i and a P411 controller cards installed (not sure if that's a factory default setup, but it appears to be). Each server also has two 460 watt PSUs.
I have some questions:
-
Is our intended setup possible? If so, is it possible to use our existing raid controllers? Would we need to order any sort of additional "riser board" or "expander"?
-
Which parts would we need in order to achieve our goal? For instance, if we want the PSUs to be fully redundant, would we need to buy larger ones in order to provide enough power for all of the hard drives that will be installed? Would two 750 watt PSUs suffice? (part number 599383-001) I'm also assuming we'll need the backplane board (507690-001) and the SFF 8-bay drive cage assembly (496074-001), but I'm not sure if we also need the hard drive backplane power cable (496070-001) and/or what other cables we'll need (or if the drive cage or backplane board come with cables).
Thanks so much for whatever info someone is able to provide!
-
-
Is it worth such a hassle?..
Servers and storage are so cheap these days. Why bother with old hardware (and software as in your case...). -
Also it's RAID1, not RAID10 if there are only 2 drives involved.
-
@kris_k Sorry, typo on my part (I had RAID 10 on the brain since I was talking about wanting to do RAID 10 on the big array).
Unfortunately, my company is very tight with money, so they don't want to buy new. They only intend on buying whatever parts I need in order to upgrade these servers (all from Amazon.com).
-
@shuey
Don't buy new. Buy Dell refurb from xbyte
-
@kris_k If I could convince them, that'd be great. But the likelihood of that is slim :(... They refuse to buy from ANYONE, OTHER THAN Amazon :-x....
At this stage, it seems in my best interest to spec out what they're willing to pay for, and present them with THAT info.
-
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@kris_k If I could convince them, that'd be great. But the likelihood of that is slim :(... They refuse to buy from ANYONE, OTHER THAN Amazon :-x....
So they aren't cheap. Just not good with money.
-
I agree that this is likely an expensive way to go. Two servers instead of one, lots of parts instead of purpose built, investing in old gear (technical debt) that isn't too old to use, but is probably too old to invest into. This will cost nearly as much to buy as a new, proper server, might actually cost more due to being stuck with smaller drives and such, will require more power to operate, more complexity to deal with multiple devices and so forth.
By the time you are switching out for PSUs, getting new drive cages, etc. you'll have more than bought a real server. It's hard to believe that this is a "buying less" option in the long run.
-
This one is actually pretty easy - build both solutions on paper. See which one comes out on top.
For your current servers, you already said you want to buy the extra 8 drive bay, you will need two different power supplies to hand the full load of 16 drives on a single Power Supply. And the RAID controller P411 only supports 8 ports, so you'll need another controller.
Toss in the cost of drives, and bob's your uncle.Or find the parts you need, then get a quote from XByte for those more modern parts.
Also, do you know what your storage requirements are? what your IOPs requirements are? What are you storing on these servers?
-
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
(the original two drives will still host the OS, and the remaining 14 drives would be pooled into one big RAID 10 array; on each server).
this seems like the wrong way to go. You should likely run the entire array as a OBR10, install a hypervisor on it, then build giant storage VMs as needed.
-
@dashrender said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
(the original two drives will still host the OS, and the remaining 14 drives would be pooled into one big RAID 10 array; on each server).
this seems like the wrong way to go. You should likely run the entire array as a OBR10, install a hypervisor on it, then build giant storage VMs as needed.
It's for backup, so OBR6 most likely.
-
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I got on a live chat this morning with xByte and will be getting a quote later today. Can't hurt to at least see what they have to offer and get a price ;).
-
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I got on a live chat this morning with xByte and will be getting a quote later today. Can't hurt to at least see what they have to offer and get a price ;).
Awesome. I bet that they can beat any piecing together of parts for old gear.
-
Here's what they quoted me:
- R730XD-2CPU Dell PowerEdge R730xd Server ( 2 CPU Version) (1)
- Dell PowerEdge R730xd 3.5" Chassis with up to 12 Hard Drives (1)
- Intel E5-2609v3 1.9GHz/15M/1600MHz 6-Core 85W (2)
- Dell PE R730 Normal Heat Sink (2)
- Dell 4GB DDR4 Reg (4)
- PERC H730P Mini Mono Controller 2GB NV Cache (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60) (1)
- Dell 4TB 3.5" 7.2K NL SAS 12Gbs HDD (10)
- Intel Ethernet I350 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (1)
- iDRAC8 Enterprise (1)
- Dell 2U Sliding Ready Rails (1)
- Dell 13th Gen 750W Redundant PSU (1)
- 5 Year Dell NBD Onsite Warranty (1)
Total: $6,152.00
-
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I got on a live chat this morning with xByte and will be getting a quote later today. Can't hurt to at least see what they have to offer and get a price ;).
I've always found that Dell beat xByte when its their end of quarter and end of year; you then get all new kit rather than refurbished. Of course you do have to haggle. From memory, Dell operate Feb - April = Q1, May - July = Q2, Aug - Oct = Q3 and Nov - Jan = their end of year... if you can wait until the last week of each you get great sales usually where they hit low prices to nail their targets.
-
@shuey why 2 cpu for a nas?! Wasn't 1 just enough?
-
@matteo-nunziati It wasn't an option of 1 or 2. If you look at their product page, they ONLY sell a 2 CPU configuration (at least for the models I reviewed).
-
@Shuey also how much do you can afford for offline? NBD for backup seems ok to me. But Maybe you would consider prosupport?!
-
@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@matteo-nunziati It wasn't an option of 1 or 2. If you look at their product page, they ONLY sell a 2 CPU configuration (at least for the models I reviewed).
Ok! I Never look at xbyte: customs + shipping are too high from america to europe
-
@matteo-nunziati said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@Shuey also how much do you can afford for offline? NBD for backup seems ok to me. But Maybe you would consider prosupport?!
I agree, consider moving to NBD support. Compare as much apples to apples as you can.
