Convert Dell PowerEdge T620

[miercoles131]

I have been planning a new build that will expand and split storage needs and adding a few vm hypervisors. The storage component I discussed with some folks in this forum in this thread.
https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/supermicro-4u-846e1-r1200b-x9dri-f.75904/#post-527804

However, It dawned on me after reading so many post here that I may be able to just re-purpose my slightly used (6 ~ years of use) Dell PowerEdge T620 to a FreeNAS server if it can fit the storage capacity needs instead of selling the hardware.

Off the top of my head the server is configured as follows:

- PERC H710 Adapter RAID Controller, 512MB NV Cache, Full Height
- 3.5 inch Tower Chassis
- Dual, Hot-plug, Redundant Power Supply, 750W
- 16X DVD ROM Drive
- Intel Xeon E5-2620 (2.00GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6C, 95W, Max Mem 1333MHz,OEM,XL)
- 4x 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz RDIMM (64GB Total)
- Dual Port 10GB Intel T2 Adapter (X540T2)
- Dual Port 10GB SFP+ card (Can't remember model/brand, will update later)
- 8 Hot Swap drive bays (4x RAID 10 , 10K RPM 1.8TB Dell certified drives and 4x 4TB RAID 5 Dell drives)
- 1x SSD directly attached to board with Windows OS.

My concerns are with the limited number of Hot Swap drive bays, and I'm wondering if I can rip the drive cage and caddies to accommodate a lot more drives? Is anyone familiar with this process and can tell me if this is worth looking into? Also, if this is indeed possible and I remove the RAID controller and add a SAS expander, will the server scream bloody murder since the drives are not "certified"? I'm hoping for more than 12 drive bays.

 

[Chris Moore]

PERC H710 Adapter RAID Controller, 512MB NV Cache, Full Height

You would need to replace that with one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-H220-6G...0-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162862201664

16X DVD ROM Drive

Don't need that, unless you don't have the remote management capability that would let you boot from an ISO over the network. I know some of the Dell systems have that, but I can't think of the name of it right now.

Intel Xeon E5-2620 (2.00GHz, 15M Cache, 7.2GT/s QPI, Turbo, 6C, 95W, Max Mem 1333MHz,OEM,XL)

This can probably be upgraded to a V2 processor at a higher clock if you want a little more performance out of this.

8 Hot Swap drive bays (4x RAID 10 , 10K RPM 1.8TB Dell certified drives and 4x 4TB RAID 5 Dell drives)

You can certainly put larger drives in there, if they are the 3.5" bays, the backplane in that system appears to be purely a wiring harness, so you could go right to a 12TB dive if you wanted.

1x SSD directly attached to board with Windows OS.

You could always load FreeNAS on there instead.

will the server scream bloody murder since the drives are not "certified"?

No.

I'm hoping for more than 12 drive bays.

The easy way to get more drive bays would be a second tower that just holds drives.
Something like this:

It isn't sexy, but it should be pretty cheap to put together.

 

[miercoles131]

You would need to replace that with one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-H220-6G...0-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162862201664

Yes, that one is in my shopping list.

Don't need that, unless you don't have the remote management capability that would let you boot from an ISO over the network. I know some of the Dell systems have that, but I can't think of the name of it right now.

Totally planning on removing it, my iDRAC is basic but I can always use a usb drive if I need to load something.

This can probably be upgraded to a V2 processor at a higher clock if you want a little more performance out of this.

Probably won't be a priority but something I always considered in the past since it was running files and serving up VMs. If I turn it into a dedicated file server CIFS and iSCSI , will it even serve any purpose to upgrade the CPUs?

You can certainly put larger drives in there, if they are the 3.5" bays, the backplane in that system appears to be purely a wiring harness, so you could go right to a 12TB dive if you wanted.

I'm not too familiar with the backplane but if it does support larger drives, thats a definite plus.

You could always load FreeNAS on there instead.

If I re-purpose the server for dedicated storage, that is what it will be doing.

No.

Okay, just needed to check because I had a lot of issues in the past with non-certified drives and SSD drives continuously error out and sometimes dropping out of the array (mostly SSDs). Therefore for the last 3 years I only ran their dam overpriced certified drives. I think the RAID card was mostly at fault.

The easy way to get more drive bays would be a second tower that just holds drives.
Something like this:
View attachment 30462
It isn't sexy, but it should be pretty cheap to put together.

Yikes that definitely far from sexy, and probably won't work since my goal is to rack this or whatever storage server I build plus 2-3 additional 2U hypervisors.

I been looking online for information on the T620 and if the chassis is configured with 8x 3.5" drives there isn't much of any information to upgrade. All I can think of is the possibility of adding a 5 bay hot-swap bay on the 3 slots I have available after removing the cd drive bay.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405&

This should give me 13 drive bays, where I can set a few mirrors or a 5-6 drive RAIDz2 vdev with 10TB or larger drives.

Maybe there is a way to rip apart the 8 drive bays and just add multiple of those hot-swap bays which would give me way more than 12-13 drives.

 

[Alecmascot]

The easy way to get more drive bays would be a second tower that just holds drives.
Something like this:
View attachment 30462
It isn't sexy, but it should be pretty cheap to put together.

Hi Chris. Excuse me for hi-jacking this thread but I was intrigued by the expansion chassis.
I have identified the SAS expansion board as an Intel, but what is the two port I/O card on the left hand side ?
Thanks

 

[HoneyBadger]

Yikes that definitely far from sexy, and probably won't work since my goal is to rack this or whatever storage server I build plus 2-3 additional 2U hypervisors.

...

Maybe there is a way to rip apart the 8 drive bays and just add multiple of those hot-swap bays which would give me way more than 12-13 drives.

If you don't already have the hypervisor machines, I'd suggest that a better path (especially if you're seeking greater drive density) would be to sell the T620 and use it to fund the purchase. Then buy an additional rackmount that can easily hold 12 drives in the head and 12 more in a 2U JBOD - that's 24 in the same 4U the T620 would consume.

I'd also suggest mirrors for VM datasets/zvols.

Excuse me for hi-jacking this thread but I was intrigued by the expansion chassis.
I have identified the SAS expansion board as an Intel, but what is the two port I/O card on the left hand side

A slot-mounted SAS cable convertor like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/CableDeconn-SFF-8088-SFF-8087-Adapter-Bracket/dp/B00PRXOQFA

Interesting idea. Never really thought of using an ATX case and PSU for this setup.

 

[JaimieV]

You can do it more prettily with something like a Dell Xyratex HB-1235, 12xLFF SAS/SATA disk caddies and dual 6G SAS controller, pretty cheap: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-Com...torage-Enclosure-12x-3-5-Bays-2U/333109131459

 

[kmd1984]

Hi,

1. I know nothing about NAS.
2. I own a T620 as well and thought about doing the same thing.
3. Why do I need to replace the PERC H710 card?
4. How did this project turn out? Did you end up doing it? What is your power consumption like?
5. Is this actually a good idea/setup or is it something you only do if you do not want to waste your "old" T620!?

Thanks,

Kmd

 

[Alecmascot]

. Why do I need to replace the PERC H710 card?

FreeNAS on hardware RAID Perc H710

Hello. Need to organize file storage. I heard that FreeNAS, like ZFS, is not recommended for use on hardware RAID controllers. A Dell T620 server with Perc H710 RAID controller is available. Of course, this raid cannot transfer disks directly without creating Raid. What is the best thing to do...

www.truenas.com