BUILD M1015 shopping for a PowerEdge 2950

[MidnightLightning]

I inherited a PowerEdge 2950 I'm trying to get set up as a home FreeNAS server, but it still has it's original PERC 5/i card, which I've read in multiple places really needs to be replaced to work with FreeNAS.

However, I looked at several of the M1015 cards for sale on eBay, but all look like they wouldn't fit the side placement of the 2950's RAID card. Are there any other 2950 owners who can weigh in on that? Is there a particular model/form-factor I need to be searching for to fit the 2950?

Is yours installed in the front-left position in the server (near the power button)? Or is it connected to the PCI ports in the back-right of the server (next to the power supplies)?

 

[Mirfster]

While I don't own a 2950, per the Manual (Page 52) it looks like there is a "Central Riser" that should be able to hold a M1015 (or LSI 9211-8I, H200, etc).

 

[MidnightLightning]

Ah yes, RTFM; that's a novel idea! :D

Thanks for the reminder to check there. After taking another look at the manual, I'll rephrase my question with proper terms:

It looks like as the M1015 cards are PCI cards, they'd be installed on the "Expansion Card Riser Board" in the back area of the server. But then there would need to be cabling running from the M1015 over the fan housings to the backplane of the hard drives? Looks like that's what others have planned to do, so presumably with a long enough 8087 to 8484 cable (Mini-SAS to SFF 32-pin) cable that can route around the fan enclosure that would work.

Reading the notes on the "SAS Controller Daughter Card" in the manual, it seems to refer to a SAS controller option that's not a RAID controller. Is there a (Dell or other brand) SAS controller that fits in that Daughter Card form-factor that would work to pass the hard drives through to FreeNAS in a non-hardware RAID? The Dell H700 I've seen people be advised to avoid; is there another cheap, vanilla SAS controller that's not a RAID controller that would work well for this setup?

Thanks!

 

[Mirfster]

Yeah, it looks to me that while this system does take a "Daughter Card", the best they have to offer is a "Perc 6I/R". That is a pretty old card and is not capable of seeing more than 2.2TB on any hard drive. So if you connected 3 x 4 TB drives, it would only see 3 x 2.2 TB...

For sure you want to avoid the H700, can't be cross-flashed. Many have tried, but I have never seen a working cross-flashed model personally.

It is possible that if you use a PCI HBA (like the M1015, LSI 9211-8I, H200) then it would be fine with larger drives.

The 2950 is a pretty old system (not even sure which version you have, I think that there are II and III versions) so you may want to see if there are any known limitations or "gotchas" before you go investing too much time and money.

Some threads on this model:
New User Intro - PowerEdge 2950
Raid controller for Poweregde 2950

 

[JDCynical]

I inherited a PowerEdge 2950 I'm trying to get set up as a home FreeNAS server

Be warned, those machines are loud and power hungry. We have several at work. Front side bus and DDR2 ECC all the way.

 

[Mirfster]

Front side bus and DDR2 ECC all the way.

Yuck... and I thought my stuff was "aged"... ;)

 

[MidnightLightning]

Be warned, those machines are loud and power hungry. We have several at work. Front side bus and DDR2 ECC all the way.

Loud's okay for me; my mancave recently got an upgrade to run CAT6 through to the utility closet behind it, so I've got a "server rack" area. Power hungry I may live to regret, though they seem reasonablefor getting my feet wet with server-class hardware, no?

 

[Warren Jones]

I put a LSI SAS9210-8i upfront. It appears to have the same dimensions as the M1012 so you shouldn't have any trouble. You will need to remove the tray the PERC 5i is in as well as the battery.

 

[MidnightLightning]

Follow-up for anyone following in my shoes: The M1015 works fine in the rear PCI area, and routing the cables are the only pain-point for that. I got a pair of one-meter 8087 to 8484 cables (these Monoprice ones from Amazon), which have enough length to snake around the fan housings to get to the front area. I had to use the cable run designed for the CD cable to get those cables up to the backplane connection points, and a few pieces of electrical tape to get them to stay in the channel, but it fits. Make sure the extra slack in the cable is in the back of the server by the PCI card, since up front there needs to be clearance for the locking mechanism for the top case panel to fit. I ran the CD cable through the empty space where the PERC card was, staying in front of the fans and backplane to keep the CD drive connected. The top case panel needs a little downward pressure to squish into place, but seems to lock securely, and things seem to be working jsut fine!

I flashed the card to the LSI9211-IT mode, though note that most guides are from 2014 or 2015 and refer to the P16 version of the firmware, but the current FreeNAS version needs P20. LSI got bought out by Avago Technologies recently, so most web links directly to the downloads got broken. To find them again, head to the Avago drivers page, pick "All SAS/SATA Host Bus Adapters" > "SAS 9211-8i" > "Firmware". The "Installer_P20_for_MSDOS_and_Windows" package has the sas2flsh utility, and the "9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows" package has the binary firmware files needed to do the flashing.

 

[Mirfster]

Thanks for the follow-up, always good to know how things turned out. :)

 

[SLIMaxPower]

There are links online on soldering some resistors inline for the fans to cut their voltage and hence noise.

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