PowerEdge backplane with ServeRaid M1015

[caustic386]

Like many of you, I'm averse to buying new hardware whenever I can avoid it. In my environment, we have a PowerEdge 2900 that I feel would be appropriate for FreeNAS. 40GB RAM, 8 core, 10x146GB 15K drives. Of course PERCs don't play well with ZFS, so I as a newb I will go with the recommended M1015.

My question: is it possible to connect this the 1015 to the Dell backplane? It appears to be a standard 8087 connector, but I'm not sure if Dell has some firmware in place to block "unsupported" connections. Definitely a fringe case, but I'm hoping someone has something similar who can comment?

 

[TasMot]

Like many of you, I'm averse to buying new hardware whenever I can avoid it. In my environment, we have a PowerEdge 2900 that I feel would be appropriate for FreeNAS. 40GB RAM, 8 core, 10x146GB 15K drives. Of course PERCs don't play well with ZFS, so I as a newb I will go with the recommended M1015.

My question: is it possible to connect this the 1015 to the Dell backplane? It appears to be a standard 8087 connector, but I'm not sure if Dell has some firmware in place to block "unsupported" connections. Definitely a fringe case, but I'm hoping someone has something similar who can comment?

Did you ever get an answer or try this? I am in the same boat. PowerEdge 2900 III with a 6/i in place. I would like to just replace the controller with a non-RAID card like the 1015, re-plug all the cables and be ready to go. Does anyone know if this will work?
Thanks

 

[petr]

Did you ever get an answer or try this? I am in the same boat. PowerEdge 2900 III with a 6/i in place. I would like to just replace the controller with a non-RAID card like the 1015, re-plug all the cables and be ready to go. Does anyone know if this will work?
Thanks

Hello! I've done this with Dell 2950 - worked absolutely fine, I've remoed the PERC and got the correct cables to connect to the backplane. Run absolutely fine with the M1015 when I was testing it. I did not go with that machine in the end but it worked fine (noise levels were the reason to replace it).

 

[TasMot]

Can you tell me about what are the "right" cables? I'm still very new at this. BTW, I solved the noise problem by putting it in our unfinished basement.

 

[petr]

Can you tell me about what are the "right" cables? I'm still very new at this. BTW, I solved the noise problem by putting it in our unfinished basement.

See thread I based my work on:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/cant-install-freenas-on-dell-poweredge-2950.16999/

The basement sounds like a very good solution! :)

 

[marbus90]

I wouldn't recommend buying such an old server to start a new FreeNAS. If you've got it for free, good. Play around with FreeNAS and keep in mind to upgrade to something without this nasty Front Side Bus and FBDIMMs, which are using quite a lot of power.