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Thread: Dell Server

  1. #1
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    Thumbs down Dell Server

    I have just finished installing a new Dell poweredge 2900III at an architects. Not a job for the faint hearted, had loads of help from a dell server guru.

    I spec'ed the system back in Jan talking with a Dell server tech. Now i asked for 6x750GB HDD RAID 5. We will be keeping it for the full 5 years and don't want to run out of room, like last time. I made a point of asking for all the disks to be in the same RAID set, so i would have,,,,,, C:\ about 30GB D:\ about 2.6TB all over the 6 disks.

    What i got was 6x750GB disk that had to be split to 2x3 disks in two RAID 5 sets. The reason given by Dell tech support was that this is all the RAID controller can handle. To say i am not happy is the understatment of the years. Why would anyone in there right mind have a sever with only 3 disks in a RAID 5 set. I tell you what my Dell rep is going to get a phone call and a half first thing monday

    All told the server cost £7000.00, and i'm

    not happy

    It's a high spec server, i could put 48GB of RAM in the darn thing if i wanted to!!!

  2. #2
    Um, I've never heard of a RAID controller that can only handle 3 HDD. That's completely crazy! What's the model of the RAID controller?

  3. #3
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    i will get back to you on that. In the controller BIOS it let me create one big RAID 5 set of all the disks. But after creating the C:\ partition, then in windows disk manager the controller can only show two other partition to create. Both about 1.3TB. But i can then only format one of these partitions.

    I know it sound like a windows issue, but Dell as soon as we called gold support held their hands up and said it's the controller. So i could have had 1.3TB of space unusable!!

    Now after spending all yesterday building the thing, maybe i should have done that and hoped for a BIOS update. But Dell said that it was a known issue. So if they changed the controller it would have zapped the install anyway

  4. #4
    Oh, that sounds like the most ironic bug I've ever heard of

  5. #5
    Free-DC Semi-retire gopher_yarrowzoo's Avatar
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    Mate do you REALLY wanna create your OS and data partitions in the same RAID?
    The fileserver we had at work note "HAD" was set up like that one disc went the OS failed to boot missing files..
    If you can put a smaller non-raid drive in for the Main OS or try to keep it away from the DATA in someway so that unless it's physical Drive fails it will still boot..
    Semi-retired from Free-DC...
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    Now to remember my old computer specs..


  6. #6
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    don't care about the OP/sys, i wanted the data on the 3TB RAID 5. as its hardware RAID and backed up to tape and a RAID 5 (5 disks) NAS box every night, it would have been ok. The problem is that i didn't get what i ordered, and why would DELL think i wanted 2x3 disks in RAID 5. I might have have that on a home PC!!

  7. #7
    Target Butt IronBits's Avatar
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    Two smaller drives mirrored for the OS
    4-5 LARGE drives in Raid5 or Raid10 for the DATA, one hot swap spare...

  8. #8
    Free-DC Semi-retire gopher_yarrowzoo's Avatar
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    True data - Sata allows 2 drives nice and "small" RAID 1 or can ya do it with IDE don't think so that would be funny...
    HvM yeah but think about it you'd be backing up a lot you don't need to or it Might not get backed-up etc...
    Semi-retired from Free-DC...
    I have some time to help.....
    I need a new laptop,but who needs a laptop when you have a phone...
    Now to remember my old computer specs..


  9. #9
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    the biggest partition i can get on the RAID controller is 2TB.

  10. #10
    Free-DC Semi-retire gopher_yarrowzoo's Avatar
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    hmm a raid partition of 2^41 that's what it works out as .. rather strange number thought it would have been a whole number of bytes aka 2^40 which is 5 bytes not 5 bytes +1 bit something sounds wrong..
    Semi-retired from Free-DC...
    I have some time to help.....
    I need a new laptop,but who needs a laptop when you have a phone...
    Now to remember my old computer specs..


  11. #11
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    if you have 6x750Gb it don't add up!!!!

    i can create one raid 5 set in the BIOS, then as i install windows, i fix the windows partition to 20GB. then when i try to create one more partition with the 2.6TB i have left,,,, no chance!! the RAID controller will only let windows have 1.3TB!!

    so 1.3TB unusable.... Dell says "yeah we know about that!!"

  12. #12
    Why not simply use software RAID? I know it's simple to configure in Ubuntu (server and desktop alike), as well as in most other Linux distros, but I don't know about Windows. Does Server 2003 or 2008 come with a software RAID implementation?

  13. #13
    Target Butt IronBits's Avatar
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    Certainly you are not advocating he use M$ to create a software raid setup
    It would be slower, and a whole lot less stable, and M$ has a tendency to forget what it's supposed to be doing.
    I've seen perfectly good drives, not raided, come up corrupted and needing to be re-formatted.
    The simple solution would indeed be to build a Server from scratch,
    get a real hard caching controller like from Adaptec and send that Dell packing back to where it came from.
    He could use the spare bucks he will have left over to buy more HDDs to double the storage and ram.
    Oh, and dump M$ if you can.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by IronBits View Post
    Certainly you are not advocating he use M$ to create a software raid setup
    It would be slower, and a whole lot less stable, and M$ has a tendency to forget what it's supposed to be doing.
    I've seen perfectly good drives, not raided, come up corrupted and needing to be re-formatted.
    The simple solution would indeed be to build a Server from scratch,
    get a real hard caching controller like from Adaptec and send that Dell packing back to where it came from.
    He could use the spare bucks he will have left over to buy more HDDs to double the storage and ram.
    Oh, and dump M$ if you can.
    Software is the wrong way to go. Get a hardware RAID solution. Dumping MS? Sorry, but unfortunately MS works easily with business. I know, I know we have to support other OS's. But, seriously, give me a sound business solution with Linux or Mac OS and you'll come up empty. Yeah, we're stuck with it, but it works.

    Dell really dropped the ball. I'm very surprised.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by IronBits View Post
    Certainly you are not advocating he use M$ to create a software raid setup
    It would be slower, and a whole lot less stable, and M$ has a tendency to forget what it's supposed to be doing.
    I've seen perfectly good drives, not raided, come up corrupted and needing to be re-formatted.
    The simple solution would indeed be to build a Server from scratch,
    get a real hard caching controller like from Adaptec and send that Dell packing back to where it came from.
    He could use the spare bucks he will have left over to buy more HDDs to double the storage and ram.
    Oh, and dump M$ if you can.
    You're right, probably if Microsoft did a software RAID thing then it would be slow and instable, as you said. :P I guess I was just thinking of the Linux software RAID implementations, which from what I hear work very well.

  16. #16
    Free-DC Semi-retire gopher_yarrowzoo's Avatar
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    M$ do ANYTHING software that isn't slow, clunky, hard to use / learn, bloatware - hmm well it would be a first.
    Semi-retired from Free-DC...
    I have some time to help.....
    I need a new laptop,but who needs a laptop when you have a phone...
    Now to remember my old computer specs..


  17. #17
    stirring.... meep's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Helix_Von_Smelix View Post
    the biggest partition i can get on the RAID controller is 2TB.
    Limitation of the OS, and quite often the limit on most storage systems (without nasty spanning).

  18. #18
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    on the same RAID set i could not create 2 partitions of 1.3TB

  19. #19
    DinkaTronic Shish's Avatar
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    I'm with IB all the way.
    Most decent raid cards have 8 channels or 16 for a network server etc.
    Optimised is a raid1 for the system and 4-5 for raid 5 plus a hot spare. Also get plenty of onboard memory cache and a decent processor on board. Other feature to look for is expandable capacity as sata has only one connector per channel unlike ide with 2 which is something I didn't figure on with my last 4 channel buy. Infiniband for external extra drives is another handy thing as a single cable gives multiple disk connectors. Check also the available limit for partitions. Seems Dell is using a cheapie puppy dog and prolly charging lumps for it.
    Like an ol` 8086, slow but serviceable.
    One advantage of old age...nobody can tell you how much cake you can eat


  20. #20
    stirring.... meep's Avatar
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    Definately, most sata controllers support 8 drives, with decent ones supporting 16.

    Personally I would not use 750GB HDD's unless 3 HDD's is your chassis max and you want raid5. 5 x 500GB (+1 HS) will prove most effective (and prob quite close on price), allowing you to create a tidy 2TB LUN with r5.

    So your 8 SATA channels would be made up of 2 x 72.8GB R1 for OS, 5 x 500GB R5 for Data with bay 8 populated with a 500GB Hot Spare.

    If you want bigger, then make sure the controller supports volumes over 2TB, then by using dynaminc volumes and a custom cluster size, you can create a NTFS partition greater than 2TB (max is 256 I think). There are various things to consider when doing this though...

  21. #21
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    i would agree.

    But as i have had to have the server swap organised for the last 6 weeks to make sure the office was empty i was snookered!!

    and what ever anyone thinks, the issue i have is that it was ordered from Dell to have ALL disks in one RAID 5 set of 6x750GB disks

  22. #22
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    the RAID controller is a PERC 6/i

  23. #23
    DinkaTronic Shish's Avatar
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    Looks like that SAS controller has many problems with big arrays. Perc is normally pretty good. I'd start screaming at DellHell people and start with nobody below Sales Manager.
    Another sufferer and there's plenty more http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Li.../msg00506.html
    Like an ol` 8086, slow but serviceable.
    One advantage of old age...nobody can tell you how much cake you can eat


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