Dell R5500, MD1000 and SAS Extension cables (Testing Purposes)

Uppie1414

Golden Member
Sep 1, 2003
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Hello everyone!

1st off, I want to thank everyone on the site for being so helpful over the years. Alright, here's what I have:

I test a bunch of different server hard drives for my company/server builds and currently have an R5500 that I use to test my 2.5" drives and the MD1000 array to test my 3.5" SAS drives.

It's a pain to screw on trays every once in awhile, especially 15x at at time. Is there a safe way to throw in 5-10 SAS male to female extensions and set the drives on something while they test (outside of the array) without trays?

Just seeing if this is an option. Thanks!
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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www.mfenn.com
Basically you're thinking about a bunch of these? I see no reason why that wouldn't work, but laying out 15 drives near the chassis is probably going to be unexpectedly messy.

What I would probably do is get an electric screwdriver and just fasten 2 screws (opposite corners).
 

Uppie1414

Golden Member
Sep 1, 2003
1,803
2
81
Basically you're thinking about a bunch of these? I see no reason why that wouldn't work, but laying out 15 drives near the chassis is probably going to be unexpectedly messy.

What I would probably do is get an electric screwdriver and just fasten 2 screws (opposite corners).


I agree--it would be messy, but it would be nice if I had 10x of the 1950 trays in, then 5x HP drives (or no drives at all) hooked up.


-2nd part-
This is what I do already...great minds think alike!

If I stick with the drill/screwdriver method, what do I all need for chassis? I test the following:

Dell 2.5 and 3.5 SAS (I can get the cables like above for SATA to SAS if needbe
HP 2.5 and 3.5" SAS
IBM 2.5" and 3.5" SAS

I'm assuming I should just get 6-7 different powervaults/chassis? Or is there a better way?

Thanks!
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
I agree--it would be messy, but it would be nice if I had 10x of the 1950 trays in, then 5x HP drives (or no drives at all) hooked up.


-2nd part-
This is what I do already...great minds think alike!

If I stick with the drill/screwdriver method, what do I all need for chassis? I test the following:

Dell 2.5 and 3.5 SAS (I can get the cables like above for SATA to SAS if needbe
HP 2.5 and 3.5" SAS
IBM 2.5" and 3.5" SAS

I'm assuming I should just get 6-7 different powervaults/chassis? Or is there a better way?

Thanks!

What are you testing, just the drives? If so, you really don't need a chassis at all. Just get a few SFF-8087 breakout cables to attach to your RAID card, a spare PSU to use on the bench, and as many SATA power Y cables as you need.