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

[Uppie1414]

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]

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]

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!

 

[Uppie1414]

bump

 

[mfenn]

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.