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R610/R710 &MD1000 Server Testing Station (perc6 or H800) Thoughts?

U

Uppie1414

Golden Member
Hey everyone.

I currently am running a T7400 workstation with perc6 and drop cables to test out 4x drives at a time. It's treated me well, but I want to step up and hook a MD1000 to my R610 (may get R710, but I don't think I need).

This is simply a testing station to see the health of drives. Some quick questions:

1) would you recommend cables from the backplane of the MD1000 so I can easily plug in drives, regardless of trays?
2) what testing programs would you recommend?
3) perc6 will get me to 2TB, but if I want to test over that, I need H800.

Any suggestions? Any other testing ways that you have/things I'm missing? Thanks!
 
For a disk testing station, I would want something that disks could be swapped in and out without having to be installed in a Caddy.

Depending on how your workstation is set up, a rackmount server might be a terrible idea simply because of noise. (Dell workstation PCs tend to be fairly quiet. Rack servers, not so much.)

Will your testing suite work over USB, or is SAS/SATA necessary?
 
I was thinking installing extension cables so I could swap without trays. I do not want to swap caddies in and out (used to do this).

I can do usb or SAS/SATA.

You think keeping the workstation would be a better route? Thanks!
 
If you can do usb, any old computer or laptop will work fine alongside a couple of these.

https://www.startech.com/HDD/Dockin...ive-Docking-Station-for-25-35-HDD~SATDOCK4U3E

Or, if not those then something similar.

Overall throughput will be lower of course, over usb, but it's also cheap and easy to expand to do a bunch of drives in parallel. (Overnight?)

In terms of drives per dollar, a bunch of dual drive docks may actually be cheaper than half as many four drive docks. But the latter is probably neater.

If it turns out that usb won't work, there are similar docking devices that connect via esata.
 
sdifox said:
Raid enclosures are not suitable for drive testing. Use a bunch of usb drive docks
Click to expand...

What makes you say that? A RAID card in JBOD mode should be the next best thing to a direct chipset connection, right? IME, USB controllers have a funny habit of blocking SMART commands, hdparm commands, secure erase commands for SSDs, etc., because they don't support the full SATA command set, just "enough" of it.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
What makes you say that? A RAID card in JBOD mode should be the next best thing to a direct chipset connection, right? IME, USB controllers have a funny habit of blocking SMART commands, hdparm commands, secure erase commands for SSDs, etc., because they don't support the full SATA command set, just "enough" of it.
Click to expand...

Every time you want to test a new drive you have to go into raid setup in bios. Not to mention you have to put the drive in a caddie first.

Use e-sata docks if you need more than usb can provide.

Of course this assumes sata drives. With sas you have to stick it on a backplane.
 
Last edited:
dave_the_nerd said:
What makes you say that? A RAID card in JBOD mode should be the next best thing to a direct chipset connection, right? IME, USB controllers have a funny habit of blocking SMART commands, hdparm commands, secure erase commands for SSDs, etc., because they don't support the full SATA command set, just "enough" of it.
Click to expand...

sdifox said:
Every time you want to test a new drive you have to go into raid setup in bios. Not to mention you have to put the drive in a caddie first.

Use e-sata docks if you need more than usb can provide.

Of course this assumes sata drives. With sas you have to stick it on a backplane.
Click to expand...

Both of the above depends on the controller. Some controllers "JBOD" mode is actually just creating single drive RAID0 arrays (IE some HP Smart Array controllers). In those cases, yes you'd have to enter the BIOS to swap drives. That often blocks SMART commands, etc, as well. Some controllers (IE LSI-9211's) can be flashed to HBA mode which is why they are preferred among the ZFS crowd. They are basically straight pass through at that point so the OS is responsible for everything. No going into the BIOS when you replace a drive but no RAID functionality either.

That would work for the OP except there's no practical way to connect drives to said controller without a solution that requires trays. OP didn't want trays so I didn't suggest that. Personally I wouldn't consider stringing internal cables to the outside of the case an option.

That said, you can get a surplus IBM M1015 (rebranded LSI 9220-8i) for $70 on eBay right now. Crossflash it to a 9211 in IT (HBA) mode for free (https://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/). Buy a pair of breakout cables. That gives you 8x SATA/SAS 6Gbps ports but no RAID. If you can either live with trays or are happy with cables dangling out your case, that would be the cheapest, most reliable option.
 
XavierMace said:
Both of the above depends on the controller. Some controllers "JBOD" mode is actually just creating single drive RAID0 arrays (IE some HP Smart Array controllers). In those cases, yes you'd have to enter the BIOS to swap drives. That often blocks SMART commands, etc, as well. Some controllers (IE LSI-9211's) can be flashed to HBA mode which is why they are preferred among the ZFS crowd. They are basically straight pass through at that point so the OS is responsible for everything. No going into the BIOS when you replace a drive but no RAID functionality either.

That would work for the OP except there's no practical way to connect drives to said controller without a solution that requires trays. OP didn't want trays so I didn't suggest that. Personally I wouldn't consider stringing internal cables to the outside of the case an option.

That said, you can get a surplus IBM M1015 (rebranded LSI 9220-8i) for $70 on eBay right now. Crossflash it to a 9211 in IT (HBA) mode for free (https://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/). Buy a pair of breakout cables. That gives you 8x SATA/SAS 6Gbps ports but no RAID. If you can either live with trays or are happy with cables dangling out your case, that would be the cheapest, most reliable option.
Click to expand...


I don't see the point of buying a server to test hdds. He can easily stick that 9220-8i in a desktop and go to town
 
If you don't want to use trays, your only practical option is USB/eSATA docks. Unless you want to go with a ghetto option and have cables running out the case.
 
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