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Old Intel S5520HC server I would like to use for DSM


intangybles

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Hello again all,

 

I have an old Intel Based server that is currently running as a ProxMox server - very well as it happens. I would like to simplify (re-purpose) its operation as its Virtualization Function is no longer extensively used.

 

To this end I would like to ask what the general opinion is of it as a Candidate for DSM Installation?

 

Its spec:

  • Intel® Server Board S5520HC
  • Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5506 @ 2.13GHz, 4 cores
  • 6GiB
  • 2 x Intel 82576 Gigabit Network Connection (onboard)
  • Raid Card (Intel Branded - LSI Logic (MegaRAID SAS 1078)
  • With SATA HotSwap Drive bay (6 Bay)

 

Most of the Hardware I think is compatible but I have not been able to find much on the LSI SAS controller?

 

Any advise would be very much appreciated.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, intangybles said:

Most of the Hardware I think is compatible but I have not been able to find much on the LSI SAS controller?

according to my list for storage controller it should be working

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/12859-driver-extension-jun-103a2dsm62x-for-ds918/

but afaik these old 10xx chips had a disk size limit of 2.3TB so the biggest disk for the lsi would be 2TB

also usually you want to have IT mode firmware to have single disks for dsm raid (software)

the driver is part of jun's default package

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14 hours ago, IG-88 said:

but afaik these old 10xx chips had a disk size limit of 2.3TB so the biggest disk for the lsi would be 2TB

also usually you want to have IT mode firmware to have single disks for dsm raid (software)

 

Thank you very much for that, yes I was aware of the 2TB cap, it presently has 2 x 1TB & 4 x 2TB drives installed as a Mirror and Raid 5 respectively.

I was also wondering about the hardware Raid settings etc with DSM, I have setup a test box (old AMD with onboard raid and I note it just seems to have ignored the BIOS raid settings when DSM was installed) Its working very well so far running as a DS3615xs with 6.2.3

 

Further from that would you suggest DS3615xs as a target for this system, like wise running 6.2.3?

 

Thanks again.

 

 

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3 hours ago, intangybles said:

hardware Raid settings etc with DSM, I have setup a test box (old AMD with onboard raid and I note it just seems to have ignored the BIOS raid settings when DSM was installed) Its working very well so far running as a DS3615xs with 6.2.3

there are no raid drivers for intel or amd but there are raid drivers for the lsi controllers in the driver set (megaraid, megaraid_sas) but you will not have muck info or control without the proper tools that are not part of dsm,  the preferable method is still to have single disks in dsm and do raid with mdadm the way dsm does it, you might spare 60-80 bugs but if it comes to trouble with disks or controller its much harder to identify a problem or replace the controller, with mdadm you can use any controller, even a cheap multiport ahci controller

 

3 hours ago, intangybles said:

Further from that would you suggest DS3615xs as a target for this system, like wise running 6.2.3?

i don't see any downsides with 6.2.x or in particular with 6.2.3 when comparing with 6.1.x, it gets all the latest updates and packages

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/28/2020 at 6:35 PM, IG-88 said:

there are no raid drivers for intel or amd but there are raid drivers for the lsi controllers in the driver set (megaraid, megaraid_sas) but you will not have muck info or control without the proper tools that are not part of dsm,  the preferable method is still to have single disks in dsm and do raid with mdadm the way dsm does it, you might spare 60-80 bugs but if it comes to trouble with disks or controller its much harder to identify a problem or replace the controller, with mdadm you can use any controller, even a cheap multiport ahci controller

 

i don't see any downsides with 6.2.x or in particular with 6.2.3 when comparing with 6.1.x, it gets all the latest updates and packages

 

 

Thank you again for your reply. Installation went well. Full install of 6.2.3 (direct download) using Jun's 1.03 loader. Set all drives as single volumes on the Intel Raid controller. Both onboard NIC's running perfectly.

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** moved to more appropriate topic **

 

The story continues...

 

Only issue thus far is as follows: Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) machines will NOT boot from an image (HDD) but will always boot from a CD image?

 

VMM install went perfectly, all appears to be fine, all systems showing as functional.

 

  • Test install of Win7 works flawlessly, but will not boot from the installed image (just hangs on Booting from hardisk.. message) (both under legacy BIOS and UFI).
  • Transferred working image copied from the original ProxMox config (both in 2cow and vdi format) will not boot from transferred image.
  • Imported an OVA from VirtualBox, likewise import goes without issue but will not boot from image.

 

Seems odd when this was a long term working Proxmox machine.

 

Any ideas or things to check would be appreciated?

 

Thanks again, Mark.

Edited by intangybles
moved to more appropriate topic
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