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Dell T110 For VMWare - RAID?

R

rosco

Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2000
Messages
722
I am looking to use a Dell T110 as my VMWare ESXi host. I would be running SBS 2008 as my main virtual machine in a production instance. In addition to this, I would like to run several Server 2008 virtual machines for testing etc.

I am planning on just using local storage as opposed to a NAS etc. What RAID card would you suggest?

Also, what memory from Newegg would work with the T110 II?
 
What type of RAID are you wanting to do?

Actually, hard to go wrong with the Dell PERC 5 or 6 no matter what flavor of RAID. Just make sure you get the cache memory (already integrated on the 6) and a working BBU (not all cards come with the BBU and some ship with old stale batteries). You should be able to pick this up cheap on ebay, or certainly Dell will sell you one and I'm sure will support it in the T110.

I use the equivalent of the Dell SAS 6/ir in my T110 and I wish I had picked up a PERC instead. Even a RAID 1 array on the SAS6 is dog slow because it's in write-through mode due to lack of battery-backed cache. It's not unbearable but certainly not ideal.

Another advantage of the PERC cards are that they work out of the box with all flavors of ESXi and you can also monitor the health of the array from vSphere client/vCenter. They're just re-branded LSI's but have Dell custom firmware in them.

Will let others answer on the RAM question but depending on how much you want to put in there look for Dual-rank DIMMs (stay away from Quad-rank IMHO) and go for Unbuffered. You can use Registered as long as you're running a Xeon in there, but Unbuffered are what it ships with IIRC and you can't mix the two types. I use the cheaper Kingston server RAM in my T110 and it works fine.
 
Actually, I have a couple PERC 5i cards laying around. I might just use one of those then if it's compatible with the T110. Are they about on par with the 6i as far as speed goes?

I was thinking probably RAID1 or maybe two RAID1 arrays as the T110 can handle 4 drives I believe. Is it a big deal to install ESXi on the array that you will be running the VMs off of?

Do you have a link to the Kingston memory you are talking about?
 
Grab a BBWC and have at the PERC card. As for RAM, check crucial.com, and buy something from newegg that equals that in terms of specs.
 
I used kingston's memory finder:
Dell Poweredge T110 II = KTD-PE313E/4G

Googled "KTD-PE313E/8G" and found the following

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139319

EDIT / UPDATE * * * The above memory is registered in the 8GB form where the 4GB version
is not ...so my method to figure out a working 8GB = FAIL!!! .. DO NOT USE ***
Stick to ECC Unbuffered modules !

If I had a gen II T110, I'd try it ....so doublecheck specs.

I am fairly certain it won't work on the gen 1 boards with the 3420 chipset.
Dell specifically created an info update for 8GB configs not "supported" on T110-1
and I thought i saw egg feedback from someone saying it didn't work on the Supermicro
board with the same 3420 chipset.
 
Last edited:
I use a Dell T110 at home for VM stuff (bought 3 for a customer and was able to keep one)
No problems with the Perc5 or SAS5/ir cards....using the SAS5 card in his main server in the office running 2008R2 Foundation.
The one I kept for myself I actually upgraded the memory yesterday to the max of 16gb.
THESE are the 4 sticks I used.
Im not sure if the server needs/can use REG mem, but I know it complains on POST if it doesnt have ECC mem, I only installed the ECC mem and have no problems.
 
dbwillis said:
I use a Dell T110 at home for VM stuff (bought 3 for a customer and was able to keep one)
No problems with the Perc5 or SAS5/ir cards....using the SAS5 card in his main server in the office running 2008R2 Foundation.
The one I kept for myself I actually upgraded the memory yesterday to the max of 16gb.
THESE are the 4 sticks I used.
Im not sure if the server needs/can use REG mem, but I know it complains on POST if it doesnt have ECC mem, I only installed the ECC mem and have no problems.
Click to expand...

thanks for that link, been using the 8gb that came with my T110 x3430 for a while now. Hadnt gotten around to finding what i needed for 16.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
I am fairly certain it won't work on the gen 1 boards with the 3420 chipset.
Dell specifically created an info update for 8GB configs not "supported" on T110-1
and I thought i saw egg feedback from someone saying it didn't work on the Supermicro
board with the same 3420 chipset.
Click to expand...

Yup, I have the original T110 and made the mistake of ordering some 8GB DIMMs for it without checking first--oops. Box wouldn't post with any of the 8GB sticks in there. 2 minutes of googling later and I realized my mistake.

So OP be glad you got a T110 II! I'm finding only 16GB of RAM to be quite limiting for my uses (I'm doing some VMDirectPath so am required to reserve all the memory assigned to the guest).

And I have registered memory in mine. Like I said it works fine as long as all your sticks are registered and you're running a Xeon. But udimms are usually cheaper.
 
rosco said:
<snipped>
I was thinking probably RAID1 or maybe two RAID1 arrays as the T110 can handle 4 drives I believe. Is it a big deal to install ESXi on the array that you will be running the VMs off of?
<snipped>
Click to expand...

I've only run ESXi from a separate storage device (1GB, 2GB or 4GB USB drive).
You can plug in internally (two ports in the T110) for security or externally for
flexibility.

Just an FYI - you are not limited to four drives in the T-110.
You can run 4 x 2.5" enclosure x2 for 8 2.5" drives + 4 3.5" drives.

You can also get 3.5" to dual 2.5" drive adapters for a total of 16 2.5" drives.

Just have to monitor power consumption on the ~300 watt power supply.
 
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I guess I'm not sure now that 16GB with be enough RAM. SBS is a memory hog as is the MS exchange test boxes I would be running.

Crucial says the max memory for the T110 II is 32GB but doesn't offer any memory that would even come close to getting to that total amount with the 4 slots.

They offer more choice for the T310 though that would get me to 24GB I believe.
 
rosco said:
I guess I'm not sure now that 16GB with be enough RAM. SBS is a memory hog as is the MS exchange test boxes I would be running.

Crucial says the max memory for the T110 II is 32GB but doesn't offer any memory that would even come close to getting to that total amount with the 4 slots.

They offer more choice for the T310 though that would get me to 24GB I believe.
Click to expand...

Well there's no way to get to 32GB in four slots without 8GB DIMMs so I'm sure that's what you'll need.

I think the reason the memory selectors aren't showing you 8GB DIMMs is because apparently most (all?) 8GB ECC DIMMs are registered, not unbuffered. Technically the T110 II (and the first generation before it) specifies unbuffered DIMMs, meaning it doesn't require registered DIMMs.

But it does work with registered DIMMs. You just need to make sure that all DIMMs are registered and you're outfitted with a Xeon processor.

Alternately, if you wanted to save money you could try non-ECC RAM (which is also available in 8GB sticks) but I really wouldn't recommend it for a server. I used non-ECC in my T110 for a while... it did work but threw up an ugly error message during the POST.

So anyway, if you just want suggestions then here's some memory I bet will work:

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT102472BQ1339

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139140

If you want to keep costs down I'd recommend the Kingston.

Just don't be tempted by Quad-Rank DIMMs... they're cheap but aren't nearly as compatible.
 
Just made an update to my post (#5) as was recently
able to test registered memory out on a PowerEdge T110-II.

I'd tried two different registered modules (one I linked to in post #5).
The T110-II would not post.

Unless anyone can confirm otherwise, you just can't use registered modules
in this particular server.
 
Netwerkz101 said:
Just made an update to my post (#5) as was recently
able to test registered memory out on a PowerEdge T110-II.

I'd tried two different registered modules (one I linked to in post #5).
The T110-II would not post.

Unless anyone can confirm otherwise, you just can't use registered modules
in this particular server.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... that is sort of odd because I'm running 4GB registered DIMMs in my T110-1 just fine. 8GB DIMMS (I tried both registered and unbuffered) wouldn't POST, but that's just because the T110-1 doesn't support 8GB DIMMs. But the T110-2 must support them because it advertises a max memory of 32GB.

OK sanity check here, what processor do you have in your T110-2? It must be a Xeon. Have you upgraded to the latest BIOS? Did you try a single 8GB DIMM in several different slots?

Otherwise I guess scour the net and see if you can find unbuffered ECC 8GB DDR3 somewhere. Like I said though, I'm using registered RAM on the previous generation of the T110 without any problems at all.
 
Interesting ... maybe it is just the 8GB modules must be unbuffered.
I have a Xeon 3440 in my Gen 1 and there is an E1230 in the Gen2 I am testing.
Neither post with an 8GB registered module.

I'll take your work for it about the 4GB registered workin in the Gen1.
I am currently looking for a working 8GB ECC unbuffered module to test.
I'll try it on the Gen 1 too for grins n giggles ..who knows?

I can interchange the 4GB modules between Gen 1 and Gen 2 just fine
so I know same 4GB modules work on both systems.
 
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