Hi folks,
I recently came into possession of a brand new old machine and I'm wondering if anyone here might have an interest in it. The machine came to me as part of a bigger deal.
I could deploy it but I don't necessarily need to so I would just as soon sell it instead.
Dell PowerVault MD3200i 8 x 600GB drives installed 2U server with rails
It was brand new in the box, bought by somebody I know in 2013, and he never got around to deploying it.
I realize it's barely worth it due to the age, unless of course you are really into this specific hardware.
If you or someone you know might be interested, email me.
FYI, that's not a server - it's an iSCSI SAN. Which, yes, I suppose has an embedded server of sorts, but all it can run is the embedded Dell PowerVault OS. These were pretty decent iSCSI SANs when they were new, but that was, as stated, quite a long time ago!
It will have redundant PSUs, and redundant controllers , 4x 1G ethernet ports that can all be active at once. The 8x600 drives will be 15krpm 3.5" SAS drives (the only type of 600GB drives ever approved for that unit AFAIK). They can be configured as RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and 6, so total capacity anywhere from 2.4TB up to 4.8TB of usable space. IIRC these models do support multipath iSCSI, so you can theoretically burst almost 4Gbps out of them... not that the disks can sustain that, but hey, for that one millisecond, it'll be awesome! If you have a VMware home lab, you might still be able to use the VAAPI (?) PowerVault-specific accleration plugins with this to do things like offload thick zeroing and similar background tasks to the array.
Beware: This sucker can pull back up to 600W when loaded with 12 drives. It's only got 8 drives, but of the most power-hungry type, so I'd guess it'll pull (steady-state) somewhere around 350W (non-stop) and closer to 450W (at 100% busy). It claims to only generate 150W of heat, so it's a remarkably large, loud, and inefficient space heater, if you're using it that way 😄. The serial console is a unique PS/2-type DIN-style connector. I'm sure the pinouts are online somewhere. If it's still NIB it should come with a cable, and you might never need it anyway. You may need a VM to run a JRE old enough to run the management console... it's been problematic to run that for quite some time now.
I can't find the spec sheet on Dell's site, but here's one that looks like a legit copy: https://www.xbyte.com/dell-md3200i-spec-sheet
I would've given my left arm for one of these 10 years ago! -Adam ________________________________ From: Roundtable roundtable-bounces@muug.ca on behalf of Scott Toderash scott@100percenthelpdesk.com Sent: April 19, 2023 12:35 PM To: MUUG RndTbl roundtable@muug.ca Subject: [RndTbl] New Old Dell Server
Hi folks,
I recently came into possession of a brand new old machine and I'm wondering if anyone here might have an interest in it. The machine came to me as part of a bigger deal.
I could deploy it but I don't necessarily need to so I would just as soon sell it instead.
Dell PowerVault MD3200i 8 x 600GB drives installed 2U server with rails
It was brand new in the box, bought by somebody I know in 2013, and he never got around to deploying it.
I realize it's barely worth it due to the age, unless of course you are really into this specific hardware.
If you or someone you know might be interested, email me. _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.ca https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Yes that's correct. "server" is the best description here.
Like all old tech, it's neat but. Timing is everything.
The rails are in good condition, so there's that.
On 2023-04-19 12:59, Adam Thompson wrote:
FYI, that's not a server - it's an iSCSI SAN. Which, yes, I suppose has an embedded server of sorts, but all it can run is the embedded Dell PowerVault OS. These were pretty decent iSCSI SANs when they were new, but that was, as stated, quite a long time ago!
It will have redundant PSUs, and redundant controllers , 4x 1G ethernet ports that can all be active at once. The 8x600 drives will be 15krpm 3.5" SAS drives (the only type of 600GB drives ever approved for that unit AFAIK). They can be configured as RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and 6, so total capacity anywhere from 2.4TB up to 4.8TB of usable space. IIRC these models do support multipath iSCSI, so you can theoretically burst almost 4Gbps out of them... not that the disks can sustain that, but hey, for that one millisecond, it'll be awesome! If you have a VMware home lab, you might still be able to use the VAAPI (?) PowerVault-specific accleration plugins with this to do things like offload thick zeroing and similar background tasks to the array.
Beware: This sucker can pull back up to 600W when loaded with 12 drives. It's only got 8 drives, but of the most power-hungry type, so I'd guess it'll pull (steady-state) somewhere around 350W (non-stop) and closer to 450W (at 100% busy). It claims to only generate 150W of heat, so it's a remarkably large, loud, and inefficient space heater, if you're using it that way 😄. The serial console is a unique PS/2-type DIN-style connector. I'm sure the pinouts are online /somewhere/. If it's still NIB it should come with a cable, and you might never need it anyway. You may need a VM to run a JRE old enough to run the management console... it's been problematic to run that for quite some time now.
I can't find the spec sheet on Dell's site, but here's one that looks like a legit copy: https://www.xbyte.com/dell-md3200i-spec-sheet https://www.xbyte.com/dell-md3200i-spec-sheet
I would've given my left arm for one of these 10 years ago!
-Adam
*From:* Roundtable roundtable-bounces@muug.ca on behalf of Scott Toderash scott@100percenthelpdesk.com *Sent:* April 19, 2023 12:35 PM *To:* MUUG RndTbl roundtable@muug.ca *Subject:* [RndTbl] New Old Dell Server Hi folks,
I recently came into possession of a brand new old machine and I'm wondering if anyone here might have an interest in it. The machine came to me as part of a bigger deal.
I could deploy it but I don't necessarily need to so I would just as soon sell it instead.
Dell PowerVault MD3200i 8 x 600GB drives installed 2U server with rails
It was brand new in the box, bought by somebody I know in 2013, and he never got around to deploying it.
I realize it's barely worth it due to the age, unless of course you are really into this specific hardware.
If you or someone you know might be interested, email me. _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.ca https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.ca https://muug.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
On 2023-04-19 Adam Thompson wrote:
FYI, that's not a server - it's an iSCSI SAN. Which, yes, I suppose has an embedded server of sorts, but all it can run is the embedded Dell PowerVault OS. These were pretty decent iSCSI SANs when they were new, but that was, as stated, quite a long time ago!
That's a neat box. Funny how ~4 TB sounds like chump change nowadays :-/
What are the odds you could put in plain SATA SSDs (same connector, no?) and the thing will just work? In theory?...
I don't see how the thing can draw the power you say it does, but I will believe you! I guess if the drives are going full bore all the time. I had many 15k's over the years and they didn't seem too crazy with the draw. But most had these big heatsinks built into the housing, so there must have been a reason.
It's a bit depressing how the cheapest SSDs quickly became many times faster than the super expensive fancy 15k SCSIs. But good for the pocketbook, and your average plebeian box!
So this thing only can connect to servers via ethernet? And the SAS expansion port is for attaching another one of these boxes, or some external SCSI stuff?
65 lbs?! Crazy!!
Client access is via iSCSI (over IP over gigabit Ethernet) exclusively. This isn't a big deal, everything speaks iSCSI... but you need an actual "server" (ahem) interposed if you want SMB or NFS.
The SAS port is for connecting expansion shelves.
Get Outlook for Androidhttps://aka.ms/AAb9ysg ________________________________ From: Trevor Cordes trevor@tecnopolis.ca Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 8:02:00 PM To: Adam Thompson athompso@athompso.net Cc: Continuation of Round Table discussion roundtable@muug.ca Subject: Re: [RndTbl] New Old Dell Server
On 2023-04-19 Adam Thompson wrote:
FYI, that's not a server - it's an iSCSI SAN. Which, yes, I suppose has an embedded server of sorts, but all it can run is the embedded Dell PowerVault OS. These were pretty decent iSCSI SANs when they were new, but that was, as stated, quite a long time ago!
That's a neat box. Funny how ~4 TB sounds like chump change nowadays :-/
What are the odds you could put in plain SATA SSDs (same connector, no?) and the thing will just work? In theory?...
I don't see how the thing can draw the power you say it does, but I will believe you! I guess if the drives are going full bore all the time. I had many 15k's over the years and they didn't seem too crazy with the draw. But most had these big heatsinks built into the housing, so there must have been a reason.
It's a bit depressing how the cheapest SSDs quickly became many times faster than the super expensive fancy 15k SCSIs. But good for the pocketbook, and your average plebeian box!
So this thing only can connect to servers via ethernet? And the SAS expansion port is for attaching another one of these boxes, or some external SCSI stuff?
65 lbs?! Crazy!!
On 2023-04-20 Adam Thompson wrote:
Client access is via iSCSI (over IP over gigabit Ethernet) exclusively. This isn't a big deal, everything speaks iSCSI... but you need an actual "server" (ahem) interposed if you want SMB or NFS.
Ya, but my point was does the SCSI-over-ethernet talk to a logical (fake) view of the storage or does it talk SCSI directly from your server, through the net/SAN, into the drives? Forgive my severe ignorance, I've never had the chance to play with one of these.
The answer to that I guess will answer whether or not you can chuck SATA drives into the thing.
They still make SAS SSDs, no? So I guess you could always do that, if this thing will support them. But then you have big $$$$$
-
Adam Thompson -
Scott Toderash -
Trevor Cordes