This tutorial will show you, step-by-step, how to install a rear flex bay into a 24-Bay Dell PowerEdge R740xd server. The installation would also be the same for installing in an R740xd 12-bay server; however, with rear flex bays for 12-bay servers, the SAS cable placement is different on the chassis backplane, and you would need to use a different SAS cable (more on that later).
NOTE: With 12t...
When it comes to types of server hard drives, there are so many variations out there that it can become challenging to keep track of all the considerations. "Can my server read a 4Kn drive?" "Can I mix SAS and SATA drives in the same machine?" "What about SSDs versus HDDs?"
While we've written extensively on hard drives, we thought it would be helpful to summarize all the types, formats, and ...
Our previous Quick Fix blog post focused on troubleshooting common startup issues associated with PSUs. In this post, we'll continue with the spirit of Quick Fixes and look at other issues that can cause problems right out of the gate, specifically, RAM and cabling.
It's TechMike's Quick Fix Troubleshooting Guide – Part 2! Let's go Under the Hood!
Cabling
While our server builders test every ...
One of the unique services we provide to our customers is sharing our deep knowledge of the subtleties of enterprise server chassis. For example, a Dell R630 can have different drive sizes (LFF vs. SFF) and a different number of bays. Even though they are all under the same model designation, these differences can dramatically impact what components you can install (and even what cables you...
Some Dell servers come with a feature called “Split Backplane” or “FlexZone.” This feature allows you to have two RAID controllers in the same machine. While Dell provides several options to configure the split backplane feature in their literature, we have found this to be the most reliable process for changing a server from the Split Backplane Mode to a Unified Backplane Mode acros...
Call us gearheads, but at TechMikeNY, we’re fascinated by all of the hardware and parts of an enterprise server. We often field questions from our customers on cable compatibility, specifically the many variables with Dell backplane cables.
To better inform, we thought it would be helpful to describe the nuances of these backplane cables. Call it Server Anatomy 101: Know Your Backplane Cab...
