Data loss is universally acknowledged as a nightmare scenario. And unfortunately, hard drive errors are a common culprit behind it. The consequences can be devastating, so your system will probably try to warn you before disaster strikes. But how can you tell what all those different sounds and lights mean?
This tutorial will show you step-by-step how to install a rear Flex Bay into a Dell PowerEdge R720xd 24-bay server. Except for the Flex Bay placement, the process would be virtually identical for installing a Mid Flex Bay in the same server.
NOTE: Scroll to the bottom of this Dell PowerEdge R720xd Flex Bay installation guide for the P/Ns and images of the alternate Flex Bay cables.
The ...
As part of our continuing series of TechMike's Quick Fix Troubleshooting Guide, we tackle common errors triggered by RAID controllers. (For your reference, here are links to our previous posts: PSU Quick Fixes and RAM and Cables).
RAID is such an integral component of virtually any Enterprise rack server that we had to dedicate an entire blog to it – it's TechMike's Quick Fix Troubleshooting...
SSDs vs. HDDs. It’s a raging debate within the IT world. Some folks swear that the performance of SSDs so vastly outperforms HDDs that the higher cost is unquestionably worth it. Others feel that HDDs offer decent-enough data transfer speeds at a much better price. The truth depends on your scenario and where you want to put your dollars!
This blog post will cover the basics of HDDs and SSDs ...
Enterprise servers are designed to hold multiple hard drives in bays. In fact, most enterprise rack servers have no less than six bays, and the Dell PowerEdge' xd' models can have up to twenty-four drive bays (and that's not including any Flex Bay options!).
In addition to the robust storage options for standard Long Form Factor (LFF) and Small Form Factor (SFF) drives, some servers have alte...
When you consider data mirroring through RAID, Hot-Pluggable PSUs, and Hot Swappable hard drives, there is no question that Enterprise servers – with their mission-critical applications – are built with redundancy in mind.
To that end, we thought it would be helpful to share what we suggest to keep on hand in terms of spares and the basics of hot-swapping vs. hot-plugging; and hot spares vs....
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...
We often are asked by our customers for more details on our refurbished hard drives. “How long have they been running? How many bytes have been written? Are there any bad sectors?” Since we already covered the myths and misconceptions about refurbished hard drives in a previous blog post, we thought it would be helpful to share the objective metrics we use to quantify our drives before we...
One of the regular features of our blog is to share with you, our valued customer, some of the support questions we receive. Since these are questions we've researched and solved, why not share the knowledge?
In this information dispatch of TechTalk, we'll look at some of the queries that have come through our support desk regarding Hard Drives.
Hi Mike. I just realized that my server ha...
On occasion, we get a customer querying us who wishes to buy a SAS drive and wonder if they can install that drive into their personal PC.
We can understand where they are coming from: SAS drives are universally better than their SATA counterparts, both in terms of reliability and transfer speeds. So then, if SAS is better, and it comes in the same 2.5” or 3.5” form factor, why can’t I just...
At TechMikeNY, we get a lot of customers who are looking to build a home server lab. Servers are used for so many different tasks and applications, and we know it can feel overwhelming trying to figure out what you really need and what might be overkill. Since we've fielded so many questions on the required specs for builds, we thought it would be great to lay down some high-level questions ...
You have a massive RAID array with several drives in a server. Disaster strikes, and the system board crashes. Recreating the RAID arrays from a backup could take a very long time, to say nothing of the reading/writing wear & tear on your drives. Wouldn’t it be great if you can just take all those functioning drives that house your RAID virtual disk(s) and install them in a new server ...
In the world of IT acronyms, nothing sounds more like a Marvel supervillain than "JBOD." No, JBOD is not a criminal mastermind bent on world domination (as far as we know) but a non-RAID storage architecture that maximizes the volume of its drives, so the total disk space is the sum of its drives.
So what is a JBOD? If the above sounds complicated, know that "J.B.O.D" stands for "Just a B...
At TechMikeNY, we are all about capitalizing the value of IT equipment to its maximum. Why throw something out when it has potentially years of production still in it? When you consider the growing issue of e-waste, it’s a no-brainer that both the consumer and the global population benefit from quality refurbished IT equipment.
As you’ll see in this post, nothing fits this bill more than r...
By now, you’ve probably heard of the amazing advantages of SSD drives – the flash-based hard drive technology, which improves performance dramatically over traditional spinning platter drives (or HDDs). You may also have heard of “NVMe,” – which are also SSD drives, but with a specific form factor and interface designed to take advantage of SSD’s lightning-fast read and write capabilities. ...
We receive some interesting questions on unique configurations and server builds from our customers. At TechMikeNY, we are all about sharing knowledge, so check these out and let us know if you have a different take or anything to add!
This particular question from a customer involved the feasibility of setting up multiple monitors to a Dell PowerEdge rack server:
"Hi, Mike. I need to conne...
Our customers often ask for assistance in setting up a RAID array in their new TechMikeNY server. In this video tutorial, we’ll provide step-by-step instructions for how to set-up a RAID array in a Dell PowerEdge server. The PERC – or PowerEdge Raid Controller – is an H730, and the server is a Dell R730 – but the steps are virtually identical between all Dell PowerEdge servers.
When the...
With the advances in hard drive technology, manufacturers have started taking advantage of higher hard drive density so that you, the consumer, can get the most bang for the buck. If you have ever heard the term “4Kn” in a hard drive’s specs – this is a relatively recent development in hard drive architecture that allows for more of the disk’s volume to be used.
This post will give some back...
