This blogpost on Security System Servers is a goldmine of information! The detailed exploration of advantages, specs, and the essential software and hardware requirements provides a clear roadmap for those navigating the realm of security technology. It’s a must-read for anyone considering or upgrading their security system servers. Kudos to the author for breaking down the complexities and offering a comprehensive guide!
very informative post
Thanks for reaching out, Dr. Manweiler, and great question. Unfortunately, OS Support and options for COAX DVR cards are very minimal. That said, there are several analog camera to IP camera converters on the market. A couple of caveats to keep in mind: some of the universal ones don’t work as well across all models, and if you can find one specifically made by the manufacturer of the analog camera you already have, go with that. Also, these converters can be expensive – you may have to do a cost-benefit analysis to see if the cost of the converters exceeds the cost of just buying a new round of digital cameras. I would start with a Google search, “convert analog camera to IP camera.” A couple of product options and literature look like a good place to start. Thanks again, and we hope this helps!
Hi Michael. Thanks for the comment below and the feedback on the storage needed. If you increase the drives on our build to 1 TB, as you suggest, that will give you a total of 10 TB (for only an additional $5 per drive as of this writing). You could even add 2TB SAS drives – although the price is a big jump. If more storage is required, we have the R720, R730 servers with 8 to 12 3.5" drive bays where we can install 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 10TB drives. The WD storage calculator is a great tool. Thanks for sharing.
As for WD Purple Drives, yes, they are specifically designed for surveillance storage. We don’t usually get them in our refurbishing pipeline, so we recommended SAS (Enterprise) drives as they are built for very high read & write thresholds. (PS, our return rate on hard drives is <1%). Thanks again for this comment – feedback like this helps us make our blog an excellent resource for our customers!
Interesting configuration although the issue that I have trouble dealing with is that I have a good number (10) of old style analog (coax) cameras which work great but for a configuration such as you have put together to work for me I would have to have some type of interface that would accept at least 10 of these hard wired cameras but still provide the capability to allow me to have 8 (currently) IP cameras. Note that almost all of my cameras are at least 2k and most are 4k.
Any thoughts on hardware that can be added to the server you spec’ed out above that could also handle analog cameras?
Sincerely
Jerry
6TB is nothing. Most of my NDR need at least 10TB for 8 cameras. Also, if you want to work right, I suggest using WD Purple Hard Drives. https://www.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-purple-sata-hdd#calculator this page has Calculator Storage link on the page.
Which is better, an apple product that apple co. Has redone or a apple product that another company has refurbish
Hey Angelo,
The low profile heatinks are really intended for use with the 4x mid bay drive cage. They won’t really help to get more air back to the rear flexbay SSDs. Just make sure the air flow is not blocked in the front or back of the server. The chassis fans will provide cooling to the entire chassis. You could try removing the air shroud and monitor the CPU and SSD temperatures to see if that makes any difference. However, we prefer keeping the servers as Dell engineered them.
I have an r730XD and I have 2 low profile heat sinks to allow more air to go to my back ssd’s and pcie’s, is any modification of the air shroud necessary ? I can sit the air shroud in the chassis with the new low profile heatsinks as the plastic touches them before I can even seat the shroud all the way !
Thank you
Hi Bob. Thanks for the comment. We read the guidance on VMWare’s site, and it looks like, just as you said, future versions of ESXi will lose the SD media boot functionality. Thanks for the heads-up and sharing your YouTube channel – it looks like a wealth of info. We’ve subscribed! Thanks again!
Hi,
You may wish to note that VMWare has publically said it will no longer support SD media (or USB) to boot VMware ESXi in the future.
Bob
P.S. We review Vmware and used servers on our Youtune channel. Search BOB PELLERIN or CTOBOB.
Hi Marc. Thank you for asking! No, it is not possible to change just the front drive bays. You would need to swap the entire chassis.
Can I swap a r730xd 83.5 12 bay to a 2.5 24 bay chassis?
Hi Jason. Thanks for your question! R720s and R730s have different power supplies and backplanes, so installing an R730 motherboard into an R720 chassis probably would not work. That being said, we have not found a reason to attempt a swap like this, since the form factors of the servers are almost identical.
Is it possible to convert an R720 chassis to use an R730 motherboard?
Hi Jared,
Usually Dell and HP servers and parts are proprietary to their chassis.
Even if you find a chassis that is large enough to hold the motherboard, to 100% secure your motherboard in your system, the chassis would have to be from one of the manufacturers.
Parts lists can be found on Dell and HP websites and searching for a server of the same model.
I have a Dell poweredge m905 quad cpu motherboard, is there a Dell tower chasis that is compatible? I have also aquired an HP Z800 motherboard and i cant seem to locate a complete parts list as I am trying to design and manufacture a completely custom chasis and finding not only a complete parts list, but also the dimensions of said parts as I will be using a 3D printer for most of the manufacturing of the chasis.
Hi Jared. Thanks for reaching out. The PE M905 is a Blade server. From our experience with Blade servers, the system board is a different design with different dimensions from rack server boards. It would almost certainly not fit. Sorry!
Any way I could install the Dell poweredge m905 into the chassis of an r620
Thanks for your comment below, Paul. We couldn’t agree more on reading up on the pros and cons of having your own home server/homelab. (P.S., see our blog post which covers this in some detail, “Advantages, and Some Considerations, for Using a Home Server.”). As for your T710, I don’t think we could help as 11th Gen Dells are pretty much out of the secondary market now. That said, you would be able to use that RAM in a 12th Gen server if you’re looking to reuse some of the parts. Thanks for inquiring nonetheless!
I couldn’t agree more with having a home server for WFH whether it’s a full-time WFH or hybrid. If you’re in the Tech industry (which I would be most of us are if we are reading this blog) then you definitely should look at the pro’s and con’s of such a setup.
Question for TechMike – I have an aging Dell T710, does your company offer trade-in’s for ‘newish’ gear?
That’s a good question below, Clyde, and great food for thought. We think it’s pretty safe for a couple of reasons. Server fans are capable of running extremely fast, usually around 10,000 RPM. We don’t think the air from the canister is causing them to blow much faster than that. Also, what seems to be most effective is not a direct shot on the fan but instead blowing around the corners and seams of the fan chassis – that’s where most of the dust has accumulated (P.S., for really dirty fan blades, you can also use a Q-Tip). As for the fans turning in a different direction from what they usually do, that shouldn’t cause any structural damage to the fan since they are mechanically capable of spinning in either direction. Thanks again for the query! Good stuff!
Really nice video. My servers are in a dusty basement setting so unfortunately they need regular cleaning. This video was very helpful in pointing out all the things that need to be done to properly clean them out. Thanks for putting this out there.
Hi.
I wonder about any detrimental effects of high velocity compressed air spinning the fans faster than they were designed to go and perhaps in a reverse direction.
Hi Richard. Thanks for the comment below. The blower is an electronic compressed air duster. You can use any compressed air canister; we use the rechargeable electronic ones in our warehouse due to the volume of prepping and cleaning our techs perform. As for the rectangular vac, you can use any handheld vac with a slim nozzle, like a Dustbuster. The idea is to capture dust in hard-to-reach places and dust blown into the air, so it doesn’t settle back into the machine. Hope that helps!
what is that blower 1000 thing? thanks for the guide
I’ve ordered from TechMikeNY a few times over the years and try and get every company I work for to add them as a vendor. Absolutely top notch refurbisher and I love the surprise extras that come with some of the builds. It’s a refreshing change!
He’s obviously figured out the correct amount of thermal paste to use.
Hi Tommy. Thank you so much for the kind words! We’re so glad we could help you out.
Have ordered from TMNY 2x now, both times i have had some help with the ordering/configuration process and it went smooth as butter. The prices are amazing and the shipping and quality of the machines I have ordered has been almost near brand new, or at least it looks and runs that way. Highly recommend TMNY!
Thanks for the positive comments below, guys. Much appreciated!
I just want to say you guys are terrific. You stand behind your gear and if a configuration isn’t working, you do whatever it takes to make it right.
Terrific team at TMNY!!
It’s great to see that Mike doesn’t hide in an office away from customers :) Role model leader right there!
Hi Joanne. Thanks for the comment below. It’s me. Hope all is well. Need a vacation to visit sometime!
Not too sure. Hard to tell from the photo of him from the back. But I think I was his Boss on his first part time job after school we hen he was around 14 years old! Is that you, Michael?
Thanks for sharing below, Mike. Good to hear that the 10K and 15K SAS platter drives worked well and could be an alternative to SSDs. 400 movies/70K songs is quite a collection!
Had a Plex server running on a Dell
R510 with server 2012R2 forget the exact processors nothing special. drives were a mix of 10k and 15k sas stored about 400 movies and 70,000 songs it ran great no issues
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for your question. We have only installed some desktop graphics cards in these servers to use HDMI/Display ports. There is actually no documented support for GPU in the R440, but that GPU should work (due to its low power requirement of 50W). However, you’ll likely need a second CPU to enable the full bandwidth.
Hi Mike, I want to put a PCIe GPU card like the half-height single slot Sparkle A310 ECO Intel Arc card inside an R440 for Plex hardware transcoding. I have unsuccessfully tried it using the riser 2 (MC2DD) card, (no riser card) directly in the PCIe X16 slot 3 on the motherboard, and in the internal riser to no avail. After much searching, some says try I need two CPUs or using an 1100W power supply. Have you come across any GPU card that works in the PowerEdge R330/R440?
Hi Mike. Thanks for your question below. The frame of the chassis is the limitation. The R630 has a version that could take one half-height slot and one full-height/full-width slot. From what you describe, it sounds like your R630 chassis is the version that ONLY takes the half-height cards. The good news is that we can often accommodate customers who have specific riser needs when buying PCIe cards from us. Drop us a line at info@techmikeny.com.
Thank you for the information. I do have one question: I have an R630 6 bay that, in it’s current configuration. only accepts half-height PCI cards. Is it possible to replace a riser and allow a full height card?
Thanks for sharing this tip below, Austin. Good to know.
More tips:
If you are in a NIC-connections limited environment, you can piggy back the DRAC onto the LOM NIC. The OS will share the NIC with the DRAC and you can add a separate MAC address reservation for just the DRAC in your DHCP
This is very helpful & thanks a ton for sharing these details. Please update the RAID card details for 15th & 16th Generation Servers.
Great
Thank you
This article provides a thorough overview of security system servers, highlighting their advantages and essential specifications. It’s particularly helpful for those looking to understand the hardware and software requirements, ensuring they make informed choices for effective security solutions. A valuable resource for both tech-savvy individuals and those new to security systems!
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