I’ve scored two Dell PowerEdge T420 servers at a steal on Facebook Marketplace. I’m gearing up to install Unraid on one of them, and could use any insights available. Will Unraid play nice with iDRAC? Also, I’ve seen theres talk about flashing the RAID controller - any firsthand experiences or risks I should be aware of doing that process? Your insights mean a lot!
I did find out that these servers were used for Chia crypto mining. I’m bracing to swap out hard drives over time.
Here’s the scoop on the setups:
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Server A
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Make/model: Dell PowerEdge T420
Service Tag: 4RM4P22
CPU: Xeon E5-2440
Memory: 32GB
OS: Windows Server 2019 Standard
Storage: About 14.5TB
2 x 1TB Dell SATA
2 x 2TB Dell SAS
2 x 2TB Dell SATA
1 x 2TB Toshiba
1 x 2TB Hitachi SATA
1 x 500GB Toshiba SATA (connected to internal SATA port) (current OS location)
Also has a dedicated iDRAC Enterprise port.
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Server B
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Make/model: Dell PowerEdge T420
Service Tag: 2Y59J02
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2440
Memory: 32GB
OS: Windows Server 2019 Standard
Storage: About 14.3TB
2 x 3TB Dell SAS
1 x 300GB Dell SAS (current OS location)
1 x 2TB Toshiba SATA
1 x 1TB Dell SATA
1 x 1TB Seagate SATA
2 x 1TB Dell SAS
2 x 1TB Seagate SATA (connected to internal SATA ports)
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I don’t think unraid and the IDRAC care about each other.
Per that service tag, they should have been given an H310 full size RAID controller. If you want to flash it, use this guide: https://fohdeesha.com/docs/perc.html
Also, grab the latest BIOS and IDRAC firmware if they’re not already installed.
I don’t think unraid and the IDRAC care about each other.
Good to know!
From my understanding flashing it will effectively remove the raid capabilities from the card, which then in turn allows Unraid to do its job effortlessly without the potential for weird issues arising, is that correct?
Also before installing Unraid are there any BIOS settings i should make sure are set correctly?
IT mode basically turns the card into an HBA, where it passes the disks through directly, instead of doing its own RAID.
I don’t know about BIOS settings off the top of my head, but once updated, you might consider resetting it to defaults, then going through them all. I’m sure there are some features Dell turns off by default in the name of compatibility.