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Dell R720 How to Boot to USB all the time

Smokie

By Smokie
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Smokie Noob

Smokie

Posted
Posted

Hi All,

 

I posted the other day asking if there is anything I should look out for putting unraid on a Dell Poweredge R720. Unfortunately it was viewed many times but no one replied. Just got setup and running some tests on my disks and I just thought I would ask here if anyone knows how to set the server to boot from USB all the time? I had to manually bring up the boot manager and pick the usb to get the install going but I can’t seem or don’t think there is an option to set it to always boot to usb first.

 

So once I have my server up and running and put it away If I have to reboot it I will need to have a monitor and keyboard etc to get it to boot from usb.

 

Maybe someone here has unraid running on a similar machine and can help me out?

 

Thanks

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marcosmeanos Noob

marcosmeanos

Posted
Posted

Recently aquired a R720 myself and looking at moving all my data over.

 

1) Set bios boot to BIOS not UEFI. Didnt seem to matter what I tried it just didnt want to know when set to UEFI

   * To set boot order hit F2 on bios screen to enter set up

   * Go down to boot settings

   * For boot mode select BIOS

   * Scroll down BIOS boot settings and select it

   * Scroll down to hard disk drive sequence then when your flash drive is highlighted press + until its at the top of the list and click OK

   * Make sure boot option enabled/disabled has a tick in Drive C

   * Top option on the same screen is Boot sequence then when Drive C is highlighted press + until its at the top then click OK

   * Then click BACK, BACK, FINISH and Yes to save changes

   * You will be told the changes have saved so click finish to exit and reboot

 

You should now boot from usb into unraid without having to change or select anything during bootup

   

 2) Flash raid card to IT mode (lots of good writen and video guides online)

 

at this point you are good to go.

 

Other tips...

 

If you want Nvme drives in your system for cache then purchace Pcie to Nvme cards adaptors

VERY IMPORTANT you only get the single slot nvme cards as the r720 does not support PCIe Bifurcation and will only see 1 of 2 drives on a dual slot card

I purchaced two from ebay sorting by price lowest. search pcie to nvme adapter "SINGLE NVME SLOT ONLY!"

 

 

Sata power for ssd drives can be had from the dvd sata conector. You could use a splitter for the sata power to use on two ssds and still be using less wattage than a dvd burner would use peak. 2 sata data connectors on the motherboard only and they are sata2 speeds

 

 

Watching youtube videos on how easy it is to upgrade Bios and firmware through the lifecycle controller is now out of date as Dell no longer offer support for Gen12 or earlier via HTTPS and it is now done through a repository manager. Info is on the repository manager is on dell.com website or you can download each bios/firmware you need from dell and upgrade it through the lifecycle controller or idrac. I found doing it through idrac worked best and didnt keep throwing up cant do this! Certificate not signed that! that the lifecycle controler did

 

Try using your r720 as it came to you if you dont feel comfortable flashing firmware or bios files as it can brick your system if it goes wrong.

 

 

More bios settings yayyyyyyy :D

 

power options in bios allow you to alter cpu, memory and fan power settings from maximum performance to performance per watt either saving power and reducing noise or going for best performance depending on your use case

 

I think thats about it... Server settings are a personal choice so go through and tweek things how you like it and enjoy

 

 

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Smokie Noob

Smokie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for the detailed reply. I’ve managed to flash the bios to the latest using idrac, haven’t messed around with the power saving settings as yet and I never thought of the nvme adapter for cache drives. I’ll be ordering two adapters and drives for a cache drives.

 

was thinking of also picking up a low profile gpu for playing some games at some stage .

 

Cheers again

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marcosmeanos Noob

marcosmeanos

Posted
Posted

No problem at all. I am transfering my quadro p2000 over for plex transcoding and its basicaly a slightly slower gtx 1060 with 5gig of vram

 

Single slot full height and no external power required. Amazing if you need the transcoding in the future and will play battlefield 5 at medium/high mix 50 to 55 fps ish 1080p

 

Fancy a gpu with more grunt that needs external power then get on ebay and search for the following..... Dell PowerEdge - R720 R730 R7910 8 Pin Split GPU Power Adapter Cable - 0N08NH

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marcosmeanos Noob

marcosmeanos

Posted
Posted (edited)

Now that I dont know.

 

So r720 in the attic then stream it to low power laptop or somthing?

 

That might be a search bar job and then question time on the forum. It sounds like somthing Linus did so probably a bit of youtubing too.

 

Sounds interesting and I wouldnt mind knowing that myself

 

Just make sure any cables you get are for the r720. Dell do some weird wiring pin outs that can fry components if its not from the correct model

 

I got two of these off ebay for the nvme drives. Sabrent NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe X16/X8/X4 Card with aluminum heat sink (EC-PCIE) and installed them in the pcie cage at the rear right hand side looking at it from the front

 

you can get cheaper adaptors but I wanted the heat sinks

Edited by marcosmeanos
  • Upvote 1
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CameronR Noob

CameronR

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, marcosmeanos said:

Recently aquired a R720 myself and looking at moving all my data over.

 

1) Set bios boot to BIOS not UEFI. Didnt seem to matter what I tried it just didnt want to know when set to UEFI

   * To set boot order hit F2 on bios screen to enter set up

   * Go down to boot settings

   * For boot mode select BIOS

   * Scroll down BIOS boot settings and select it

   * Scroll down to hard disk drive sequence then when your flash drive is highlighted press + until its at the top of the list and click OK

   * Make sure boot option enabled/disabled has a tick in Drive C

   * Top option on the same screen is Boot sequence then when Drive C is highlighted press + until its at the top then click OK

   * Then click BACK, BACK, FINISH and Yes to save changes

   * You will be told the changes have saved so click finish to exit and reboot

 

You should now boot from usb into unraid without having to change or select anything during bootup

   

 2) Flash raid card to IT mode (lots of good writen and video guides online)

 

at this point you are good to go.

 

Other tips...

 

If you want Nvme drives in your system for cache then purchace Pcie to Nvme cards adaptors

VERY IMPORTANT you only get the single slot nvme cards as the r720 does not support PCIe Bifurcation and will only see 1 of 2 drives on a dual slot card

I purchaced two from ebay sorting by price lowest. search pcie to nvme adapter "SINGLE NVME SLOT ONLY!"

 

 

Sata power for ssd drives can be had from the dvd sata conector. You could use a splitter for the sata power to use on two ssds and still be using less wattage than a dvd burner would use peak. 2 sata data connectors on the motherboard only and they are sata2 speeds

 

 

Watching youtube videos on how easy it is to upgrade Bios and firmware through the lifecycle controller is now out of date as Dell no longer offer support for Gen12 or earlier via HTTPS and it is now done through a repository manager. Info is on the repository manager is on dell.com website or you can download each bios/firmware you need from dell and upgrade it through the lifecycle controller or idrac. I found doing it through idrac worked best and didnt keep throwing up cant do this! Certificate not signed that! that the lifecycle controler did

 

Try using your r720 as it came to you if you dont feel comfortable flashing firmware or bios files as it can brick your system if it goes wrong.

 

 

More bios settings yayyyyyyy :D

 

power options in bios allow you to alter cpu, memory and fan power settings from maximum performance to performance per watt either saving power and reducing noise or going for best performance depending on your use case

 

I think thats about it... Server settings are a personal choice so go through and tweek things how you like it and enjoy

 

 

I currently have a Dell T7810 workstation where it will boot into unraid just fine, but as soon as I issue a restart from my unraid console my workstation cant find the usb on startup. Then when I shut the workstation down, and turn it on again it boots just fine. Any suggestions?

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SimonF Experienced

SimonF

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, CameronR said:

I tried that, didn’t have any luck. If you end up finding a fix please let me know!

 

Thanks!

Not sure if applicable on Dell hardware, but with other motherboards, happens with my MSI Z690 I have an issue that does this on reboot, fastboot needs to be disabled.

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Smokie Noob

Smokie

Posted
  • Author
Posted

It’s the same for me, once I reboot it doesn’t come back by itself. I have to login to the idrac and either reboot a few times or shut it down and start it up again.

 

not a big deal but I’m obviously missing something. I also have the lifecycle controller disabled so I though that might have something to do with it.. 

 

oh and my usb is booting from the internal usb port..

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TheFlath Noob

TheFlath

Posted
Posted

I am having a similarish issue with an R720XD, if i use the front USB to boot, unraid loads without issue. but using the internal, i get nothing. I know the USB is getting power, because the light turns on, but the boot menu does not see the device at all

 

Any ideas?

 

the port is not disabled in the BIOS

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