Dell PowerEdge T320 as an Unraid server


CaptainJmar

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Hi, i just recently got a Dell PowerEdge T320 for a pretty good deal and as wondering if it would be any good as an Unraid server. The specs are: 

16gb ram, Intel Zeon [email protected], 6x Dell SAS 3TB 7200RPM Hard Drives. 
My main purpose for Unraid is Plex. I’d like the server to handle 4K streaming. I usually only have 1-2 streams at a time so nothing major. Any help would be really appreciated! If the server won’t suit my needs i’ll just sell it and continue using my desktop. Thanks in advance

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  • 6 months later...

Hi! I don´t know why nobody replied you, I did the same thing, bought a T320 diskless and I am using with 10 TB SAS drives from seagate. So far I have not dealt with Plex yet, however, It runs unraid and Im currently installing shinobi. The only thing I had to do was install a Perc H310 card flashed to LS so It could work with Unraid. 

You have a better processor than me, I have the E5-2403. However, what you have  should be able to handle 4K streaming without transcoding. The power from the CPUS is needed when you need to transcode a higher definition to a lower one. If the device that is receiving the stream is capable of handling 4k, the one that streams it does not need that much power.

 

Good Luck!

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...
On 6/2/2020 at 1:03 PM, rojarrolla said:

Hi! I don´t know why nobody replied you, I did the same thing, bought a T320 diskless and I am using with 10 TB SAS drives from seagate. So far I have not dealt with Plex yet, however, It runs unraid and Im currently installing shinobi. The only thing I had to do was install a Perc H310 card flashed to LS so It could work with Unraid. 

 

Is this because the default sata/sas ports available in the tower aren't usable by the unraid array?  I was looking at the HP ProLiant m350 and the unraid thread about that one said that the native raid controller didn't work with unraid and you needed to basically make use of the pci-e slots to connect sata drives and bypass the raid controller

Additionally I see that the card you are talking about only has two SAS ports internally.  I am unfamiliar with SAS... how many drives can you run off that one card?  Just two?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/16/2021 at 7:39 PM, clay_statue said:

 

Is this because the default sata/sas ports available in the tower aren't usable by the unraid array?  I was looking at the HP ProLiant m350 and the unraid thread about that one said that the native raid controller didn't work with unraid and you needed to basically make use of the pci-e slots to connect sata drives and bypass the raid controller

Additionally I see that the card you are talking about only has two SAS ports internally.  I am unfamiliar with SAS... how many drives can you run off that one card?  Just two?

Kind of, A SAS controller is a device that can interact and control SAS drives (Serial Attached SCSI) Are Enterprise level devices used in, as you have guessed servers.

As far as dell Poweredge R320 T320 goes, the PERC Cards (SAS Controllers) are actually LSI cards flashed with a Dell proprietary software, that, as far as I know, is not compatible to Unraid. 

So, either you flash your card to LSI (you can google it and get a lot of results) or you installed one already flashed. (Was my case). Otherwise you can not use the hot swap drives.

 

Those SAS cards, can also handle sata hard and ssd drives to.

I am not familiar to HP servers, I don't know what kind of SAS controller they have. 

My advice is first to find out if those SAS cards are compatible to Unraid, and then go and get the server. 

 

My second advice would be to get a DELL T320 T420 R320 R420, there are many on sale at ebay for a reasonable price and have their PERC cards, it is not that difficult, however, if you make a mistake you can brick the sas controller.

 

I have a H310 card and it can manage up to 8 drives (but my chasis is for 8 3.5" drives), and depending on the chasis you can go up to 16 drives, that depends on the server's chasis backplane.
 

Cheers.

Edited by rojarrolla
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