Dell 15th gen servers with 3rd party ssd drives

longnat · 2022-06-06T11:13:58.000Z

Currently looking at buying a RX750xs with h755 perc in 12 LFF chassis, but the prices listed for sata ssd are just insane. Have it configured with 4x 4TB Sata HDD from Dell and planning to get some additional ssds, like Intel D3-S4610, or Samsung PM883, or Micron 5300 max and put them in some 3rd party caddies. Can anyone confirm that these ssds aren’t blocked or throttled by Dell and will play nicely with the server and raid controller? Maybe somebody is running this server/raid controller with some 3rd party enterprise grade ssds and can share their results, gotchas and maybe even some benchmarks?

@Intel_Corporation @Dell_Technologies

kevinhsieh · 2022-06-06T11:43:14.000Z

I run Micron SSD on PERC 6/I, H330, H730, and H740 with no issues. Usually a pair of drives in RAID 1, but I also have a 24 drive RAID 6. No benchmarks, but also no issues.

gmanea · 2022-06-06T11:51:13.000Z

Hi, cant speak to the new but I have a client with a Dell T610 (yes, old!) that was running out of storage and installed “MZ-7LH1T9NE Samsung Mz-7lh1t9ne 883 Dct Series 1.92tb Sata 6gbps 2.5inch Internal Solid State Drive” for a new RAID1 data store, moved the 2 running VMs with the DC, SQL, Exchange , etc. and they work fine and faster than the original RAID10 drives for over a year now.

adrian_ych · 2022-06-06T12:51:23.000Z

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

da-schmoo · 2022-06-06T12:58:38.000Z

Yes they work fine.

iDRAC will show a yellow warning symbol and say the drive is “non-certified”. The SSD remaining write endurance will stay on 100% and not give your the current value.

CharlesHTN · 2022-06-06T13:59:53.000Z

I would suggest you reach out to xByte and have them quote you this server. They can sell you the identical server with an identical warranty (it’s a DELL warranty, not a 3rd party warranty) at a much lower price, it will just be a “certified refurbished” server. Again, same warranty as if you bought it from Dell directly.

xbyte.com

Dell Recertified R750xs | xByte Technologies

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R750xs, with 3rd generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, is purposefully designed with distinctive, customer-defined requirements to deliver enterprise performance for scale-out environments. Shop now.

They can configure it to your specifications, including Dell branded SSDs at a much cheaper price than from Dell. You may well find the pricing good enough to avoid having to run 3rd party SSDs.

owenmpk · 2022-06-06T14:05:26.000Z

You may want to check with xByte Technologies they sometimes have Dell branded SSDs at lower pricing.

I do agree with adrian_ych in his post above in that I only use Dell parts in Dell servers that I purchase for clients and get 7 Year Pro Support, it reduces my stress level immensely BUT I have Dell R440 as my office server running Samsung Consumer SSDs and all is good.

@xByte_Technologies

@adrianyong4136

longnat · 2022-06-06T15:03:17.000Z

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

@adrianyong4136

da-schmoo · 2022-06-06T16:47:56.000Z

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

kevinhsieh · 2022-06-06T19:36:29.000Z

Welcome to the community!

In addition to my earlier comments about drives, I buy knockoff drive carriers from eBay.

adrian_ych · 2022-06-07T01:04:08.000Z

longnat:

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I dunno but I find that the prices quoted (based on dell.com) is only approx 18-32% higher then 3rd party when ordering a new server. You may need to take into account that Dell will have up to 7 yrs support (or even 9 yrs support) for the server that covers the SSDs as well. If you throw in cost of resilver of the SSDs in 3 or 5 yrs time, I find them rather cost effective.

Most people have no issues using 3rd party drives (HDD or SSDs) with the PERC RAID adapter but there were few cases of the PERC giving false positives, especially after updating the BIOS or PERC firmware along the way.

You could face some speed or performance issues when mixing SATA HDD with SATA SSDs but likely not feel it until you disable or remove the HDD. Most of the time, there were cases where SSDs were used to boot the server & SATA or SAS HDD were used to store data, when the HDD were down (rebuilds or failures), they felt that booting from the SSDs only seems quicker.

longnat · 2022-06-07T05:34:36.000Z

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

Can you share what drives have you used?

@da-schmoo

da-schmoo · 2022-06-07T12:18:50.000Z

adrian_ych:

longnat:

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I dunno but I find that the prices quoted (based on dell.com) is only approx 18-32% higher then 3rd party when ordering a new server. You may need to take into account that Dell will have up to 7 yrs support (or even 9 yrs support) for the server that covers the SSDs as well. If you throw in cost of resilver of the SSDs in 3 or 5 yrs time, I find them rather cost effective.

That is simply not true. On Dell’s U.S. website, a 3.84TB SATA Read Intensive SSD drive is $2500-$3700 depending on server model at the moment. A Samsung PM883 via online resellers runs under $700. Same drive only different BIOS.

That is 300-500% more - not 18-32%.

Dell’s drive prices are absurd. Why when bought for one server the drive is $2500 and the same exact drive on a different model server is $3700? The only difference is the $3700 is in a 3.5" caddy as opposed to 2.5". Why are they still charging over $300 for a 2TB SATA spinning drive? Simply absurd.

da-schmoo · 2022-06-07T12:21:49.000Z

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

Can you share what drives have you used?

Mostly Samsung PM883 drives. I have about a dozen Kingston DC500R 7.8TB drives in use as well.

longnat · 2022-06-07T12:39:51.000Z

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

Can you share what drives have you used?

Mostly Samsung PM883 drives. I have about a dozen Kingston DC500R 7.8TB drives in use as well.

Have you found a way to push Dell Firmware in them, or are you using them with stock - retail firmware? Does Dell server display drive health, status correctly with retail firmware?

@da-schmoo

da-schmoo · 2022-06-07T12:43:33.000Z

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

Can you share what drives have you used?

Mostly Samsung PM883 drives. I have about a dozen Kingston DC500R 7.8TB drives in use as well.

Have you found a way to push Dell Firmware in them, or are you using them with stock - retail firmware? Does Dell server display drive health, status correctly with retail firmware?

I’ve never tried to push Dell firmware on them nor do I know how I’d even try.

As I mentioned above, without Dell firmware, SSD drives show as “non-certified” in iDRAC/OMSA. Also, the drive endurance estimate (percentage of remaining writes) stays at 100% and never decreases.

longnat · 2022-06-08T11:02:28.000Z

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

Da_Schmoo:

longnat:

adrian_ych:

In the first place, the servers can have up to 7 years support (if you contact your Dell sales rep), all the parts would be covered…even if you left 1 week and then suddenly" SSDs fail, Dell will still replace them for free.

Then why are you getting the one of highest end and more costly chassis ?? The R350 can have up to 8 SSDs while R650 an have up to 10 SSDs…then you are going to mix SATA HDD with SSDs ?? Then are you going to compare new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers ?? What is the purpose of this server ? If costs are too high and you are running file server, then get a NAS or move some of your storage requirements to a NAS for file servers ?

Also I recommend usage of RAID 5 Read Intensive SSDs than RAID 10 HDD (SAS or SATA)

I would rather you maybe consider the full use of the server and why you need certain requirements and put in max support and probably get a Dell corporate sales rep if you do not have one (they can sometimes give 10% to 25% off listed or online pricing).

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I’ve not used 3rd party drives in a 15th gen Dell but I have on 11th thru 14 gens including a few with PERC H750 adapters. I use 3rd party Enterprise SSD’s on all servers I support.

Can you share what drives have you used?

Mostly Samsung PM883 drives. I have about a dozen Kingston DC500R 7.8TB drives in use as well.

Have you found a way to push Dell Firmware in them, or are you using them with stock - retail firmware? Does Dell server display drive health, status correctly with retail firmware?

I’ve never tried to push Dell firmware on them nor do I know how I’d even try.

As I mentioned above, without Dell firmware, SSD drives show as “non-certified” in iDRAC/OMSA. Also, the drive endurance estimate (percentage of remaining writes) stays at 100% and never decreases.

How do you check drive health, predict failures?

@da-schmoo

adrian_ych · 2022-06-09T00:30:37.000Z

Da_Schmoo:

adrian_ych:

longnat:

Thanks for your reply adrian_ych. I just want to know people’s experiences with 3rd party ssd drives. But answering some of your questions. The server configuration i provided the most optimal choice for our situation. Yes there will be two raid arrays, one for ssd and one for hdd, is there an issue im not seeing with this kind of configuration? No I’m not comparing “new Enterprise SSDs on a new server with others who are using consumer SSDs on old servers” Im asking for experiences using new 3rd party enterprise grade ssd in new r750xs server or other 15th gen Dell servers, as price for new “Dell Certified” ssds is just ridiculous.

I dunno but I find that the prices quoted (based on dell.com) is only approx 18-32% higher then 3rd party when ordering a new server. You may need to take into account that Dell will have up to 7 yrs support (or even 9 yrs support) for the server that covers the SSDs as well. If you throw in cost of resilver of the SSDs in 3 or 5 yrs time, I find them rather cost effective.

That is simply not true. On Dell’s U.S. website, a 3.84TB SATA Read Intensive SSD drive is $2500-$3700 depending on server model at the moment. A Samsung PM883 via online resellers runs under $700. Same drive only different BIOS.

That is 300-500% more - not 18-32%.

Dell’s drive prices are absurd. Why when bought for one server the drive is $2500 and the same exact drive on a different model server is $3700? The only difference is the $3700 is in a 3.5" caddy as opposed to 2.5". Why are they still charging over $300 for a 2TB SATA spinning drive? Simply absurd.

Samsung Enterprise drives are the PM1653 or the PM16xx series. Even the Intel Enterprise 4TB SSDs costs like USD 1897.

Then you need to look at the total cost of the server and also ask your Dell Enterprise reps for the corporate pricing…online prices used as references only.

One reason I would pay for that difference is that the media would have the same 7 yrs (can be extended to 9yrs for certain organizations) and that the stability of the servers & a peace of mind for that whole period is worth more than the savings of using 3rd party SSDs.

If you are getting a used server or for a server that is near its end of warranty, using 3rd party drives could save a lot of $$$ if you know what you are doing or how to troubleshoot or ignore false positives if they appear.

supaplex-starwind · 2022-06-15T17:47:44.000Z

longnat:

How do you check drive health, predict failures?

You actually don’t since drives are behind the PERC RAID, and you can not access them via different tools to check the health of each particular unit. However, if TBW and DWPD parameters https://www.vmwareblog.org/shopping-ssds are adequately chosen according to your workload and not being exceeded, most quality SSD drives work until the server dies. So there is no reason to care about that aspect too much.

doggeh · 2022-06-27T13:43:01.000Z

Got an R350 here and with 2 3rd party SSDs it decides to run its fans at 49% minimum as opposed to 20% when I pull them out. If I replace those SSDs with DELL HDDs it can run its fans at 20% minimum as normal, so its not quantity of drives. This is with the latest iDRAC and BIOS. These are drives that would work perfectly fine in a430/440 so beware if your server is somewhere noise is an issue (our server room adjoins the office, we have 8 servers already… the new one has not been well received and can be heard above all the others with the 3rd party SSDs…)

Added: Just tested one of these drives in a 440, 3% fan speed jump vs a 25% fan speed jump with the same drive added to the 350.