SSDs for Dell poweredge server

Computer Hardware & Server Infrastructure Builds
1

I need to add some drives to a Dell poweredge server. I’m going to create a new raid.
Do I need to stick will Dell certified drives or can I install Samsung Pro SSD drives?

2

Per this post it should work, but the controller may give errors.

3

Thanks Tom. I hope you’re feeling better.

I put some 860 evos in my Dell server and they’re running great so far. Yes, openmanger displays a yellow warning that the drives are non certified.

I just ordered some 860 pros for a customers Dell sever. I was going to add another raid to it.
Am I taking chances with these 860 pros? Should I just bite the bullet and order the overpriced Dell certified ssd drives? Are 860 pros considered enterprise level?

4

So I call up Dell to get some prices…

Dell 1.2TB 10K RPM SAS: $252.40
Dell 960GB SSD SATA Mix Use 6Gbps: $916.88
Dell 2TB ssd sata: $1500

These prices are after a 40% discount. What a joke!

5

So far with Dell servers I have not had any issues with non-Dell drives. However with HPE since at least Gen 8 there is one issue, the fans will run at full speed if it detects non-HPE drives.

6

Mark,

860 Pros should work fine. See below for an iDRAC readout with them.

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image1640×587 38.5 KB

7

Ok, I bought 4 2TB Samsung 860s. However, I can get Samsung PM883 or Samsung 983 DCT 1.92 Enterprise SSDs for the same price. Should I get the PM883 or the 983 instead?

8

Looks like the 983 is NVMe, if you have bays for them, go with that.

Otherwise, the PM883 looks like it’d probably be better than the 860 pro as far as features go. You trade MLC for TLC but gain enterprise firmware and power loss protection. I’d go for the PM883s if the price is the same.

1 Like
10

ok cool. I’ll go PM883.
So I’ll create a raid10 with the ssds and move the VMs to it. This will leave the Host OS on the Raid5 with 10k drives. Will the Hyper-V machines run faster on the SSD’s even though the Host OS will still be on the 10k raid5 drives?

11

Will the Hyper-V machines run faster on the SSD’s even though the Host OS will still be on the 10k raid5 drives?

Yes, the VMs will run as fast as the drive their VHDs reside on.

12

Hi,

How is your experience so far with the SSDs and especially the performance gain. Is it really a lot?

I am have three PowerEdge R720 XCP-NG hosts, each uses 2 Seagate NAS 2TB HDD in RAID 1 and I plan to change them to Seagate NAS SSDs for improved performance…especially when backing up via 10Gbe nic.

Please let me know your thoughts.
Ayoola