Hah - I did this a few months ago on a few R720XDs. Even using the Dell docs, finding the BP connector was a pain - spent a good 10 minutes trying to find it buried behind the cables. All the other videos (of which there aren't that many) either only showed the 2.5" bay version or completely glossed over the spot to connect the BP to BP cable. Just a hint: not only is there a cap on the BP to MB signal line (which you mention), there's also a cap on the backplane SAS connector that people may miss. It barely looks removable and is easy to miss if you don't know where the cable is supposed to connect. Thanks for making the video.
Thank you for watching and sharing your tip about the caps. I actually shot this video twice because the first time my hands were blocking the camera view of the connectors. I re-shot it using the pliers so as to make sure people could see the connector on the backplane. Your comment made me feel it was worth all the effort to re-shoot this video, so thank you! :-)
Thank You. I consider R730xd as my next server. Two fast drives on the back for the OS, swap and massive storage in front are neat. It would run 20 VM's like it's nothing.
I have this one also but it has problem with voltage outside of range issue on the primary backplane. It never comes on until you disconnect backplane signal cable then drives become undetected. Now I was wondering if add rear backplane to the primary backplane with/without signal cable will that rear backplane work? Or is there another way to connect rear backplane without primary backplane?
yes, indeed, starting from the 12th generation and above, they started making their servers a lot more modular and allow for customization. also, they reused the designs for different model lines so parts availability is very good too.
Thank You! I plan on doing this to my 720XD LFF and use it for TrueNAS. Seeing where all the connectors are is REALLY helpful! I am assuming that I can use the rear bays for mirrored boot and the 3.5 inch bays for storage.
Yes, exactly. And plenty of PCIe slots too, for adding NVMe PCI SSDs for cache devices like L2ARC or slog device, and GPU or QAT accelerator for coprocessing. Really incredible platform.
Great video as usuai. I have the same LFF but i accidentally ordered the 730 flex bay and had to replace the SAS cable because the 730 had 2 846 ends. My other 3 cables were ok. However . What is the connector next to the HBA that is empty. One is a double that connects the front back plain, but the other is connected to nothing and I have yet to find out it's use. I did flash the boot loader onto the HBA710P and It allowed me to choose what i wanted to boot off of. Including nvme boot.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that SFF8643 connector on the motherboard is used for configurations where there's no mini monolithic controller and a 4-bay backplane is used, it can be controlled by the chipset SAS controller.
Your server videos are great! I recently purchased/leased a PowerEdge R740 (SFF, dual Silver 2nd Generation Scalable/Cascade Lake) and R750 (SFF, dual Gold, 3rd Generation Scalable/Ice Lake) for my home lab, and would love to see videos on those two systems. Keep up the great work!
If I want to passthrough all of the front drives through for truenas in proxmox do the rear drives need to be connected to a different raid controller to function as boot drives?
Dell documentation suggests no. But I'm not an expert on this. Having just got hold of a R720 8x3.5 myself, I'd also be interested to hear an answer from anyone who knows a definitive answer. I guess, if the 8x3.5 SAS backplane had the extra connector for the daughter board, then it *could* be done?
No, not possible. This option is only available for the R720XD version, not the regular R720 because the regular one does not have the dual 2.5" drive bays in the rear. The chassis is different. I believe the regular version just has PCIe slots there. The "XD" version sacrifices a PCIe slot to have this option.
The R730XD and R720XD are basically the same. However The sas connector cable is different. R730XD kit has 2 SFF8643 connectors as oppose to 1 8643 and one 88xx for the R720. @ArtofServer sells the correct cable of u get the wrong one.I kept mine as I plan to get a R730XD also.
Hah - I did this a few months ago on a few R720XDs. Even using the Dell docs, finding the BP connector was a pain - spent a good 10 minutes trying to find it buried behind the cables. All the other videos (of which there aren't that many) either only showed the 2.5" bay version or completely glossed over the spot to connect the BP to BP cable. Just a hint: not only is there a cap on the BP to MB signal line (which you mention), there's also a cap on the backplane SAS connector that people may miss. It barely looks removable and is easy to miss if you don't know where the cable is supposed to connect. Thanks for making the video.
Thank you for watching and sharing your tip about the caps. I actually shot this video twice because the first time my hands were blocking the camera view of the connectors. I re-shot it using the pliers so as to make sure people could see the connector on the backplane. Your comment made me feel it was worth all the effort to re-shoot this video, so thank you! :-)
Thank You. I consider R730xd as my next server. Two fast drives on the back for the OS, swap and massive storage in front are neat. It would run 20 VM's like it's nothing.
Yeah, I love the R730xd. It even has a 16x3.5" drive option!
@@ArtofServer Yes, with 4 additional internally. It would definitely spare me of getting a dedicated disk shelve.
I have this one also but it has problem with voltage outside of range issue on the primary backplane.
It never comes on until you disconnect backplane signal cable then drives become undetected.
Now I was wondering if add rear backplane to the primary backplane with/without signal cable will that rear backplane work?
Or is there another way to connect rear backplane without primary backplane?
Great video! I watched it out of curiosity, but I'm kind of amazed how modular Dell servers can be
yes, indeed, starting from the 12th generation and above, they started making their servers a lot more modular and allow for customization. also, they reused the designs for different model lines so parts availability is very good too.
Another excellent video! Thank you!❤
Thank you so much! :-)
Thank You! I plan on doing this to my 720XD LFF and use it for TrueNAS. Seeing where all the connectors are is REALLY helpful! I am assuming that I can use the rear bays for mirrored boot and the 3.5 inch bays for storage.
Yes, exactly. And plenty of PCIe slots too, for adding NVMe PCI SSDs for cache devices like L2ARC or slog device, and GPU or QAT accelerator for coprocessing. Really incredible platform.
Great video as usuai. I have the same LFF but i accidentally ordered the 730 flex bay and had to replace the SAS cable because the 730 had 2 846 ends. My other 3 cables were ok. However . What is the connector next to the HBA that is empty. One is a double that connects the front back plain, but the other is connected to nothing and I have yet to find out it's use. I did flash the boot loader onto the HBA710P and It allowed me to choose what i wanted to boot off of. Including nvme boot.
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that SFF8643 connector on the motherboard is used for configurations where there's no mini monolithic controller and a 4-bay backplane is used, it can be controlled by the chipset SAS controller.
@@ArtofServer Ok Thanks.
Your server videos are great! I recently purchased/leased a PowerEdge R740 (SFF, dual Silver 2nd Generation Scalable/Cascade Lake) and R750 (SFF, dual Gold, 3rd Generation Scalable/Ice Lake) for my home lab, and would love to see videos on those two systems. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I would love to make more videos on newer generation servers!
If I want to passthrough all of the front drives through for truenas in proxmox do the rear drives need to be connected to a different raid controller to function as boot drives?
That is correct.
Does every LFF XD already have the physical area for the two drives installed by default?
yes, it should. usually there's a silver cover that blocks the 2.5" bays.
No. I've seen other content creators with the 720XD without the bay holders installed.
What about R720 8x3.5? Could this be installed but without the possibility to pull drives out from the back?
Dell documentation suggests no. But I'm not an expert on this. Having just got hold of a R720 8x3.5 myself, I'd also be interested to hear an answer from anyone who knows a definitive answer.
I guess, if the 8x3.5 SAS backplane had the extra connector for the daughter board, then it *could* be done?
No, not possible. This option is only available for the R720XD version, not the regular R720 because the regular one does not have the dual 2.5" drive bays in the rear. The chassis is different. I believe the regular version just has PCIe slots there. The "XD" version sacrifices a PCIe slot to have this option.
see my response to toekhgekko9455
What is the difference in the r730xd v3 & v4? Do they accept a graphics card for transcoding in Plex?
A v3 is Haswell generation of xeon CPU. V4 is broadwell generation of xeon CPU. GPU support usually does not depend on choice of CPU.
I guess this is only for the R720xd, not R720?
Yes, that's right.
Good video sir !
Thank you for watching!
Wil this fit on a 730xd?
Great question. This kit won't be a direct fit for the R730XD, but there is a similar kit for the R730XD.
The R730XD and R720XD are basically the same. However The sas connector cable is different. R730XD kit has 2 SFF8643 connectors as oppose to 1 8643 and one 88xx for the R720. @ArtofServer sells the correct cable of u get the wrong one.I kept mine as I plan to get a R730XD also.
imagnine breaking a condenser on the MB... not that pain, AGAIN
No!!!!! that would not be a good day!
Why not just use a hammer? )
LMAO 🤣 killing me here dude...