Members,
I have a Dell 1950 "Type II" server with a couple of 146GB SCSI SAS drives in it and I was reading that SATA II (up to 2TB) HDs can go into the 1950 Type II to replace the SAS drives. However, there is some confusion (on my part) as to if the drive sleds I have need an interposer board or not, and if the sleds I have are compatible with standard SATA II drives. Most of my sleds are marked "Y6939" or "G7267" on the black groves on the outside of the tray part of it.
I would presume that once installed I must enter the System BIOS or SAS Controller BIOS screens to inform the controller that the drives are SATA II not SAS and/or to set other options too. However, here are my hardware questions?
1) I have mostly drive sleds with the model number "Y6939" on them, and am curious if these sleds will work? Is it as simple as unbolting the SAS drive and bolting in the SATA II drive and sliding the tray into the 1950?
2) If I have SATA III drives (presuming they will run at SATA II speeds as the Controller is still presumably SATA II regardless of my putting SATA III drives in), they will work just as well in the 1950 Type II using the proper drive sleds?
3) Can I have one SATA II/SATA III drive in one bay and a SAS drive in the second bay?
4) If a SATA II drive is installed (presuming the proper sled and BIOS configuration instantiated), the SATA drives are capable of being bootable I presume?
5) Outside of the SCSI/HD subject: Does anyone know what SLIC tables were standard with 1950 Type II servers? I am planning on trying to do a SLIC enabled install of either Windows 7 Desktop or Windows 7 Server (I know it has a different name 2008 server or something). Alternatively, I may just install Linux and then run Windows 7 within a virtualization environment (for example, I heard that the 1950 supports ESXI 5.5 free version, so maybe I will start with that).
6) Outside SCSI HD subect: How difficult is it to use IPMI to install Linux or Windows for example if I have no monitor to setup IPMI? If not, I will just obtain a monitor for the purposes of getting IPMI setup?
Thanks in advance to all that read and reply to these interrogatories.
Stuart