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Author Topic: DSS200 Drive Bays
Gavin Lewarne
Master Film Handler

Posts: 278
From: Plymouth, UK
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 12-10-2014 01:00 PM      Profile for Gavin Lewarne   Email Gavin Lewarne   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
We have a standard DSS200. I have purchased 2 spare hard drives and was wondering if the 4 unused drive slots on the right are powered? I know they are not connected or used, but was thinking if they are not powered they would be a great way to store the spare drives for instant swap over should the need arise.

cheers

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999


 - posted 12-10-2014 07:49 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I don't believe they are powered...but you should be able to store your spare drives there all loaded up with the carriers on them for a fast swap. Given that it is a RAID 5, it shouldn't be a "rush" situation to pull the bad one and get the replacement in.

Now you could get a suitable RAID card to power up all 8 slots but I don' think that is what you are going for.

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Gavin Lewarne
Master Film Handler

Posts: 278
From: Plymouth, UK
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 12-10-2014 08:17 PM      Profile for Gavin Lewarne   Email Gavin Lewarne   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
thanks steve. I appreciate that with raid 5 its not an ASAP swap when one goes bad, but it just makes it easier for my other guys to swap them without having to fiddle with the carriers, screws etc if im not around.

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Jason Raftery
Film Handler

Posts: 72
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: May 2011


 - posted 12-10-2014 09:12 PM      Profile for Jason Raftery   Email Jason Raftery   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Actually the four unused bays are powered.

I had upgraded a site to 2TB disks and wanted to keep the original array of 500GB drives in the remaining bays on each server to have on hand in the event the new array ever lost two disks and failed. Dolby did not have a procedure to remove power from just the four extra bays, so I resorted to storing the old arrays in the projector pedestals.

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Gavin Lewarne
Master Film Handler

Posts: 278
From: Plymouth, UK
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 12-11-2014 03:33 AM      Profile for Gavin Lewarne   Email Gavin Lewarne   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
balls. well, I guess that puts an end to my plans. Thanks chaps

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012


 - posted 12-11-2014 03:42 AM      Profile for Marcel Birgelen   Email Marcel Birgelen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As far as I know, they indeed are powered via the backplane. I'm not sure if the drives do spin up though, as they usually wait for a SATA command to do so.

Edit: I did some "fact checking" and seemingly, most disks just start to spin up once you apply the power. Some can be explicitly told not to do this, but it requires special configuration and support in both the BIOS or RAID controller and the disk.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 12-11-2014 11:28 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There is only one power connector on the hard drive controller card, so you can't disconnect the power from slots 5-8.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 12-13-2014 04:50 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The extra bays are for sure not powered.

Mark

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012


 - posted 12-13-2014 08:25 PM      Profile for Marcel Birgelen   Email Marcel Birgelen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
How do you know that for sure? AFAIK, the DSS200 is based on the Supermicro SC835 chassis. According to their specs, there is no option to selectively disable the power to individual bays.

What's for sure is that those bays aren't connected to any controller.

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Gavin Lewarne
Master Film Handler

Posts: 278
From: Plymouth, UK
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 12-15-2014 04:56 AM      Profile for Gavin Lewarne   Email Gavin Lewarne   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I guess the only thing I can do is put a drive in there and "feel" if it spins up.

p.s. Steve, I sent you a PM a few days ago but I figure you don't check for them very often.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 12-15-2014 09:07 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
The extra bays are for sure not powered.
The ones in one of our DSS200s certainly are, because I put drives in them, plus an eight-drive RAID card, and they're working. The green LEDs light up, the RAID card sees eight drives when it boots, and Dolby Show Manager sees 'em, too.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009


 - posted 12-15-2014 10:16 AM      Profile for Carsten Kurz   Email Carsten Kurz   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
This is a RAID Backplane. They may just as well have extra logic on it to control drive spin-up. One very basic reason to have it that way is to prevent all drives + boards in a machine to draw a high inrush current at the same time. These drives MAY only spin up when the backplane tells them to, and that may only happen when there is an 8ch interface. So, without further knowledge about the backplane specs, we can not be sure.

- Carsten

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999


 - posted 12-15-2014 02:42 PM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Gavin, I don't use PMs so if you sent one...I never saw it, I don't get messages about it either.

That is one form of communication I choose not to use...it is just extra work.

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007


 - posted 12-15-2014 05:28 PM      Profile for Marco Giustini   Email Marco Giustini   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I may have seen two molex connectors on the 200's backplane, maybe one is for the first 4 drives and the other for the other four? Or maybe they're just linked for more current. Or maybe I'm just plain mistaken and there is just one plug. [Smile]

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Marcel Birgelen
Film God

Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012


 - posted 12-15-2014 07:56 PM      Profile for Marcel Birgelen   Email Marcel Birgelen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There are two molex connectors, as one single connector would probably exceed the design specification if all drives are operating. I don't think it's a split backplane though.

Like Carsten already mentioned, the backplane contains also some limited amount of logic. Although it's essentially a pass-tru deal, there will probably be some logic for the initial spin-up of the drives, to avoid overloading the PSUs. Also, there's the logic that drives the activity and status LEDs, which are also on the back plane (the drive caddies use plastic light pipes to bring them to the front).

quote: Gavin Lewarne
I guess the only thing I can do is put a drive in there and "feel" if it spins up.
I'm curious how you're going to accomplish this [Wink] .

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