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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                     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  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-10-2014 07:49 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Gavin Lewarne Master Film Handler Posts: 278 From: Plymouth, UK Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-10-2014 08:17 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Jason Raftery Film Handler Posts: 72 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: May 2011 posted 12-10-2014 09:12 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Gavin Lewarne Master Film Handler Posts: 278 From: Plymouth, UK Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-11-2014 03:33 AM                     balls. well, I guess that puts an end to my plans. Thanks chaps  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-11-2014 03:42 AM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-11-2014 11:28 AM                        There is only one power connector on the hard drive controller card, so you can't disconnect the power from slots 5-8.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-13-2014 04:50 PM                     The extra bays are for sure not powered. Mark  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-13-2014 08:25 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Gavin Lewarne Master Film Handler Posts: 278 From: Plymouth, UK Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-15-2014 04:56 AM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 12-15-2014 09:07 AM                        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.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 12-15-2014 10:16 AM                     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  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 12-15-2014 02:42 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 12-15-2014 05:28 PM                     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.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 12-15-2014 07:56 PM                     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 .  |  IP: Logged

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