Dell PowerEdge r930 hardware guide

 ***Work in Progress, will continue to update until the project is finished****

Dell PowerEdge r930 is a 4U, four CPU system.  This is some notes from working on them.  Finding information on them was sparse, so hopefully someone else can benefit from my research.  The biggest help was this source: from Dell.  This link as well, also the factory manual.

When using four CPU's the minimum RAM configuration is eight memory modules.  One stick of RAM in the #1 back of each of the eight memory riser cards.

It doesn't matter so much what hard drive controller is used, but it MUST bee in the very first slot.  Remove the I/O shield put it into slot one and use the lever to secure it down.   In this case it is a single Perch 730H.

To pull out the fan tray, just remove the outer four fans, then use the release to free up the handle.  In order to work on the CPU's or the back plane, all memory risers must be removed, the four fans, and the fan tray.

The network card is the same "form factor" as found on other r630/730's..it has the proprietary connection.  There is a special riser card that takes the special NIC and converts it to PCIe.  That card also has a special slot for one to install the SD memory card modules.

This is the network riser card without the NIC daughter board

ONE HBA/RAID card in a 24 drive system: the SAS cables from port A go to port A on the SAS Expander, as is the same for port B.  The top SAS port from the backplane goes into the furthest port on the SAS Expander.  The bottom SAS port on the backplane goes to the closest port on the SAS Expander.  Use the wrong cables or in the wrong spot, the system will complain.

The two back-plane cables are special (p/n: 085WG0 and 09HT8M) are special, even though they have an industry standard SAS connection, they are actually proprietary. Normal SAS cables will plug in, but not work. The cable from the SAS controller to the SAS expander is p/n: 0KN3YV.

These machines come standard with the ability to run four hard drives.  They can be converted to run twenty four.  It is a PITA, but very doable.  The first one I did took a few hours, the 2nd was a breeze.

Parts needed:

-backplane

-SAS expander

-backplane SAS cables

-SAS cables from HBA/RAID to SAS expander

-front bezel 

MORE "FUN"!!!!

The generation 13 PowerEdges can run U.2 NVMe drives!  The backplane is different, the cabling is different, a special controller card is needed.

The backplane backplane is very similar to the normal SAS/SATA 24 bay backplane, which the obvious physical difference being the addition of eight extra SAS-style connectors.   One can use the machine with the special PCIe cards run eight NVMe drives and sixteen SAS/SATA drives.  One can use the NVMe/SAS backplane and not use the special PCIe cards and cables, however every time the machine powers on, there is an error at post, that one must hit F1 to continue.

The cabling of the NVMe capable backplane with two PCIe controller cards.

The cabling of the normal SAS/SATA 24bay backplane.

Picture of the NVMe capable backplane with the extra connections circled in red.

Normal SAS/SATA 24 bay backplane, notice there is only two SAS-style connectors

In iDRAC the machine recognizes the NVMe backplane, even though there is no PCIe controller cards installed. 

The error message during post, that is shown every time, that requires one to press F1 each time.

The NVMe setup also reserves eight of the drive bays for NVMe only, SAS/SATA drives will not work in those designated bays.

Here is what it looks like both NVMe cards and the cabling.  It is very tight to run all the cables.

The NVMe cables are special; besides being molded to "fit" into the r930 chassis, something about them is different.  The system will not allow one to use generic SAS cables nor get them out of order.  The part number for the r930 cables are as follows:

cn-09k88-48570-42h-007m (dp/n: 09rk88) and cn-066fk9-48570-42j-004n  (dp/n: 066fk9)