Servers: Supermicro X9DRx xx - feralcoder/shared GitHub Wiki

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Background

I Avoided Enterprise Servers At Home

Because they're loud AF.

But

Here we are.

Where Used

~~IT: OpenStack Servers~~
Fileservers - Hand-built utility boxes.

SuperMicro: Big Mistake

2 Years ago I had 15 reasons to think these boards were going to give me superpowers. Now I have 45 reasons to never ever consider SuperMicro again, for anything.

The specs are great, when they work they're great, but here is why I will never use SuperMicro again:

Fragile hardware. More fragile than any home PC board. Believe.
Memory compatibility stupidity. Every board is super specific about its compatible memory list, and 'nearly identical' is sure to not work.
More memory insanity - to fill all slots you need LRDIMMs, but only a couple are listed for each MoBo...
Dishonest memory lists - Even if you get the listed memory, it may not work.
Memory inconsistency - Every mobo in the family is different WRT which memory they claim to support, and which of those claims are true.

Some examples:

All of the boards have wafer-thin VGA jacks, which snap with the tiniest leverage. I broke one, immediately learned my lesson, and then very carefully broke another. My cat broke one laying down on the cable. Once broken the machine won't boot. I was planning to fix these with solder and cables, but I'm just moving off this platform.
Since you need LRDIMM's to use the largest DIMMs, and also to use any of the 2nd CPU memory slots on some of these boards, and since those LRDIMM's don't actually work as advertised, expect to be limited to 1/4 or 1/8 of max memory.
For above reasons, only one of your CPUs may have its own memory.

CHIPSET

The Intel Chipset C602 is more than enough for any home / small business / DIY needs:

  DMI interface to CPU at 20 GT/s
  8 PCIe 2.0 (5 GT/s) lanes, configurable by the board manufacturer as 8×1, 4×2, 2×4, or 1×8.
  ^ (CPU has 40 additionally)
  2 SATA ports supporting 6/3/1.5 gigabaud operation
  4 SATA ports supporting 3/1.5 gigabaud operation
  one PCI 2.3 32-bit 33 MHz bus interface
  14 USB 2.0 ports
  single-port Gigabit Ethernet controller
  Active Management Technology 7.0 and Anti-Theft Technology
  HD Audio controller

IPMI

https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/Embedded_BMC_IPMI.pdf

Servers: Supermicro X9DRx xx - feralcoder/shared GitHub Wiki

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