I’ve been itching to try out the LSI CacheCade technology since reading this review:
http://www.storagereview.com/lsi_megaraid_cachecade_pro_20_review
The LSI CacheCade Technology is now included with Dell PowerEdge Servers that have the PERC H700 1GB Raid controller installed. What I have been unable to determine from the Dell documentation is if the Dell PERC Controllers support CacheCade V2.0 or the original specification.
It has been said that it is not possible to add drives that are not factory fitted by Dell to an existing server and I am happy to report that the Intel 520 seems to work without issue. Perhaps this is a change that Dell made to the controller firmware.
I really wanted a high performance SSD that carries a long warranty and Intel seem to be the only vendor that offer that at the moment.
Installing the SSD inside an R510 is really easy and it is quite a neat setup as you don’t lose any of your main storage bays as the server has two internal 2.5″ drive bays:
The internal 2.5″ Drive Bays (Notice the included screws atop of the bays, a nice touch) :
The internal 2.5″ Drive Bays with the Intel 520 120GB SSD installed:
Once the drive is installed, go into Raid Controllers BIOS configuration utility (CTRL+R) and you should see the newly added Intel drive listed:
Highlight your controller and press F2 and a list of available tasks is displayed. Choose “Create CacheCade Virtual Disk”:
Select the SSDs that you want to add to your Cachecade virtual disk. I’ve not tried it with more than one:
And hopefully you will get a successfully created message:
CacheCade can only be set-up on the DELL PERC H700 with 1GB memory. So don’t go splashing out on an SSD if you don’t have that RAID controller. I presume it will also work on a H800 with 1GB, but don’t have one in this machine to test it.
Have not had a chance to do any performance comparison as yet, and it is a shame that there are no tools to actually show you if the CacheCade is active or to provide any statistics.
Fred says
I’m excited to hear this working with a Intel SSD. My understanding was this would not work with without a Dell SSD drive. Ive got a 1g h700 that im eager to try this out.
Nice work
Nicholas says
Hi, looking forward to seeing your test results for performance in vmware ESXi 5.0 Any updates?
thanks.
Alex says
I’ve installed a Intel 330, 120GB on my Dell R515. So far I haven’t run any benchmark to test but it looks alright.
How are you finding the speed to far? Any improvement?
Mike Owen says
Hi,
Could you tell me was this a R510-8 or 12 bay chassis you carried out this upgrade on?
I’m trying to clarify if my R510-8 bay has the ability to take the internal drive chassis or if this is limited to the 12 bay chassis only?
Thanks,
Mike
Paulie says
It was on a 12-Bay and I don’t beleive that the 8-bay has the internal 2.5″ drive bays. But I am absolutley not sure of that – I just had a thought that I didn’t remember seeing the bay on the 8-bay I saw recently. Although you can put the SSD in the front bays in a SATA caddy, which I have done since and it worked fine.
Bob Brady says
I am looking at implementing this on my R710 (2.5″ format) which has open bays at the front under the DVD. I found an open Sata port, SATA-B but not a power port yet. My question is whether the SSD has to be on the Perc or is it able to be seen/used on the SATA port?
Sean from Chicago says
So, any update on doing this… we have a number of R710’s with the 512m controller.. will they support this now? The H710 supports this with the 512m vram.
In the end I was wondering what advantage these offered… if I could buy some 1g vram controllers on ebay to replace the 512’s.
Any list of SSD’s that are supported? Best way to cable them up? any more info would be wanted. This blog said they were going to collect some data but It doesn’t look like they did.
MC says
May I know do you still remember or have the record for the firmware you were using for H700 with 1GB NV Cache? I am looking for the minimum firmware to enable CacheCade. Also how to enable this from OpenMange instead of BIOS? and most importantly, do you find this feature useful after all and safe to use? In case of power outage…will CacheCade lost data?
Paulie says
Hi MC – I am sorry, I do not remember, those machines are long since gone. I found the feature really useful, it really boosted performance significantly. I never worried about lost data as these machines were in a data centre with backup power. Sorry I cannot provide you more comprehensive help.
MC says
Many thanks again, that’s very useful.
Btw, I am thinking purchasing a 1GB NV Cache to replace the 512MB Cache on H700, do you think CacheCade feature will be enabled automatically? I think CacheCade is build-in, but it’s turned off if it detects the cache is 512MB.
Paulie says
I think it will become available when you get the 1Gb module. I’m not 100% sure, but I think it will.