Lab · Sheet 02
The server.
A Dell R730, in the R720xd’s old slot. Its RAID card does HBA mode on its own, so ZFS sees every disk and there was no surgery this time.
The R720xd it replaced The lab Sheet 01 · The cabinet Sheet 03 · The stack
| Rev | Description | Date | By |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | First issue | 2026-09-28 | TD |
| B | As built | 2026-09-29 | TD |
| C | Redrawn for the R730 | 2026-10-03 | TD |
- Project
- HOMELAB
- Title
- The server
- Scale
- AS NOTED
- Units
- mm
- Sheet
- 2 OF 3
- Rev
- C
- Date
- 2026-10-03
- Drawn
- TD
- Checked
- TD
- Dwg no
- TD-LAB-02
Bay 0 · SATA SSD · hot spare
Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- 1.6 TB, with power-loss protection.
- fast’s hot spare: idle on purpose, ready to jump in.
Bay 1 · SATA SSD
Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- 1.6 TB, with power-loss protection.
- One of fast’s three copies. VM disks, the Talos nodes included.
Bay 2 · SATA SSD
Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- 1.6 TB, with power-loss protection.
- One of fast’s three copies. VM disks, the Talos nodes included.
Bay 3 · SATA SSD
Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- 1.6 TB, with power-loss protection.
- One of fast’s three copies. VM disks, the Talos nodes included.
Bay 4 · SATA SSD
Patriot P210 256 GB SSD
- 256 GB, one of rpool’s three copies.
- Holds Proxmox and the ISOs.
Bay 5 · SATA SSD
Gigastone 256 GB SSD
- 256 GB, one of rpool’s three copies.
- Holds Proxmox and the ISOs.
Bay 6 · 15k SAS
Seagate ST300MP0004
- 300 GB, spinning at 15,000 rpm.
- rpool’s third copy.
Bay 7 · SATA SSD
Crucial MX500 1 TB
- 1 TB, all of bulk.
- Scratch and sandboxes. One disk, on purpose.
Bay 8 · SATA SSD · spare
Crucial MX500 500 GB
- 500 GB, wiped and waiting.
- In no pool: a spare that lives in the server.
Bay 9 · SATA SSD · spare
Crucial MX500 500 GB
- 500 GB, wiped and waiting.
- In no pool either: the other spare.
Boot · 3-way mirror
rpool
- Bays 4, 5 and 6, about 220 GiB.
- Proxmox itself and the ISOs.
VM disks · 3-way mirror
fast
- Bays 1, 2 and 3, about 1.45 TiB.
- Bay 0 is the hot spare.
- Where the VMs and the cluster’s volumes live.
Scratch · single disk
bulk
- Bay 7, about 930 GiB.
- Scratch and sandboxes: losing it costs nothing.
The server
Dell PowerEdge R730
- Two Xeons, 512 GB of RAM and sixteen 2.5″ bays.
- It took the R720xd’s slot in the rack.
Backplane
16-bay backplane
- Its SAS expander feeds all 16 bays.
Cooling
6 fans
- One row of fans between the drives and the CPUs.
CPU1
Intel Xeon E5-2683 v4
- 16 cores, 32 threads.
- One of two: 64 threads between them.
CPU2
Intel Xeon E5-2683 v4
- 16 cores, 32 threads.
- One of two: 64 threads between them.
Memory
16 of 24 DIMM sockets
- 16 × 32 GB sticks fitted.
- Eight sockets still empty.
Storage controller
Dell PERC H730P Mini
- A RAID card that does HBA mode itself.
- Every disk reaches ZFS and SMART as it is, with no RAID in between.
- No extra card and no surgery this time.
PCIe · low profile
Riser 1
- Three low-profile slots.
PCIe · full height
Riser 2
- Two full-height slots.
PCIe · full height
Riser 3
- Two full-height slots.
Network · Intel X540
4 × 10 GbE
- NIC 1 goes to the gateway’s port 3, at 1 GbE.
- The other three have nothing plugged in.
Power
2 power supplies
- 1100 W each.
- Redundant: either one can run the server.
Line key
- Object
- rpool
- fast
- bulk
- Hot spare
- Spare, no pool
- New to the lab
- Cold air
- Hot air
At a glance
- CPUs
- 2 × E5‑2683 v4
- Threads
- 64
- Memory
- 512 GB
- Storage
- 10 drives in 3 ZFS pools
- Spares
- 1 hot, 2 in no pool
- Controller
- PERC H730P Mini, HBA mode
Ten drives, three pools, six empty bays. The bad ideas have to fit in fewer slots now.
The pools
-
rpool
3-way mirror · about 220 GiB
Boot and ISOs
- Bay 4 Patriot P210 256 GB SSD
- Bay 5 Gigastone 256 GB SSD
- Bay 6 Seagate ST300MP0004
-
fast
3-way mirror · about 1485 GiB
VM disks and cluster volumes
- Bay 1 Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- Bay 2 Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- Bay 3 Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB
- Bay 0 Intel SSD DC S3520 1.6 TB · hot spare
-
bulk
Single disk · about 930 GiB
Scratch and sandboxes
- Bay 7 Crucial MX500 1 TB
-
No pool
Spares in the server
Wiped and waiting
- Bay 8 Crucial MX500 500 GB
- Bay 9 Crucial MX500 500 GB