Dell POWER EDGE 2900 User manual

www.dell.com | support.dell.com
Dell™ PowerEdge™ 2900 Systems
Hardware Owner’s Manual

Notes, Notices, and Cautions
NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your computer.
NOTICE: A NOTICE indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the
problem.
CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.
____________________
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
© 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.
Trademarksusedinthistext:Dell,theDELLlogo,Inspiron,DellPrecision,Dimension,OptiPlex,Latitude,PowerEdge,PowerVault,PowerApp,
PowerConnect, XPS, and Dell OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Intel, Pentium,Xeon,and Celeron are registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation; Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation.
Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products.
Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.
December 2005

Contents 3
Contents
1 About Your System
System Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Other Information You May Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Accessing System Features During Startup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Front-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Hard-Drive Indicator Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Back-Panel Features and Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Connecting External Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Power Indicator Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
NIC Indicator Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Solving Problems Described by LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . 26
Removing LCD Status Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
System Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Warning Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Diagnostics Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Alert Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2 Using the System Setup Program
Entering the System Setup Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Responding to Error Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Using the System Setup Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
System Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Main Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
CPU Information Screens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Integrated Devices Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4Contents
Serial Communication Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
System Security Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Exit Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
System and Setup Password Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using the System Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Using the Setup Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Disabling a Forgotten Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Baseboard Management Controller Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Entering the BMC Setup Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
BMC Setup Module Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3 Installing System Components
Recommended Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Opening and Closing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Removing the Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Removing the Peripheral Bay Panel (Tower Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Installing the Peripheral Bay Panel (Tower Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Installing the Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Opening the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Closing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Hot-Plug Hard Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Removing a Drive Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Installing a Drive Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Removing a Hot-Plug Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Installing a Hot-Plug Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Replacing a Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Removing a Hard Drive From a Hard-Drive Carrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Installing a SAS Hard Drive Into a SATAu Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . 58
Installing a SATA Hard Drive Into a SATA Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . 59
Installing a SATA Hard Drive and Interposer Card Into a SATAu
Hard-Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Removing a Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Installing a Power Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Contents 5
Removing the Power Supply Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Installing the Power Supply Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Removing and Installing a Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Removing or Installing the Cooling Shroud Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Installing an Expansion Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Removing an Expansion Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Internal SCSI Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Removing an Internal SCSI Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Installing an Internal SCSI Tape Backup Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Removing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Installing an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Removing the Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Installing the Diskette Drive Into the Drive Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Installing the Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Replacing the System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Removing the Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Installing the Cooling Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Fan Brackets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Removing the Center Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Replacing the Center Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Removing the Back Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Replacing the Back Fan Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
General Memory Module Installation Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Non-Optimal Memory Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Memory Sparing Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Memory Mirroring Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Installing Memory Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Removing Memory Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

6Contents
Installing a RAC Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Activating the Integrated NIC TOE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Microprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Replacing a Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
1x8 SAS Backplane Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Removing the 1x8 SAS Backplane Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Installing the 1x8 SAS Backplane Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Optional 1x2 Flex Bay Drive Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Removing the 1x2 Flex Bay Drive Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Installing the 1x2 Flex Bay Drive Bracket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
SAS Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Replacing the SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card Battery . . . . . . . . 96
Removing the SAS Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Installing the SAS Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Cabling the SAS Backplane Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Cable Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Cabling the SAS Controller (Non-RAID) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Cabling the SAS RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Configuring the Boot Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Control Panel Assembly (Service-Only Procedure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Removing the Control Panel Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Installing the Control Panel Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
System Board (Service-Only Procedure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Removing the System Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Installing the System Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Power Distribution Board (Service-Only Procedure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Removing the Power Distribution Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Installing the Power Distribution Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4 Troubleshooting Your System
Safety First—For You and Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Start-Up Routine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Contents 7
Checking the Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Troubleshooting IRQ Assignment Conflicts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Troubleshooting External Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Troubleshooting the Video Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Troubleshooting the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Troubleshooting the Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Troubleshooting Basic I/O Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Troubleshooting a Serial I/O Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Troubleshooting a USB Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Troubleshooting a NIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Troubleshooting a Wet System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Troubleshooting a Damaged System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Troubleshooting the System Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Troubleshooting Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Troubleshooting System Cooling Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Troubleshooting a Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Troubleshooting System Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Troubleshooting a Diskette Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Troubleshooting an Optical Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Troubleshooting an External SCSI Tape Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Troubleshooting a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Troubleshooting a SAS or SAS RAID Controller Daughter Card . . . . . . . 130
Troubleshooting Expansion Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Troubleshooting the Microprocessors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5 Running the System Diagnostics
Using Server Administrator Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
System Diagnostics Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
When to Use the System Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Running the System Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

8Contents
System Diagnostics Testing Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Using the Custom Test Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Selecting Devices for Testing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Selecting Diagnostics Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Viewing Information and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6 Jumpers and Connectors
System Board Jumpers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
System Board Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
SAS Backplane Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Disabling a Forgotten Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
7 Getting Help
Technical Assistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Online Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
AutoTech Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Automated Order-Status Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Technical Support Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Dell Enterprise Training and Certification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Problems With Your Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Product Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Returning Items for Warranty Repair or Credit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Before You Call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Contacting Dell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

About Your System 9
About Your System
This section describes the physical, firmware, and software interface features that provide and ensure
the essential functioning of your system. The physical connectors on your system’s front and back
panels provide convenient connectivity and system expansion capability. The system firmware,
applications, and operating systems monitor the system and component status and alert you when a
problem arises. System conditions can be reported by any of the following:
• Front or back panel indicators
• System messages
• Warning messages
• Diagnostics messages
• Alert messages
This section describes each type of message, lists the possible causes, and provides steps to resolve
any problems indicated by a message. The system indicators and features are illustrated in this
section.

10 About Your System
System Orientation
Figure 1-1 shows the rack and tower versions of your system. The illustrations in this document are based
on the rack version, unless otherwise indicated.
Figure 1-1. Tower and Rack-Mount Orientations
Other Information You May Need
CAUTION: The Product Information Guide provides important safety and regulatory information. Warranty
information may be included within this document or as a separate document.
• The Rack Installation Guide and Rack Installation Instructions included with your rack solution
describe how to install your system into a rack.
• The
Getting Started Guide provides an overview of system features, setting up your system, and
technical specifications.
• CDs included with your system provide documentation and tools for configuring and managing your
system.
• Systems management software documentation describes the features, requirements, installation, and
basic operation of the software.
1 system control panel (rack) 2 system control panel (tower)
2
1