Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T Photo Gallery

Posted by Paul Braren on Jul 1 2015 (updated on Nov 3 2015) in
  • Virtualization
  • HomeLab
  • HomeServer
    • 6 Comments

    Perhaps you're "just looking." Well then, you've found the right page. The case, the motherboard, the drive bays, it's all seen in detail, with many screenshots too. More pics will be added over time, so revisit and refresh your browser, and yourself. Enjoy!

    sys-5028d-tn4t_open-cropped
    Detailed specifications available at Supermicro Authorized Reseller Wiredzone

    Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T

    Perhaps you're "just looking." Well then, you've found the right page. The case, the motherboard, the drive bays, it's all seen in detail, with many screenshots too. More pics will be added over time, so revisit and refresh your browser, and yourself. Enjoy!

    Comments/questions are open to all right below this photo gallery, where you'll also find a handy list of related articles.

    Front-Bezel-with-LEDs.JPG
    straight-view-of-front-bezel-cropped.JPG
    Front-Bezel-with-3-LEDs.JPG
    close-up-of-bezel-with-green-power-led.JPG
    close-up-of-bezel-with-TinkerTry-logo-reversed-cropped.JPG
    JavaiKVM
    Two 32GB DDR4 DIMMs inserted in the correct [blue] mobo sockets, running at full interleaved speeds.
    Same-Speed-M2-and-PCIe
    Note that both M.2 and PCIe slots are identical in capabilities, and also note this iKVM screen is clearer than above screenshot, because I turned the quality up.
    FrontDoorOpened.JPG
    SMCI_X10SDV-TLN4F_Angled
    Photo courtesy of Supermicro showing the X10SDV-TLN4F motherboard that's used in this system.
    Front-of-the-32GB-DDR4.JPG
    So that's what a Samsung 32GB DDR4 SDRAM looks like. Note the unusual shape of the bottom edge.
    back-of-the-dimms.JPG
    2-beautiful-32gb-dimms.JPG
    Two of Four DIMM slots populated, note thick shielded USB 2.0 beige cabling routed from the front bezel to the board.
    close-up-of-32GB-DDR4.JPG
    Left-side-view-with-2nd-SATA-SSD-installed.JPG
    Optionally, I've filled the 2nd 2.5" drive bay with an SSD, SATA cable not included, best to order another Supermicro 8.27in 30AWG SATA S-S Cable, mine hasn't arrived yet.
    the-drive-connectors.JPG
    SAS733TQ Backplane for 3.5" drives, with 4 SATA3 seen cables and many blue jumpers
    SATA-SAS73TQ-drive-backplane.JPG
    looking down at the distant motherboard, with the back side of the 3.5" SATA drive backplane seen in foreground.
    PCISlotCloseup.JPG
    LSI7204EP-FC-card-fits-barely-backplane-above-impinges-when-trying-to-insert.JPG
    Fitting this LSI7204EP half-height low-profile FC card in was somewhat challenging, mostly just because it's pretty large, and clearing the backplane right above it makes it tough to make the angle to insert it. Instruction Manual tells you to slide the whole motherboard out the back for PCIe card install. Not necessary at all, if you are very cautious.
    backplate-yes-you-can-fit-a-half-height-low-profile-FC-card.JPG
    Backplate shown, with PCI slot occupied.
    See-mSATA-cant-fit-hits-PCI.JPG
    See how this SMAKN mSATA to M.2 adapter can't fit, adjacent PCI slot is in the way, oh well, just use a 2.5" to mSATA adapter instead.
    ESXi-installer
    Super easy, used Rufus-created install USB drive, installed without a hitch.
    ESXi-I350-seen
    By default, the 2 Intel i350 NIC ports are visible to ESXi 6.0, that makes it much easier for new folks trying this.
    SYS-5028D-TN4T_with_Samsung_950_PRO_and_128GB_of_Samsung_memory
    SYS-5028D-TN4T-monitoring-just-works-with-esxi-6-no-extra-work
    Supermicro tells me that this minor deviation from the expected 1.20 volts is nothing to worry about. I agree, because Web UI for IPMI status shows "green" at 1.191 volts, seen in the next photo. Amazing amount of info seen here with default simple ESXi 6.0 install, no separate CIM downloads required.
    SensorReadingsWithShowThresholdsOff
    Supermicro IPMI Web UI for Server Health, Sensor Readings. See VDIMM showing 1.191 Volts, within thresholds [seen on next photo], which I'm assuming is an average, because it doesn't break the voltage down per DIMM. Tip: this view renders best on IE 11, avoiding the need to scroll to see all 20 sensor readings.
    IPMISensorReadings
    Sensor readings with Show Thresholds turned on.

    Oct 05 2015 Update - this yellow warning issue has been resolved! See:

    Windows-10-Preview-10159-on-SuperServer
    Running a single OS with 64GB as a little experiment, notice the GHz drop seen under CPU in Task Manager, saving power when simply idle. See also complete details at TinkerTry.com/superserver-windows-10-build.
    X10SDV-TLN4FMotherboardLayout
    Schematic.

    View the PDF version of this "Supermicro X10SDV-TLN4F Quick Reference Guide" pictured above.

    SuperServer-System-Block-Diagram
    From page 11 of the Instruction Manual.

    View the PDF version of this "Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T User's Manual" pictured above.

    Speaker-Installed.JPG
    The above schematic showed the speaker terminals are present, so $5.49 easily adds a tiny speaker. You can also see the StarTech.com 2 Port USB Motherboard Header Adapter [USBMBADAPT2] here, with a SanDisk Ultra Fit USB key inserted. Note, this header is USB 2.0 for speeds [the only USB 3.0 ports are the two at the back panel]. See more add-on ideas at TinkerTry.com/superserver-enhancements

    Nov 03 2015 Update

    SYS-5028D-TN4T_with_Samsung_950_PRO_and_128GB_of_Samsung_memory
    Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD installed, with 128GB of Samsung DDR4 in the background.
    sys-5028d-tn4t_open-cropped
    Click image to see specs or shop at Wiredzone

    Shop

    Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T
    at Wiredzone

    Not available on Amazon or Newegg, I got my system (CPU/mobo/power/mini-tower pre-assembled) at Wiredzone for the reasons outlined here. If you appreciate the information and videos you've found here at TinkerTry and you decide to buy, please consider using any of the bundle links.

    See also at TinkerTry

    B01BGTG41W

    See also

    sth-review-screenshot

    BOTTOM LINE:
    With four port Ethernet (two 10Gbase-T and two 1Gbase-T), solid storage m.2 PCIe x4 and 6x SATA III, a fast and low power CPU (Intel Xeon D-1540) and 128GB of RAM, the Supermicro X10SDV-TLN4F is a must get platform. For those still using Intel Xeon L5520 or L5620 generation processors, one can get more performance in less than half of the power and space footprint which is astounding. For those that always wanted more than the Xeon E3 line could offer in terms of their limited RAM capacity (practical 32GB limit) and core count (4C/ 8T max), this is the answer.

    All Comments on This Article (6)

    Barry Cowie

    thank you Paul, just glad to be of help to all, I came looking for info, and found help here and a few other places.
    If we all share the results of our endeavours it makes for a great resource in the future.
    I also work in IT as well, and have been lucky to have some spare time these last few days to look at this stuff due to me working from home as well, otherwise it might have took me a few weeks.

    The Supermicro D-1541 is proving to be a power house as well, really glad I purchased it now, still its under fairly light load at the moment but its hardly breaking a sweat :), a large step up from my old HP Microserver.

    Paul Braren | TinkerTry.com

    Barry, your comments are fantastic, never has one person contributed so much of huge value in so little time. Amazing. Welcome to TinkerTry!
    For others reading this and wondering what I mean, see the many gems Barry has posted since signing up for Disqus, just 8 days ago:
    https://disqus.com/by/barrycowie/

    Barry Cowie

    Hi,

    No problem, I did not realise at first, thought I hadn't posted, as I was typing it up when half asleep!

    Yep, its really good news, I like to have my drives formatted in such a way if the server goes down at least I can recover the data from them with minimal fuss, from what I can gather you can clone the VMware HD datastore to a physical hard drive but I wasn't wanting to get in that situation, just another headache to think about if the worst were to happen.

    On a side note I also stumbled upon some info which basically says its better to minimise drive spin downs, as they have a finite amount of spin ups before they fail.

    Paul Braren | TinkerTry.com

    Given the SoC design, I never expected this to actually work, and my own attempts failed (with USB and other ports also passed through, and other oddities/strangeness). This is great news, and FYI, because of the inclusion of URLs, I had to accept this submission before it got published here, sorry for the delay.

    Barry Cowie

    Hi Paul,

    A quick update, I have managed to get the Lynx ACHI controller now showing available for pass through (Updated with ACS bypass option)

    For reference to get the ACHI Lynx controller to show up as available for passthrough see below...

    1) Activate the ssh service in Vsphere Client using the instructions in this link: VMware KB: Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x (From ESXI 6 you can enable with the WebClient)

    2) Use Putty or any other terminal program to connect to you Esxi SSH server.
    3) Run this command to backup the configs
    auto-backup.sh

    4) Use vi, for example: vi /etc/vmware/passthru.map
    4a) Add these 2 lines at the bottom of the file:
    # INTEL Lynx Point AHCI
    8086 8c02 d3d0 false

    (For ref I figured out its Vendor Device ??????? converted from decimal to hex)

    Taken from https://communities.vmware.com/thread/458324?start=15&tstart=0


    5) Now in order to get the passthrough to stick we need to bypass the enforced VMware ACS option, not too sure exactly the implications, so wouldn't recommend it for a production system!

    Navigate to the following option either with the VMware client or the HTML5 web interface..
    Configuration/Software/Advanced Settings/VMKernel/VMKernel.Boot.DisableAcsCheck

    And set it to true.

    http://www.michaelm.info/blog/?tag=vmdirectpathio

    6) Reboot the Esxi server.

    7) Add the Lynx Pont AHCI to the passtrough devices and reboot the Esxi server again.

    All done!

    Barry Cowie

    Hi Paul,

    I have just installed ESXi 6 however for the life of me I cannot figure out how to get my SATA hard drives to passthrough to the VM, I was hoping to use them in multiple VM's at the same time if posable.

    Did you try this?, any tips to get it working?