Setting Up Dell R720 Server in the Home Lab

#homelab#hardware

How I integrated a Dell PowerEdge R720 into my homelab — fan control via IPMItool, firmware updates, Proxmox migration over NFS, RAID storage, and UPS integration with PowerPanel.

Dell R720 Server

About two years ago I came across a Dell PowerEdge R720 at a price that was hard to ignore — 192GB ECC RAM and dual Xeon E5-2697v2 for what a single mid-range workstation costs new. The idea was to have a proper machine for heavier workloads and experiments in the homelab, and it’s been doing exactly that since. Getting it running wasn’t complicated, but there were a few things worth documenting — fan noise control via iDRAC, firmware updates, migrating Proxmox over NFS, and wiring up the UPS.

Specs

  • Form factor: 2U rack
  • RAM: 192GB ECC DDR3
  • CPUs: Dual Intel Xeon E5-2697v2
  • iDRAC: iDRAC7 Enterprise
  • Storage: 2× 2TB SSD (RAID I) + 6× 300GB SAS 6Gb/s (RAID 10)
  • Network: Dual-port integrated Gigabit Ethernet
  • PSU: Dual redundant (750W each)

Idle power draw with this config (192GB RAM, dual CPUs, SSDs) sits around 120–150W. Under load it goes to 200–250W, peaking around 300W on heavy workloads.

It arrived broken

The front backplane was disconnected, because the mini SAS cable that came with it was too short to reach. A 59cm cable fixed it. Worth checking before you conclude the backplane is dead — no drives are detected either way, and the two look identical from the OS:

i-Service - MiniSAS Cable

Fan control over IPMI

The R720 is loud out of the box, and the default curve doesn’t care that the room it’s in is not a datacentre. IPMItool takes the fans off automatic over the network, through iDRAC.

Terminal window
sudo apt-get install ipmitool


# Take manual control
ipmitool -I lanplus -H ip_addr -U username -P password raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00


# Hand it back to the firmware
ipmitool -I lanplus -H ip_addr -U username -P password raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x01


# Set a fixed speed - last byte is the percentage, in hex
ipmitool -I lanplus -H ip_addr -U username -P password raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x14
Caution

Manual mode means exactly that — the firmware stops raising the fans when things get hot. Set a floor you’re comfortable leaving unattended, and hand control back before anything that loads the machine hard. Mine sits at 0x14.

What the last byte buys you:

Percent Hex RPM
10% 0x0A ~3,300 RPM
16% 0x10 ~3,900 RPM
20% 0x14 ~4,000 RPM
25% 0x19 ~4,700 RPM
30% 0x1E ~5,400 RPM
40% 0x28 ~7,300 RPM
50% 0x32 ~8,000 RPM
60% 0x3C ~9,400 RPM
70% 0x46 ~10,800 RPM
80% 0x50 ~12,100 RPM
90% 0x5A ~13,300 RPM
100% 0x64 15,000 RPM

And to see what they’re actually doing:

Terminal window
ipmitool sensor | grep -i fan

Firmware, without a support contract

iDRAC can pull updates over FTP, but you have to tell it which generation you are. Wikipedia’s PowerEdge list has the mapping — the R720 is gen 12, so g12.

  1. Go to Maintenance > System Update in the iDRAC web interface
  2. Select FTP and use these settings:
    • Address: ftp.updateyodell.net
    • User: dell
    • Password: calvin
    • Path: g12
  3. Click Check for Updates and apply

Moving Proxmox onto it

An NFS share on the Synology DS223 was the whole migration path. Mount it on the new host, restore from the dumps already sitting there:

Terminal window
mount -t nfs <synology_ip>:/path/to/nfs /mnt/pve/nfs
pct restore <vmid> /mnt/pve/nfs/dump/dump.tar

Storage

Two 2TB SSDs in RAID 1 for the OS and primary applications. Six 300GB SAS drives in RAID 10 for data — gives you the read performance of striping with redundancy against single drive failures. Configured through the PERC controller during initial setup.

UPS, on PowerPanel

CyberPower UPS, and I went with PowerPanel rather than NUT — vendor tool, vendor hardware, one less integration to debug.

Terminal window
curl -o cyberpowerpowerpanel.deb https://www.cyberpower.com/tw/en/File/GetFileSampleByType?fileId=SU-18070001-06&fileType=Download%20Center&fileSubType=FileOriginal
dpkg -i cyberpowerpowerpanel.deb

The policy is one line, and the two thresholds are an OR:

Terminal window
pwrstat -lowbatt -runtime 300 -capacity 35 -active on -cmd /etc/pwrstatd-lowbatt.sh -duration 1 -shutdown on

This triggers a graceful shutdown when runtime drops below 300 seconds or battery capacity falls under 35%, with a 1-minute delay before executing. The script at /etc/pwrstatd-lowbatt.sh handles any pre-shutdown tasks you want to run.

References