I have various Dell servers (all 2950's) I would like to put some SSDs in. I have spoken to Dell on the phone and asked for a quote for 128GB SSDs for 2950's, they told me they don't sell them for this server.
These all have Perc 6/i's in them. Can I purchase any SSDs with a SATA II connection, of my liking, and connect this? Or will they be "blocked", or not work as expected because they don't have Dell firmware on them?
I have had (minor) issues before with HDDs that aren't Dell branded on Perc 5/i cards. They did work perfectly well (I sourced the exact same make and model drive as the failed original Dell ones, and bought them from a third party vendor), but at boot time the server would always display an warning about hard drive compatibilities (I assume was just being passed up to the OS by the RAID controller to scare me?).
Dell were, for a while, actively blocking third-party drives from their controllers. However, they stopped that pretty quick (probably due to the outcry), and now are just content to make the same profit margins on the sleds. I don't have any direct experience with SSDs on PERC 6/i, but if it doesn't work, make loud enough noises at Dell and they'll fix it (I believe a firmware update on the RAID card may be required in some limited circumstances to get rid of the naughty blacklisting shenanigans).