[Beowulf] OT, RAID controller replacement batteries?

[Skylar Thompson]

We've had the same problems, one somewhat-effective trick has been to
scavenge working batteries from systems we're sending to surplus so we have
our own supply of batteries to swap in. The failure rate is marginally
better than the batteries we've bought from Amazon/Newegg/eBay (as you
note, not great).

On Mon, Nov 02, 2020 at 12:19:34PM -0800, David Mathog wrote:
> OT.
> 
> Anybody replaced a Perc 6i (or equivalent) BBU battery lately?  What did you
> use?
> 
> Because...
> 
> We have a bunch of older servers with Dell Perc RAID controllers.  The BBU
> batteries are starting to go, one by one.  For some of them Dell still has
> new batteries, but for the Perc 6i they seem to have only "refurbished"
> NU209, which literally means they pulled it out of some server they had
> around for whatever reason and are selling it.  Apparently
> dusting it off counts as "refurbishing".  If one goes to ebay and searches
> for "new" NU209 it pulls up a bunch of images of FR463 (alternate Dell part
> number?) batteries.  This is one of the newer ones:
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/p/1703443656?iid=223662829408
> 
> The labels show manufacturing dates all prior to 2014 (so far), most in the
> 2010 to 2011 era.  So not by any definition "new".
> 
> There are some generic NU209 batteries, usually marked as 0NU209, but none
> of  those show the manufacturer's name, the manufacturing date, or the mAh
> specification.  See for instance the pictures here:
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Battery-FR463-NU209-For-DELL-PERC-H700-H800-5i-6i-R900-RAID-Controller-US/291976607061?hash=item43fb297555:g:-PYAAOSwA29Y5SDi
> 
> The old Dell batteries seem like a terrible idea, but I'm not thrilled with
> the idea of plugging in one of the completely uncharacterized batteries
> either.  Probably the best idea is to replace the old machines, but failing
> that, are there any batteries out there which are both new and reliable
> enough to buy?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David Mathog
> 
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-- 
Skylar