PowerEdge T710 Memory upgrade

[jdykstra]

Dell PowerEdge T710 http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/84/Index
I am having a heck of a time trying to understand this memory configuration Dell is saying I have to do on the server.

This server has 2 processors and 18 memory slots (9 per processor) they are configured as such:
A1 | A4 | A7 | A2 | A5 | A8 | A3 | A6 | A9
B1 | B4 | B7 | B2 | B5 | B8 | B3 | B6 | B9

In there right now is 12 GB of memory, 6x2GB sticks of RDIMM Dual Rank PC3 10600 (1333).

We wanted to upgrade to 48GB of memory, 6x8GB sticks of RDIMM, but did not read up or see the single, dual, quad rank system.

Our purchasing department bought 6x8GB sticks of RDIMM Quad rank sticks.

I am being told by a Dell technician "In a nutshell, you cannot put in more than 2 sticks of quad rank memory with any given processor per server. (I.E., if you have 2 processors, you can use a total of 4 quad rank memory sticks.)"

The link he gave me to the Technical Guide for the T710 has a chart that says (and other sources say the same thing) - http://www.dell.com/downloads/globa...erver-poweredge-t710-technical-guide-book.pdf and http://www.dataram.com/blog/?p=32
"DIMM Configurations: Quad Rank RDIMM - 2 per channel per processor (12 Total)"
"Simply put, no more than 12 quad-rank DIMMs can be installed in these servers"

So what exactly are they considering a "Channel" and why does the table and websites I have read say 2 per channel (12 Total) and the Dell guy says only 2 per processor.

So far I have guestimated that:
A1 | A2 | A3 | B1 | B2 | B3 is one channel (Making it 3 channels altogether)
or
A1 | A2 | A3 and B1 | B2 | B3 are two separate channels (Making it 6 Channels altogether)

That is just the beginning of my questions so far and wanting to see if anyone can put it into a form that is understandable and not contradicting.

Then the configuration comes into play and that gets complicated as well. Please let me know if my question even made sense.

 

[Legohouse]

Hello,

I assume this issue is resolved as of now but if you still face this then check the following: (wish I had stumbled across this earlier)

Memory channels for CPU 1:
Slots A1 | A4 | A7 is the 1st channel, A2 | A5 | A8 is the 2nd channel & A3 | A6 | A9 is the third channel.
Similarly, for CPU2: Slots B1 | B4 | B7 is the first channel, B2 | B5 | B8 is the 2nd channel & B3 | B6 | B9 is the third channel.

Now are you sure your system model is "PowerEdge T710" and not "PowerEdge T7500" as the first link says your system is a T7500. Although both support same type of memory, the memory population for the T7500 model is different as it has only 12 slots in total (using additional riser card). So could you confirm the correct model of your system or let me know the dell service tag?

Dell T710 supports a memory upto 96GB of memory per CPU (144GB with 2 CPU's) using Quad rank RDIMMs. It supports two quad rank DIMM per Channel, i.e, 6 DIMMs per CPU and 12 DIMMS for 2 CPU's. There are various other vendors who confirm this, one of them is mentioned below.
http://www.memorystock.com/memory/DellPowerEdgeT710.html

Since, you have the memory with you i'd suggest that you try installing the memory in the right configuration, trying won't harm the system. If system does not accept the memory then it may not boot or will return some error message stating something like "memory recognized, but not configurable". Refer the table mentioned in the below link(page 103). Though, the population chart is for UDIMM it is similar for Quad RANK RDIMMS.
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-t710_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Hope everything works out well. Drop a line on how things work out. Cheers!!!