HL15 config check + short-depth rack question

Hardware
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I’m planning to order an HL15 2.0 (Fully Built & Burned In) and would appreciate a sanity check on my intended setup. I’d also like your input on a couple of practical questions. I’ve emailed 45Homelab and they suggested posting my questions on the forum, so here I go :slight_smile:

Intended use: TrueNAS SCALE running as a VM under Proxmox VE, with the LSI 9400-16i passed through for the 15 HDDs and the onboard SATA controller passed through for a separate SSD pool. Proxmox itself + VM/LXC storage will live on a 2x 2TB NVMe ZFS mirror on the M.2 slots. I also want to add a low-profile Intel Arc A310 in one of the PCIe slots for Plex/Jellyfin transcoding (shared with LXCs via /dev/dri passthrough, not VM passthrough).

Planned slot layout on the ROMED8-2T:

- M.2_1 + M.2_2: 2x 2TB NVMe, ZFS mirror (Proxmox OS + VM/LXC pool)

- PCIE1: LSI 9400-16i (passthrough to TrueNAS VM, 15x HDD)

- PCIE7: Intel Arc A310 (host device, shared with LXCs)

- Onboard SATA: passthrough to TrueNAS VM (SSD pool)

- OCuLink (2x) and PCIE2-6: free for future use

Questions:

1. Does the 6-Bay SSD Bracket Kit physically fit and work cleanly alongside the standard 15-bay backplane? How are these SSDs wired - do they use the onboard SATA ports on the ROMED8-2T, and is that compatible with passing the full onboard SATA controller through to a VM (i.e. all SSDs in one IOMMU group with no host dependencies)?

2. Will a single-slot, low-profile Intel Arc A310 fit in the chassis given your 26cm max GPU length, and is there anything specific to watch out for with airflow given the HL15’s front-to-back design?

3. Any tips or gotchas you’d flag for this specific Proxmox + TrueNAS-as-VM topology on the HL15? I’ve seen the 9400-16i pass through cleanly on other EPYC builds, but I’d value your experience.

4. Rack question: I have a tight space (max 65cm wide, and ideally no more than 60cm deep including everything behind the rack). Do you know of any short-depth racks that would actually fit the HL15 with rails and cabling? I realise 60cm is almost certainly too tight - if so, what’s the minimum realistic internal depth I should be looking for, any tips (are there 65cm depth racks?) and would you recommend skipping the rail kit and going shelf-mount instead?

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It’s just 3D printed plastic. There isn’t any backplane or anything. You hook up the drives yourself with SATA power and data cables to the PSU and whatever ports you want to use on the motherboard or an HBA. It screws into the back of the case above the IO shield, so can block airflow. It can also be a bit tricky if you actually want to use all six to get the cables attached since the spacing is pretty tight, so you need to alternate with half the ports on the left and half on the right or something. There are other designs floating about that have the drives aligned parallel to the airflow rather than perpendicular to it, or ones for only two drives if you don’t need six. The main issue is probably cabling the power.

https://forum.45homelab.com/t/6bay-ssd-bracket-kit/3512/12

Most A310s I am aware of are 15-17 cm in length. So, yeah.

Sorry, I’m going to use Freedom Units. (The HL15 is 20 inches deep not including the thumbscrews that protrude at the front). I would think an additional 3 to 4 inches at the back would be sufficient. The I/O area and PCIe slots are recessed slightly, maybe an additional half inch. There are feet included to stand the case on it’s side if that is an option for your space. Are you looking at closed or open racks? With a tight space the power button is going to be on the back, so keep that in mind, you might be using mostly the BMC to power the server on and off.

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Unless you have other components that require rack mounting, I would follow @DigitalGarden and use a shelf system or other support.