[Beowulf] OT, RAID controller replacement batteries?

[David Mathog]

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