Z840 "Smart Cover Sensor"

[stormsonweathers]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134547210472
Here is one located in the US. While it's listed for HP G4 it's compatible with your unit.

Please note:
An intrusion switch only triggers an alarm, but will not prevent someone opening the case. It's like installing an alarm for a home without door locks.
While hardware can be replaced in case of theft, the data is usually the irreplaceable part. The best recommendation would be to encrypt your drives so that even in theft, no one can pull the data off the drives.

[g0tht3ch]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134547210472
Here is one located in the US. While it's listed for HP G4 it's compatible with your unit.

Please note:
An intrusion switch only triggers an alarm, but will not prevent someone opening the case. It's like installing an alarm for a home without door locks.
While hardware can be replaced in case of theft, the data is usually the irreplaceable part. The best recommendation would be to encrypt your drives so that even in theft, no one can pull the data off the drives.

Mine is coming from Italy (randomly) but should work (but if not, I'll check your option)

On the "new" HP models, the intrusion switch can power down the system/clear the TPM (which, if you have Bitlocker running, will effectively put you in a position of needing a recovery key, so....)

When I picked up my Z840, it had no case key, so I've acquired one - so there is a certain level of physical protection, and I have previously disabled unused slots (or blocked USB etc) but as mentioned, I just like "getting the options it can support" - so if I powered up and it bleeped that the machine had been opened (I don't lock it) I would pay attention.

I'd also hope my BitLocker/TPM/Secure Boot setup would alert me to anything "in the boot chain" but there are ways around that (and I have "off machine" local backups and encrypted ones in the cloud, so "data access/loss" is hopefully negated - but ultimately this is a "I have a thing I should be able to do, so can I do it?" - and I'll report back when the sensor lands

[stormsonweathers]

Mine is coming from Italy (randomly) but should work (but if not, I'll check your option)

On the "new" HP models, the intrusion switch can power down the system/clear the TPM (which, if you have Bitlocker running, will effectively put you in a position of needing a recovery key, so....)

When I picked up my Z840, it had no case key, so I've acquired one - so there is a certain level of physical protection, and I have previously disabled unused slots (or blocked USB etc) but as mentioned, I just like "getting the options it can support" - so if I powered up and it bleeped that the machine had been opened (I don't lock it) I would pay attention.

I'd also hope my BitLocker/TPM/Secure Boot setup would alert me to anything "in the boot chain" but there are ways around that (and I have "off machine" local backups and encrypted ones in the cloud, so "data access/loss" is hopefully negated - but ultimately this is a "I have a thing I should be able to do, so can I do it?" - and I'll report back when the sensor lands

Good deal! Sound like you're on top of everything! Will be interested in your results. While I mostly help with Dell Workstations, i'm glad to hear that the Z840 has a key-lock, so I stand corrected from earlier.

I use LUKs (encryption for Linux) for my Dell Precision 7710 laptop on all 3 NVMe drives. I do backup the data on an external drive so I don't have to worry if someone takes my laptop (Its insured) while I'm on the road working. While I can't speak for Bitlocker 100%, I do know that it shares similarities with LUKs in that even if someone bypassed secure boot by putting the drive into a different machine, they can't access the data anyways without a password. I tried this with both Linux and Windows using both data recovery and forensic software and the results were the same. If you lost your password to those drives while encrypted, the data is pretty much gone.

[g0tht3ch]

Small delay as the Italian store claims it wasn't in stock after all (or doesn't want to lose out on shipping) :\
Going for one from Germany now (these things are apparently somewhat rare in the EU, well, at least with the same part number anyway)

[frankr2994]

It's because they aren't typically separated. Even when selling just a bare chassis that switch is still left in.

[g0tht3ch]

Quite possible, although they should have spares in channel around?
Either way, my order has been passed for shipping so I'm waiting for it to trundle across the channel!

[stormsonweathers]

Thanks for the updated information and glad everything has worked out. Also, sorry for the late reply. For some reason I didn't get a notification that there was a post in the forum. Since you included a detailed guide, I'll move this note over to the tutorials section of the forum later today.

[EDIT]
I've moved your sensor tutorial over to the "Community Tutorials" section.
Z840 Smart Cover Sensor by g0tht3ch

[g0tht3ch]

Cool, thanks.
I added the external HBA storage cable today also (per this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YCKgEMjSzI) . That is more a sod with the PCI-E bay cover! :\

[stormsonweathers]

With SAS you can split out over 128 drives over one connector for example and array bays have gone down in price.