topic Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:11:35 GMT

We purchased a ML350 Gen10 server for our school and it came with SFF hard drive cage. This allows us to install 8 x 2.5" drives. We want add an additional cage to accomodate 4 LFF drives. I can't seem to find the exact parts I need. The SFF cage uses an Aroc controller. Can the LFF cage use the same controller/cables or do we need adapter cables to connect to existing cables?

According to the ML350 Gen10 Server's quickspecs - https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=a00021852enw

Page 5, last bullet point under 'Chassis Types' it states: "Now the system can support mixed SFF and LFF HDD cages in one system, for example, 4LFF + 8SFF + 4LFF based on a 4
LFF chassis. If the max. number of drives are installed in all three drive boxes, the redundant fan cage kit (874572-B21) is
required."

It is my understanding that I need the following, but what parts exactly?
1. LFF Cage

2. Backplate

3. Cables

Anyone has any insight into this?

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

SanjeevGoyal — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 05:09:41 GMT

Hello

I hope all is well.

Please find the below documents link for more clarification and the required information.

HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server - Option Parts

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-a00027630en_us

LFF Backplate Cage

HPE ML350 Gen10 4LFF hot-plug drive backplane cage kit:874566-B21

Cables

HPE ML350 Gen10 embedded SATA cable kit for LFF configuration:877578-B21

HPE ML350 Gen10 AROC Mini-SAS cable kit for LFF configuration: 874573-B21

HPE ML350 Gen10 smart array/ Host Bus Adapter (HBA) Mini-SAS cable kit for LFF configuration

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!

Regards,

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 21:15:20 GMT

HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server - Option Parts

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-a00027630en_us

LFF Backplate Cage

HPE ML350 Gen10 4LFF hot-plug drive backplane cage kit:874566-B21

Does the LFF cage require drive caddies for the 3.5 HDD or can the drives go in by themselves and be screwed to the cage? If they need a caddy for each drive, what is the part number for the caddy? That is also if I want to make them hot-swappable too, right?

Cables

HPE ML350 Gen10 embedded SATA cable kit for LFF configuration: 877578-B21

HPE ML350 Gen10 AROC Mini-SAS cable kit for LFF configuration: 874573-B21

HPE ML350 Gen10 smart array/ Host Bus Adapter (HBA) Mini-SAS cable kit for LFF configuration

I am trying to understand your thinking process in regards to the cables. Are the cables intended to be used with the Aroc controller or are they using the SATA port that are on the motherboard? My AROC controller is only has two-ports. Would I have to disconnect 1 of 2 lines going to the SFF cage and plug it into the LFF cage? Doing this would only give me half capacity for both cages. Am I understanding this correctly?

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

SanjeevGoyal — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:52:43 GMT

Hello

HPE Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10 Controller has Internal: 8 SAS/SATA lanes across 2 x4 Mini-SAS ports. This is supported up to 8 Hard Drives with two SAS cables. Depending on the number of Drives added to the server, more cables are required.

Since the controller support only 8 Hard Drives, for more than 8 Drives, an Expander or another PCIe based Controller needs to be added in the server.

By default, the server will be shipped with two SAS cables.

You have to use the below cable and SAS expander to add new hard drives. as well as LFF cage requires drive caddies.

874576-B21:SAS expander cable kit - port 1,2 Mini-SAS X-cable to modular controller, ports 1,2 Mini-SAS X-cable to stand up controller, ports 3,4 Mini-SAS X-cable to bays 1–8, ports 5 6, Mini-SAS X-cable to bays 9–16, ports 78 Mini-SAS X-cable to bays 17–24

876907-001:12Gb PCIe SAS expander - 28-physical links across 9x4 internal ports, 12Gb/s SAS, 6Gb/s SATA, PCIe 3.0x8 link

4 LFF HP Chassis with optional HDD Cage Kit (874566-B21) to be selected. Upgradeable to 12 LFF max.

HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server - Identifying Components

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-a00027635en_us

HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server quickspecs

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00021852enw

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!

Regards,

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 20:22:48 GMT

Let me say, I appreciate your help very much.

I was looking at the parts you were recommending and making sure that they met our needs.

874576-B21 : SAS expander cable kit, is NOT compatible with LFF configuration.

According to the link below...

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00021852enw#

876907-001 : 12Gb PCIe SAS expander - This part is not found in the ML350 Gen10 documentation. I found it for Gen9, but I worry that it is not compatible.

If caddies are required for the LFF HDDs, I could not find a part number for them or find and success looking at the HPE store.

Alternatively....

I was thinking that hot-swappable setup in not required as we will not be needing to do quick changes like that in my setting. The LFF HDD will be holding archival data and other files that will not be continually accessed by a large quantity of people either. With that in mind, it may be easier and cost effective to utilize the SATA ports that are embedded on the motherboard and that are integrated with the embedded Smart Array S100i controller. I know I will be sacrificing performance going this route.

I saw these parts,

874567-B21 : None Hot Swappable LFF cage kit / does it comes with backplane? Is a backplane required for this part?

https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/options/drives-storage/server-drive-upgrade-kits/hard-drive-accessories/hpe-drive-cages/hpe-ml350-gen10-4lff-non-hot-plug-drive-cage-kit/p/874567-B21

877578-B21 : HPE ML350 Gen10 Embedded SATA Cable Kit for LFF Configuration / Do these kits come with both power and data cables or are they purchased separatly?

https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/options/cables-cable-kits/server-cables-cable-kits/server-cables-cable-kits/hpe-server-cables-cable-kits/p/5322806?pageSize=50&sku=877578-B21

Is there anything else that I am missing?

A lot of these questions would be easily solved if HPE supplied actual pictures for all their inventory. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say.

Please let me know if I am going the right direction. Do I need more parts, or is what I listed satisfactory?

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

spchester — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 00:23:23 GMT

Did you ever get a final answer on this or try doing it? I'm looking at doing something similar. I might just add another controller instead of the SAS expander since there doesn't seem to be a clear answer. (The 408i appears to be cheaper than the SAS expander.)

I believe the LFF trays are 651314-001 if you're going to supply your own drives. All the HP drives are going to come in trays.

I'm thinking I need (to add LFF cage to 8 SFF P11053-001):

830824-B21 HPE Smart Array P408i-p SR Gen10 Controller - 12Gb/s SAS, Serial ATA/600 - PCI Express 3.0 x8

874574-B21 HPE ML350 Gen10 LFF SA/HBA Cable Kit (Assuming I need one per enclosure?)

874566-B21 HPE Drive Enclosure Internal - 4 x HDD Supported - 4 x 3.5" Bay

874572-B21 HPE ML350 Gen10 Redundent Fan Cage Kit with 4 Fan Modules

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 03:06:58 GMT

Hello,

No, I did not recieve a for sure answer. My supervisor ordered the parts that we "think" we will need, but, have yet to recieve them. Covid-19 is to blame. I will follow-up with my supervisor about this.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

eoji — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 16:06:18 GMT

I am also curious if you got this setup working. My situation is that I have 5 SFF drives in one cage and just purchased the LFF cage and drive trays. I would like to just remove one of the SFF drives and add the 4 drives to the LFF cage to utilize the 8 HDD limit for the P408i-a SR Gen10 raid controller. It has two cables that go to the SFF bay currently. Would I just be able to remove one of those cables and connect it to the LFF cage? I couldn't tell if the power cable came with the LFF cage or would I need to purchase the cable kit 874573-B21

Ideally, I would prefer not to spend $50 for just a power cable.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:54:37 GMT

Hello,

We ended up purchasing the Non-hot Swappable LFF cage kit, which appears to come with a combo cable for both data and power for the drives. The actual part number was different than what was ordered, but it works for what we needed to do.

Not knowing exactly what we would get from HPE (pictures are worth a thousand words HPE) and because the SFF SAS cables were long enough, we decided to move the SFF cage to the top server bay. On the ML350 server, if you look near the bottom bay on the motherboard, you will notice two SATA ports interfaces embedded. We decided to plug our LFF cables right into the embedded interface instead of the raid controller. For our needs, we did not find it necessary to purchase any adapters, extenders.

Front of LFF cageBack side, no backplate was includedThis was included, both data and power cableSide with part number

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

eoji — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 17:36:48 GMT

Thank you so much! I am going to try the hot-swappable bay and see what I get for cables.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

RATA1 — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 20:37:35 GMT

Hello,

What was the part number you used to get the cage with the cable included?

Just got my ML350 with an 8 bay SFF and it's very frustrating finding the bits required to add a LFF cage WITH the cables.. The LFF cage is advertised s a "kit" but it appears you only get the metal hardware (and the backplane if hot swap) with no cables. The power cable seems to be close to £100 which can't be right can it?

Thanks

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 21:00:39 GMT

The pictures I posted earlier is what comes with the kit.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

RATA1 — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 21:20:59 GMT

So what part number did you use to order? 874567-B21?

Thanks

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

spchester — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 17:22:04 GMT

For whatever it is worth, this is the relevant BOM for what we ended up ordering to end up with 8 SFF and 8 LFF. Hopefully this will help someone else doing this down the road!

Product ID Quantity Description
P25008-001 1 HPE ProLiant ML350 G10 4U Tower Server
874566-B21 2 HPE Drive Enclosure Internal - 4 x HDD Supported - 4 x 3.5" Bay
830824-B21 1 HPE Smart Array P408i-p SR Gen10 Controller
874574-B21 2* HPE Data Transfer Cable - Data Transfer Cable for Server - Mini-SAS
874572-B21 1 HPE ML350 Gen10 Redundent Fan Cage Kit with 4 Fan Modules
651687-001 3 HP G8+ Drive Tray/Caddy SFF
CT2000MX500SSD1 3 2 TB Solid State Hard Drive (SSD)
ST16000NM002G 5 Seagate Exos 16TB 512E/4KN 12GB/s SAS
774026-001 5 HP Drive Tray/Caddy LFF G9 G10

We ended up with an extra 874574-B21, as it is a pair of cables that do both boxes, so you only need to order 1. We also ended up with the fan kit that shipped with the server and another extra cable, 877850-001 spare 878646-001.

My previous comment about the drive trays was incorrect and we ended up having to order 774026-001 as the older generation trays didn't work.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

Esben Vidstid_2 — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 09:37:09 GMT

Did it actually work? Were are looking at a similiar config:

P11052-421 HPE ML350 Gen10 4214 1P 32G 8SFF Svr

874574-B21 HPE ML350 Gen10 LFF SA/HBA Cable Kit

874566-B21 HPE ML350 Gen10 4LFF HDD Cage Kit

830824-B21 HPE Smart Array P408i-p SR Gen10 Ctrlr

HPE confirmed it as a usable configuration last year, but it is not very well documented and wil fail in OCA.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

astreb06 — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:03:28 GMT

The kit that I ordered did work for my needs. As for spchester's setup, it sounds like he doubled what I needed.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

spchester — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 16:30:49 GMT

@Esben Vidstid_2 yes, I believe that setup should work. I don't know if you need to upgrade the fans. It's been too long since I did that built, but I recall at some point it was recommended to upgrade the fans. Maybe your base server config already has the upgraded fans too.

Our setup worked fine and continues to work fine. We did add 8 LFF (2x 4 LFF) to the 8 SFF stock/smart buy config.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

myker — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 16:58:08 GMT

As far as which cables come with which drive cages, you want to look at the "Drive cage options" section in the "HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Server User Guide" manual. That section mentions that the non-hot-plug cage kit comes with a SATA-power split cable (I think this: https://www.serverworlds.com/hp-879451-001-sps-ca-pwr-sata-4lff-nhp-x-4-876492-002-876493-002/) while the hot-plug cage kit only comes with a "drive power cable" -- i assume something like P/N 876491-001. And then I think they assume for hot-plug capable you will figure out the data cable situation depending on what type of storage controller you are connecting the drives to (e.g. PCIe add in card).

For my purposes I just bought the non-hot-plug kit since hot plug isn't a big deal for me and I dont want to buy a storage card. I think this should allow me to plug the SATA-power split cable to the sata and power ports on the motherboard without any additional parts.

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

myker — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 05:19:42 GMT

Actually, I ended up buying 2 hot plug (874566-B21) and 1 non hot plug (874567-B21) LFF cage from online dealers. The hot plug one came in a box with an official-looking HPE security seal/stickers on the box, while the non hot plug didn't come in any kind of official packaging. As you might expect, the hot plug one had all the parts promised in the manual (power cable and cage) while the non hot plug one just came with a simple metal cage in the box and no cables even though it was advertised as "874567-B21 HPE ML350 Gen10 4LFF Non Hot Plug Drive Cage Kit" -- emphasis on the word "kit"!. Not sure who in their right mind thinks I'm gonna spend over $200 for a simple aluminum cage with no electronics or cords whatsoever!!

The good news is that it seems to work great to take one of the SAS cables from the SFF cage (there are 2, 1 for each half of the SFF bay) and attach it to the hot plug cage. So I will probably be returning the non hot plug one I bought (most overpriced item I've ever seen since it didn't come with the necessary cable). In fact, if i need to use more than 4 LFF drives in my server I will just hook up the other hot plug cage (I bought 2) and other SAS cable. Without buying an add-on storage controller card with more SAS ports this will render my SFF cage completely unusable (rather than how only 4 of the 8 bays work at the moment), but probably cheaper/easier to just buy a NVMe PCIe card or something since I'm not gonna use more than 2 SSDs in my server anyway.

I'll share the links of where I bought the products below:

hot plug cage (the good one): https://www.pcnation.com/web/details/2GL099/hpe-drive-enclosure-internal-874566-b21

non hot plug (didn't come with cables): https://www.globalonetechnology.com/874567-b21.htm

Re: Adding additional Hard drive cage

RNR1995 — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 19:46:11 GMT

These pictures are worth a thousand words, thank you so much!
This is perfect for non critical storage, also do not need trays as this is not hot swap