"I just one to hook up a SATA drive or two . . . " --but my Proliant ML-350 G5 doesn't like it

[John Albrektson]

I've loved my Proliant ML-350 G5 with P800 SmartArray controller but sometimes needed an external drive--for imaging, for example, or to have drives I could swap off-site.  At one point I had an internal SATA controller card (Adaptec) that worked, but whenever I tried to boot the server with an HP CD the server would choke on the non-HP card.  I reverted to external USB drives that were extremely lame.

This week I received my Addonics "Z Snap-In Disk Array"  (Google for Addonics Z4SN25NMS).  This is a consumer-grade trayless four-drive housing that connects to the mini-SAS connector on the back of the P800.  I hooked it up with a mini SAS (SFF-8088) cable from Addonics, tossed in four random drives, and the HP Array Configuration Utility immediately saw the drives and offered to make them into an array.  Wow!  Since I've never used the external drive capability of the P800 controller, and never plan to, this was quite a win.

I've noticed that the ACU does not "know" which drive is in which bin--they are all labeled as Box 1:Bay 0.  I think I can live with that limitation.

I'm not sure how it will work if I only want single-drive arrays--I'll have to do some more experimenting.  But for now, I'm thrilled.  Total cost:  $145 plus about $45 for the 1.5m SFF-8088 cable.