Where are the Channels???

[Ayman Altounji]

Hello all. I have a Proliant 7000 with a SMART-2dh RAID controller. I have one cage connected to this controller through the internal connector powering 4 18gb hard drives. I know my controller has 2 channels with the capacity for 7 drives per channel. My question - is one channel internal only through the internal connector and the other channel is through the external connector only? I want to connect another internal empty cage to a controller and need to know if I can somehow connect it to the current smart-2dh or do I need to install another RAID controller.

Thanks,

Eric

[Ayman Altounji]

Yes you are right that the other channel is the external connector. Since these are narrow channels you can only have 8 devices per bus (the controller is one). I had a similar problem recently. I took an external 68 pin scsi cable that was about 6 inches long (from and old disk array i think). I also grabbed a cable out of an old proliant 850r. The 850r cable was a normal intern ribbon at one end and an external connector that would bolt to the outside of the case. I used the 6 inch external connect with one end in the controller and the other end on the connector. If this is in a prodcution machine i would be careful though. I only use these in Desktops and old servers that are converted to workstations. When using both channels at the same time there seems to be a small amount of delay. Its almost as if the array accellerator has to be dedicated to one channel, so it spends time switching back and forth.

[Ayman Altounji]

Sorry, i was thinking of the wrong controller. These arent narrow. everything else i said applys though!