MSA 2040 and HP Proliant Hard Disk Drives

[Alberto Lambertini]

P2000 G3 has an explicit support statement for HP Proliant HDDs in QuickSpecs:

HP MSA P2000 G3 Arrays support both the HP ProLiant Server SFF Hard Disk Drives and HP MSA SFF Hard Disk Drives

Below that stament there is a list of supported models divided in Proliant HDDs e MSA HDDs. Same statement is not included in MSA 2040 QuickSpecs, only MSA HDDs are reported as compatible. 

Is absolutely not possible and not supported to install Proliant HDDs in MSA 2040 Disk Array?

Thank you in advance

[AnkitM]

HP ProLiant Server SFF Hard Disk Drives listed are not supported in the HP MSA 2040 unlike HP P2000 G3.

You may check interoperability information at http://www.hp.com/storage/spock

[Alberto Lambertini]

I've never seen any compatibility matrix between Disk Arrays and HDDs in Spock, am I wrong?

[AnkitM]

Nope. You are right. My bad.

Anyhow, alternatively you can verify it from Part Surfer. I just tried :

HP ProLiant Server Hard Disk Drives
HP 146GB 6G SAS 15K 2.5in Dual Port Enterprise 3yr Warranty Hard Disk Drive 512547-B21 which is HP P/N: 512744-001 in the list it shows P2000 but not the MSA2040.

Link: http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=512744-001 

[Alberto Lambertini]

Good hint but ... if possible I would like to go beyond PartSurfer.

I should explain better my needs:

* I have a bunch of HP 300GB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in DP (P/N 507127-B21), they come from a couple of stand-alone DL380 G7

* We'd like to organize host and storage in a cluster

* We are considering HP MSA Disk Arrays, at this time we have P2000 G3 and MSA 2040

* MSA arrays have similar costs but MSA 2040 is newer and faster than P2000 G3

* P2000 G3 is on market from 2010 so, i think is going to be retired from HP

Excluding controller capabilities the two MSA Arrays are very similar, almost identical. Both can be expanded with D2700 Disk Enclosures and this one supports Proliant HDDs like 507127-B21. At the same time D2700 supports E2D55A that is the P/N of HP MSA 300GB 6G SAS 10K SFF DP.

Both HDDs have same specifications but different P/N, both can be installed on D2700 Disk Enclosures so they can't have any relevant difference.

In a totally new architecture the obvious approach is to buy a MSA 2040 with compatible HDDS, we can find them in QuickSpecs, PartSurfer is also a good source of information. But in our situation is at least "unpleasant" to not consider the value of 25 Proliant HDDs ... it exceeds the MSA 2040 cost :-(

[AnkitM]

I understand. 

You may use these HDDs in MSA2040 but when you get in to trouble Technical Support might point out as Unsupported Configuration.  Check with the HP Pre Sales Team and see what are your options.

I reckon they can be reached at 1 800 424 0993 (for storage opt1 opt 3).

[Oleg Mochkin]

Excerpt from QuickSpecs HP MSA 2040 Storage -
c04123144 — DA – 14603 Worldwide — Version 11 — March 30, 2015
"HP MSA 2040 Arrays support both the HP ProLiant Server SFF Hard Disk Drives and HP MSA SFF Hard Disk Drives"
Also, take into account that P2000G3 can be upgraded to MSA 2040. i.e. you can use old HDD (Proliant P/N) with new MSA 2040 controllers.