Transfer HDDs from P2000G3 to DL380 G7 and DL380 G9

[ryderbg]

Hello,

I am new to HP servers. In company I work for is using Storage Server P2000G3 which is dying and we are planning to transfer HDDs to DL380 G7 and DL380 G9. Actually these servers are connected to P2000G3 and using the HDDs. We just want to physically put out the HDDs from P2000G3 and put them to DL380 G7 and DL380 G9.

Can anyone tell me what are the steps to do this procedure?

[Torsten.]

Gen9 servers are using different carriers, so this is impossible for sure.

You cannot transfer server disks to the MSA - but vice versa? Not sure.

[Shawn_K · Accepted solution]

Hello,

As mentioned by Torsten the physical drive carriers are not the same and incompatable. 

More importantly, the P2000 controller will lay down the metadata structure in a specific way. The DL380 uses a Smart Array to lay down data structures for a LUN to be presented to the server. If your intenetion is to insert the P2000 HDDs into the server and read the data from them you will not be successful. Be sure to backup any data that is currently on the P2000 before moving the drives to any other system.

One other data point to take into consideration. Any drives coming from the P2000 are likely several years old. Using old drives in a new solution opens up the door for drive failures causing a loss of access to a new solution. Your best option would be to source new drives in order to better protect your data.

Cheers,
Shawn

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.

[ryderbg]

Thank you for your answers!

We want to retire it because it destroys HDD almost every weak. Probably we can fix the MSA and continue to use it.

Do you know what could be the reason to destroys HDD so often?

[Shawn_K]

Hello,

There could be multiple reasons for hard drive failures.

- Age and use of the drive. Typically a drive is warranted for 3 years. So depending on usage you will see the drives work well the first 3 years and then the failure rate will start to climb. As time goes by you can expect that failure rate to increase. Unfortunately drives are not designed to last as long as the array. This is why we suggest RAID6 and spares to protect against failures.

- Drive firmware needs to be kept up to date. While upgrading drives requires a moaintenance window it still important to be done. Drive firmware upgrades usually tend to correct critical issue and help to extend the life of the drive.

- Enabling drive scrub will help to find media errors. However, if scrub has not consistently been run throughout the life of the system then is turned on, customers may be surprised by the errors or possible drive failures. Having scrub run all the time helps eliminate this sudden burst of errors. Not running scrub means drives may become problematic all at once.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Shawn

I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The comments in this post are my own and do not represent an official reply from HPE. No warranty or guarantees of any kind are expressed in my reply.