Cache card without RAID being used?

[ServerPains]

I have gen8 sl230 blades and the operating systems aren't using the hardware RAID. In fact, the SAS licenses were removed. Some of the blades use SATA drives and some use SAS drives but none have hardware RAID set up.

Is there any point in keeping the 512MB cache cards installed on these blades?

[Suman_1978]

Hi,

If you are referring to (HP 512MB B-series Dynamic Smart Array Flash Backed Write Cache with 24 inch Cable), then its required for caching purpose.
https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/c04123236.html

Thanks

[ServerPains]

Yes, I know it's a cache card, that is not my question however :).

My question is asking if there is any point in having the cards/battery installed if no hardware RAID is being used? It seems to only be used with hardware RAID arrays.

All of these servers don't use the hardware RAID, they all use software RAID built into the operating systems.

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

I understand that there is no hardware RAID configured on the controller and the hard drives are pass through to the Operating system. 

Could you confirm the controller model installed in the server?

Regards, 
Bhupendra 

[ServerPains]

Hi,sorry, I would have includeded that but thought all of the sl230 would have the same.

They are the B320i controller.

However, when disabled since I'm not using it, then an HP H220i bus adapter shows up.

The SAS key is being used on some blades where hardware RAID is configured and on those, the cache card is also configured. However, many other blades aren't using the hardware RAID, the os have software RAID such as ZFS so the SAS key is removed but the cache card remains in the blades. So I started wondering if there is any benefit to keep those cards in there or moving them to other servers that could benefit from them.

[BPSingh · Accepted solution]

Greetings!

Thank you for the confirmation. 

If the controller is configured in HBA mode(H220i), the controller will act only as a passthrough device and HDDs will be directly presented to the OS. 

In this scenario, I believe the cache card can be removed.  

[ServerPains]

Thank you. No harm keeping it in I guess but wanted to know if ok to remove if not using.