Connecting tape drive to a built in SCSI port on DL380 G4

[Valeriy Rudoy]

I just purchased a new DL380 G4 and connected my an existing external HP Ultrium 215 tape drive to its SCSI port. It works just fine. However, my vendor suggests that I purchased an additional Adaptec SCSI card and connect the tape drive to that card instead. He claim that no external tape drive should be sitting on the "native" SCSI port or otherwise, the performance of my hard drives will be degrated once I reach a certain volume. Does this make sense, especially considering that the tape drive is normally used at night, when there is no other activity? The tape drive uses a Wide Ultra2 SCSI (LVDS).

[Valeriy Rudoy]

Let me modify my question a bit. Besides whether my vendor's recommendation is valid or not, does it make sense to act on it and change anything if both I don't see any visible performance problems with the server nor with the tape drive?

[Ian Vaughan · Accepted solution]

Howdy,
The DL380 G4 has a 2 channel 6i controller so as long as you haven't spilt your disks over the 2 channels the external port can be dedicated to your tape drive without impacting on disk performance.
See here...
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarray6i/

HTH
Ian

[Valeriy Rudoy]

Thanks Ian for answering my question. It really helped.