DL 380 G4 SAS Options

[tattewell]

Hello everybody,

I am trying to order some parts for our backup server. Server is a DL 380 G4 PCIx model. I need to have 2 SAS ports for our new tape library, but the HP PCIx SAS controller PN:337972-B21 only has 1 slot. Is there an easy solution? I appologise for the dumb question, I dont have alot of hardware experience with servers.

Is it possible to swap the riser cage for a PCIe cage to run a different card? I dont know which is easier.

Thank you.

[TTr]

The PCIe riser is available but it depends if you have anything installed right now in the PCI-X slots.

See the quickspecs http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12028_div/12028_div.html

Which tape library do you have? And which SAS controller are you looking at?

[tattewell]

Thank you for your reply.

Currently there is nothing installed on the PCIx slots.

I was looking at the HP part number 337972-B21, however it only has 1 external SAS port.

If I can run PCIe I would look at getting HP Smart Array E500/256 2 Anschlüsse Externer PCIe x8 SAS-Controller (435129-B21) also an HP part number. I like the second card as it has 2 SAS ports on the back.

The tape library in question is a Quantum Scalar i80 with 2 tape drives and 100 LTO 4 slots. It uses the SFF-8088(mini SAS)Connectors.

[TTr]

The P600 (337972-B21) is a RAID controller and it is meant to work with disks. It sees the disks in the SAS ports and binds them into arrays. It does not support tape drives and I doubt it would even see the tape library.

What you need is a simple (non raid) SAS HBA (Host Bus Adapter) such as these:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/adapters/index.html

The SC08Ge looks like a good candidate but there is no mention of it supporting tape drives and libraries. It might work, it might not.

If you look on the HP site, they recommend using the P212 and P411 with the HP SAS tape libraries.
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13258_div/13258_div.html

[TTr]

HP also mentions the SC44Ge HBA for tape library. Why do you need two external connectors? With two tape drives, one connector should be enough. One SAS external connector has 4 ports in it and can support up to 4 SAS devices.

[TTr · Accepted solution]

This reseller bundles the i80 with a SAS HBA from LSI. http://pc.pcconnection.com/1/1/3162177-quantum-scalar-i80-tape-library-w-2-lto-4-tape-drives-50-slots-sas-connector-6-5-sas-cable-sas3801e-lsc18-ch4m-232h-pcie.html

This leads me to the LSI website and the SAS HBAs: http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/external/index.html

Note that the last HBA in the list is PCI-x.

(PS. Most of the HP raid controllers and HBAs are LSI rebranded products sold as HP products)

[tattewell]

Guys,

Thank you very much for your help in this matter.

I was told by my local Quantum Re-seller that my i80 with 2 tape drives will not support a "fanout cable" so I am assuming then that I need 2 external SAS ports to connect both drives. I am looking at the LSI site and I think I will go that way. Its good to see I dont have to replace the riser rack and can infact go with PCIx. This will make it much simpler. I suspect there may have been confusion with my bad english in my first post. I appologise for that.

To everybody... thank you again for your time and effort helping me out.

Tyler