DL360 Gen8 P420 Compatible SAS Drives

[DaveStevenson99]

Hi,

does anyone know whether the following bare drive would be compatible with a DL360 Gen 8 with P420 controller :

HP 697387-001 300GB 15000RPM SAS 6GBPS SFF (2.5INCH) HARD DRIVE WITH TRAY FOR M6710 ENCLOSURE.

Could I put the bare drive in a Gen 8 Caddy and have it work without issue, including diagnostic info ?

regards

Dave

[KevinSpringPM]

definitely not supported, and that looks like a drive meant for a 3PAR array, so it may have specialized firmware for 3PAR, so I'd say it's unlikely to work.

[DaveStevenson99]

Hi,

OK - I guessed that it would not be "supported", but did hope that the SmartArray controller might recognise the drives and be able to operate without issue since they have HP firmware. I am not familiar with the 3PAR array, but just looked them up and see that they were bought out, rather than designed by, HP, so the FW may be fundamentally different to "normal" HP SAS drives

regards
Dave

[KevinSpringPM]

Exactly, I think they're also configured to a non standard block size to enable special 3PAR features like zero detect. If you Google using a 3PAR drive or reading a 3PAR drive, you'll find others posting about how they can't read them when connected to a PC or server due to the specialized firmware. It's nothing intentional to be difficult, but 3PAR is obviously going to make every customization they need to in order to make the best possible product, without regard for whether the drives can be installed into a server.