I have a stack of First Generation (G1) HP Proliant DL385's (Performance Model, 411361-001) and would like to begin using a few of them as iSCSI SAN's by installing Linux. But I have three burning questions that I must answer before moving ahead:
Can the p400i controllers be managed from the host O/S level? i.e., Is the HP Array Configuration Utility available for Linux? Which distros is it available for?
Can I use something besides the SFF SAS HDD's (i.e., $A$) in the drive bays? i.e., Can I use less expen$ive HDD's in the drive bays? Can I use higher performance [SSD] HDD's in the drive bays?
[If I choose to use the Linux MD driver to perform the RAID function at the host level, in software instead of using the p400i controller to perform the RAID function] I plan to configure all six of the HDD's in a RAID configuration (in order to maximize the storage capacity) and I assume that using some space on one of the HDD's for the O/S will have affects across the other segments of the array because each segment of the array must be identical in size. (Am I correct about this?) Can I increase the utilization of the HDD's by installing the O/S onto a USB flash drive and booting from that?
[If I choose to use the Linux MD driver to perform the RAID function at the host level, in software instead of using the p400i controller to perform the RAID function] I plan to configure all six of the HDD's in a RAID configuration (in order to maximize the storage capacity) and I assume that using some space on one of the HDD's for the O/S will have affects across the other segments of the array because each segment of the array must be identical in size. (Am I correct about this?) Can I increase the utilization of the HDD's by installing the O/S onto a USB flash drive and booting from that?
I suppose that giving up a 50-100GB partition on six HDD's wouldn't be the worst thing that happened to me this month but I do need to be as careful to preserve my resources as possible. e.g., I could put the root partition on a linear RAID spread across the six HDD's and use the remaining ~290GB [combined across all of the HDD's] for the iSCSI target.
Can I use something besides the SFF SAS HDD's (i.e., $A$) in the drive bays? i.e., Can I use less expen$ive HDD's in the drive bays? Can I use higher performance [SSD] HDD's in the drive bays?
...
I'm also interested in knowing if I can install HDD's larger than the 300GB SFF SAS HDD's. that I currently have.
[If I choose to use the Linux MD driver to perform the RAID function at the host level, in software instead of using the p400i controller to perform the RAID function] I plan to configure all six of the HDD's in a RAID configuration (in order to maximize the storage capacity) and I assume that using some space on one of the HDD's for the O/S will have affects across the other segments of the array because each segment of the array must be identical in size. (Am I correct about this?) Can I increase the utilization of the HDD's by installing the O/S onto a USB flash drive and booting from that?
To answer one of my own questions:
Yes - It is possible to use a USB device for the O/S. In BIOS use the following settings:
System Options::USB DriveKey Boot Order::Internal DriveKey
...if the USB flash drive will be connected to the internal USB 2.0 port or...
System Options::USB DriveKey Boot Order::External DriveKey
...and...
System Options::USBExternal Port Capability::USB 2.0
...if the USB flash drive will be connected to either of the two external USB ports.
And then configure USB DriveKey (C:) as the first device in the Standard Boot Order BIOS menu.
