DL380 G2 Hardware RAID upgrade options...

[William Perry Henderson]

I have a DL380 G2 with the onboard 5i Array controller.

I would like to purchase nice Compaq solution that will allow me to do dual channels internally as well as Dual channels externally. If at all possible, are there any other models out there that provide such support. Perhaps something that will allow me to do u320?

[William Perry Henderson]

I guess I did not specify, but my question is in regards to upgrading my Raid Controller..., replacing the on board controller, to be more specific.

[SPa]

Going by the quick specs of Proliant DL380 G2,Smart Array 5304 can provide 2 Internal and 2 External Channels.But this is Ultra 3 and not U320.

Proliant DL380 G2:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10902_div/10902_div.HTML#Options

Smart Array 5304:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10640_div/10640_div.HTML

[e4services]

Adaptec and LSI are your 2 sources for such a thing in U320. I do not think there is a 4 channel card though. The Adaptec 39320 has 2 external ports, but only 2 channels so you would need 2 cards

[William Perry Henderson]

Would it be possible for me to just upgrade to one of Compaq's u320 Array controllers?

[Stephen Kebbell]

Hi,

would the Smart Array 6404 be an option?
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarray6400/index.html

It does not list the DL380 G2 as an officially supported server, just from the G3 onwards. I think this might be because the 6400 came out after the DL380 G2 was retired. It should work, it's a PCI-X Adapter, with 4x U320 channels, up to 2 of them internal. I don't know if the internal drive cage of the DL380 G2 can do U320.

Regards,
Stephen

[Andrew Young_2 · Accepted solution]

Hi.

You can only do a single channel internally on the DL380 G2 as there is only one connector to the SCSI backplane.

The 6404 card should work though and still allow you the two external channels. There are two PCI-X and a single PCI slot in that server.

HTH

Andrew Y