DL380e Gen8 8xSFF adding additional drive cage...

[SRMoll]

When adding a 8xSFF drive cage to an existing DL380e Gen8, is it necessary to add a further P420 controller?

Can all 16 disks be added to a single RAID set?

[Cederberg]

Yes you need a second controller for the 8xSFF drive cage and i don't think that you can extend raid over 2 raidcontrollers.

From the quickspec of dl380e gen8:

HP DL380e Gen8 8 Small Form Factor (SFF) Hard Drive Cage Kit
NOTE: Provides support for an additional 8 SFF drives. Requires a separate controller. HP recommends the Smart Array P420 controller with 1Gb of FBWC.
668295-B21

//Cederberg

[waaronb]

You do need *something* to hook up to it. Whether it's a P-series controller, simple HBA, or whatever is up to you.

As noted in the other reply, an additional P420 will work, but you can't create arrays that use all available disks in both drive cages.

If you need that option, consider the P830 which has 16 total SAS lanes and can plug into both drive cages, allowing creation of arrays across all 16 bays.

http://h30094.www3.hp.com/product/sku/10760468/mfg_partno/698533-B21

It specifically says this in the quickspecs:
"The P830 Controller supports up to 16 drives without expander; for example on a DL38x Gen8 server that comes with 8 SFF drives can scale their internal storage by adding an additional 8 SFF drive cage connected to Smart Array P830"