HPE Proliant ML110 Gen10 - SSD's using SATA 9 & 10

[GKNOLA]

My ML110 Gen10 is presently a lab machine that I'm planning on converting to a production server later in the year. The hardware is pretty much maxed out and there's one more thing I'd like to try before stabilizing the hardware and moving the system to production.

I've provided the physical spec of  the system at the end of the post.

I want to maximize storage. I have no need for an internal DVD drive and therefore SATA 9 & 10 are unused as is the S100i Controller which supports Software RAID1 for SATA drives. There is plenty of physical space in the DVD cage (above the HDD cages) to mount 2 x 1TB SSD's in a drive holder secured with double sided tape.

I would like to get verification that I can configure these 2 SSD's as a RAID1 Arrray and specify the resulting drive as the UEFI boot drive for the OS.

My next question concerns power for the SSD's. There is a power connector for the optional DVD which would be the logical place to obtain power for the 2 SSD's. I will hopefully be able to obtain a commercial power splitter cable and a separate adapter to mate with the system provided connector. I don't know the designation for the system provided DVD power connector which appears to be some type of fan connector. Can someone provide me with the correct designation? Even better, can someone provide me with information on obtaining an adapter to convert the installed connector to either a 15 pin SATA power connector or splitter or a Molex? 

 TIA for any assistance.

The physical spec of  the system

All 6 DIMM slots are in use (176 GB total). 2 LFF Drive cages are installed and are full. The drives are connected to a P408i-p. 1 cage has 4 x 8TB SAS in a RAID5 Array and the other has 4 X 1TB SATA , 2 in a RAID1 with 2 hot spares. I hope too repopulate this cage with 4 x 8TB SAS added to the existing RAID 5 Array if my plan to move he core OS to 2 SSD in a RAID1 array is successful. If not, I'll replace the 2x 1B hot spares with 8TB SAS and add them to the existing Aarray.

Alll 5 PCI slots are in use, 1 slot has the P408i-p and the other 4 slots each have a 4 port gigabit NIC for a total of 18 NICs + the ILO. All NICs have Static IP''s and critical ones are teamed. 

The OS is Microsoft Server 2019 Datacenter Edition.

[pchops · Accepted solution]

I think the only supported configuration for using the S100i SATA ports 9 and 10 for SSDs would be via the 878783-B21 HPE Universal SATA 6G AIC HHHL M.2 SSD Enablement Kit, but that would require an available PCIe slot (which you don't have at the moment). Also, for a potential production machine, you might want to rethink the "double sided tape" and unsupported power delivery approach, IMHO.

[KevinSpringPM]

This is not a supported configuration.

[GKNOLA]

I realize that it would be an unsupported configuration and your point about that is important.

While the system will be important when moved to production, it won't be critical. The primary function will be running secondary AD's for some smaller clients and those will also be running on a separate Datacenter Edition server at another physical location. It will also be used for testing and as an emergency backup for those same clients production systems. 

It's obviously not a high powered machine but should fill this need due to the relatively low cost for the system.

I'll agree with your assessment that it isn't a good move but still wonder if the standard SSD's would have worked.

Thanks for your thoughful response

[GKNOLA]

Yes, I'm well aware of that (see the previous response to my question and my reply). 

I do thank you for emphatically pointing it out. 

I'm sure that the responses from pchops and you will dissuade anyone else with a similar idea who reads this thread.