ML110 Gen10 swap LFF drive cage for SFF

[GKNOLA]

On HPE's US website the ML110 direct sales are done by 2 vendors. (You can also buy them from many other places,) one of which is Provantage who was able to provide me with parts that other vendors didn't stock.

Is that done the same way in your country? If so, check with the direct sale vendors as a parts source. 

[GKNOLA]

I think that it's time for an HPE Employee to step in to review hardware issues.

I believe that you are correct that the incorrect Drive cage assembly, specifically the backplane is the issue.

The Gen8 and Gen9 servers use a different Storage Controller (the Gen9 has 2 different ones) and the SATA cables are different for each controller. So the backplane on your cage is probably incompatible with your Storage Controller and the cables that came with it are probably different as well. 

I would return the parts and wait for the correct ones. 

One other option might work, the use of a 208 or 408 RAID Controller (preferfably the 408 which uses hardware RAID vs the 208 or internal controller which use software RAID) with the correct SATA cables. You can probably use the existing backplane with either of them. You'll get far superior performance and reliability from the 408 but it dodes require the battery kit and is obviously more expensive. I do have to assume that you're usinf the SSD's for performance and the 408 will make a diffference, especially with write caching.

Anyway - time to hear from the HPE experts. 

Good luck. 

[daniver]

Actually I don't care much about hot-swap or not, the case I have atm does not have the front panel for hot swap openings. And for starters I won't be using HPE SSDs. Just standard 2.5" ones.

About the cabling yes, the label BP goes to backplane on the drive cage, and label Controller goes to the mainboard.

I've mailed Provantage asking about that article, to be sure it's the right one and to check about shipping out of US.

I guess you're right about incompatible backplane and storage controller... I just think it's a bit absurd the absence of informations on this kind of strict compatilibty issues. Apart from the vendor assembling and selling non compliant hardware, which has nothing to do with HP.
In one of the previous photos of the backplane, you can see the model: "A13DGT1 HDD BKPLN 8SFF Gen9", p/n 765757-001.
Clearly a Gen9 version also searching the web for its p/n... And not even for a ML110 it seems: I find only other models (ML30, DL, etc.).

About your suggestion for a RAID storage controller, it seems a great piece of hardware (though expensive), but for the moment I'm doing software RAID with ZFS which can't work with hardware controllers.

Anyway thanks for all your suggestions and your patience.

The final question for an HPE expert would be: is the "HDD BKPLN 8SFF Gen9, p/n 765757-001", NOT compatible with ML110 Gen10 server?

Then I will return this cage to the vendor, and hope to find a correct one soon... Elsehow I'm gonna have to use the LFF cage with 2.5" drives, which to me seems unstable and not very safe relying only on the SATA connectors to keep my drives up and in position.

[GKNOLA]

My ML110 Gen10 has 2 LFF cages, 1 with 4XSATA and 1 with 4XSAS and I'm about to replace 2 SATA's with SAS drives. But they're conneccted to a P408i-p RAID Controller. According to the specs that I received from a different reseller you can mix SATA and SAS drives in the safe cage conneccted to the internal SATA controller. I haven't tried it and can't vouch for it.

[daniver]

All of those are 3.5" drives?

I was wondering, attaching a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" bay would give any problem, or physical unstability?
SSDs are very light, all the weight would be on the SATA connectors.

Not that the SFF cage has any particular support for drives to stay aligned or to offload the weight... There's no fastening at all. I guess only with hot-plug bays and screws you can have that.

About resellers, they can't ship out of the US. And I can't find any local store with a 874007-B21 in stock.

[flathat]

I had SFF drives in an LFF cage for a while just to see if they would  work, which they did; propped and "stabilized" with modelling clay, but, no, too risky for very long.

What country are you needing to ship to?  Insight ships to Canada.

[daniver]

I thought so... I would not like a workaroung like this, of course.
I can't believe I can't find a proper channel to buy this kind of parts. We are not talking about 10 yrs old hardware here.

I need to ship to Italy, Europe. Kinda out of north america.

Thanks for your feedback tho. I appreciate very much your help guys.

[GKNOLA]

Yes, All of those are 3.5" drives.

I agree than using 2.5" drives in a 3.5" cage would be a major physical mistake. I would write to HPE Management asking for help. A nice lettter will often yield quick assistance. I'd get a support case started to show that you're following propeer channels and then write to the head of support. Unfortunately, in today's world you'll probably get a response blaming COVID-19 and the effects it's having in their supply chain.

I don't know if this will work for you but I've used 2.5" to 3.5" mounting brackets in many desktops hat my customers wanted to speed up inexpensively. They would provide the pysical support IF the connectors line up properly. You could try one and see if it works. It would be an inexpensive temporary solution to allow you to use your existing LFF cage until you can obtain an SFF cage. (I'm assuming that your system came with a LFF cage.

I just checked and that won't work. The adapter bracket centers the 2.5" drive but the connector on the HPE cage doesn't line up

[daniver]

Actually I already wrote a quote request on the HPE store, twice now. The first was on the 22nd of March and is still pending.

I had tried already with adapter brackets, and yeah they don't align up... I was able to use them only on a hot-plug bay of an Asus chassis.

A side note, is the stability of 2.5" drives supposed to be guaranteed by these "contacts" on the bottom? (see photo)
It doesn't seem to me such different from attaching it on a 3.5" bay. The drive is aligned only thanks to the SATA connects anyway.