ML350p Gen8 - Hard Drives, SBS and Controller??

[benAU]

If you're looking to offloard your lff gen 8 trays i'll happily help out.

I've got the swing of your problem, ordered drives with a g6/g7 tray but need to provision in a gen8 server. The drive part number is the same.

Happy to swap.

[kkpro]

Hi,

Sorry, I already found where to use this Gen8 drives.

[pscsuk]

FWIW, we've just got a gen8 server with SmartArray 420 and SFF drives.

We got a couple of 600GB SAS drives and went for HP ones, because they weren't that much more than WD ones, so for WD drives + caddies it would have been more expensive than HP

We also got a couple of 1TB SATA drives, but went for separate caddies and WD server drives because the price difference was huge. 

While we were waiting for the caddies to arrive we just plugged the SATA drives straight into the backplane with a bit of card for support, and they worked fine, but the SmartArray ACU was complaining that it couldn't recognise the drives, so wouldn't display LEDs properly (there were no LEDs..). We could create a RAID 1 array on the drives with no issue

When the caddies arrived, we took the drives out (one at a time, so we could leave the server running) and put them in the caddies and replaced them in the server. The drives fit fine, just the same size as the HP SAS drives. Now they're in the caddies, the LEDs work fine, and the ACU is happy about the drives.

PS - we have a Gen5 SFF caddy, and while the width is identical, it is about 1cm too deep, so it will fit, and work, but the caddy won't latch into place. It'd need a serious bit of butchery to make them fit properly - you'd be better hacking the blanks if you want to save money on the proper caddies - but obviously there'll be no flashy LEDs (or 'do not remove' warning LED), and the ACU will complain at you.

[mikenri]

Does anyone have info on where to find blank 3.5" (LFF) trays?

We just ordered a Gen8 HP server, however we are not thrilled to find that they changed the design and the trays that worked on Gen7 and older servers no longer fit!

We really need to get this server up an running ASAP, but we're not about to spend the high cost on an HP branded drive that only has a 1yr warranty vs a Western Digital RE drive that has a 5yr warranty for a fraction fo the cost.

thanks.

[mikenri]

just figured i'd pass along that the drives do seem to be sturdy enough when they're inserted without the trays, not ideal but hopefully it will be ok until 3rd party trays are available.

As for the arguments that HP's drives are better which is why they're more expensive..

if they're so much better, why is there only a 1 year warranty when the norm for server class drives is a 5yr warranty?

Manufacturers will typically warranty something for the time it's expected to last, anything beyond that they won't warranty it for.

I take that to mean HP's drives are garbage and they're expected to die well before the typical 5 year lifespan of a server.

Hopefully HP reads these forums and realizes that it turns people off from the Gen8 line.

Moving forward it's only G7 servers or back to Dell for us until the LFF empty tray issue is resolved.

[VBO]

Hello,

Actually the Gen8 empty tray are available over internet.

I installed 2 intel 520 SSD in Raid1 for the OS and 3 Samsung 840Pro 512Gb in Raid 5 for the Data's. 

I saw little performances problem with the P420i and the 3x Samsung SSD, but i think it's the ReFS partition the source of the problem.

[DZZ]

Thanks for confirming that the Gen8 servers will work with non-HP drives in the Gen8 caddies.

You can get the Gen8 SFF caddies here. (The link was edited by moderator - it is not allowed to promote any paid site in forums.) Haven't seen any LFF 3.5" Gen8 in the market yet so if you are getting the G8 servers, get it with the SFF drive configuration.

[liverpool-it]

(Signed up just to post this...)

This company say they have HP LFF Gen8 caddies in stock:

 (The link was edited by moderator - it is not allowed to promote any paid site in forums.)

HP Part Number: 651314-001

From what others are saying here: any drive + HP caddy = genuine drive detected by the server.

Cheers, Martin.

[William Wing]

For the ML310e Gen8 server, HP offers both hot-plug and non-hot-plug versions, and both hot-plug and non-hot-plug 3.5" SATA hard drives. Here's a compatibility question: Will a non-hot-plug drive work in a hot-plug version of the server? I understand that this would require a power-down to change such a drive. That's not a problem for our application. But is there any other reason this combination can't or shouldn't be used? Assume for argument's sake that we are talking about all HP-branded drives, if that makes a difference.

[VBO]

The Writes performances problem comming from one defective Samsung SSD 840Pro. The system don't see anything wrong.
After removed all three drives, i checked alone on a w7 PC with Samsung Magician and see nothing too, but the writes performances of all drives be ugly.

Samsung Support swap the 3 SSD for i can turn up again soon as possible the server. After a check, Samsung find one drive be defect and causing writes hangs.

Now, all be good. A fast raid 5 array of 3 500GB SSD for my virtual environment.