Ultra320 drives on an ML570 G1?

[Skip Tannen]

Hi folks,

I have an old ML570 running a SmartArray 3200 controller and Ultra 3 drives - can I create a new array using Ultra320 drives? Will they step down or are they not compatible at all?

Thanks in advance.

[sandeep_raman]

Hello Skip,

U320 will not work with 3200 controller.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/Division_10-1999/10262_div.PDF
Pg 3 -> Specification
Pg 4 -> Hard disk option

SRH

[Skip Tannen]

Thanks for the response, but I just found out that Ultra320 drives work fine - that QuickSpecs document was certainly written before Ultra320 drives even existed.

I got brave and put a set of 72.8GB Ultra320 drives in the server, created the array, and the volume formatted fine - I'm assuming that the drives are backward compatible with Ultra2.

The PC backup software we're using was given access to the new volume and clients started hitting it right away. Within two minutes over 2GB's had been written to the volume with no problems at all.

[sandeep_raman]

Wow,thats excellent.
Its a learning.

SRH

[Terry Hutchings]

The questions and answers page for these drives have the answer to whether these drives "should" work with a SA3200. Since the 3200 is an U2 controller it should be able to support these drives:
(question #11) http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/drives-enclosures/hotplug-ultra3/questionsanswers.html