using older Smart2 cards in a ML350 G2 server ?

[George Quist]

Looking for some guidence/feelings on this.. We have extracted several Smart2-DH, Smart2-SL and Smart 3200 pci-array options from servers sent to "rest" of late.. I need to add storage to a Proliant ML350 G2 server and would like to inject one of these cards ? Yes, they are older than the ML350 G2 and I find no reference to them being supported.. Thoughts on doing this ? The ML350G2 is Running Windows2000 server.. has a Smart32 raid option now in place that would stay.. Any advice appreciated..

[Doug de Werd · Accepted solution]

If you can, I think the best thing to do is just try it (of course on a non-production system). .

That being said, problems you "might" encounter:
- older PCI cards use a different voltage on the PCI bus (5V vs. 3.3V). There was some compatibility during the transition, but most everything on the PCI bus is 3.3 now
- driver support. You may need to dig back to an older version of SmartStart (like 5.5 or earlier) to get the appropriate drivers. The same goes for the Array Config Utility (ACU). The current version "should" support the entire family of the Smart Controllers, but again, you might have to find an older version of the ACU
- SCSI cabling. You may have to dig around to find the right cables, especially if you are connecting to a newer external storage box.
- performance. Understand that regardless of the SCSI drive interface of the actual drives (e.g. Ultra3, U320, etc.), your performance will be limited to the max that the controller supports. New drives (i.e. U320) are supposed to be backward compatible (meaning they slow down to the speed supported by the controller), so use older drives that match the controller speed (no sense in using a newer driver if you can't get any performance gain)

The first link below seems to imply that the ML350 G2 will work with the older Smart Controlelrs. My guess is that if you can get the drivers loaded, configure it via ACU, and see the drives via the OS, it will probably work OK.

You might also want to check some of these links:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22099.html

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_EX010306_CW01

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_EX030203_CW01

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_EM030710_CW01

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/software-management/acumatrix/questionsanswers.html



Good Luck,
Doug

[Doug de Werd]

Here's a couple more:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=PSD_EM000112_CW02

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17322.html

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantml350/cableguide2.html

Thanks,
Doug

[George Quist]

Doug...

thank you for your response... I also have "found" a Smart 221 card to throw into the mix of what "may" work.. Will probably take a shot at the newest of the cards in hand make the attempt.