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DL380 G5 - Can I install more than one P400 array controller?

 
Jean Griffith
Occasional Contributor

DL380 G5 - Can I install more than one P400 array controller?

I have been asked to set up my DL380 G5 Performance server with 8 internal SAS 146 Gb disks configured as 4 separate RAID 1 arrays.

As I understand it, I can only create 2 separate arrays using the P400 controller that ships with the server.

Can I install a second P400 array contoller and create 2 further arrays using the internal disks?

If not, what is the best way to achieve this configuration?

Many thanks, Jean



1 REPLY 1
Jon Paul
Trusted Contributor

Re: DL380 G5 - Can I install more than one P400 array controller?

Hi Jean,

No need to buy anything else. The P400 will support up to 32 Logical drives.
Using Array Configuration Utility (ACU) you can create 4 seperate Virtual Arrays. Then allocate the entire or just a portion of the array as a RAID 1 logical drive. While this meets your needs as stated, it may not be the best performance configuration. You are limited by single disk performance (with a slight hit for writing the mirror data).
Possibly a better performing configuration is: 2 drive RAID 1 Array/logical drive for your OS (This is the standard for Storage Servers) then a 6 drive array with 3 RAID 1+0 logical drives. In this case, you are sharing the pyhsical drives across your different logical drives but each logical has ths advantage of using 6 spindles instead of 2.
You would have to test this out (use IOMeter, www.iometer.org. Or IOZone, www.iozone.org, or your benchmark of choice)
Bear in mind that if a drive goes bad, all logical drives will be non-optimal in this configuration.
Hope this helps,
JP