HP NetServer LH3R support a PCI ATA/133 PCI Card?

[John Musbach]

Hi, I'm thinking that since the embedded HD controllers of the HP NetServer LH3R only support HDs up to the size of 20GBs, would it be possible for me to use a ATA PCI controller like this one: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=125618 to connect the drive tray to so I could say, have 6 300GB HDs in the server thus providing me with a possible RAID config of 1.8TB? Will the HD trays cable be long enough to reach over to the PCI card area? And if this is possible, where can I find the HD trays cable? I've already tried opening the right side of the server (when facing the front panel of the server, e.g. where the power button is) and didn't see much except the RAM...so I assume this would all be on the left side? Thanks! :-)

[e4services]

John, so when you say "the embedded HD controllers" you speak of the IDE controller, since the onboard SCSI controller has, of course, no support limitations when it comes to drive capacity. Therefore you are correct in not using the onboard IDE for a hard drive. This controller has limited capabilities and is not designed to have a hard drive attached.
In regards to adding an IDE controller, the only problem we have had in the past in conflicts with the LH3's SCSI controller. The onboard RAID of the LH3 shares SCSI ports with the SCSI controller and has additional BIOS that loads in when one of the RAID channels is disabled to direct between the two. In this scenario we have had a conflict with the PCI IDE card we use and the system hangs during POST. Otherwise you should have no problems, since you do not sound as if you wish to use the SCSI channels.

[John Musbach]

Thanks for the reply :-). I was not aware that the SCSI controller does not have this limitation...how would I go about changing the HDs from the HP NetRAID controller to the SymBIOS SCSI controller? Does the SCSI controller allow me to consolidate all the drives as one like the HP NetRAID controller does and if so how? Thanks! :-)

[John Musbach]

Hmm, well how would I go about changing all the HDs over to the SCSI controller? (I'll just use Linuxes software RAID) Also, any idea of the kind of HD case (that holds the trays) and trays my server uses and if so where I can buy 'em? I believe I can still add another set of 6HDs on the left side of the server and would like to do so...Thanks! :-)

[John Musbach]

*bump*, please help, thanks! :-)