10 Drives with a DL360 G9 & P440ar

[johnCore]

I'm trying to use 10 drives in a DL360 G9 with a P440ar & the 2 drive expansion bay for the purpose of using the 2 extra drives as SSD Smart Cache for my data drives.

Drive Bays 1 to 2 - Operating system

Drive Bays 3-8 - Data Partition

Drive Bay 9-10 - SSD Smart Cache for the Data Partition

I've been back and forth with support for a couple of weeks, they've sent out a new cable which is a Y cable which was meant to let me plug 2 of the backpanes into a port on the P440ar, freeing up a port for drive bays 9-10. This cable did not fit the P440ar and is only compatable with the P840.

I've tried using the onboard B140i for the operating system, but it doesn't support SAS drives. It supports the SSDs but it won't let me smart cache them for the data partition. So that's not an option unless I buy some SATA drives to install the OS on.

My next thought was to use a raid expansion card, but I've been told its not compatible with a DL360 G9. Can someone confirm this?

What are my options?

Buy a P840 and use the Y cable I've been sent

Buy another P440 and plug bays 9-10 into it and use this for the operating system.

Can I use a 2nd hand P410 PCI RAID card, or similar, for bays 9-10  in a DL360 G9, I dont care if its not officially supported, will it work?

I'm trying not to spend more than I need to, I'd like to avoid buying a P840 or P440 just to use these extra 2 drive bays if possible.

Thanks

[Jimmy Vance]

With all SAS drivves your options are to go with a P840 or another P440. The Quickspecs call this out when using SAS drives.  The H240 is a lower cost option, to maybe host the OS as RAID 1 

HP DL360 Gen9 2SFF SAS/SATA Universal Media Bay Kit 764630-B21
NOTE: Required when upgrading from an 8SFF config to a 10SFF config. This option kit is not supported on the 4LFF model. NOTE: This option kit cannot be used with the DVD-ROM or DVD-RW Universal Media Bay option kits.
NOTE: This kit contains a cable to attach the 2 drives to the internal B140i SATA controller. For SAS, an alternate storage controller and its associated cable kit are required.

[johnCore]

I'll look at getting a H240. 

Thanks.

[Babaorhum]

I have seen H240 on this store last week : boutique informatique