How to connect both SAS- and a SATA-RAID

[StefanoFereri]

Hi folks,

a knowledge question for HP and Windows server users:

I plan to have a small Hyper-V system based on ML150 Gen9. There will be an P440 controller. Then there will be a RAID 1 consisting of 2 SAS 10k disks, with addtional (third) hotspare disk.  This is for data (VMs). Then I plan to have another RAID 1, consisting of two big entry level SATA disks, maybe 4TB each. This is designated as short term repository for backup data (they get duplicated onto USB-RDX drives).  Host will reside on USB flash drive.

Question 1: Could these five disks respectively two RAIDs all be connected to and/or handled by P440?

Question 2:  If not, could the SAS disks be connected to and handled by P440 and SATA disks connected to onboard SATA connectors and then be treated as Software-RAID1 by Server 2012 R2.

Any HP- and MS-Server specialist who is saddle-fast enough with HP components and MS server technology to put a statement on that?

Thanks and regards,

Stefano

[TVVJ]

Hi Stefano,

It is possible to create two different arrays consisting of SAS drives separately and SATA drives separately.

Ensure that SAS drives are in a single array and SATA drives in a separate array.

Press F10 key to start HP Intelligent Provisioning and select HP Smart Storage Administrator and configure arrays from there.

Regards,

Vijayasarathy

[StefanoFereri]

That's good information, Vijayasarathy. :-)

How do you connect these two SAS disks and the two SATA disks to P440? As far as I see there's only one SAS port on that controller. 

Thanks and regards,

Stefano

[Torsten.]

Options are listed here http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04447843.pdf

[Jimmy Vance]

---

StefanoFereri wrote:

That's good information, Vijayasarathy. :-)

How do you connect these two SAS disks and the two SATA disks to P440? As far as I see there's only one SAS port on that controller. 

Thanks and regards,

Stefano

---

What server model are you working with? Generally the drive backplane connects to the controller and the drives all plug into the backplane

[StefanoFereri]

Thanks for input. It's a ML150 Gen9. Searched through many documents, but could not it out.

Regards,

Stefano

[Jimmy Vance]

---

StefanoFereri wrote:

Thanks for input. It's a ML150 Gen9. Searched through many documents, but could not it out.

Regards,

Stefano

---

Sorry, missed that in your first entry.

I see your pretty much asking the same question in this other thread

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/Drive-options-for-ML150-GEN9/m-p/6768711

---

StefanoFereri wrote:

Hi folks,

I don't understand the different drive options of ML150 GEn9 systems. Is it possible to get some help from here? So what I would like to achieve is a small Hyper-V 2012 R2 system with

-3 SFF SAS disks on P440 (RAID 1 with hotspare, controller has FBWC)

- mirrored 4GB or 6GB SATA drives for daily and/or nearline backups connected to onboard SATA connectors

- DVD-Drive

- internal LTO-2-Drive on SC11xe for long term backups, stored abroad

I would like to reuse the given LTO-2-Drive, which is connected to an Adaptec 29160 in the old server.

Is such a configuration possible? Do I need any special cages ?

Thanks for sharing your knowledge,

Stefano

---

To accomplish what you're wanting to do, you need both a SFF and a LFF drive cage. The only way to get the large capacity drives is LFF. When building a CTO system, the 2nd drive cage always matches the 1st drive cage. Should you be able to mix the cage type? Probably, but it isn't a tested and supported configuration.

If you order a base model with the LFF cage, you would then need to purchase the P440 and a 8SFF cage and cable. This would keep the 4LFF cage conected to the embedded B140i

Another option would be to get the P840 controller instead of the P440 and connect both cages to the P840 and disable the embedded B140i

If you look at the maintainance and Service Guide under the Storage Cabling section, you can see how the cables should be connected for backplane power and disk controller 

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04504829&DocLang=en&docLocale=en_US

Look at the controller and cabling options (and note) on page 24 and 25 of the QuickSpec for the extra parts

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04447843.pdf

P440 requires a cable kit

P840 requires two cable kits and a baffle kit

I need to state again, mixing SFF and LFF cages is not a tested option. For a supported option instead of 3SFF drives, use all LFF drives and two LFF drive cages.

[StefanoFereri]

Thanks for input Jimmy. According to your statements I will simplify the system and use only SATA LFF disks. Since it does make sense to have two RAIDs in a virtualized environment - 1 RAID1 with hotspare for host and guests, 1 RAID1 with slow and big disks for backup - my options now are this:

- 3 x HP 500 GB 6G SATA 7.200 U/min LFF in RAID1 for data (with hotspare)
- 2 x HP 4 TB, 6G, 7200 U/Min., LFF SATA in RAID1 for backups

As far as I understood your statement this should work with one single P440. But when I try to verify this with HP server configurator it throws errors to me. It says I have to use the FIO-Kit (can't find any information about that), that disks in a RAID have to be the same and that the number of disks must be even.

Could you once again help me out of that confusion?

Thanks and regards,
Stefano

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

With a total of 5 disks you will need both drive cage assemblies. The configurator probably wants to use the P840. If you still want to use the B140i for the two larger drives you may just need to run the configurator as a 1 cage configuration and seperately purchase the 2nd LFF drive cage and cable kit along withthe P440.

FIO indicates Factory Intalled Option.

[StefanoFereri]

Ok, thanks. That's great information. I feel much better now with HP's system of options, parts, add ons etc.

Regards,

Stefano

[Westminster]

Hi,

may I jump in please? This is exactly what I'm trying to understand myself. To me it's not yet clear, whether it's possible to have multiple SAS disks and multiple SATA disks connected to ONE P440 controller (all disks LFF). I guess, if it's not more than four disks, then they reside in one cage and then P440 contoller will work. If it's more than four disks (like in the example above with one spare drive), you need a second cage together with a P840 with two connectors. Is that correct?

I understood so far that you can create two or more RAID 1 on only one controller, assuming there are at least four disks, and that in general both RAIDs must be clean SAS or clean SATA. But can a clean SAS-RAID1 and a clean SATA-RAID1 coexist on one controller? And is this in any means dependent on whether disks are hotplug or not, because only the hot plug cages have compatible connectors for both SAS and SATA?

Thanx in advance for some advice.

Fridolin

[Jimmy Vance]

You can have both SAS and SATA drives connected to a 'P' series Smart Array controller. The only rule is the drives for any given array must either all SAS or all SATA.  You can create a one drive array, but for RAID 1 you need two drives and for RAID 5 you need at least three drives.

For the ML150 Gen9 using LFF, the cagewill only hold fur drives. If you want more than four drives, you need the P840 controller along with the second drive cage and cable kit.

[Westminster]

Ok:

- Two RAID1 = 4 drives, one RAID SAS and the other RAID SATA -> one cage/one P440
- Two RAID1 = 5 drives, one RAID SAS with hotspare and the other RAID SATA -> two cages/one P840

Great, thanx!

[StefanoFereri]

Attention, Westminster!

> Another option would be to get the P840 controller instead of the P440 and connect both cages to the P840...
> Two RAID1 = 5 drives, one RAID SAS with hotspare and the other RAID SATA -> two cages/one P840

After some additional reading I guess these two statements are not correct. In Maintenance and Server Guide* on page 85 there is an example for connecting two four-bay LFF hot-plug drive cages to one HP P440 Smart Array controller. They use an Y-cable! So you should be able to connect up to 8 LFF SATA and/or SAS drives in two cages to one single P440.

Also the following statement is in contradiction to Quick Specs:

> If you order a base model with the LFF cage, you would then need to purchase the P440 and a 8SFF cage and cable.

> This would keep the 4LFF cage conected to the embedded B140i.

In Quick Specs it is said "B140i can't mix with any standup internal controller" (Page 5). As soon as there is a P-or HBA-Controller B140i controller cannot be used.

Regards,
Stefano

*
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04504829&DocLang=en&docLocale=en_US

[Jimmy Vance]

---

@StefanoFereri wrote:

Attention, Westminster!

Also the following statement is in contradiction to Quick Specs:

> If you order a base model with the LFF cage, you would then need to purchase the P440 and a 8SFF cage and cable.

> This would keep the 4LFF cage conected to the embedded B140i.

In Quick Specs it is said "B140i can't mix with any standup internal controller" (Page 5). As soon as there is a P-or HBA-Controller B140i controller cannot be used. 

---

I also said this wasn't a supported option, but it will work. If you only have one cage you can't mix a standup card with the the embedded controller, but if you have 2 cages you can cable one controller to each cage.

Good catch on the Y cables, I missed that when I was looking at the guide. Unfortunately I don't see a part number for it

[StefanoFereri]

Ok, thanks for clarification.