Installing a new Hard Drive in a HP ProLiant ML310 G4 server

[Magnitude_V1]

Hey guys,

I've just started at a company as their IT Support and the Hard Drive in the HP ProLiant ML310 G4 server is running very low on storage space so I need to put in a new Hard Drive but I do want to keep the existing Hard Drive installed. I was thinking about getting a TeraStation but it would be overkill as they'll never fill that king of space and it costs a lot but I do have a 500GB SATA Hard Drive at home that I'll never use so I was thinking of formatting it and putting it into the server.

I've been searching on the HP site but I can't find anything on installing new Hard Drives, the information I have found does say the drives are Hot Swappable so I was wondering do I need to shut down the server to install a new Hard Drive or can I do it with the server switched on? and is there anything specific I need to do when formatting the drive or with the jumpers?

Server Specs:
HP ProLiant ML310 G4
2.13 GHz Intel Xeon
3GB Memory
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003
146GB LSI Logic SCSI
500GB ST350041 2AS USB Drive (used only as a backup drive)

Thanks.

[TTr]

First of all you should start thinking about more formal solutions for a company server and forget about "terastation" or "I have one at home...".

Second when you need to add space you should also consider performance at the same time. Adding external storage over the network, (NAS), might not perform adequately.

It looks like you have a SAS raid controller based on the size of the hard disk (146GB).

How many disks does it have installed and how are they configured?

[Magnitude_V1]

Thanks for the reply. The only Hard Drives installed on the server are what I've listed above (One installed inside the server and the other by USB). What do you mean by 'how are they configured?' I'm a relative newb to using a server so bear with me and whoever was doing this before me hasn't left any information on IP addresses, passwords, computer and server specs etc.

The HDD I have at home is a 500GB SATA 7200rpm Samsung drive, as I won't use it again I was going to use that in the server but do I have to use specific drives? I was hoping to just format it to NTFS and then install it to the server but I don't know if I have to have the server switched off or not. Not sure if it matters but it is only a small company with 14 computers.

[TTr]

The server has a raid controller so any disks installed are attached to the raid controller. In turn the raid controller creates disk arrays of type 0, 1, 5 with logical disks for redundancy. The server then sees these logical disks as disk drives.

So are you sure there is only one disk installed or you are saying there is one disk installed because you only see one disk in Windows? You should pop the cover and see how many disks are and what size they are.

[Magnitude_V1]

Unfortunately I'm not able to get to look in the front of the Server as the unit it's locked in is, well locked and the key along with all the software is locked in a safe which I can't get into until next week.

If there's one or two Hard Drives in there would that be a problem as the Server can take 4 drives? Also how do I find out whether it's set up as RAID and as which one?

[Magnitude_V1]

I've had a look at the front of the server and there are 3 HP Caddies in there and each one states 146GB on the lable. The bottom 2 Caddies' lights flash green/yellow but the top one doesn't. Now if this means there are 2 Hard Drives active why is there only 146GB of storage and not 280-300GB?

I've attached a picture of the front of the server so you can see what I'm seeing.

[TTr]

As I mentioned, the disks are attached to a raid controller. The raid controller may have raid arrays configured and it presents logical disks to windows. Most likely the two active disks are set up as a mirrored pair and the third disk is either unused or set up as a hot spare.

Check the Windows OS and look for the ACU software. If it is installed run it and it will tell you everything you need to know about the disks.

If it is not installed, you need to install it.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/software-management/acumatrix/index.html

[Magnitude_V1]

Just installed the software and when I run it, it comes up with the following:

'ACU did not detect any supported controllers on your system.'

[TTr]

OK, this server has the basic raid controller "HP 8 Internal Port SAS Host Bus Adapter with RAID" as opposed to the newer SA RAID controllers and ACU does not manage that controller.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12570_div/12570_div.HTML

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12332_div/12332_div.html

To manage the HP 8 Internal Port SAS Host Bus Adapter with RAID you need to access the ORCA utility during the server boot up. When the server boots up, press F8 to access the RAID utility.

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02231317/c02231317.pdf

[Magnitude_V1]

Sadly rebooting the server is not an option as the company is a retailer and if the server goes down then the tills go down and no matter what agrument I use they'll never agree to having the tills go down.

[TTr]

Check if there is any other raid management software installed. I remember a raid management software that was a predeccessor to ACU that managed some embedded SATA raid cards.

As an alternative you can check the LSI web site and download their management software.

This and many other HP disk storage cards are rebranded LSI cards. Yours looks like this one

http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/internal/sas3080x-r/index.html

Now, do these people have a test server? It seems to me for a critical environment like the one you described, they should have a spare server or a test environment to allow for testing patch installation, software upgrades etc.