ProLiant DL380 Gen9-Can I connect 8 drives to x4 SATA ports 1 & 2

[WalterV]

ProLiant DL380 Gen 9 SFF- In Bay3 there is a cage and backplane for 8 2.5" drives that I won't use., Also, server doesn't have a hardware RAID controller anymore. I will use OS to manage ZFS & RAID. My current tower has 6 drives in it, no hardware RAID just OS controlled RAID.

I went through the 228 page HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen 9 Server User Guide and I only saw a few instances where cables were connected to the onboard x4 SATA port 1 or 2 and none of the examples used breakout cables.

 Can I connect 4 SATA hard drives to the onboard x4 SATA connector Port 1 and 4 SATA hard drives to the onboard x4 SATA connector Port 2 with some sort of break out cables with one end have 4 SATA connectors and the other end a connector to go into the onboard x4 SATA ports 1 or port 2? 

And even if I can connect up to 8 drives directly to the 2- x4 SATA ports, is there an advantage to using an HBA like and 8 port LSI 9207-8i?

And if I can connect drives directly to Mainboard, what type of cable end fits into the x4 onboard SATA controller ports 1 & 2?

I have read multiple places that I need a real HBA to Passthrough the disk(s) information to OS. Is that accurate?

Thanks

1 end of the breakout cable connecting to 4 SATA hard drivesonboard x4 SATA Port 1 & Port 2 on Mainboard

Disregard the blue PCI:SAS cable going nowhere-That was hooked up to the P440 that used to be in the server.All my large hard drives are 3.5, so I won't be using SFF drives inside the server. I will be setting up some type of cage outside the server to hold up to 8 3.5 drives and run cables to the inside of the server.

[TVVJ]

Hello,

You may refer to section "Cabling" on page 102 of the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server Maintenance and Service Guide for more information about drive cage cabling and see if it helps.

Regards,

[WalterV]

@TVVJ Thanks, but I have looked through all the various diagrams and very few actually have something connecting to one of the onboard x4 SATA ports. Any diagrams that showed a connection to x4 SATA ports that I have seen are connecting 1 cable from the front of the server( usually in Bay 1) or a PCI card to Port 1. Nothing showing a cable for the monstrosity LOL I am trying to build- a handmade cage for 8- 3.5 drives outside the server, 2- cables connecting all the hard drives to the x4 SATA port 1 & port 2.

[Bunsol]

We follow the user guide for cabling. What you are looking for is alteration which is not recommended.

[WalterV]

Thanks, I understand. I figured out some things.

[WalterV · Accepted solution]

I did figure some things out-

I was able to connect a Mini SAS data cable - SFF-8087 port to Port 1 on the onboard x4 SATA controller and to an external SSD SATA drive with an external power source. I did it More to see that it can be done, rather than a realistic solution.

I installed an LSI Logic Controller SAS 9207-8i - 8Port | Internal SAS/SATA | 6Gb/s | PCI Express which I will use to connect to up to 8 drives in an external DIY drive cage. I have some confusion as to how to power the hard drives. It seems to me that the MB is not set up to power  8 hard drives individually. It seems that the hard drives get power from the mainboard via a cable that gets plugged into the backplane. So I purchased a 12x3.5 Drive LFF backplane with cables. I will build a hard drive cage to work with the 12 LFF drive backplane.

[Sunitha_Mod]

Hello @WalterV,

That's Excellent! 

We are extremely glad to know you were able to figure it out and we appreciate you for keeping us posted. 

[Hargar]

Hi @WalterV,

how did you build the HDD cage ? Is it for 3,5 Disks? Im planning to do so also

Best regards

Hargar