HP DL385 Hardware Question...

[Michelle_Laveri]

I recently aquired two HP DL385s at very reasonable price, factory-sealed from ebay... The HP part number is 391109-421. These servers take the smaller hard-drives. To be honest I was caught I as just ass-um-ed[/i] they would take my large universal drives.

I've not used these types of disks before.

What's type are they and will they work with ESX?

I worried they might be SATA drives or something like which I believe aren't supported by ESX 3.x.x

Regards

Mike

ps. I've only open one, and kept the packaging. So if they are the wrong type I can just resell them on ebay...

[Curdasss]

Mike if it is a new 385 they are probably SAS drives. Those drives work with VI3 I have serveral DL360's running SAS drives and they work perfectly.

[VirtualKenneth]

Hi Mike,

They are sold in two models, SAS or SATA drives

The type of disk should be indicated on they on the front?

Cheers,

Kenneth

[esiebert7625]

They're most likely SAS drives which work fine with ESX. I just got a brand new 385 with 8 146GB SAS drives. I was initially worried that they would not work after seeing some posts on here but they work perfectly.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=651698&#651698

[Curdasss]

I may be wrong but I think you can actually use SATA or SAS in them, the default I think that is sold with them is SAS, because the serial connection is the same on both types of drives. Which IMO opens up a whole bunch of idea's as far as storage goes.

[VirtualKenneth]

Correct, I've checked and it's equipped with a Smart Array P600, which can also run SAS disks. So we cannot say if you got SAS of SATA in them without physically checking

[VirtualNoitall]

Hello,

You have SFF SAS or SATA drives. Hopefully SAS drives. Current generation SAS should outperform SCSI by about 30% based on discussions with HP engineers. Small Form Factor drives are now default on HP DL 36x, DL 38x and C class blades.

[Michelle_Laveri]

OK, thanks for the responses...

Firstly, they didn't come with any drives (hence my problem) I had thought I could just "borrow" an older universal disk - to check the server(s) were OK. But I can't do that.

How can tell if they will take the SFF SAS type drives? I've not cracked

open the documentation, and the packaging is in my backyard - and I'd rather not have to open the documentation - as if I resell it on ebay - I'd like to have it listed as-new condition.[/b]

My other issue is even if they do take the SFF SAS drives - I imagine there won't be many on ebay (my favourite hardware supplier - up until today!) and they will be expensive. I only need two of these type of drives - as they will run in my test/dev lab where fault-tolerence is not important.

Would anyone happen to have the part numbers for these type of drives - so I can see what the prices are...[/b]

I'm not sure which way to go - to cut my losses - package them and resell. OR to find two drives and spend more money. I got them at good price £1,100 for two servers...

Regards

Mike

[Michelle_Laveri]

ps - i tried searching for documentation on HP's website - but as this is discontinued line - they have pulled all the PDFs - which is handy

Rgds

Mike

[Curdasss · Accepted solution]

Below are the part numbers for the SAS drive sthat will work in that server.

I think the price is going to start at around $250 for the 36's.

Hot Plug SFF SAS 2.5" Drives

HP 36GB 3G SAS 10K SFF SP HDD

375859-B21

HP 36GB 3G SAS 15K SFF SP HDD

431933-B21

HP 72GB 3G SAS 10K SFF SP HDD

375861-B21

HP 72GB 3G SAS 15K SFF SP HDD

431935-B21

HP 146GB 3G SAS 10K SFF SP HDD

431958-B21

[Michelle_Laveri]

Cheers - thanks for this - hitting ebay right now to see how cheaply I can pick up a couple of these drives. If they don't work out - I have the original packaging and documentation - so I could always resell if they don't work out.

Many thanks for everyones advice...

Some lessons learned here...

I must admit I was suprised to find that discontinued G1 DL385 to have these SFF drives. I assumed they were only available on the G2 DL385s or on the G5 servers....

Regards

Mike

[VirtualNoitall]

Hey,

On a G1 I think they were an option. On the DL360 g4 you could go SCSI or SFF SAS. We usually ordered SCSI but then got a SAS model to get our feet wet. At that time you could only get 4 SAS drives and now with the DL360 G5 you can get 6.

[Michelle_Laveri]

Hey,

On a G1 I think they were an option. On the DL360 g4

you could go SCSI or SFF SAS. We usually ordered

SCSI but then got a SAS model to get our feet wet.

At that time you could only get 4 SAS drives and now

with the DL360 G5 you can get 6.

This model appears to have 6 slots for SAS drives not 4... I guess that's just because it is DL385 and 2U so they can fit more drives in...

Regards

Mike

ps. anyway I've just bought 2x72GB 15K SAS drives from the US at £250 per drive. This is a lot more than I would pay for a conventional drive. But I'm prepared to take the hit because the servers were so reasonable to begin with. Looking on HP's website (even without full documentation) it does say SAS in the product description. A case on not RTFM-ing

[dominic7]

I had about 50 DL385 G1's and never had a SFF disk with them. The DL385/DL585 G2's have all been SFF from what I have seen.

1100 pounds for a pair of DL385 G2's sounds like a good deal to me.

[Michelle_Laveri]

Yeah, that's what through me - I wonder if the original seller has sold me G2's by mistake. This can't be because I've seen G2's on the HP website and they look totally different?

Agreed the money I've paid for the servers can't be beat. My plan is to try and use them with SFF SAS drives if I can. If they don't work, I will just keep them packaged and sell them on. Heck, I might even make a profit on them!

Regards

Mike

[Michelle_Laveri]

I'd like to thank everyone for their help... trouble is you have ALL been so helpful - who the heck do I award the points too!!!

Regards

Mike

[gogogo5]

They tend to ship the DL385 as Performance, Base and Entry Models. These models are packaged with differing levels of hardware.

None of the three models ship with hard disks as standard. In addition, only the Performance model ships with the IDE DVD-ROM/CDRW combo drive as standard. If you have the Entry or Base model then you may need to also order the IDE DVD-ROM drive as well as your disks. You'll be pretty hacked off when you get your SAS drives and get ready to install ESX from CD only to find there's no CR-ROM drive present!

[gogogo5]

In fact, checking the part number it looks like you have the DL385 G1

[Michelle_Laveri]

Yup - it has a CD drive (although I would use the ILO virtual media or the UDA for PXE installations... my basement is cold in winter... brrrrrr)

It's definitely a G1, there must have been some G1's issued at the end of the life that came with the SFF drives...

Regards

Mike

[Michelle_Laveri]

OK, award helpfuls to the 1st people who responded, and a correct for the guy who gave me the part numbers - which set me on the way of buying the new drives...

Cheers

Mike