1

I have the following:

  1. 2 x DL585 G1 (8 cores) with built in Smart Array 5i (2 x 74GB SCSI in Raid 0)

I installed VMware ESXi 5 and got it all working :)

However I need more space.

I was thinking of getting 2 x P600 which I can install in the DL585 G1 however I am not sure if it will support SATA drives. It does states, SAS online. But I have been reading about SATA and SAS not able to work together. So, I came here. the place of experts. I have a lot of this sitting around.

Can anyone advise me please.

Please note that I am new to servers / vmware, in fact 3 weeks old. But I have been spending about 10 hours a day learning. Any help would be great.

My idea was to have a box outside with all the HDD's and the SATA cables going through the back to the P600

Thank you

ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
Arthor
  • 195
  • 3
  • 18

3 Answers3

7

I wouldn't invest much into getting this server working. The DL585 G1 is a bit old and was end-of-life in 2006. It's not supported under ESXi 5 and I'm not sure you'd be able to use 64-bit virtual machines within it. The VMWare hardware compatibility list implies that support for that model was limited to ESX 3.5.

Either way, the model you have was designed to work with external storage due to its limited internal drive space (4 hard drive bays). At the time, the preferred solution was an external SCSI MSA30 unit mated to a Smart Array 6400-series controller and later, the MSA20 and MSA60 units.

Please reference the detailed specifications and maintenance guide for the DL585 server.

You did not specify how much space you needed. Officially, the model can accommodate 4 x 300GB U320 SCSI disks (HP part #350964-B22). That's your path of least-resistance to maximize space inside the server. You can find the disks for $150US/each used.

The other option is to replace the SCSI drive cage with the SAS/SATA drive cage option (HP part #379090-B21). This will provide 8 x 2.5" internal SAS/SATA drive bays. You'd use this with a Smart Array P600 RAID controller. At this point, you could get away with nearly any basic 2.5" SATA or SAS disk (in an HP drive carrier), or look at the specific part numbers listed in the P600 quickspecs. SATA speeds will be limited to 1.5Gb throughput.

From this to this...

enter image description here

enter image description here

Any other solution will require an external storage chassis and an accompanying controller. Even used, those parts may not be worth the effort. It's old gear. BTW - The P600 controller is a bit of a dog. It was really a transitional product to help the migration from parallel SCSI to SAS.

Community
  • 1
ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
  • I have to agree with this. This server is old, so the hardware attrition probability will go way up. – Greg Askew Feb 14 '12 at 03:15
  • @ewwhite Hi, I have got ESXi on the DL585 G1 and it is all working, well in fact I have 2 DL585 G1 with ESXi working and a trial version of vCentre, Well everything is a trial at the moment. I know the new servers and much faster however where I am at this moment, this is a good start and I am learning all the VMware stuff. I have lots of MEM and CPU power to do some stuff. DEV/Testing, testing VMware etc. I even now have vCenter working. I just need a solution regarding storage. My idea was to use SATA II drives on the P600 (6 x 500GB (7200 32MB)). The HDD's will be outside with SATA cables – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 03:18
  • I have also considered the solution you have provided, but it can be a little expensive to say the least, ultimately. I would like to know if anyone has had a P600 with a SATA II drive connected to it, if so, did it all work before I start spending money. On a tight budget, a student who is learning! – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 03:20
  • Yeah, the P600 will work. You'll need firmware updates on the controller and a real method to house the external drives. I'd personally go the internal route and live with less space. – ewwhite Feb 14 '12 at 03:31
  • @ewwhite - Great. Well, it is not just the space but also the performance.... So the gable is now, will the P600 work with ESXi 5, the Smart Array 5i does work, that I can confirm. I should get more bandwidth from the P600 than the i5, also the SATA II "should" preform better. I would rate you post, but I need to build up my rep a little more. – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 03:43
  • Yes, the P600 and 5i use the same driver in ESXi (cciss or hpsa). It will work with no issues. – ewwhite Feb 14 '12 at 03:44
  • Do you know is there is any other controller I can use beside the P600 which is of course PIC-X. Thanks – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 03:44
2

The P600 does support SATA. But does not support every SATA drive. Any HP SAS or SATA drive will work with the P600 (or any of their other SAS Smart Array cards).

HP makes the MSA60, MSA70, P2012, and P2024 drive enclosures to hold the drives too. They take HP's standard drive sled in 2.5" and 3.5" drive sizes, holding 12, 25, 12, and 24 drives respectively.

Chris S
  • 77,337
  • 11
  • 120
  • 212
  • -Hi, has any tried a SATA drive, e.g. Segate or WD drive on the p600. I do have a DL385 with 6 x 2TB none HP drive on a P400i and all is good. Please let me know if any one has use the P600 with a NONE SATA 2 HP drive. Thank you – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 01:07
  • I've heard anactdotal evidence that various drives from the three manufacturers (there are only three left: WD, Seagate, and Toshiba; the rest are now brand names of those three). I've used WD drives with SA SAS Cards, but I've heard of people who couldn't get other WD models to work. If you really want an unsupported, no warranty, and less than optimal performance then you'll have to find people who have tried specific drives or try yourself. You could always go with a more widely support card like LSI or others, which will also work with SATA drives. – Chris S Feb 14 '12 at 13:53
  • Ok, can anyone recommend a NONE hp card (PCI-X) that will work in a HP machine, you can boot from it an also support ESXi. Thanks.... – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 20:36
  • LSI Logic Fusion-MPT SAS1064 PCI-X; as found on the ESXi Hardware Compatibility List http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io – Chris S Feb 14 '12 at 21:10
  • Ok, thanks for that. I have jsut found something interesting out. I am using a Adaptec 2820SA - I have used the 5i to install ESXi and the have added drives on the adaptec as a datastore to the VMware system. Thank you – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 22:56
  • @Arthor: you have installed the drivers for 2820SA on ESXi? If so, may I ask which ones? – Carko May 18 '12 at 20:18
  • @carko - I used the segate barracuda series, Infact I had a bunch of mixed drives, but I have not tested anything over 2tb. – Arthor May 25 '12 at 09:18
  • @Arthor - I meant if you had installed the ESXI driveRs (not drives) for the controller :) – Carko May 25 '12 at 12:20
  • I used the bare metal ESXI 5 CD and it it worked, I did not install any dirvers. – Arthor May 25 '12 at 12:28
1

Is this for production use, or test?

if it's for test or non-critical production, check out QNAP or SYNOLGY for a decent NAS box that supports iSCSI.

If you need something for production, checkout Equallogic, they make a nice SAN and are a real bang for the buck in the enterprise.

Edit1:

To answer your question, yes it will support SATA. See the following link: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12247_na/12247_na.HTML

3Gb/s SAS technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth up to 300 MB\s per physical link and contains full compatibility with 1.5G SATA technology.

I will say though, it probably will be cheaper per GB and a lot more flexiable to go with a NAS as you can run more generic drives. You'll also get the added benifits that come with shared storage in vmware such as vmotion, storage migration, etc.

Eric C. Singer
  • 2,319
  • 15
  • 17
  • Hi, this is a test server, however what about the P600 and my question about the SAS/SATA. If the SATA works on the P600 then I can go that route as it will be a lot cheaper. Thank you for the comments as well. – Arthor Feb 13 '12 at 23:58
  • see my comments – Eric C. Singer Feb 13 '12 at 23:59
  • What you are saying is for sure true, however what about performance. Also, i think this could be a good stepping stone before the NAS. Question. I assume then SATA II will be at 3GBs/s - Thank you – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 00:07
  • performance will be low with SATA drives as well. Not because they are SATA, but because they are cheap and built to be slow. Of course, introducing another appliance is introducing another possibility for slowdown, but typically hardly anything you can buy today would be bottlenecking a handful of SATA drives. – the-wabbit Feb 14 '12 at 00:35
  • At this point, you'd need to contact HP. I don't know for sure if it will run at 3Gbs, but I suspect it will. As for performance, it depends. I don't know how many drives your chassis can hold, but with a NAS you can cram quite a few in there, so a lot of potential for high sequential throughput. If a lot of I/O is a concern, then SATA shouldn't be in the discussion. For total thorughput, any one connection in a NAS will typically be limited to 1g. – Eric C. Singer Feb 14 '12 at 00:48
  • also, FYI a single "6g" SATA drive (7200 RPM) can do about 160MBs which is about 1200Mbs. Bear in mind, that's sequential. Typically, you're not going to see that kind of throughtput for everyday use, at least not in our environtment. We only ever saturate out stuff during backup's. Latency, is what will typicaly kill you, the only way to overcome latency is with the right RAID level, and faster RPM. – Eric C. Singer Feb 14 '12 at 00:57
  • @EricC.Singer - Why not use SSD for random read, e.g. DB stuff and normal HDDs for big files e.g. videos etc. – Arthor Feb 14 '12 at 01:13
  • I'm not disputing that, I'm not sure where the SSD came into this conversation. Although i will say its probably also overkill for most people, and at the current price point, you'd be better off with SAS. – Eric C. Singer Feb 14 '12 at 14:04