HP Gen8 Server - will HP branded consumer SSDs work in the bays

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naclosagc

New Member
May 10, 2018
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Hi.

I bought a 25-bay HP DL380P G8 for my home server. I did not do enough research, and found that the non-HP drives were being failed out continuously. So fast, maybe 4 a day, that I finally lost my pool. I am taking care of that problem with an external drawer and an LSI HBA.

The question I have is, I now have 25 bays free, and a free HP P420i SAS card. I was looking on Newegg, and saw HP branded SSDs - S600, M700, S700, etc. Does anyone know if these SSD's would work in the smart carriers in ht HP DL380P, or would they be treated as non HP branded drives? I can buy a couple and try it, but was hoping someone knew. Thanks.
 

naclosagc

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May 10, 2018
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P.S. I have tested the failed drives in another system, and they all check out. That's why I think the problem is the smart carriers/HP P420i.
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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I tested out samsung 860 512gb in pir8 HP smart carriers with chip(!!) and it was fine in place of one hp 480gb ssd -tested for days. It did not throw errors with the pir8 smart carriers with chip like the dumb smart carrier sleds!

p.s. their consumer ssd drives are no better than the standard consumer drives. if you want server class - you need to buy server class ssd!
 

DanielWood

Member
Sep 14, 2018
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P.S. I have tested the failed drives in another system, and they all check out. That's why I think the problem is the smart carriers/HP P420i.
It's the P420i. Add a H220 in the PCIe slots, replace one of the SFF-8087 cables with a longer one, call it a day. I did this in both my DL380P G8s and have had no issues since with consumer SSDs.
 

naclosagc

New Member
May 10, 2018
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Thanks for the info. I researched this thing for a while, and never came across the smart carrier thing. I don't need server class. I would use it for a ZFS pool for MySQL for home use.

I tested out samsung 860 512gb in pir8 HP smart carriers with chip(!!) and it was fine in place of one hp 480gb ssd -tested for days. It did not throw errors with the pir8 smart carriers with chip like the dumb smart carrier sleds!

p.s. their consumer ssd drives are no better than the standard consumer drives. if you want server class - you need to buy server class ssd!
 

naclosagc

New Member
May 10, 2018
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Thanks for the info. I was almost sure it was the smart carriers/backplane. I have an external disk drawer now, so I will use that rather than ship it back.

It's the P420i. Add a H220 in the PCIe slots, replace one of the SFF-8087 cables with a longer one, call it a day. I did this in both my DL380P G8s and have had no issues since with consumer SSDs.
 

arglebargle

H̸̖̅ȩ̸̐l̷̦͋l̴̰̈ỏ̶̱ ̸̢͋W̵͖̌ò̴͚r̴͇̀l̵̼͗d̷͕̈
Jul 15, 2018
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FWIW I put my P420i into faux HBA mode and I've had no issues with any drive I've slotted. I've tried several 2.5" HDDs, a couple of Samsung consumer SSDs (750 EVO, 850 Pro) and a variety of enterprise SAS and SATA SSDs and they all work fine. The drive bay lights are wonky on some (like these IBM/STec 400GB SAS SSDs) but they function perfectly.

Anyway, if you want to use the P420i put it in HBA mode and it should happily handle most drives. I can't speak to performance, I really only use my gen8 for bulk testing drives I buy off of eBay, but I've had no issues since switching.

`./ssacli controller slot=0 modify hbamode=on forced` should do the trick, I'm unsure if "forced" is actually needed.
 

naclosagc

New Member
May 10, 2018
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So, that is why I created this thread in the first place. My Seagate 4TB 2.5" drives were being continuously failed out. Most of them were good. I tested on another server. I put 9 HP SSD's in there, in the 2.5" bays in the server, and have had no problems with those. They make a fine L2ARC pool for my ZFS. Why did I pick 9? Funny story (maybe only in my head). I couldn't get the empty trays to line up in the server. So, I put a drive in every other one, and depending on which SAS port they used. I ended up with 1 extra to get all the trays aligned. I have one strange thing with the external drawer, but other than that it's working perfectly now that I took the spinning rust buckets out of the server trays.
 

arglebargle

H̸̖̅ȩ̸̐l̷̦͋l̴̰̈ỏ̶̱ ̸̢͋W̵͖̌ò̴͚r̴͇̀l̵̼͗d̷͕̈
Jul 15, 2018
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Yeah, IIRC the only difference between the 25 bay and the 8 bay that I'm using right now is that the 25 bay has a sas expander built into the backplane. That may be the source of your grief, I'm not really sure. I'm actually gearing up to add another 8 drive cage to my DL380 and I haven't decided if I'm going to run it off an H240 or get an expander and run both off of the P420i or the H240. From what I'm hearing the H240 makes a much better HBA so that would be my preference. I have no idea how compatibility of any of this is going to work out though, so I may be in a similar boat once I start slotting hardware. To be honest I'm pleasantly surprised that the P420i has functioned as well as it has, I've heard plenty of performance and compatibility horror stories (including yours.)