Proliant DL380 - obtaining power for extra SAS boot drives?

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diem

New Member
Mar 1, 2020
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Hi all,

For those out there who are using one of these - how are you powering your boot drive(s)? Booting off a partition in the RAID? Internal USB stick?

I ask because I was planning to use the entire RAID array for data and boot from an extra mirrored pair of drives mounted in an Icydock under the DVD drive. Merrily I bought an HBA card and cable.. only to realise that I can't plug in the power plug of said cable anywhere on the HP motherboard - no 4-pin Molex 3.5" floppy drive power headers on one of these!

So, can anyone suggest where I might tap power for a pair of SAS drives? What worries me is that they take +5 and +12 volts but I don't see any obvious place to find those voltages.

Thanks for any alternate experiences with boot configuration for these servers or else tips on how to power extra non-RAIS drives,

Ian
 

acquacow

Well-Known Member
Feb 15, 2017
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Depending on which generation of DL380, there's a GPU power cable you can get and then split into whatever voltages you need.
 

diem

New Member
Mar 1, 2020
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Depending on which generation of DL380, there's a GPU power cable you can get and then split into whatever voltages you need.
Ah-hah! Thank you!

It's a G7 - following some Googling for GPU power cables I ended up finding this: HP DL380G6 10-Pin to SSD SATA Power Cable (40cm)

What's odd is that the HP 10-pin power connectors supply only 3.3V and 5V according to this: HP Proliant DL380 G6 @ pinouts.ru

I'll contact the site selling the cables and see what I can discover - thanks again for the pointer!
 
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acquacow

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Feb 15, 2017
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Oh, and a helpful note... the 8-pin internal cable is NOT the same pinout as a GPU 8-pin... do NOT try to use a power supply/GPU extension cable on these pins, you will likely end up with a fire. =)
 

diem

New Member
Mar 1, 2020
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Thanks :-D

I just ordered an actual HP 10-pin to SATA 15-pin power cable from moddiy.com, so fortunately no cable hacking will be required!
 

Your name or

Active Member
Feb 18, 2020
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Hi I have an similar HP Box at Home. The have maybe a Port for Power. Is there a good source to see what the should put out for Volatge?
 

diem

New Member
Mar 1, 2020
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Hi I have an similar HP Box at Home. The have maybe a Port for Power. Is there a good source to see what the should put out for Volatge?
If you are referring to the two SAS power headers on the motherboard highlighted in this diagram: https://www.moddiy.com/product_images/o/536/TB2Mg_ilpXXXXXEXXXXXXXXXXXX_!!178822602__66189_zoom.jpg then, per my earlier mail on this thread, the only source I found online is this: HP Proliant DL380 G6 @ pinouts.ru

As you can see, it suggests that the connector supplies 3.3 and 5V. I am not 100% sure it is correct though, so my recommendation would be you use a multi-meter and check the voltages on all the pins. Why do I doubt it? It's to do with SAS/SATA power connection standards and the cable I bought (listed in my earlier post). There are three power connection standards:

Full-size is 15 pin and supplies 3.3, 5 and 12V (What You Need to Know About SATA 15-Pin Power Connector Pinouts)
Micro is 9 pin and supplies 3.3 and 5V
Slimline is 6 pin and supplies only 3.3V

The cable I have bought uses the physical standard of the full-size connector but, if this pinout is correct, it must be using the electrical standard of the micro connector. I plan to post back on this thread when I receive the cable just to let you all know how it works out.

HTH,

Ian


SAS/SATA power connector standards:
 
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Your name or

Active Member
Feb 18, 2020
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I just looking for a "new" server who will be maybe a refurbished HP one. My problem is also I need internal power for a USB Card. That's why I am not sure if I should buy a refurbished one or a home made who I choose a psu with enught outputs.
Greetings for a Fujitsu Storage event.
 

diem

New Member
Mar 1, 2020
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As promised, reporting back to say that the cable I bought does exactly what I need; the second power header on the HP motherboard apparently has all the voltages available to power SAS (and therefore also SATA) hard drives. The ones I have are 10K spindle speed so relatively higher current requirements and still no issues at all.

I'd also like to point out that the two months I waited for delivery of the cable is no reflection on moddiy.com - the delay was entirely due to COVID-19 affecting deliveries worldwide.

I'm one happy customer, and just starting my FreeNAS installation journey now :)