HP Server SCSI Hard Drive Trays

[jim]

Just wondering if anybody knows anything about this, servers aren't really my best field.

I've got an HP ProLiant ML350 G3, which needs some additional storage - I know I could get drives from HP, but it would (seemingly) be far cheaper to just get a pair of Seagates/whatever and put them in. Only problem is that while I've got two free slots to use, I don't have two free drive trays, because HP just supplied blanking plates.

What's the best way to go about it? Can I get the right trays cheaply and just pop a couple of SCSIs into them, or do I need to buy HP drives?

[madman045]

I would google the tray part number, also if you can find them on ebay, should probably cost you anything from £5-£10 each for the trays plus whatever drives you go for

[badass]

Business or personal use?

For business use, don't be a pikey and buy the proper HP drives. The HP drives are properly tested on HP servers.
For personal use, yes you can just buy the trays and stick other HDD's in, provided they have the correct connectors.

[oolon]

I have put a non hp drive in a DL360 and it had no problems seeing it, the controller is an LSI one with HP firmware I believe. As to the trays, EBay is a good source for them.

[jim]

Business or personal use?

For business use, don't be a pikey and buy the proper HP drives. The HP drives are properly tested on HP servers.
For personal use, yes you can just buy the trays and stick other HDD's in, provided they have the correct connectors.

It's not personal use, but the price difference is too great to ignore.

[kungpo]

As per badass - don't scrimp if the server is intended to be used as a server in a production environment. The disks in the caddys are higher grade than the ones used in desktops. Also, it will invalidate the warranty if you use non-hp drives in the machine. Are you using SAS drives or the older SCSI disks?

There are a number of parts distributors out there that sell HP disks considerably cheaper than the regular channel. Look up pulsar on line and see what they can offer. I get my HP drives from them for around 40% less than the likes of Ingram Micro / C2K etc.

[badass]

Just checked the age of the ML350 G3 and as I suspected the they are 4-5 years old.
That plus the fact that you are even considering using non genuine HP drives on a production server proves you either work for a pikey company, have a pikey incompetent IT manager or are wasting your time even asking this question.

Which is it?



p.s. in case you haven't noticed, I hate pikeyness in IT. It is always short sighted as it always costs the company more in the medium to long term than doing things properly in the first place.

[i4000]

If you're talking about an ML350 G3 using the standard drive cage then you need LVD SCSI disks, or disks with an LVD SCSI connector. Saying that you should still be able to pick up disks cheaper than HP prices. Cheapest place I've found is eBay where you should find HP branded disks with their drive trays for substantially cheaper than Hp sell them for.

[jim]

As per badass - don't scrimp if the server is intended to be used as a server in a production environment. The disks in the caddys are higher grade than the ones used in desktops. Also, it will invalidate the warranty if you use non-hp drives in the machine. Are you using SAS drives or the older SCSI disks?

There are a number of parts distributors out there that sell HP disks considerably cheaper than the regular channel. Look up pulsar on line and see what they can offer. I get my HP drives from them for around 40% less than the likes of Ingram Micro / C2K etc.

Production environment? Sorry, servers aren't my strong point, so I'm not quite with you on that one. We're talking active directory/dhcp/dns, plus some remote installation packages, and not a lot else - the thing's only got 36GB of storage as it stands, and that's for everything. I'd be very surprised if there's any warranty remaining on them either, so I'm not all that worried about it in that regard. They're Ultra320 (IIRC) for the record.

Just checked the age of the ML350 G3 and as I suspected the they are 4-5 years old.
That plus the fact that you are even considering using non genuine HP drives on a production server proves you either work for a pikey company, have a pikey incompetent IT manager or are wasting your time even asking this question.

Which is it?

p.s. in case you haven't noticed, I hate pikeyness in IT. It is always short sighted as it always costs the company more in the medium to long term than doing things properly in the first place.

It's not so much a "pikey company", I believe it's commonly known as a school. And I don't have an IT manager... so if there is going to be one, I guess it would have to be me . Nah, I understand where you're coming from... the fact of the matter is that they obviously have to run on a fairly tight budget, and the previous IT guy either didn't notice, or didn't think it relevant that one of the servers had only 400mb of disk space left, so it hasn't been budgeted for.

We're running RAID 1, so I'm going to need two of whatever drive we get - and ultimately if I ask for drives (and this goes for most things in the dept) which cost too much, I'll probably just end up with nothing. If there was money available, of course I'd go HP, I just may not have that luxury. I think IT simply doesn't come all that high up the list of priorities, which is fairly converse to a typical business scenario. At the end of the day, it would be great to sell it off and start again a bit - a new server could easily do the jobs of both of the current ones, with a lot less heat and hassle - but I don't think anything like that could happen for at least 3-4 years.

If you're talking about an ML350 G3 using the standard drive cage then you need LVD SCSI disks, or disks with an LVD SCSI connector. Saying that you should still be able to pick up disks cheaper than HP prices. Cheapest place I've found is eBay where you should find HP branded disks with their drive trays for substantially cheaper than Hp sell them for.

Hmm, thanks for that, advice is appreciated. I think I'm going to have to ring around a bit, that certainly wasn't the message I was receiving from the firm that are behind most of our systems. Mind you, nobody knows everything in this business. Cheers.

[i4000]

You should be able to pick up 72GB disks for somewhere in the region of £20-£40 each, and 146GB for £70-£90, do a quick ebay search for "hp u320 scsi" there's plenty on there, some if it new / boxed as well.

[kungpo]

Did you get any resolution for this? I have a couple of the drive cages if you want them (from failed hard drives)...

[jim]

Did you get any resolution for this? I have a couple of the drive cages if you want them (from failed hard drives)...

Hopefully, fingers crossed, I have a couple of trays sorted out... I'm not overly confident though so it may take a short while to find out what's happening.

[abaxas]

Since I'm <100 posts, I'll not make an offer on the two spare trays I have.

You know what to do, if you need to.

[kungpo]

If you have the time, come and get the ones I have (FOC). They'll only be slung otherwise. In Clapham, so not a million miles from you.

[dave87]

I would like to point out that the reasons we restrict the FS Forum to 100 posts and to limit sales to that forum is for the protection of members.

I have no doubt Abaxas' offer (or non offer as it may be) is entirely genuine, but as I say, we have the rules there to protect everyone involved.

Cheers,

[badass]

It's not so much a "pikey company", I believe it's commonly known as a school. And I don't have an IT manager... so if there is going to be one, I guess it would have to be me . Nah, I understand where you're coming from... the fact of the matter is that they obviously have to run on a fairly tight budget, and the previous IT guy either didn't notice, or didn't think it relevant that one of the servers had only 400mb of disk space left, so it hasn't been budgeted for.

You have my sympathy. Do you get paid overtime? If so, consider the cheapo untested disks. If not, don't ever bother letting them know of the pikey alternatives. The overtime involved in clearing up messes caused by this kind of cost cutting ususlly eclipse any savings made. If you don't get paid overtime, by going the pikey route, they are saying your personal time is worthless.
It is acceptable to cut costs a fair bit for education networks provided they don;t expect you to stay late working for free to sort any problems.