HP ProLiant ML350 G6 harddrive upgrade

Destination · 6 Jun 2012 at 16:36

We (my work) will need to upgrade the amount of storage we have relatively soon.

Our server is a HP ProLiant ML350 G6 iirc.
I believe we currently run 4 300GB SAS drives in raid 5, so we can make use of 900Gb of space.

We will need to expand our storage options, previously when we ran an M5, we were able to move the single folder that caused us the bulk of the datastorage issues to a separate array within the server.

I think this might be possible again, but if say that folder was currently sitting at 600Gb and due to software limitations can't be split, or changed into separate folders, all info must be held in the one place, what storage options would be possible?

I expect we might be adding 30-40Gb a month to this folders size, I will attempt to determine accurately just how much we have added. I don't want to install an array of 4*500Gb drives to find it's full this time next year.

We run SBS2008 if that makes any difference, with around 17 workstations fed from the server.

#Chri5# · 6 Jun 2012 at 22:06

What RAID controller is it in the ML350? I'd guess at a P410i with either 256MB or 512MB cache but does it have BBWC? Would need to double check on the P410i but I know on the P400i you can't expand an array if it doesn't have a BBWC module - you just don't see the options in the ACU.

Destination · 7 Jun 2012 at 19:03

Its not so much expanding, more creating an entire new array in addition to the main one.
What size do sas drives come in nowadays, and what sort of cost are they?

What do big companies do for large amounts of storage? Do they have dataservers attached to their working servers?

#Chri5# · 7 Jun 2012 at 20:51

The ML350 G6 has 8 SFF bays, so you could add another 4 HDs and create another logical drive (eg RAID5) with them. HP parts are:

619291-B21 - 900GB SFF SAS 10k
581286-B21 - 600GB SFF SAS 10k
581284-B21 - 450GB SFF SAS 10k
507127-B21 - 300GB SFF SAS 10k

Googling the part codes should give you an idea on price. The sweet-spot on price at the moment is probably the 450GB or 600GB drives. This route is probably the easiest expansion option - creating the new logical drive in the HP ACU is dead easy.

These days, "big" companies are going to have a SAN to provide unified storage for a variety of tasks.

Another option for you would be to add another RAID controller like a Smart Array P411 and an external disk chassis like the HP 70 Modular Smart Array (MSA). That gives you space for 25 x 2.5" SAS drives and thus plenty of options on capacity and cost. This sort of setup is usually reference as DAS or Direct Attached Storage.

morfmedia · 11 Jun 2012 at 20:37

The 600gb models don't seem too reliable, we've had quite a few die prematurely very early on their life

We've also bought a few MSA2600 with 30TB installed, pretty good value for money.

Investigate dfs as that can amalgamate folders on different drives / servers into one path. Not sure if sbs supports it though