ML350 and full set of disks

bigredshark · 20 Jan 2009 at 15:39

A quick one guys, I've started prepping an ML350 with a full set of 72GB 15k SFF SAS drives, after a few hours one of the disks showed as failed on the indicator light. No sweat I thought, happens occassionally, I'll just replace it...

So I popped it out and as I grabbed it to extract it, it became apparent it was about to burst into flames (which resulted in much swearing and throwing said drive across the lab).

Basically, after a couple of hours running, fully populated with 15k drives, the drives become too hot to touch (I have burns on my fingers from that first one, which smells slightly of burning). I suspect left to themselves they'd all fail fairly sharpish.

Does anybody have any experience of this, or running an ML350 fully populated with 10k SFF drives , these will be cooler but I can't imagine that much cooler, I'll consider using these as I need this box fairly urgently.

and I suppose I should add I recommend against this configuration for now, unless you want to test your fire suppression systems. I've also summoned an HP engineer for his opinion...

#Chri5# · 20 Jan 2009 at 16:42

Failed fan? Have you got the optional redundant fan kit? There's nothing in the QuickSpecs though to say you need it for a fully loaded HD setup though.

bigredshark · 20 Jan 2009 at 17:50

Yeah, I can't see a mount for the redundant fan kit anywhere near the hard disks though...

Nothing failed, the damn thing is brand new!

zetec452 · 20 Jan 2009 at 19:55

Does the server have two drive enclosures (16 SFF disks)?

Had an ML350 in a few weeks ago and it was fine with eight 15k SFF disks.

Origin · 20 Jan 2009 at 20:04

Where are you putting drives 9 & 10. As far as I can see the G5 SFF still only supports 8 drives internally in the drive cage.
Hot Plug LFF (3.5") Serial ATA (SATA) 6TB 6 x 1TB
Hot Plug LFF (3.5") Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6TB 6 x 1TB
Hot Plug SFF (2.5") SATA 2.0TB 8 x 250GB
Hot Plug SFF (2.5") SAS 2.4TB 8 x 300GB

bigredshark · 21 Jan 2009 at 10:29

There's only 8 drives in it. Which is the maximum you're correct. Having run it overnight, it looks fine, so I suspect the problem was courtesy of running it with the top removed in the lab (which I think is fairly rubbish - an hour with the top removed and the hard drives start melting - great!). Either way HP will be here in a few hours to give me their pronouncement and replace all the dead bits...

#Chri5# · 21 Jan 2009 at 12:17

Don't know about the ML350 G5 but I've seen other ProLiants have warnings on the chassis (on the side panel) to say don't run the server without the lid for more than a few minutes (as it messes up the airflow).

Liquidfox · 21 Jan 2009 at 12:26

I know for sure the DL360s have big warning signs saying "You run that, without this, and boom."

Or something to that effect

Deathwish · 21 Jan 2009 at 18:54

We have some ML370 G5s with 8x 146SFF disks and so far no flames!

The only ML350 we have just has 4x 146 disks in it and they seem to run cool enough. Perhaps a combination of airflow and disk being slightly dodgy?

Curiosityx · 21 Jan 2009 at 19:40

bigredshark said:
There's only 8 drives in it. Which is the maximum you're correct. Having run it overnight, it looks fine, so I suspect the problem was courtesy of running it with the top removed in the lab (which I think is fairly rubbish - an hour with the top removed and the hard drives start melting - great!). Either way HP will be here in a few hours to give me their pronouncement and replace all the dead bits...

I wouldnt mention you left the side off the case as im quite confident it voids the warrenty, same goes if you dont use filler pannels for unpopulated drive bays. Ive seen this of several occasions although after deploying many of DL320, 360, 380 and the ML range for the last several years ive yet to see a disk show the same symptoms as described here.

Origin · 21 Jan 2009 at 19:55

Curiosityx said:
I wouldnt mention you left the side off the case as im quite confident it voids the warrenty, same goes if you dont use filler pannels for unpopulated drive bays. Ive seen this of several occasions although after deploying many of DL320, 360, 380 and the ML range for the last several years ive yet to see a disk show the same symptoms as described here.

Absolutely correct. All servers and rack equipment are designed to be run with any fillers or blanks in place for correct operation and airflow.

bigredshark · 21 Jan 2009 at 21:24

Curiosityx said:
I wouldnt mention you left the side off the case as im quite confident it voids the warrenty, same goes if you dont use filler pannels for unpopulated drive bays. Ive seen this of several occasions although after deploying many of DL320, 360, 380 and the ML range for the last several years ive yet to see a disk show the same symptoms as described here.

Oh quite, I won't be mentioning that to them. I've actually run DL380s without the top for a fair while (then again their fan setup is much better than the ML350) so I thought I'd like get away with it on what is essentially a tower server...

We'll know better next time then!