By: John Stutsman
Figure 1 — HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 with 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD attached to ODD SATA port (Bay 5) and powered from 4-pin FDD connector and two 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001s in Bays 1 and 2
The HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 is designed to accommodate a low profile optical disk drive (“ODD”) via an ODD SATA port (Bay 5) on the system board and a 4-pin FDD connector from the power supply unit (“PSU”). In “Attaching a HDD to the ODD SATA Port in a HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2” I learned that, like in the MicroServer, this ODD SATA port and 4-pin FDD connector could be used to attach an additional hard disk drive (“HDD”) that I could manage with the HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller. This opened up an interesting possibility of using a single drive RAID0 SSD as the OS drive attached to the ODD SATA port and using Bays 1 and 2 for a couple of 3TB drives in RAID1 for a data drive. While the ODD SATA port is a SATA II (3Gbps) it would still provide higher performance using a SSD than a HDD.
Figure 2 shows an empty spot for the Samsung 840 Pro, in the place where a low profile ODD would go if installed, and using a SATA cable (with 180 degree or straight connectors at both ends), a Dell MX714 FDD to SATA Power Converter cable (“Dell MX714”) – see Figure 5, and some electrical tape I installed the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I use HP’s Smart Storage Administrator (“SSA”) to create a single disk RAID0 Logical Drive 01 on the Dynamic Smart Array B120i in the HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2. The single disk is a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD that is attached to the ODD SATA Port (identified in iLO as Port 5|Bay 5) – this would be my OS drive for Windows 8.1.
Figure 2 – The RED Arrows mark the locations of the ODD SATA port (Port 5|Bay 5) on the System Board and the 4-pin FDD connector from the PSU. Yellow electrical tape is on the metal frame where the Samsung 840 Pro will to be placed.
Figure 3 – A close-up view of the ODD SATA port (Port 5|Bay 5) on the System Board with a HighPoint SATA cable installed.
Figure 4 – A close-up view of the 4-pin FDD Connector from the PSU
Figure 5 – The Dell MX714 Floppy FDD to SATA Power Converter Cable that I removed from my ProLiant Gen8 MicroServer temporarily to test in the ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2
Figure 6 – Close-up view of the Samsung 840 Pro installed with the SATA data cable connected, Dell MX714 connected for power, and secured to the DL320e Gen8 V2 with strips of electrical tape
Figure 7 – Another Close-up view of the Samsung 840 Pro installed with the SATA data cable connected, Dell MX714 connected for power, and secured to the DL320e Gen8 V2 with strips of electrical tape.
Figure 8 – The new Logical Drive 01 created with a single drive RAID0 by the HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller can be seen derived from the single physical drive, Port 5|Bay 5, 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD.
Video 1 – I attach a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD to the SATA ODD port (Bay 5) while also installing two 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001’s in drive Bays 1 & 2 of the HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2.
Video 2 – I use HP’s Smart Storage Administrator to create a single disk RAID0 Logical Drive 01 on the Dynamic Smart Array B120i in a HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2. The single disk is a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD that is attached to the ODD SATA Port (identified in iLO as Port 5|Bay 5).
I had installed Windows 8.1 on my Gen8 MicroServer a number of times and found it relatively straightforward — so instead of installing a Server OS on the DL320e this time I chose to see how a Windows 8.1 installation would go on the ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2. It went very well!
Using iLO4, I manually installed Windows 8.1 onto Logical Drive 01 of the HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2. I downloaded CP022624.exe from HPs Driver download web site (Windows Server 2012 R2 drivers) for the DL320e (see reference at the end of this blog) and used the 7-Zip utility to remove the B120i drivers from the exe and place into a folder that I linked via iLO4 to the Windows 8.1 installer when asked for the storage drivers (see Video 3). After Windows 8.1 was installed I loaded the drivers for iLO, Maxtor, and the SSA (see reference at the end of this blog).
Video 3 – Using iLO4, I manually installed Windows 8.1 onto Logical Drive 01 of an HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2. I downloaded CP022624.exe from HPs Driver download web site for the DL320e (see reference below) and used the 7-Zip utility to remove the B120i drivers from the exe and place into a folder that I linked via iLO4 to the Windows 8.1 installer when asked for the storage drivers. After Windows 8.1 was installed I loaded the drivers for iLO, Maxtor, and the SSA.
I then use HP’s Smart Storage Administrator to create a RAID1 Logical Drive 02 on the Dynamic Smart Array B120i using two ST3000DM001’s located in Bays 1 & 2. Then I use Disk Management in Windows 8.1 to initialize Logical Drive 02 as GPT then I formatted it. Later I will do some performance testing.
Video 4 – After installing Windows 8.1 on Logical Drive 01 of a HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 I use HP’s Smart Storage Administrator to create a RAID1 Logical Drive 02 on the Dynamic Smart Array B120i using two ST3000DM001’s in Bays 1 & 2.
Figure 9 – The new Logical Drive 02 created with two physical ST3000DM001’s in RAID1 by the HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller can be seen below the single drive RAID0 Logical Drive 01
Figure 10 – The view within HP’s Smart Storage Administrator of the 2 Arrays on the Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller
I measured the performance of the Logical Drives 01 and 02 made with the Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller in the HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 using HDTune, ATTO, and CrystalDiskMark (“CDM”).
Figure 11– Performance of Logical Drive 01 which is the OS Drive 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD set up as a single drive RAID0 in the Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller running Windows 8.1. As can been seen particularly in CDM while the sustained transfer rates are capped at SATA II speeds the random read and write rates are excellent — substantially better than a typical HDD.
Figure 12 – Performance of Logical Drive 02 which is the RAID1 Data Drive made from 2 ST3000DM001’s set up in the Dynamic Smart Array B120i Controller
Current As-Built: Machine
- HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 Xeon E3-1280 v3
- 8GB ECC RAM
- OS: Windows 8.1
- OS Drive: 256GB RAID0 Logical Drive 01 made of 1 x 256GB Samsung 840 Pro attached to ODD SATA Port (Bay 5) on HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i RAID Controller
- Dell MX714 FDD to SATA Power Converter Cable
- Standard SATA cable 180 degrees (straight) both ends
- Data Drive: 3TB RAID1 Logical Drive 02 made of 2 x 3TB ST3000DM001 (Bays 1 & 2) on HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i RAID Controller
References:
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Drivers for HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 Server http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=5379529&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4168
B120i Drivers: CP022624.exe http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5379529&swItemId=MTX_09a49efe5daf4d74bb214f355d&swEnvOid=4168
7-Zip http://www.7-zip.org/
iLO Drivers: CP024529.exe http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5379529&swItemId=MTX_08989f8839a1412ca0a9561b2e&swEnvOid=4168
iLO Drivers: CP024617.exe http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5379529&swItemId=MTX_6aae0f1005a34654859da67e4a&swEnvOid=4168
Maxtor Drivers: CP022422.exe http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5379529&swItemId=MTX_2e56fd2e83d24867acb28acea4&swEnvOid=4168
SSA Drivers (HP SSA): I used CP020938.exe but the current version is CP024254.exe https://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5194887&swItemId=MTX_e4124c5963a3426fba009d33d3&swEnvOid=4168#tab1
SSA Drivers (HP SSACLI): I used CP020950.exe but the current version is CP024256.exe https://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5194887&swItemId=MTX_05d4c11e7ed3433e85c89ea604&swEnvOid=4168
SSA Drivers (HP SSADU): I used CP020952.exe but the current version is CP024258.exe https://h20566.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5194887&swItemId=MTX_f2b58c8ab0a04b489985b6ff71&swEnvOid=4168
Dell MX714 Floppy FDD to SATA Power Converter Cable http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-OEM-Dell-MX714-Floppy-FDD-to-Sata-Power-Converter-Cable-/400298253923?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d33a29e63
Attaching a HDD to the ODD SATA Port in a HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 v2 http://homeservershow.com/attaching-a-hdd-to-the-odd-sata-port-in-a-hp-proliant-dl320e-gen8-v2.html
Using SSD’s in a HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 http://homeservershow.com/using-ssds-in-a-hp-proliant-dl320e-gen8-v2.html
HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-dl320e-gen8-v2-and-windows-server-2012-r2.html
HP ProLiant DL320e Gen8 V2 and Windows Server Technical Preview http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-dl320e-gen8-v2-and-windows-server-technical-preview.html
Check out CSKenney’s Gen8 links thread in the HomeServerShow forums: http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5639-proliant-microserver-gen8-links/
Check out the Gen8 Blog postings: http://homeservershow.com/tag/gen-8
Check out the MicroServer Blog postings: http://homeservershow.com/tag/microserver
My DL320e Gen8 V2 Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn2DhE-6J02Swh-vU8vQGhdUrM-l6XEJs