HPE E208i-p Raid Card

[kev2021]

HI all,

So it seems the only raid card supported by HP is the HPE E208i-p raid card.  Whilst I’m loathed spent the £200 on the card, it is looking more like I may not have a choice as I’m not sure storing them on the nas and loading them etc s going to be overly viable.

So, I’ve started to look at the card but I wondered if anyone could advise on the below points.

It looks like the E208i-p has only 2 min SAS ports but is capable of connecting up to 8 drives to it.

SO can i setup my drives as follows:

RADI Card Port 1 min sas to x4 sata cable connects to 2 Drives 1 & 2 (mirrored)  and drives 3 & 4 (mirrored).

Or would I need to set them up as:-

RAID Card port 1 min sas to x4 sata cable connects to Drives 1 & 2 (mirrored)

Raid Card port 2 min sas to x4 sata cable connects to Drives 3 & 4 (mirrored)

I’m waiting till the server & ilo arrive so I can see how they fit in and then confirm i have room for the raid card.

Thanks

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

I forget, is all the data yours or is it customers with required SLA’s etc ?

If data is yours, then does it really matter regarding performance as the associated cost may not be necessary or could be used for more / better storage etc. ?

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[kev2021]

The data is mine but need it to work reliably as some my VMs run databases etc and don’t want them to become corrupt etc due to running from nas or if something happens on my network and the microserver loses access to the VMs, even if its due to a update to vmware or nas box so I’m leaning more towards getting the raid card so as not to ruin the experience etc as the gen8 has been rock solid and works as intended.

Just unsure of the config to setup as mentioned above, all 4 drives i port on card wok ok considering will be 2 raid setups?

The performance issue on the card i think is only a issue if a drive fails, it takes a time to rebuild the array, but on plus side mine is a mirror of 2tb drives so I’m hoping wont take too long as i suspect some people are using  these as raid 5 with probably much larger drives hence reports taking 2 weeks etc to rebuild array.

Thanks

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Interesting question, the  E208i-p has only 2 min SAS ports as you say, but does support Mixed mode (RAID logic drives and HBA physical drives simultaneously)

So I believe either option should work but I would also consider using both SAS ports,  port 1 for disks (1 and 2)  and the Port 2 for disks (3 and 4) which is a mirror of port 1 (disk 1 and 2).

Seems a good option for sharing the load but does increase risk in one of the Ports failure,

Alas, I do not actually know if the E208i-p will support any of these option

Have a chat with HP’s Partner Support Experts (https://partner.hpe.com/)

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[kev2021]

Thanks, the drives are separate mirrors, i.e

Disk 1 & 2 = Mirrored OS drives containing vmware esxi only

Disk 3 & 4 = mirrored drives containing virtual machines

I’ve just been looking around and I see I have a Samsung 850 Evo SSD and a Samsung 860 EVO SSD, both 250GB in size.  Would it be ok to mirror these drives for running esxi?  I know the size is the same but usually they prefer identical drives but these are effectively 1 model out 850 vs 860… The 860 is in the box and says V-NAND SSD 860 EVO, unsure if the 850 is V-NAND SSD as that has recently come out of a old testing laptop that I probably used half a dozen times and then has been left so the drive should be fine as not much use :)

Thanks

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

Thanks, the drives are separate mirrors, i.e Disk 1 & 2 = Mirrored OS drives containing vmware esxi only Disk 3 & 4 = mirrored drives containing virtual machines

Disks 1 and 3 could be connected via Port 1 and Disks 2 and 4 could be connected by Port 2 keeping the original parity scenario but via different ports. (sharing the load on the RAID card)

——

Both the  Samsung 850 Evo SSD and 860 support Samsungs cells stacked architecture I believe,  as they are the same size and architecture, should work in a mirror set

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/850evo/

—-

 

 

 

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[kev2021]

Thanks, Do you know if the min sas to SATA cables come with the card, I not been able to find out what’s included so i have a feeling I will need to buy the cable(s) as unsure if the mcroserver comes with a min sas cable or not in it so will have to wait and see.

Company says dispatched but no tracking info yet and it been 3 or 4 days now so will wait and see.

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Bet you wish you chose a Dell Server now

The   E208i-p will not come with any cables I would assume as you could be purchasing a replacement/failed card and this adds to cost, but should include a high profile bracket, and low profile bracket.

Where ever you purchase the RAID card from, have a chat with them and ask them to add cables you need to the order, they may not charge to secure the order,

Likewise, wait until the Server has arrived as extra cables could be already included with the server .

‘But I could be wrong about a great many things  ‘life is to short’

 

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[kev2021]

Thanks, yes going to wait till it comes as I’m going to get another 16GB ram for it but waiting to see what it comes with as i see it works with ECC and non-ECC ram apparently so want to be sure i order the same.  I have a feeling it may have a mini sas to SATA cable in it and the onboard is min sas port as they must know most people will raid it and use the boxes for vmware installs so would make sense but hence why I’m holding fire getting them.  The cables I see some, not overly cheap but hey ho… once you start these things, you kinda just gotta keep going…  at least once I’ve got it all, server should be good for 5 years at least :)

Prob will use 2 x SSD drives to setup OS on as will need to do that first, then I’m hoping I can simply remove the 2 x 2TB drives in raid 1 from gen 8 and connect up to gen 10 and it detects the drives and the mirror raid and just works as i don’t really want to copy all my VMs off again, re-setup the raid 1 and then move them all back.

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

Good luck and keep us posted as to progress 

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[kev2021]

Ilo arrived today, but that’s all so far LOL….

Not much I can do with that at present :)

Kev

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[kev2021]

Hiya,

 

Server arrived today, ilo fitted, now just ordered memory and conveniently the raid card is out of stock but found 1 place saying they have it for del from Friday but when ordered, wont get till next week so its all on hold.  Also ordered 2 drive caddies to install SSDs into the box.

Also looks like SATA cable is a MINI SAS so that’s good, just crossing my fingers is reaches the port ok and all is fine :)

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

kev2021 wrote:

and conveniently the raid card is out of stock

Always the way,

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[kev2021]

Hi all,

Update here…

So it seems the place I ordered the card from, despite saying that had it and could delivery it tomorrow, turns out I get a email earlier today saying basically they have checked and they don’t have the card so someone would call me within 2 days to discuss alternatives or I could cancel it.  So, knowing that HP only recommend that 1 raid card, I decided to login and cancel and get a refund, however, no cancel/refund button, just a number to call.

So, call the number (0871 number), only to discover my mobile telling me I have to make a payment in order to call the number as its not part of my package….. never had this before some obviously when I renewed, someone changed something, anyway got on live chat to them, told them and they have upped my limit (was set to 0) as previously i could call any number and they simply charged me for the call on my next bill.

 

So then managed to call them up, seems they don’t actually hold the stock, they have numerous companies that supply and it seems some suppliers are not selling stuff to them or they are having a hard time getting the items so I did check as the price had gone up a fair bit on there site and it said order within 2 hrs to get next day delivery.  So she checked and they could supply so I got a refund for the one they couldn’t supply and paid for this one at the higher price.  Now the car was £202 total, then it went to 137+VAT so approx. £170 when i ordered it and now its around £245 total so I can’t help but think someone made a error when updating the price and hence they decided to say they don’t have it rather than simply saying they couldn’t sell it at the £170 price due to it being incorrect but hey ho, effectively, i bought the box etc now so i need to get the car as otherwise its useless to me so kinda don’t have many options so fortunately the lady said they can deliver it tomorrow for free due to inconvenience so that was a nice touch :)

Now I’m waiting on the memory to arrive as everything else is coming tomorrow or should be anyway…

Kev

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[UK Sentinel]

You are having fun with this project, hopefully tomorrow will be ‘D’ (delivery day) 

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