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    upgrade for HP server

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    • DashrenderD
      Dashrender
      last edited by

      I'm rebuilding my HP DL380p Gen8 from the ground up (software wise).

      I'm looking over my config and I have an integrated P420i RAID controller with 512 Meg cache onboard battery backup, 25% Read/75% Write

      I'm wondering if it's worth buying something like a P812, seen here on ebay.

      Is it worth it?

      I have eight HP 300GB 6G SAS 10K SFF SC Enterprise HDD 652564-B21 in RAID 10

      Since the server is currently inactive, I want to run some IOPs tests on it as well.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • gjacobseG
        gjacobse
        last edited by

        @Dashrender said:

        HP DL380p Gen8

        Looking over some of the pricing on eBay for one seems that they are still in good standing for now.

        A investment of of $120 (shipping) isn't that much to to do.

        I'd say something like that should be acceptable.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DashrenderD
          Dashrender
          last edited by

          From what I can tell, the only thing I gain is going from 512 Megs RAM to 1 GB. The P812 can handle more drives, sure, but I doubt I will ever install an external DAS chassis

          scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • scottalanmillerS
            scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            No, not worth it. Except for more cache, the "power" of a RAID card is all lost unless you are doing RAID 6, and then only on large arrays. Or if you have so many SSDs that you are overrunning a lesser card.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • scottalanmillerS
              scottalanmiller @Dashrender
              last edited by

              @Dashrender said:

              From what I can tell, the only thing I gain is going from 512 Megs RAM to 1 GB. The P812 can handle more drives, sure, but I doubt I will ever install an external DAS chassis

              You can get more memory on your 400 series as well.

              DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • DashrenderD
                Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                last edited by

                @scottalanmiller said:

                @Dashrender said:

                From what I can tell, the only thing I gain is going from 512 Megs RAM to 1 GB. The P812 can handle more drives, sure, but I doubt I will ever install an external DAS chassis

                You can get more memory on your 400 series as well.

                I saw some addon cards on ebay for that, it looked like the card gave you a more or less standard memory slot - is this what you are talking about?

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                • scottalanmillerS
                  scottalanmiller
                  last edited by

                  I always do it before the server ships, so not sure. But that controller goes up to 1GB of RAM.

                  DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • DashrenderD
                    Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                    last edited by

                    @scottalanmiller said:

                    I always do it before the server ships, so not sure. But that controller goes up to 1GB of RAM.

                    Yeah I can see all kinds of these servers with 1 GB cache cards installed, but so far haven't been able to find the cache card.

                    Not sure it would be worth $300 MSRP to double from 512 though assuming I had to go the retail route.

                    scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • scottalanmillerS
                      scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                      last edited by

                      @Dashrender said:

                      @scottalanmiller said:

                      I always do it before the server ships, so not sure. But that controller goes up to 1GB of RAM.

                      Yeah I can see all kinds of these servers with 1 GB cache cards installed, but so far haven't been able to find the cache card.

                      Not sure it would be worth $300 MSRP to double from 512 though assuming I had to go the retail route.

                      not sure either, VERY dependent on workload. But the "other" card, the P8xx series that you were looking at, that upgraded cache size would be its sole benefit.

                      DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • DashrenderD
                        Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                        last edited by

                        @scottalanmiller said:

                        @Dashrender said:

                        @scottalanmiller said:

                        I always do it before the server ships, so not sure. But that controller goes up to 1GB of RAM.

                        Yeah I can see all kinds of these servers with 1 GB cache cards installed, but so far haven't been able to find the cache card.

                        Not sure it would be worth $300 MSRP to double from 512 though assuming I had to go the retail route.

                        not sure either, VERY dependent on workload. But the "other" card, the P8xx series that you were looking at, that upgraded cache size would be its sole benefit.

                        Right - I was assuming that moving to the P812 would only be giving me more cache.. might be worth it for around $100, but then again.. maybe now.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • scottalanmillerS
                          scottalanmiller
                          last edited by

                          Yeah, for $100, maybe. Sucks when 512MB of RAM is worth, like what, $10 tops? If that. $2 maybe?

                          DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DashrenderD
                            Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                            last edited by

                            @scottalanmiller said:

                            Yeah, for $100, maybe. Sucks when 512MB of RAM is worth, like what, $10 tops? If that. $2 maybe?

                            Exactly. I wonder why most of these seem to be limited to 1 or 2 GB of cache - 8 GB stick today costs what? $50? less?

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                            • scottalanmillerS
                              scottalanmiller
                              last edited by

                              Partially because it is NVRAM, so a lot more expensive to make than VolRAM. It's a different type of RAM because you can't have it losing state if the power fails.

                              DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • DashrenderD
                                Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                                last edited by

                                @scottalanmiller said:

                                Partially because it is NVRAM, so a lot more expensive to make than VolRAM. It's a different type of RAM because you can't have it losing state if the power fails.

                                Then what purpose does the battery serve?

                                scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • scottalanmillerS
                                  scottalanmiller @Dashrender
                                  last edited by

                                  @Dashrender said:

                                  @scottalanmiller said:

                                  Partially because it is NVRAM, so a lot more expensive to make than VolRAM. It's a different type of RAM because you can't have it losing state if the power fails.

                                  Then what purpose does the battery serve?

                                  There is no battery on modern RAID cards. I think our last battery on HP was around G5. Our G7 definitely is batteryless.

                                  DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • DashrenderD
                                    Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                                    last edited by Dashrender

                                    @scottalanmiller said:

                                    @Dashrender said:

                                    @scottalanmiller said:

                                    Partially because it is NVRAM, so a lot more expensive to make than VolRAM. It's a different type of RAM because you can't have it losing state if the power fails.

                                    Then what purpose does the battery serve?

                                    There is no battery on modern RAID cards. I think our last battery on HP was around G5. Our G7 definitely is batteryless.

                                    Well, this is a DL380p Gen8 and it has a battery - I can take a picture after my phone issue is solved if you like. 🙂

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                                    • scottalanmillerS
                                      scottalanmiller
                                      last edited by

                                      Maybe they still offer an entry level card. that would imply that you can't upgrade it because it isn't the same card as the 1GB one.

                                      DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • DashrenderD
                                        Dashrender @scottalanmiller
                                        last edited by

                                        @scottalanmiller said:

                                        Maybe they still offer an entry level card. that would imply that you can't upgrade it because it isn't the same card as the 1GB one.

                                        OH I am pretty sure I can't upgrade the current card - I'd have to simply replace it. It's a plug in card that goes into a slot that looks very similar to a RAM slot.

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                                        • DashrenderD
                                          Dashrender
                                          last edited by

                                          This one looks like it might work, but it still has a battery connector even though it's flash based.

                                          travisdh1T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • travisdh1T
                                            travisdh1 @Dashrender
                                            last edited by

                                            @Dashrender said:

                                            This one looks like it might work, but it still has a battery connector even though it's flash based.

                                            "flash backed" means it'll store the contents of it's ram to flash when it goes to battery power, or am I missing something again?

                                            DashrenderD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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