As secondary Controller for the HA Storage Cluster systems I’ve ordered two HP Smart Array P400 SAS RAID Controllers. Primary controller in each system will be a HP P800. The reason for the P400 was simple. This controller is used by many people outside of HP systems and has been tested very well. Another nice point is that the P400 is quite cheap and performance good. Many online management features are supported like: Online Capacity Expansion, Online RAID LEVEL Migration, Online Stripe Size Migration, Online Spares (Global) and User Selectable Expand and Rebuild Priority. Other features like NCQ.
Specification overview of the HP P400:
Dimensions (not including bracket) |
Low Profile PCIe Form Factor 6.61 in x 2.75 in x 0.7 in (16.8 cm x 7.0 cm x 1.8 cm) |
Disk Drive and Enclosure Interface | 3Gb/s SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) |
3Gb/s SATA (Serial ATA) | |
SAS Connectors | 2 internal (SFF8484) x4 wide port connectors |
Cache Memory Speed | DDR2-533MHz with 40 or 72-bit wide bus provides up to 4.2 GB/s maximum bandwidth. |
Server Interface | x8 2.5G PCIe provides 2GB/s maximum bandwidth |
SAS Speed | x8 3G SAS provides 2.4GB/s maximum bandwidth |
Cache Memory | 40-bit 256MB ECC protected cache (72-bit 512MB module upgrades available); transportable with battery-backed upgrade |
Logical Drives Supported | Up to 32 logical drives |
Maximum Logical Drive Capacity | Greater than 2TB |
Host Memory Addressing | 64-bit, supporting greater than 4GB server memory space |
RAID Support | RAID 6 with ADG (Advanced Data Guarding) requires Battery Backed Write Cache Upgrade |
RAID 5 (Distributed Data Guarding) | |
RAID 1+0 (Striping & Mirroring) | |
RAID 0 (Striping) | |
Upgradeable Firmware | Upgradeable Firmware with recovery ROM feature |
The BBWC and 512MB Cache Modul form the HP P400:
The Cache Modul uses DDR2 memory with ECC.
The Smart Array BBWC Battery is a 0.3kg heavy lithium battery. It has a capacity of 500 miliamp hours.