Hello folks,
Could use some advice & verification before I spend the money and upgrade. Can you help?
WHAT I HAVE: DL380 G7, 8 discs, optical drive & a P410 controller upgraded with 512MB BBWC module.
WHAT I WANT: Upgrade to 16 discs.
WHAT I THINK I NEED TO DO:
- Remove the optical drive.
- Install 8 drive SFF drive cage (Part# 516914-B21)
- Install an additional P410 controller upgraded with 512MB BBWC module.
- Install 8 more SAS drives into the new bays.
- Access the RAID controller setup utility at boot up to create another couple of arrays (4 discs in each).
Overall, is this correct? If not where have I gone wrong? Assuming it's correct, is this a difficult process? Do you know of any documentation which tells you exactly how to do this? I'm more a software guy than hardware. If there's any way to connect the wrong cable to the wrong port and end up frying my DL380, I'll find it. I'm clever that way! I run a pair of 460W PSUs. Is that still sufficient going from 8 discs to 16? What about cooling? Anything I should be concerned about? I have a box fan aimed directly at the front of my DL380 and it seems happy enough with that plus normal home AC.
I'm apprehensive because some cage listings talk about a back plane and cables, others don't. I just want to make sure I buy everything I need first time.
Finally, I originally bought my DL380 with the optical drive because I needed to load/install software from disc. I vaguely remember being told there's an alternative way to boot from/load software using a thumb drive connected to an internal USB. Is that correct?
Thank you so much in advance for your help & expertise.