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V. Romanov
Asked: 2013-12-23 06:11:54 +0800 CST

Using consumer grade hard drives in a server

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My company needs to upgrade a couple of (very) old servers we are currently running, but we are kinda strapped for cash.

We got a great offer on a pair of HP DL360 G6 servers, but the hard drive cost for either SAS or enterprise SATA is ridicuouls, nearly doubling the price of the server.

I remember using consumer grade SATA drives in servers at one of my past workplaces, but for some reason I cannot find any info in this -

I remember the server SATA connection is different from the consumer sata connection (the consumer one has separate slots for power/data while the server one is continuous)

So the question is - nevermind the performance/reliability issues - can I physically make it work? Do I need some sort of adapter for the SATA connection? A special tray or controller or something?

Thanks!

hard-drive

1 Answers

  1. Your company has no admin? Because:

    I remember the server SATA connection is different from the consumer sata connection

    Well, there is NO difference. In fact, the SATA standard is the SATA standard. There is only one. And as SATA also defines the connector - there can thus not be a difference fo "enterprise SATA".

    YOu likely mix up SAS with "enterprise SATA".

    SATA is SATA and every SATA disc fits into a SAS slot if it can physically do so (2.5" in 2.5"). COmpatibility is another issue - especially older SAS backplanes are known to be - ah - problematic with SATA discs with all kinds of compatibility issues.

    That said, we really do use the setup you have, too - I find the price of 1tb+ SAS discs to be funny, and not something I pay for my storage layer when I can easily take 1.5tb 2.5" SATA discs and they work. Just adding another 12x1.5tb HGST discs - there is one model approoved for 24/7 and I expect no issues to arise.

    Beware of BIOS level issues - HP servers have IIRC issues running on HP discs.

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