| Q1. |
Why is HP offering the Modular Smart Array
50 Enclosure? |
| A1. |
HP realizes the importance of common platforms in the enterprise and is simplifying our product offerings for our customers. Commonality, reduced complexity, and reduced risk help to form the basic building blocks of the HP vision of storage as a utility. HP is committed to providing the latest technology to improve enterprise performance: the new Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure provides the latest technology (SAS) and increases the maximum data transfer rates per U of rack space |
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| Q2. |
Why should customers purchase the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A2. |
For increased storage performance per U of rack space at a low entry level price. At HP, we realize the storage enclosure is a key storage building block for your current and future data center. That is why the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure undergoes extensive testing and qualification to ensure the highest level of reliability, compatibility and interoperability. |
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| Q3. |
What is the difference between the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure and the current StorageWorks MSA30? |
| A3. |
The difference is MSA50 is the first storage enclosure to support the industry shift to SAS and SFF. SAS and SFF will be the Universal Drives in ProLiant going forward and will provide unique benefits such as density, higher IOPS per U, a lower power draw and the ability to mix SAS and SATA drives in the same Enclosure or Server backplane. |
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| Q4. |
What does it mean to mix and match SAS and SATA drives in the same Enclosure? |
| A4. |
SAS and SATA drives employ similar physical characteristics which allow the ability to have SAS drives for reliable on-line data and SATA for tiered storage connected to the same server backplane or storage Enclosure. |
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| Q5. |
What are the power and cooling benefits of the 2.5" drives? |
| A5. |
SFF drives consume 70% less space and use 50% less power than the 3.5" drives. The smaller form factor of the drives allows systems to be designed to accommodate more drives per U increasing the total system IOPs/U. |
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| Q6. |
Are drives included in the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A6. |
No, drives must be ordered separately. |
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| Q7. |
Is it necessary to have comparable amounts of GB in each drive slot of the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A7. |
Controllers read the lowest common GB amount on each drive. If you have 36GB and 72GB drives in a stripe set the controller reads all disk drives as 36GB. |
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| Q8. |
What hard disk drives are supported by the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A8. |
The Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure supports all HP hot pluggable SFF SAS and SATA drives. |
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| Q9. |
What array controllers and SCSI adapters will work with the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A9. |
Smart Array P600 and Smart Array P800 |
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| Q10. |
Why is there no tower version of the Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure? |
| A10. |
As many data center customers have moved to a racked storage environment it was determined that there is a smaller and smaller market for tower storage enclosures. For customers still interested in a smaller tower-like solution, HP offers a 14U rack that will easily hold a server or workstation, a Modular Smart Array 50 Enclosure and optional PDU, UPS, KVM. |
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