| Q1. |
Why is HP offering the HP StorageWorks 70 Modular Smart Array (MSA70)? |
| A1. |
HP realizes the importance of common platforms in the enterprise and is simplifying HP product offerings for 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 MSA70 enclosure provides a 2U disk drive storage enclosure supporting 2.5 inch SAS or Serial ATA (SATA) drives. |
 |
| Q2. |
Why should customers purchase the MSA70? |
| A2. |
The MSA70 provides an end-to-end SAS storage solution for customers looking for high capacity external direct attach storage with built-in redundancy, enhanced reliability, enhanced performance and tiered storage flexibility. At HP, we realize the storage enclosure is a key storage building block for your current and future data center. That is why the MSA70 enclosure undergoes extensive testing and qualification to ensure the highest level of reliability, compatibility, and interoperability. |
|
| Q3. |
Can I cascade enclosure using the MSA70? |
| A3. |
Yes. The MSA70 supports the cascading of enclosures in a 1+1 configuration to allow a maximum of 50 drives in a 4U configuration behind each of the two external ports on the Smart Array P800 controller or the Smart Array E500 controller for a total of 100 drives in 4 enclosures. Behind the single external port on the HP Smart Array P600 controller 1+1 cascading allows a maximum of 50 drives in a 4U configuration. |
|
| Q4. |
What procedures does HP recommend to remove power from the MSA70? |
| A4. |
Although not required, HP strongly recommends using a HP UPS (Uninterruptible Power System) in conjunction with any server or storage products. This allows for a graceful shutdown of the server or enclosure. It is also recommended to plug the MSA70 enclosure into one load segment and servers into a different load segment on the UPS. This allows for the enclosures to be powered off while maintaining power to the servers and other equipment within the environment. Learn more about HP UPS's and load segment control. |
|
| Q5. |
Are drives included in the MSA70? |
| A5. |
No. Drives must be ordered separately. |
|
| Q6. |
In which rack cabinets can I install the MSA70? |
| A6. |
The MSA70 can be mounted in the current generation of HP 10K G2 rack cabinets including the 42U and 36U racks. For additional details check the product QuickSpecs. |
|
| Q7. |
What array controllers and HBAs will work with the MSA70? |
| A7. |
The HP Smart Array P800, HP Smart Array E500 and the HP Smart Array P600 controllers and the HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter work with the MSA70. |
|
| Q8. |
Serial SCSI has point to point connectivity. Does that limit the number of drives that can be connected? |
| A8. |
Point-to-point connection to drives ensure the best performance. Using expanders helps connect large number of drives. In fact the MSA70 can cascade to two enclosures behind a single SAS port. |
|
| Q9. |
Who are the target customers for the MSA70 family? |
| A9. |
The MSA70 is the perfect complement for ProLiant servers in the SMB market. SMB businesses will have either a small IT with an average of 4 servers at either a centralized IT center or a remote office.
The target - The mail application in SMB businesses would be Exchange, which is constantly overflowing for small businesses. SMB’s cannot afford shutdowns due to reaching capacity limitations.
Target industries would be:
- Healthcare, where we find small businesses struggling with HIPPA, who have no time to be continuously managing Exchange servers running out of space.
- Manufacturing, where many small and medium manufacturers are overly burdened in growing business and becoming compliant with inventory management. Businesses have no time to spend planning their Exchange growth and need simple scalability in order to spend more time on ERP and compliance.
- Retail for inventory systems and data marts
- Real estate for small, but growing websites of rich media files
|
|
| Q10. |
Why is HP moving from Parallel SCSI to Serial SCSI? |
| A10. |
Storage technology is moving from parallel to serial SCSI and HP is leading the transition from parallel SCSI to serial SCSI. |
|
| Q11. |
What are the power and cooling benefits of the 2.5-inch drives? |
| A11. |
SFF drives consume 70% less space and use 50% less power than the 3.5-inch 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. |
|
| Q12. |
Is it necessary to have comparable amounts of GB in each drive slot of the MSA70? |
| A12. |
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. |
|
| Q13. |
Why is HP offering these MSA70 enclosures with hard drive bundles? |
| A13. |
Bundles of MSA70 enclosures with integrated hard drives allows customers to easily add storage when buying a server. Bundles allow for easier ordering providing single SKU ordering for MSA70 enclosure and hard drives. These bundles are priced lower than a la carte offerings, cost effective and drives are factory integrated. |
|
| Q14. |
What Host Bus Adapter is required for Dual Domain Capability? |
| A14. |
The HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter. |
|
