0

I am looking for a way to connect an 5.25 SATA removable drive bay from CRU to our HP Proliant 360 blade server. Unfortunately the server has no support for USB 3.0 and no free PCI slot to upgrade USB 3.0 functionality. Also it doesn't have an eSATA port. Is there a solution to connect this drive bay via Ethernet? The key is the reading speed as we use the CRU drives to receive big file sets.
Thank you for the help.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    I'm confused. The specs on that list it as having a SAS/SATA connector. Why are you talking about USB and Ethernet?
    – joeqwerty
    Jun 16, 2015 at 15:35
  • We have an external case that it fitts into with USB3 and SATA. I mention ethernet because that is the only way I see to connect it to the HP server in a somewhat fast way.
    – Mike
    Jun 16, 2015 at 16:58

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Current USB over IP implementations supports only USB 2.0 speed, and in my opinion isn't very fast and reliable.

If you need a robust way to connect HDDs over network, you should look for some SAN (provides block storage)/NAS instead (provides network filesystem), depending on your needs. Most SAN and NAS hardware comes with hot-swap bays.

Improve this answer
3
  • I looked into the NAS option. The problem is that I can not use the hotswap bays of the NAS since I am tied to the CRU drive enclosure. Some NAS have a eSata and USB3 port for an external drive, but I am not sure if the speed from these ports will be anywhere close to the internal SATA connection.
    – Mike
    Jun 16, 2015 at 18:47
  • Other option I can propose is to install CRU enclosure internally in some of your workstations, and configure it as iSCSI target for the server, which would be an initiator. Probably this option requires you to restrict physical access to workstation for untrusted employees and configure dedicated VLAN for iSCSI with MTU > 8KiB. Edit: typos.
    – Gleb Mayorov
    Jun 16, 2015 at 20:38
  • I think that is the most feasible option for us.
    – Mike
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:54
1

This has nothing to do with ethernet. Your HP ProLiant DL360 is NOT a blade server either. DO you know the generation of your DL360 server? Is it a G5, G6, G7 or Gen8?

Most of that product line has two PCIe slots. That's your expansion option for the platform. If you don't have any free PCIe slots, then you don't have any options to accommodate this external drive.

Improve this answer
4
  • Sorry I thought it was a blade. It is a Gen8 and both PCI slots are taken up for A 10GBethernet and FC Card to connect to a HP MSA. Guess I am out of luck then and need a dedicated machine just for the CRU drive bay.
    – Mike
    Jun 16, 2015 at 18:50
  • 1
    Just use the onboard ports as USB 2.0.
    – ewwhite
    Jun 16, 2015 at 18:59
  • That is too time consuming for 1-2TB of data transfer.
    – Mike
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:56
  • At least you'll get some sort of transfer. Right now, you don't have anything.
    – ewwhite
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:57

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .