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For an r730xd configured with split zoning backplane (not the flex bay, im talking a 4/20 split zoning of the main backplane with the flex zone option) is it a supported configuration to use (for example) a mini HBA330 and a PCIe H730 rather than 2x PERC? Obviously I could also be asking if it is a H730p and a PCIe HBA330 (most likely the case)

I only ask because all the dell documentation state flexible zoning is possible with 2x RAID controllers- HBA330 isnt a raid controller. I am aware that the H730 can present drives in pseudo non-raid HBA mode but that is not suitable for my usage, drives must be presented from a non RAID card, i.e. HBA330.

The system will not have a flex bay at the rear and I don't want to use the onboard software RAID.

EDIT: further info I have found:

There are only two instance I have found where this has been mentioned. A keynote speech by Michael Dell https://www.crn.com/news/data-center/300080217/dell-updates-13th-gen-servers-with-broadwell-cpu-improved-software-defined-storage.htm and this single entry that says a HBA330 is supported but a H330 not, which really surprised me as I though a H330 was a proper RAID card with no cache https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/openmanage-server-administrator-v9.3.1/omss_9.3.1_users_guide/backplanes?guid=guid-6da822f8-31a1-496b-855c-429a40c22f13 which is in the OMSS but not the 730 pdf

Figure 3 of the 730xd manual shows how the cabling is possible but has no mention of what PERC configurations are possible. https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/poweredge-r730xd/r730xd_ompublication/removing-the-hard-drive-backplane?guid=guid-ad50f394-cb7b-48b7-be67-08bb40b4d60f&lang=en-us

iDRAC8 says it only supports SATA for H330 mini https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/poweredge-c6320p/idrac_2.40.40.40_ug_pub/supported-controllers?guid=guid-2684848c-5cb7-40be-9269-6b9dbb01ed49&lang=en-us but can configure split zoning https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/poweredge-c6320p/idrac_2.40.40.40_ug_pub/configuring-backplane-mode?guid=guid-e6a2c637-cd00-41dd-a81b-a76cfb58e80e&lang=en-us according to the documents, idrac lets you set this up regardless of the presence of a second controller.

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Not relevent to the 730xd information I am looking for but flexible zoning has carried onto the 14gen line: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/idrac9-lifecycle-controller-v4.x-series/idrac9_4.00.00.00_ug_new/configuring-backplane-mode?guid=guid-d66d6130-1a2b-4530-843e-4e749105e77e&lang=en-us but it seems that support configurations are sketchy - it only says it is NOT possible with a H750 or HBA350i (adapter cards) https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/idrac9-lifecycle-controller-v4.x-series/idrac9_4.00.00.00_ug_new/configuring-backplane-mode?guid=guid-d66d6130-1a2b-4530-843e-4e749105e77e&lang=en-us

Not relevent to the 730xd information I am looking for but Figure 139 of the 740xd guide shows the cabling for dual PERC/HBA controller backplane setup but doesnt give a valid combination. Confusingly this is a dual ADAPTER setup and doesnt involve the mini card!

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    Disclaimer - I work for Dell. This is an interesting question. I haven't done much work on the xds but I'll ask around because I'm curious as to what the answer is. I suspect the answer is yes it would work, but no it is not supported. I looked in one of our sales tools at the R740xd (the 730xd is too old for me to quote) and I can see that someone did a project titled: "Dual Controllers, HBA330 12Gb Adapter Low Profile, PERC H740P RAID Adapter FH, 8Gb NV Cache". That tells me someone has done it as a one off, but it wasn't a sufficiently popular config that we are officially supporting it.
    – Grant Curell
    Jun 30, 2022 at 20:59
  • There are only two instance I have found where this has been mentioned. A keynote speech by Michael Dell crn.com/news/data-center/300080217/… and this single entry that says a HBA330 is supported but a H330 not, which really surprised me as I though a H330 was a proper RAID card with no cache dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/… which is in the OMSS but not the 730 pdf
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Jul 1, 2022 at 8:10
  • for the 740 I can only find the instructions on how to do this, but cannot find a list of supported PERC cards dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/… confusingly it only says a H750 CANNOT be mixed with a HBA330 dell.com/support/manuals/en-uk/poweredge-r740xd/…
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Jul 1, 2022 at 8:25
  • Haven't forgotten about this. In my free time I asked around on a couple of threads. The customer-facing storage engineers said it is not supported but the answer is basically, "The backplane has to be set up for it." It's a valid answer but it leaves a bit to be desired technically. When I get the chance I'll see if I can't hunt down some backend engineers who can provide a more technically deep answer. That said, if the question is, "Does Dell support this?" the answer is no based on what I got back.
    – Grant Curell
    Jul 7, 2022 at 12:05
  • 1
    TBH that sounds fine. Put your suggestion above as an answer and I will accept it. I have since found another solution anyway. The H740P can act in enhanced HBA, this (apparently) will pass through drives as true HBA rather than pseudo HBA whilst still allowing other volumes to be created in RAID1, this would be acceptable to me. I know from experience that earlier PERC passing drives in non-raid would not present the drives as HBA rather as PERC SCSI DRIVE
    – AngryCarrotTop
    Jul 8, 2022 at 13:13

3 Answers 3

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Storage Engineer Answer

Apologies I didn't come up with something more technical. I asked around on a couple of threads. The customer-facing storage engineers said it is not supported but the answer is basically, "The backplane has to be set up for it."

My Reasoning

It is possible it might work just because everything is SAS/SATA signaling but there's a strong chance it wouldn't play nicely with iDRAC and you'll likely run into some undefined behavior. I would have to test it to know for sure though.

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The split backplane, dual HBA330 setup is absolutely a valid, Dell supported configuration on both the R730xd and R740xd. We currently have 8 x R730xd and 5 x R740xd in this configuration, built that way from the factory. Additionally, we have 6 more R730xd servers that were not configured with the split backplane from the factory, but that we have converted to split backplane via the addition of a PCIE HBA330 and the relevant set of extra cables. Our use case for these servers is converged virtual infrastructure as VMware vSAN nodes.

As far as combining an HBA330 with a PERC card such as an H730p or something, I don't know if Dell explicitly supports that but there's no particular reason it shouldn't work. In split mode, each HBA\PERC card is presented with its own separate 12 port backplane. This segmentation is explicit to the point where if one of your cards fails, the 12 drives\ports connected to that card via the split backplane will become unavailable.

Having said all that, if you don't need RAID functions, then you are better off just purchasing a 2nd HBA330.

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OK answering my own question for people who might want to know. In the end we got R740xd with H740p card. These H740p cards will let you run drives in true HBA (presented to OS as drives not "RAID HBA" drives) and RAID with split backplane.

Back to the question. I managed to work with an old R730xd plus my own HBA330 (PCIe) and H730p (PCIe) - this could not be made to work in a split backplane mode, the BIOS will simply not accept it. The best I could do was connect channel A SAS to HBA330 and channel B SAS to H730P RAID, this did work for bays 0-11 in HBA and 12-23 in RAID so if you needed to do this for a 12/12 drive split then yes this will work for you.

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