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batsona
Maryland
join:2004-04-17
Ellicott City, MD

batsona

Member

Motherboard layout for HP DL360 G6...

Click for full size
eSATA plate
Greetings;

I've only been able to find a low-quality diagram of the motherboard layout for the DL360 G6 - does anybody have a good diagram of the motherboard?

Reason: I'd like to install one of those plates with an eSATA connector in it, that attaches to a SATA header on the motherboard. The unit I have only has a 1ft cable, and I need to know if it will fit in my server, before I power it down. It's a production server that I can't power-down at will. I need to know before-hand. Picture attached...

creed3020
Premium Member
join:2006-04-26
Kitchener, ON

creed3020

Premium Member

The board on that server doesn't have extra SATA headers from what I remember, only SAS. You may have to disconnect the DVD drive if you want a SATA header.

»h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsu ··· Id=15351

The cable looks long enough to reach as the expansion slots are at the back left and the SATA header is along the back left edge.
aguen
Premium Member
join:2003-07-16
Grants Pass, OR

aguen to batsona

Premium Member

to batsona
Don't know if you've already looked at the manual or not, there should be a diagram of the MB layout with references to the various headers, components, etc. Here's a link to a PDF version of manual »bizsupport2.austin.hp.co ··· 4762.pdf

Not having a physical machine to look at myself but based solely on the manual, I don't think it's going to work out.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix to batsona

Premium Member

to batsona
It doesn't have any Sata headers, you'll have to use an add-in card.

or a Sas-sata adapter.

creed3020
Premium Member
join:2006-04-26
Kitchener, ON

creed3020 to aguen

Premium Member

to aguen
Thanks for posting that link aguen.

Based on my image below you can see the half height expansion slot with the blue arrow and the SATA header used for the DVDROM is where the red arrow ends. If eSATA is more important than your optical drive this might work out.

I would try a dry fit and test on another server if you have one.
batsona
Maryland
join:2004-04-17
Ellicott City, MD

batsona

Member

OP here: Thanks for all the links & advice... What I'm actually trying to do, is clone the 500GB disk partition that we have set up. I'm using a boot-from-CD product to do it, so I'll need that CD/DVD drive online. Thanks anyway!

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

2 edits

1 recommendation

koitsu

MVM

The SATA-to-eSATA "adapter bracket" you've linked you should try to avoid if at all possible. I cannot tell you how many times on the FreeBSD mailing lists users would show up with strange hardware issues pertaining to their disks (usually seeing ATA CRC errors or timeouts) only to find out they were using these adapters; removal of the adapter and use of a an actual eSATA controller solved their issues. The adapters are often cheap and shoddily made -- what you can't see is what's hidden by the hard black plastic. Cheap wire or bad soldering jobs will cause issues.

It's important to understand that though the SATA PHY and underlying ATA storage protocol doesn't change between eSATA and SATA, there are physical characteristics which are required by eSATA which an adapter like the one you linked cannot provide. The differences are explained on Wikipedia.

What you should consider, which will also allow you to keep using your DVD/CD drive, is an actual eSATA PCI, PCI-X, or PCIe card. Which bus type you get depends on what kind of riser card you have installed in the HP DL360 G6. See Pages 38/39/40 of the maintenance PDF aguen See Profile linked for details.

These cards are quite inexpensive -- you don't have to break the bank. A standard consumer-grade card would be just fine and cost you maybe US$50 tops. When it comes to purchasing one of these cards, you need to be aware of two things:

* Most of these cards use Silicon Image chipsets, which are okay except for two specific models which contain silicon-level bugs: the 3112 and the 3512. Please avoid both of these like the plague (especially the 3112), as they contain silicon-level bugs,
* I've seen a couple HBAs on the market using JMicron chips. Try to avoid these if possible (issues there mainly pertain to shoddy drivers, not hardware problems). I tend to avoid VIA chips for the exact same reasons (over a decade of experience dealing with either silicon-level bugs or driver bugs has made me boycott them; yes even their USB and Firewire chips),
* Some card manufacturers are known not to disclose/show the model of SATA controller used; do not risk buying a "mystery controller",
* Whatever card you get needs to have driver support in your OS. Before buying the card, look at the manufacturers website first to see if they offer drivers for what you need.

For a consumer-grade manufacturer of cards which discloses the manufacturer and model of chip used, Rosewill cards are known to be acceptable and affordable.

Some of these do use the chipsets I stated should be avoided (particularly the PCI cards). So if I had to give you recommendations, it would be these, all of which are PCIe:

PCIe x1: Rosewill RC-225 (Marvell 88SE9128, SATA600, supports low-height chassis)
PCIe x1: Rosewill RC-223 (Silicon Image 3132, SATA300, supports low-height chassis, RAID if needed)
PCIe x1: Rosewill RC-219 (Silicon Image 3132, SATA300, supports low-height chassis)
PCIe x1: Rosewill RC-213 (Silicon Image 3132, SATA300, supports low-height chassis, RAID if needed)
PCIe x1: Rosewill RC-214 (Silicon Image 3132, SATA300, supports low-height chassis)
PCIe x4: Rosewill RC-218 (Marvell 88SX7042, SATA300, supports low-height chassis)

Not sure what the real difference is between the RC-213 vs. RC-223, and the RC-213 vs. RC-219. My guess is what features are enabled in the firmware.

I might also be able to recommend the RC-226 (uses the same chip as the RC-225), except the product info page claims low-height chassis support yet the photos show no such bracket.

I determined the chip used by the RC-225 by visual inspection (zooming/adjusting contrast) of the product PCB, as well as looking at the provided driver package.

You can probably find all of these products on NewEgg, Amazon, or any other consumer vendor.

Finally, as a UNIX SA and someone who did co-location for almost 20 years (owned my own hardware), given that you have server-grade hardware, don't "ghetto-ise" your systems by using things like those SATA-to-eSATA adapters. Do the Right Thing(tm): get an actual HBA.

HTH, good luck.