HP StorageWorks MSA 30 And Apple MB099G/A

If you're asking people's opinion of a potential solution it helps if you provide links to the item(s) in question. I'm guessing that you're looking at this, although I can't believe you expect to buy this, with drives, for $500.

As for the SCSI card, it should work fine, but I'm not sure understand your question of daisy-chaining.
I'm guessing the enclosure is dumb - that is, it works just as a passive SCSI backplane, in which case each drive in the enclosure will be presented to the host system as a separate SCSI device. Therefore with 14 drives in the enclosure you'll quickly reach the limit of devices per bus (16 in the case of LVD SCSI). Therefore one SCSI bus can connect to one array only. You can't daisy-chain enclosures because you'd exceed the number of devices per bus.

Finally, look at whether that card is right for you. It's a PCI-X card, so you need to make sure your machine has PCI-X slots - the latest Intel XServes ship with PCIe slots by default, although you can get a riser card that swaps out one of the PCIe slots for PCI-X.

Modular Storage Array 30 (MSA30) is a bog-standard SCSI disk storage shelf, and can operate in single- or dual-bus configurations; with a connection to one or to two hosts.

MSA30 is often a component of a RAID configuration but is not in itself a RAID array; this widget would require use of host RAID or of a RAID SCSI controller or of an out-board RAID controller.

MSA30 can be connected off an MSA-series RAID controller; where the host SCSI connection arrives at (for instance) MSA1000 or MSA1500 series controller, and the MSA controller then connects to the disks including an MSA30 or one of the other MSA-series shelves.

I've used some of the predecessors of the MSA30 series with Xserve using the Apple SCSI card, and that works. Beyond the usual discussions of SCSI - none of the S's in SCSI are "Standard" - and with the usual vagaries of the chosen disks and controllers to be determined here, this will probably work. Testing would be required.

HP has several models of MSA30, and it's thus best to identify which you have. I'm guessing this is probably the Dual Bus (MSA30 DB), but that's not the only MSA39 variant with multiple SCSI connections. MSA30 configuration documentation for these widgets can be found by three or four hops starting at http://docs.hp.com/. The [direct link to the manuals|http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/ProdSearch.jsp?lang=en &cc=us&taskId=&prod=msa30] is likely subject to change.

Some of the MSA-class shelves are available for fairly low prices with a full complement of disks, if you're willing to go for disks that are somewhere between tiny and small.

The places that use these widgets are quite familiar, and have rows of full-height 19" racks, full of disks. And gonzo-scale external RAID storage controllers, using iSCSI or SCSI or FC SAN. Compared with the storage capacity of some of these behemoths, a fully-populated Xserve RAID looks kind of like a floppy disk.

This particular shelf is still around in the HP product line AFAIK, but it's very much an older piece of gear. There are much newer shelves available, and these older shelves are hitting the used-equipment market. The newer gear in the MSA series (MSA50, MSA60, MSA70) that's replacing these MSA30 widgets is typically SAS and SATA, and generally uses 2.5" disks.

All of these MSA widgets are JBOD shelves, and the expectation here involves an upstream host controller or an outboard JBOD or RAID controller. Most of these are very fast disks (15K RPM is not unusual), and the folks using these have traditionally used smaller-capacity disks and rather more of them, as the I/O speed tends to be important to these applications.

There are MSA widgets that are NOT JBOD shelves; there are controllers with the MSA nomenclature as well.

MSA30 and similar shelves can be fairly loud; they blow a whole lot of air through the shelf. These widgets are intended for installation into dedicated server rooms.

And whether these work with an Xserve with the Apple Ultra320 SCSI controller is something you'll have to try.

Hi,

This is related to op's situation so I'm just replying in this thread instead of starting a new one.

I have inherited a [HP Storageworks MSA 1500cs Modular Storage Array|http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?conten tType=SupportManual&lang=en&cc=us&docIndexId=64179&taskId=101&prodTypeId=12169&p rodSeriesId=415598] at my new job which is currently hooked up to a linux box. I know just enough linux to get basic needs met for our small company.

I'd like to wipe this array and hook it up to a G5 Leopard Server (or client I suppose and then just share it). I spoke with HP and they said they don't support it for the Mac and that I would probably have to manage it with the command line.

That's fine by me but I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has actual experience with one of these and a Mac and if they did indeed use Terminal.

Thanks.

I haven't tried this specific combination (MSA1500cs, Mac OS X Server, SCSI), but I've dealt with enough of MSA gear over the years within various weird configurations. I'd expect to be able to use the Command Line interface here, once the serial set-up baud rate and such are setup properly. That's 19200 8N1, usually. Do confirm you either have the HP cable (part 259992-001?) or a direct analog; some of the HP cables can be unique. There's a "HP StorageWorks 1000/1500 Modular Smart Array Command Line Interface user guide" manual around that might be enough to get you going here.

As for whether the resulting configuration will work or will work reliably, see my previous replies in this thread.

I'd suggest your own thread for these sorts of questions, too, as this really isn't the same question as the MSA30 gear; the MSA1500cs array controller is a completely different product from the storage shelves. Trust me on this one: these two topics aren't related. 🙂