New to 3Par

[Xodi]

Good morning, I just started a new job, and we have some sore spots about backups/retention (what was told we had... well, we don't).

In my search for additional unused hardware to allow longer retention, I came up on two 3PAR trays:

https://imgur.com/kkEg9bY

Full of hard drives, and some cables (Ethernet, a SAS breakout cable (1 SAS to 4 SAS), and some fiber cables. Now onto my question:

1. Can these trays be used like pure storage? (I don't need speed, just large storage) I have an old HP ProLiant server that has a 2-port SAS controller that may work for this.

2. How to wire this!? I did look @ the HPE documentation (https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/do ... 582#N10041) and I see no cable that can go where those "intr" ports show.

Thank you kindly for your assistance!

[MammaGutt]

Good morning, I just started a new job, and we have some sore spots about backups/retention (what was told we had... well, we don't).

In my search for additional unused hardware to allow longer retention, I came up on two 3PAR trays:

https://imgur.com/kkEg9bY

Full of hard drives, and some cables (Ethernet, a SAS breakout cable (1 SAS to 4 SAS), and some fiber cables. Now onto my question:

1. Can these trays be used like pure storage? (I don't need speed, just large storage) I have an old HP ProLiant server that has a 2-port SAS controller that may work for this.

2. How to wire this!? I did look @ the HPE documentation (https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/do ... 582#N10041) and I see no cable that can go where those "intr" ports show.

Thank you kindly for your assistance!

1. These are complete storage arrays, not disk shelves. SAS controllers will do you no good. The systems you have are configured to FC (Fibre Channel) only.

2. You need to connect these to a Fibre Channel Fabric and present volumes to hosts connected to that FC fabric, or you can direct attach these to servers with (supported) FC HBAs and present volumes directly that way.

[Richard Siemers]

Adding to what Mammagut said, those are the head units... which are the controllers for an intelligent array (3PAR). The drives you see on the front are internally connected through the backplane to the controllers. The SAS ports you see are for adding additional expansion drive shelves, and do not provide connection to the drives inside this head unit's chassis.

That said, if you can find an old server with FC ports, you can direct connect to build a spicy hot long term retention array.