HP Z800 SAS drive and adapter does not fit in bay

[STIM141]

Purchased a refurbed Z800 system as an upgrade to a XW8600.  Have used SAS drives in my XW8600 before.  Using the HP SAS adapter 398291-001 (grey) and a Fujitsu mba3073rc drive I put it in the HP Z800 caddy and slid the drive it.  The drive does not mate up to the cable assembly at the back of the workstation.  Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

[SDH]

I don't use SAS.... it is my understanding that most who did have moved on to SSDs.

Here is the most recent version of your service manual.... there will be no more coming:

http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c01715080-8.pdf

Here is an interesting HP document:

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=mmr_kc-0100529

That is not what you are asking about, but it may give you some clues.  Perhaps the "Blind Mate" connector the drive slides into accepts both SATA and SAS drives (without the gray adapter needed?).  Your SAS drive is a 3.5" form factor.  There are posts in here on our favorite 2.5" to 3.5" form factor adapters to use with the Blind Mate system in these workstations (but that would not be an issue for you with your 3.5" drive).

The cables coming out from the Blind Mate receiver go down to the motherboard SATA port set (the upper set).  Those can be shifted to the lower set of ports.  Personally I'd move on to SATA SSDs, or a single SATA SSD and a nice 2TB HP HDD off eBay (SATA II or III if it is HP; SATAII if it is not HP).

Read up on the recommendations by HP that if you are going to use a SATA generation 3 drive in one of the HP SATA generation 2 workstations (which yours is) then you should use a HP branded SATA gen 3 drive.  Personally I use Intel 320 series 300GB SSDs bought used off eBay.... they are SATA gen 2 drives and we have about 50 running this way.  You can experiment with non-HP gen 3 SATA drives, but I figured I'd not risk that.  Even the 160GB 320 series one would be great for you to experiment with at a very low cost off eBay.  Virtually all I have bought this way have 100% life left when probed with the free Intel ToolBox software.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

I did a little more research and here it is:

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c01722374

(This is a HP document about RAID setup with SAS or SATA drives, for your Z800)

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c01840936
(The important point here is that a normal "clean" W7Pro64 install will not include the necessary LSI drivers.  This same thing happens with a Z620 and its on-board TI USB3 chipset..... you have to know to add those in after the clean install or your USB3 ports won't work.

HP makes their clone image masters with the necessary added drivers included on that image.  That is what the "Restore" image and media creation idea is all about.  Such an install (from the HP Restore media) includes the necessary drivers and also the HP OEM COA license that is linked to your general HP workstation type.  As such, this image can generally be cloned from one Z800 to another.   Of interest, an image from an old version 1 Z600 would not clone over to a newer version 2 Z600, but one from a version 2 will clone over to another version 2 Z600.  There is a hard coded identifier difference coming into play there.)

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c02328795
(see #6 re Z800 down at the bottom, regarding moving the Blind Mate connectors from SATA ports to SAS ports (just below on the motherboard, the set of 8).  In contrast, SATA ports are "0"-"5", for 6 total.)

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=mmr_kc-0100529
(Zoom in on the top image, and it shows 4 Blind Mate connectors attached to the bottom SAS ports in this particular Z800.... the 6 SATA ports can be seen just above those cables, all empty.   This is interesting.... the workstation appears to have come from the factory preconfigured with 4 SAS drives in the drive drawers, and HP is showing how you would connect those same SAS drives to a LSI PCIe card rather than to the built in LSI controller's  SAS plugs on the motherboard.  This implies that the SAS drives fit in those drive drawers just fine.)

[SDH]

OK.... figured it out.  I've been wanting to understand this myself.

The plug ends of SATA and SAS drives are very much alike, and there is a "key", a plastic projection that is present on the SATA drive connectors between the SATA data and the SATA power parts of the drive's plug.  A receiver for this drive plug can be designed to accept a SAS drive but reject a SATA drive by physically blocking this key, which is not present on a SAS drive plug.  Alternatively, a receiver for the drive plug end can be designed to be "universal", accepting both SAS and SATA drives. Here is a picture of what the drive plug ends looks like, which you can see when a moderator releases it.  The yellow circle highlights the "key" present on SATA drives:

HP has made some quality drive adapters that many of us are using, for converting 2.5" form factor SSDs into 3.5" form factor units that then work perfectly in the Z600/Z800/Z620/Z820 drive sleds you mention.  Both 2.5" SATA SSDs and HDDs,  and also SAS 2.5" drives, fit in those drive sleds once they are attached to these "universal" HP adapters (which shift the plug that meshes with the Blind Mate receiver for data/power connections way back in the drive drawer bay).

KEY INFO:  You do not need to use that gray plastic adapter on a 3.5" SAS drive to have it work perfectly as designed for the drive sleds in these workstations.  This is because the "Blind Mate" receiver built into the rear of each drive sled bays is a "universal" receiver, accepting both SATA and SAS drives as is. You do need that gray plastic adapter if using a 3.5" SAS drive in a 5.25" bay adapter or in a more basic workstation such as the Z400 which does not use the Blind Mate receivers.  The HP 2.5" to 3.5" form factor adapters shown below take the place of that gray plastic adapter any time they are used.  Their receiver is "universal" and the cheapest one originally was designed by HP (made by Foxconn) for 2.5" form factor SAS drives to be attached to 3.5" form factor server drive sleds.

This cheaper one can be seen on eBay via search for 654540-001 or 654540-002, and has a universal receiver that is shown nicely in the image below.  Note there is no plastic projection blocking that gap between the data and the power portions of the receiver (a "Blind Mate" receiver where you can see it).  It will accept SAS and SATA 2.5" drives or SSDs equally well.  This is the one I use and recommend over all others now:

 The more expensive version is "tool-less", and has part number 668261-001.  There also is a Western Digital IcePack that was designed for the 2.5" SAS and SATA high RPM Raptor HDDs, and is universal too.  You can see that on eBay but those are unnecessarily expensive.  Here's the fancy HP tool-less version, also generally too expensive, and it uses the exact same Blind Mate receiver and quality of metal and fabrication as the cheaper one above:

Now all you have to do is remove that gray adapter, slide your 3.5" SAS drive into the drawer bay that has 0 stamped in the metal next to it, and go find the SATA cable running from the Blind Mate connector back in there down to the SATA port 0 (far right) and switch it down to the SAS port on the far right too.

Personally, I'd recommend SSD much more highly.

[STIM141]

Appreciate the effort.  Removed the adapter and it slid right in.    The Z800 is beautifully engineered.  Eventually will convert the 300gb SAS to a SSD drive.  Have a LSI hardware based raid that is a 6gb card that is currently in my XW8600 and it works extremely fast.