HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 Hard Drive: Your Cage Decides SAS or SATA

HPE ML350 Gen10 hard drive cages: hot-plug or non-hot-plug

The ML350 Gen10 is a 4U tower that can be converted for a rack. HPE built it in three drive chassis: 8 SFF (2.5-inch) hot-plug, 4 LFF (3.5-inch) hot-plug and 4 LFF non-hot-plug. Which of the three you own decides the interface you can buy.

HPE's note on the non-hot-plug version is one line: the NHP LFF SKU supports SATA hard disk drives only. A SAS drive is the wrong buy for that server, however well it fits the bay. The hot-plug cages are listed as SAS/SATA, so either interface goes there.

HPE ships the server with no hard drives as standard, so the choice is yours for every bay, and on a non-hot-plug chassis grown to 12 LFF that means twelve SATA drives. If you are not sure which chassis you have, the QuickSpecs identify the non-hot-plug one by its LFF NHP cage, so look at the cage itself or the server's original configuration before you order.

HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen10 hard drive sizes

HPE's QuickSpecs give maximum internal storage for hot-plug LFF SAS and for hot-plug LFF SATA as 168 TB each, from twelve 14 TB drives, and for hot-plug SFF SAS as 48 TB, from twenty-four 2 TB drives. Those are HPE's configuration examples. HPE's revision notes record the maximum being updated with the 14 TB drives.

The version history we read ends at version 14, dated 3 June 2019, and HPE has marked the document RETIRED. So 14 TB is the largest size we found for this server in HPE's list, not a hardware limit, and we have not found an HPE document that says larger drives work or fail. HPE's two 14 TB midline helium options, one SAS 12G and one SATA 6G, both carry Digitally Signed Firmware in their names:

• HPE 14TB SAS 12G Midline 7.2K LFF (3.5in) LP, helium, 512e
• HPE 14TB SATA 6G Midline 7.2K LFF (3.5in) LP, helium, 512e

3.5-inch SAS drives for the ML350 Gen10 hot-plug LFF cages

Only a hot-plug LFF server should look at this table: a non-hot-plug ML350 Gen10 cannot use SAS. Like the two tables after it, it holds maker-branded drives and stops at 14 TB, a cap we set at the largest size in HPE's list rather than a limit HPE states. It shows up to 24 drives in stock on Amazon.co.uk, ranked by price per terabyte in pounds inc VAT. It holds 24 listings right now, the lowest at £24.75/TB.

3.5-inch SATA drives for any ML350 Gen10 LFF cage

SATA is the one interface every LFF cage on this server accepts, hot-plug or not, so this is the table for a non-hot-plug owner. It holds 24 listings right now, the lowest at £22.50/TB.

2.5-inch SAS drives for the ML350 Gen10 SFF cages

An SFF build takes 2.5-inch drives in its hot-plug cages. HPE's SFF example of 48 TB uses 2 TB drives. The table shows 21 listings right now.

New and used offers appear together, labelled row by row. Size and interface put a drive in these tables; HPE qualification is a separate matter. If the Recording cell is empty, we hold no maker document naming that part number. The SAS vs SATA page sets out what the interface changes, and used server hard drives covers drives that have already seen service.

HPE option part numbers sold on Amazon.co.uk

A handful of listings sell HPE-branded drives under -B21 option numbers. The table below lists any in stock, by price; it is empty otherwise.

An SFF ML350 owner will look first at the three SSDs. HPE's SSD QuickSpecs put Gen9 & 10 in their Server Gen Supported (Select Platforms) column, a statement about generations rather than about the ML350 Gen10. No HPE document we have found ties 834031-B21 or 881781-B21 to a server model; your own server's QuickSpecs is the place to check those. The three option documents behind this table are third-party copies, two on jarcomputers.com and one on router-switch.com. See HPE ProLiant hard drives for more HPE options, and HP DL380 Gen9 for another ProLiant.