HPE ProLiant BL420c Gen8 Drives
Genuine HPE hot-plug drives for the HPE ProLiant BL420c Gen8, new and refurbished, tested before shipping. A half-height blade has room for two small form factor bays, and they take the SmartDrive (SC) carrier only — HPE drives from previous generation servers are not compatible with these bays.
BL420c Gen8 Drive Specifications
- Bays: two hot-plug small form factor (2.5-inch) bays, each taking a SAS, SATA or solid state drive
- Carrier: the SmartDrive (SC) hot-plug carrier introduced with Gen8; drives from previous generation servers will not seat
- Maximum internal capacity: 4.0TB on two 2TB SAS or SATA drives, or 3.2TB on two 1.6TB SAS or SATA solid state drives
- Interface: 6Gb/s SAS and SATA, driven by the embedded Smart Array P220i or Dynamic Smart Array B320i
- Formats stocked: enterprise SAS at 10K and 15K rpm, SAS and SATA midline at 7.2K rpm, 512e advanced format parts, and solid state drives
- Mixing rule: SAS drives may be mixed with SAS SSDs, but that limits the blade to two separate RAID 0 volumes; mixing other drive types is not supported
Two bays means two decisions, and the second one is the controller. Both bays take SmartDrive (SC) carriers only, and drives from previous generation servers will not seat in them. A mirror needs a controller that will build it: the P220i does RAID 0 and 1 outright, while a Configure-to-Order B320i needs the SAS License Key before it will mirror SAS drives.
What fits in the two BL420c Gen8 drive bays?
| Drive family | Maximum with both bays filled | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| SAS enterprise, 10K and 15K rpm | 4.0TB on 2 × 2.0TB | Transactional work, and anything the blade boots from daily |
| SAS and SATA midline, 7.2K rpm | 4.0TB on 2 × 2.0TB | Bulk capacity where spindle count no longer matters |
| SAS and SATA solid state | 3.2TB on 2 × 1.6TB | Latency-sensitive local storage, or a fast pair under a hypervisor |
Two bays makes this a short decision: a mirror, which leaves one drive's worth of usable space, or two independent volumes with no redundancy. The mirror needs a controller that will build it — the P220i does RAID 0 and 1 outright, while a Configure-to-Order B320i needs the SAS License Key before it will mirror SAS drives. Blades wanting more than 4.0TB get it from the enclosure instead, through a D2200sb storage blade or a Fibre Channel mezzanine to a SAN.
Choosing the Right BL420c Gen8 Drive
- The carrier decides whether a drive will seat. SmartDrive (SC) parts fit; the older SFF carriers from G6 and G7 blades do not, and no adapter bridges them.
- Mixing SAS drives with SAS SSDs costs you the mirror. HPE supports the combination but limits it to two separate RAID 0 volumes, and mixing other drive types is not supported at all.
- Buy the pair, not the drive. In a two-bay mirror, matched capacity and spindle speed is the difference between a clean rebuild and a degraded array — and that includes keeping both drives on one sector format rather than straddling 512n and 512e.
- Check the controller before you buy for SAS. On a Configure-to-Order B320i blade, SAS RAID is a licence key away, not a drive problem.
Complete Your BL420c Gen8 Build
What the two bays can do is set by the card behind them — see BL420c Gen8 storage controllers for cache, licences and external SAS. Also available: BL420c Gen8 memory, networking adapters and processors, or the full BL420c Gen8 parts listing. The E5-2600 blade of this generation is the BL460c Gen8. Background reading: SAS vs SATA hard drives, what 512e drives are, why HPE moved to Smart Carriers and HPE parts by server model.
BL420c Gen8 Drives FAQ
How many drives does a BL420c Gen8 hold?
Two. The blade has two hot-plug small form factor bays, each taking a SAS, SATA or solid state drive.
What is the maximum storage capacity of a BL420c Gen8?
4.0TB internally, on two 2TB SAS or SATA drives. Solid state configurations reach 3.2TB on two 1.6TB SSDs.
Will drives from a BL460c G7 work in a BL420c Gen8?
No. The BL420c Gen8 uses the SmartDrive (SC) hot-plug carrier, and HPE states that drives from previous generation servers are not compatible with its drive bays.
Does the BL420c Gen8 support RAID 5?
Only on a Dynamic Smart Array B320i, and only with the optional 512MB flash backed write cache fitted. A Smart Array P220i blade supports RAID 0 and RAID 1 only, which is all two bays can use anyway.
Can I mix a hard drive and an SSD in a BL420c Gen8?
Standard SAS drives can be mixed with SAS SSDs, but doing so limits the blade to two separate RAID 0 volumes rather than a mirror. Mixing other drive types is not supported.
Why will my B320i not build a RAID 1 across two SAS drives?
Because it may be missing the SAS licence. SATA RAID 0 and 1 are standard on the B320i, but SAS RAID 0 and 1 come standard only on pre-configured models - on a Configure-to-Order blade they need the SAS License Key upgrade.
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