HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen9 Drives
Genuine HPE hot-plug hard drives and solid state drives for the HPE ProLiant ML350 Gen9, new and refurbished, tested before shipping. This tower is built around drive cages rather than a fixed backplane: it ships with one cage of eight SFF or eight LFF bays and is documented to 48 SFF or 24 LFF — but each step past the first cage needs hardware beyond the drives themselves.
ML350 Gen9 Drive Specifications
- Standard bays: eight hot-plug SFF (2.5-inch) or eight hot-plug LFF (3.5-inch) SAS or SATA bays
- Documented maximum: 48 SFF bays or 24 LFF bays, built up with the 8SFF and 8LFF drive cage kits
- Documented maximum capacity: 288TB on twenty-four 12TB LFF drives, 96TB on forty-eight 2TB SFF drives and 184.32TB on forty-eight 3.84TB SFF SSDs
- NVMe: up to six SFF NVMe PCIe SSDs for 7.2TB, behind the 6SFF Express Bay Enablement Kit — one express bay per server, with its bridge card in PCIe slot 3, 6 or 8
- Carriers: redesigned Gen9 SFF and LFF hot-plug carriers with status, activity and "Do Not Remove" indicators; blank kits are listed separately
- Interface: 12G SAS and 6G SATA hot-plug drives, plus SATA M.2 on the Universal SATA HHHL M.2 kit
The bays are the easy part. Eight hot-plug SFF or eight hot-plug LFF ship as standard, and HPE documents 48 SFF or 24 LFF — but the 24-drive step needs the 12Gb SAS Expander Card, the full 48 needs a second expander card, a second processor, a P840 controller and the X4 RPS Enablement Kit, and NVMe needs the 6SFF Express Bay Enablement Kit before a single NVMe SSD will work.
How Far Can Your ML350 Gen9 Front End Grow?
| Front end | Cages | Bays | Documented maximum capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFF, as shipped | 1 | 8 | 2.5-inch SAS or SATA, hot-plug |
| SFF, fully expanded | 6 | 48 | 96TB on 2TB SAS or SATA, 184.32TB on 3.84TB SSD |
| LFF, as shipped | 1 | 8 | 3.5-inch SAS or SATA, hot-plug |
| LFF, fully expanded | 3 | 24 | 288TB on 12TB SAS or SATA |
| SFF NVMe express bay | 1 | 6 | 7.2TB on 1.2TB NVMe PCIe SSD |
The bays are the easy part; the hardware behind them is not. HPE documents the 12Gb SAS Expander Card for 24 drives, and a second expander card, a second processor, a P840 controller and the X4 RPS Enablement Kit for the full 48. Drives larger than the table entries are listed here — a 2.4TB SFF SAS drive and a 7.68TB SFF SAS SSD among them — so those figures are HPE's published configurations rather than a ceiling.
Choosing the Right ML350 Gen9 Drive
- Confirm SFF or LFF first. The cage on the front of the machine decides the form factor, and a 2.5-inch drive will not seat in a 3.5-inch bay.
- Check the controller before buying SAS. Entry machines ship the embedded B140i, which is a SATA controller — SAS drives need the P440ar or a stand-up Smart Array card.
- Match the whole storage path. HPE notes that the drive, controller, firmware and backplane should run at the same transfer rate, or the system negotiates down to the slowest.
- NVMe is not a drop-in. The NVMe SSDs require the 6SFF Express Bay Enablement Kit, and only one express bay is supported per server.
- Pick the endurance class for the workload. Read intensive suits boot volumes and mostly-read data, mixed use general virtualisation, write intensive logging and database writes.
Complete Your ML350 Gen9 Build
Cages and controllers are bought together — read ML350 Gen9 storage controllers before committing to a second cage. Also available: memory, processors, networking adapters and power supplies, or the full ML350 Gen9 parts listing. Background reading: SAS vs SATA, 512e drives and SSD endurance classes. Other models: HPE parts by server model.
ML350 Gen9 Drives FAQ
How many drives does an ML350 Gen9 hold?
Eight hot-plug SFF or eight hot-plug LFF bays as standard. HPE documents expansion to 48 SFF or 24 LFF using additional 8SFF or 8LFF cage kits, with expander hardware behind them.
What is the maximum storage capacity of an ML350 Gen9?
HPE documents 288TB on twenty-four 12TB LFF drives, 96TB on forty-eight 2TB SFF drives and 184.32TB on forty-eight 3.84TB SFF SSDs. Larger drives than those table entries are listed for this server.
Can I put SAS drives in an ML350 Gen9?
Yes, behind a SAS controller. The embedded Dynamic Smart Array B140i on entry models is SATA only, so a SAS drive needs the P440ar or a stand-up Smart Array card or HBA.
Does the ML350 Gen9 support NVMe SSDs?
Yes, up to six of them for 7.2TB. HPE requires the ML350 Gen9 6SFF Express Bay Enablement Kit to support these drives and limits the server to one express bay, with its bridge card in PCIe slot 3, 6 or 8.
Will a 12G SAS drive run at full speed in an ML350 Gen9?
Only behind a 12G controller and backplane. HPE notes that the drive, controller, firmware and backplane negotiate to a common rate, so the slowest component sets the speed.
Do these drives come with carriers?
Yes. Gen9 drives ship in redesigned HPE hot-plug SFF and LFF carriers carrying status, activity and Do Not Remove indicators. Separate blank kits are listed for the bays you are not filling.
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