HP launches its next generation entry level storage MSA1040

HP announced today the release of their next (4th) generation of its entry level storage platform MSA.
Last year there was the announcement of the MSA2040 besides the existing P2000 G3 array. MSA2040 featured more performance thanks to the availability of more cache in the controller (4GB), 16Gb FC connectivity and SSD support. This made the MSA2040 more a performance model on top of the existing P2000 G3 model instead of a replacement of it.

Today HP released the next generation of the P2000 G3 on the same platform as the MSA2040 but in a more essential base… Let’s take a look at the details of today’s announcement.

msa1040announcement

The differences are quite expected (at least for me): 2 ports per controller instead of 4, no 16Gb FC and less disks per array (99 instead of 199 for SFF disks). Further no SAS model will be available: explanation was that, because of the 2 ports per controller, you could only connect 2 servers to the 1040 which makes no sense… Too bad to hear that SMB customers need directly the performance model to get SAS connectivity…

msa1040

So 3 controllers will be available at launch (no converged controller as the 2040 big brother): 1Gb and 10Gb iSCSI and 8Gb FC.

The typical SFF (146GB – 1,2TB) and LFF (300GB – 4TB) disks will be supported as on the 2040 except the SSD and Self Encrypting Drives (SEDs) which are only supported on the 2040.

Upgrades

Current P2000 G3 arrays can be upgraded to MSA 1040 and 2040. This requires the replacement of the 2 controllers with the new ones of the 4th generation.
Since SATA srives are not supported on the x040 models, these disks must be replaced through Data-In-Place upgrades to SAS drives.

Be aware that the P2000 G3 chassis with 4th generation controllers will not support the SSD drives. So if you want SSD drives you will need the MSA 2040 chassis.

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