Detailed Specifications
HPE 826567-B21 Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10 Controller
Overview
The HPE Smart Array P408i-a SR Gen10 is an enterprise-grade, flexible modular RAID controller designed to deliver high-performance 12 Gb/s SAS connectivity and robust data protection for HPE ProLiant Gen10 servers. It is engineered for demanding environments such as databases, virtualization, and data analytics, where storage performance and uptime are critical. This controller solves the challenge of I/O bottlenecks by providing eight internal SAS lanes, ensuring high-speed data paths between the server and its internal storage drives. A core strength of this controller lies in its 2 GB Flash-Backed Write Cache (FBWC), which significantly accelerates write-intensive application performance by reducing latency. The FBWC protects cached data indefinitely in the event of a power loss, ensuring data integrity. The P408i-a also features Mixed Mode, allowing it to operate in both RAID and HBA modes simultaneously. This unique capability provides the flexibility to connect some drives directly to applications (HBA) while others are configured in a fault-tolerant RAID array, all managed by a single controller. Designed as a type-a modular controller, it installs into a dedicated slot on the server system board, freeing up valuable PCIe slots for other expansion cards. This form factor is ideal for dense server configurations, such as the ProLiant DL380 Gen10, where maximizing expansion capability is essential. Management is streamlined through HPE's Smart Storage Administrator (SSA), providing a unified interface for configuring RAID levels, managing encryption, and monitoring the health of the storage subsystem.
