HPE StoreEasy 1650 Storage Servers

Chassis options

There is one StoreEasy 1650 chassis: 2U, 12 LFF bays in front, 2 SFF bays at the rear, sold configure-to-order with no data drives or as pre-configured models named for their raw capacity. Do not confuse it with the StoreEasy 1650 Expanded (Apollo 4200 Gen9, 28 LFF bays) or the StoreEasy 1850 (the same DL380 Gen9 chassis with 24 SFF bays).

Model names refer to raw capacity, not usable space after RAID, and on a refurbished unit the drives may have changed since the factory, so read the drive line of each listing rather than the model name.

Processors

The 1650 ships with a single processor and has a second socket free, as on any DL380 Gen9. The processor fitted depends on the model generation.

The v3 part is Haswell-EP and the v4 part is Broadwell-EP. HPE offers a matching second processor kit for each generation (719052-B21 for v3, 817925-B21 for v4), and the QuickSpecs are explicit that the second processor must match the first. File serving is not processor-bound, so the usual reasons for adding the second CPU are the extra twelve memory slots and the second PCIe riser it enables, not raw compute. Because the board is a DL380 Gen9, other E5-2600 v3 and v4 processors are physically compatible, but HPE lists only the E5-2609 for the StoreEasy; ask before planning a swap.

Memory

Twenty-four DDR4 RDIMM slots, twelve per processor, of which twelve are usable with one CPU fitted. Every model ships with 16 GB as 2 x 8 GB. The original v3 models use DDR4-2133 and the WSS2016 v4 models DDR4-2400, in 8 GB and 16 GB HPE kits, and HPE advises adding the same type of memory the unit shipped with. The operating system licence caps memory at 4 TB on Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 and 24 TB on 2016, far above what the slots can hold. For a file server the useful upgrades are modest: more memory helps deduplication and caching, and each network adapter needs at least 2 GB of system memory according to HPE. We fit tested DDR4 registered memory to order.

Storage and RAID

This is the section that matters on a storage server. The 1650 has three layers: a Dynamic Smart Array B140i that only runs the two rear OS SSDs as a RAID 1 mirror, a Smart Array P440ar with 2 GB flash-backed write cache for the twelve front bays, and optional external Smart Array or HBA cards for disk enclosures.

The write cache is protected by the HPE Smart Storage Battery inside the chassis, so a power loss does not lose pending writes. The Windows Storage Server image adds Storage Spaces, deduplication and the StoreEasy Pool Manager on top of the hardware RAID, and many owners run the P440ar in RAID 6 or RAID 60 for large-capacity midline drives.

Drives

The front bays take HPE Smart Carrier LFF (3.5-inch) hot-plug drives, SAS at 12 Gb/s or SATA at 6 Gb/s, and 2.5-inch SSDs in a Smart Carrier Converter. HPE's list for the 1650 is midline 7,200 rpm capacity drives, and its stated best practice is to fill the chassis with one drive type and one capacity.

Twelve 10 TB drives give the 120 TB internal maximum. With 40 D3600 enclosures and five P441 controllers HPE quotes 4.92 PB raw. Drives from other makers need a Smart Carrier and may show as unauthenticated in iLO, so send us the drive part numbers you plan to use and we will check them. We stock SAS hard drives and 3.5-inch drives in Doha.

Networking and expansion

Every 1650 has an embedded HPE 331i four-port 1 GbE adapter. The single FlexibleLOM slot adds faster networking without using a PCIe slot: HPE lists the 366FLR (4 x 1 GbE), 560FLR-SFP+ and 562FLR-SFP+ (2 x 10 GbE SFP+), 561FLR-T (2 x 10GBASE-T), 640FLR-SFP28 (2 x 10/25 GbE) and InfiniBand FDR options. For PCIe adapters HPE recommends the 560SFP+ dual-port 10 GbE card, and also lists 10GBASE-T cards, 8, 16 and 32 Gb Fibre Channel HBAs and converged network adapters.

All three standard slots are free, because the P440ar uses its own connector. The optional second riser needs the second processor installed. Rear connectors are two USB 3.0, VGA, the four 1 GbE ports, the dedicated iLO port and an optional serial port; inside are a USB 3.0 header and a microSD slot.

Power supplies

Two HPE Flexible Slot 800 W Platinum power supplies, hot-plug and redundant, with two IEC C13 to C14 jumper cords in the box. Input is 100 to 120 VAC or 200 to 240 VAC per supply. HPE rates the 800 W supply at a maximum of 3,207 BTU/hr at 100 VAC. Six hot-plug redundant fans cool the chassis. The DL380 Gen9 platform also accepts 500 W and 1400 W Flexible Slot supplies, but 800 W is the standard fit and is ample for twelve spinning drives, two processors and a couple of adapters.

Management

The 1650 carries HPE iLO 4 with a dedicated management port, and every StoreEasy model includes an iLO Advanced licence from the factory: remote console, virtual media, power control, hardware health and firmware updates from a browser. On the Windows side HPE adds an Initial Configuration Tasks wizard for setup and networking, the StoreEasy Dashboard for capacity, performance and health with low-capacity email alerts, the Pool Manager for best-practice disk provisioning, and a StoreEasy Tools menu in Server Manager covering pools, snapshots, enclosure settings and firmware. System recovery media can be downloaded from HPE to rebuild the OS drives to factory state.

Physical specification

Supported operating systems

The 1650 is sold with its operating system on the two rear SSDs: Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Standard on the original models and Windows Storage Server 2016 Standard on the WSS2016 models, both with unlimited client access licences. Windows Storage Server shares its code base with Windows Server and serves SMB 2.0 through 3.1.1, NFS v2 to v4.1, WebDAV, HTTP/HTTPS, FTP/FTPS and iSCSI, with File Server Resource Manager, data deduplication and Work Folders. It joins an Active Directory domain but cannot be a domain controller. HPE sold an upgrade kit (Q0F57A) to move a 2012 R2 unit to WSS 2016 as physical media with a new certificate of authenticity label. Because the hardware is a DL380 Gen9 the machine can be wiped and run under another operating system, but you then forfeit the bundled licence and the StoreEasy tooling.

Buying a refurbished StoreEasy 1650 from ServerDove

Our StoreEasy 1650 range in Doha runs from barebone 12LFF chassis to fully configured systems with memory, the Smart Array P440ar, dual power supplies and SAS drives fitted. Refurbished units are tested before they are listed and are covered by the ServerDove warranty, with extended cover quoted on request. Delivery across Qatar is typically one day from Doha stock, and racking, cabling and base configuration, including the initial StoreEasy setup and share creation, are available as a service.

If you need a capacity point or drive mix that is not listed, send us the usable capacity and the RAID level you want and we will quote a build, or tell us whether you need the operating system drives present. Business customers can request a quotation for several units. Reach us on WhatsApp at +974 5521 2108, by email at sales@serverdove.com or through the contact page. For the same platform without the storage software, see the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9; for the wider range, see HPE storage.