HP
HP E7V99A Modular Smart Array 1040 Dual Controller Storage (Renewed)
Dual-controller SAN architecture delivers redundant storage performance for SMB environments that can't afford a single point of failure.
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Overview
HP Modular Smart Array 1040: Reliable Storage Solution
The HP E7V99A Modular Smart Array 1040 provides a cost-effective and reliable storage solution for small to medium-sized businesses. Featuring dual controllers, it offers enhanced performance and data protection. This renewed hard drive array is professionally inspected and tested to ensure it works like new, providing peace of mind for your critical data.
Specifications:
- Type: Hard Drive Array
- Controllers: Dual Controller
- Form Factor: LFF (Large Form Factor)
Key Features
Type
SAN Array
Form Factor
Rack-mountable
Pros & Cons
👍 Pros
- Dual-controller architecture eliminates storage-tier single points of failure — if one controller fails, the second maintains full I/O without manual intervention or downtime.
- Rack-mountable LFF form factor maximizes raw capacity per U compared to SFF arrays, making the MSA 1040 efficient for high-capacity archival and backup workloads.
- HPE MSA Storage Manager provides a dedicated management GUI that abstracts volume provisioning, RAID configuration, and health monitoring without requiring CLI expertise.
- The renewed unit undergoes professional inspection and testing, offering enterprise-class SAN hardware at a fraction of new-purchase cost — significant for SMB CapEx budgets.
- Broad RAID support (including RAID 6) gives administrators flexibility to tune the redundancy-to-capacity trade-off for their specific workload risk profile.
👎 Cons
- Interface type (iSCSI vs. Fibre Channel) must be confirmed before purchase — FC variants require dedicated HBA infrastructure that adds significant cost and complexity to the host environment.
- No native SSD hot-tier support in the base configuration; all-flash or tiered performance requires additional HPE licensing that may not transfer with a renewed unit.
- As a generation-previous SAN array, maximum host port speeds and controller cache sizes are below current HPE MSA 2060/2062 generation specs — throughput ceilings matter in I/O-intensive workloads.
- Renewed enterprise storage carries inherent drive-age uncertainty; budgeting for drive replacement shortly after deployment is prudent and should factor into total cost of ownership.
- Management is handled through a separate HPE MSA Storage Manager application rather than a modern browser-based interface, adding a software dependency to the administration workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "dual controller" mean for uptime, and how does it differ from a single-controller array?
With dual controllers, the MSA 1040 can continue operating if one controller fails — the surviving controller takes over I/O without data loss or a manual restart. A single-controller array has no such failover path; a controller failure means the storage is offline until hardware is replaced. For any environment running production workloads, the dual-controller configuration is the meaningful differentiator.
What host interface does the MSA 1040 use, and what switches or HBAs are required?
The MSA 1040 is available in iSCSI or Fibre Channel variants (the specific interface depends on the unit configuration). iSCSI variants connect over standard Ethernet infrastructure (1GbE or 10GbE) using software or hardware iSCSI initiators; FC variants require Fibre Channel HBAs in the host servers and FC switching fabric. Verify the interface type of this specific renewed unit before purchasing.
What drive types and form factors does the MSA 1040 support?
The MSA 1040 supports LFF (Large Form Factor, 3.5-inch) drives in SAS and SATA variants. It does not natively support SSD hot-tier in the base configuration without HPE Smart Array tiering licenses. Maximum raw capacity depends on the number of populated bays and drive densities supported.
Is this array compatible with VMware vSphere or Windows Server storage management?
Yes — the MSA 1040 supports VMware VAAI for hardware-accelerated storage operations and integrates with Windows Server via iSCSI or FC initiators. HP also provides the MSA Storage Manager GUI for volume provisioning and RAID management, which runs on Windows and Linux management hosts.
What RAID levels does the MSA 1040 support for data protection?
The MSA 1040 supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10, as well as HPE's ADAPT (Autonomic Distributed Tiering for RAID) on newer firmware. For most SMB deployments, RAID 6 (dual-parity) is the recommended starting configuration, providing tolerance for two simultaneous drive failures.
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