This document applies directly to the Hewlett Packard Proliant DL385 G2 and DL385 G5 servers which share a physical chassis. To the best of my knowledge, this will also apply to the DL585 G2 and DL585 G5 which should share an eight bay drive cage with their 3xx series cousins. I also believe that this applies to the Intel based DL380 G5 as well as the DL580 G5. (The DL380 G4 and the DL580 G4 use different drive configurations as does the DL385 G5p.)
When buying a hot-swap SAS or SATA 2.5″ hard drive for use in your new HP DL385 G5 you can acquire them directly from HP with the drive carrier (or sled, caddy) already attached. This is the easiest method. If you are like me and prefer to select your own drives from third party makers (in my case, I want to use high performance Seagate drives) then you must purchase your hot swap drive sleds separately. Finding the correct part number from HP can be quite a hassle. Even calling them for support can be tricky as almost no one buys this part directly.
I have already done the legwork to find the correct part number and have purchased and tested this part to be sure that it is correct. The part that you need to purchase is HP Part Number: 378343-002. This part is generally priced around $50 USD. You will need eight of them to fully populate the DL385 G5 drive housing but you can use them individually as well, or course.
Beware of shops attempting to sell you a much lower cost alternative to this part number. Quite often the lower cost part is actually a drive blank. A drive blank is simply a plastic air dam that corrects airflow through the server chassis when a drive is not present. Seven of these drive blanks should ship with your DL385 G5 when it is new. They are readily available and very inexpensive but, mostly, useless.
If you need to reach HP’s Parts Store directly you can call them at (800) 227-8164 in the US.