HPE P55698-B21 ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Plus 2SFF SAS/SATA Drive Cage Kit
Overview
The HPE P55698-B21 is a 2SFF (Small Form Factor) SAS/SATA backplane drive cage kit designed specifically for the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Plus server platform. At 0.94 lb, this factory-new cage kit adds physical bay capacity to your DL380 Gen10 Plus chassis — letting you expand local storage without replacing the base server. It is the right pick when your initial DL380 configuration shipped with fewer drive bays than your storage workload now demands, or when you are staging a server for a higher-drive-count deployment from the outset.
Dual-interface support (SAS and SATA) means the cage accepts both enterprise SAS drives for write-intensive workloads and SATA drives for higher-capacity, read-dominant applications — giving you flexibility across storage tiers in a single bay expansion. This matters in mixed-use rack deployments where you may need to swap drive types as requirements evolve, without changing the cage itself.
Compatibility
The P55698-B21 (often searched as P55698 B21) is engineered specifically for the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Plus platform. Verify your DL380 Gen10 Plus chassis configuration and available bay slots before ordering — this cage is not interchangeable with DL380 Gen10 (non-Plus) or other ProLiant generations. Check your server's QuickSpecs for maximum supported cage count and bay assignments before procurement.
For HPE ProLiant server accessories and complementary network infrastructure, confirm compatibility against your specific chassis order code. Buyers integrating this kit into NVR or video storage server builds should validate drive bay requirements against their retention and redundancy targets before finalizing the drive cage count.
Key Features
- 2SFF Bay Expansion: Adds small form factor drive bays to the DL380 Gen10 Plus chassis — directly increases the number of drives you can install without a chassis swap, which is the lower-cost path when you need incremental storage growth.
- SAS and SATA Interface Support: Accepts both SAS and SATA drive types, so you are not locked into a single drive tier. Use SAS for transactional or write-heavy workloads; SATA for high-capacity sequential storage — both from the same cage.
- Platform-Specific Engineering: Designed for the DL380 Gen10 Plus specifically, ensuring mechanical fit, backplane connector alignment, and firmware recognition without the risk of compatibility issues from generic or cross-generation parts.
- Low Installation Weight: At 0.94 lb, the cage itself adds negligible load to the chassis, keeping the server within rack weight budgets even when fully populated with drives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What server is the P55698-B21 compatible with?
A: The P55698-B21 is designed for the HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 Plus. It is not confirmed compatible with the standard DL380 Gen10 (non-Plus) or other ProLiant generations — verify against your chassis QuickSpecs before ordering.
Q: What drive interfaces does the P55698-B21 support?
A: The cage supports both SAS and SATA drives, giving you flexibility to populate with enterprise SAS or high-capacity SATA drives depending on your workload requirements.
Q: How many drive bays does the P55698-B21 add?
A: This is a 2SFF (2x Small Form Factor) cage kit, adding two small form factor drive bay positions to the DL380 Gen10 Plus chassis.
Q: What is the weight of the P55698-B21?
A: The P55698-B21 weighs 0.94 lb, making it a lightweight addition to the server chassis.
Q: Does the P55698-B21 include drives?
A: No — this is a drive cage kit only. Drives are sold separately and must be sourced to match your SAS or SATA requirements and capacity targets.
The P55698-B21 is a straightforward bay expansion component for the DL380 Gen10 Plus platform — its value is in what it unlocks: two additional SFF drive positions in a chassis you already own, with dual SAS/SATA interface support that keeps your storage options open as workload mix evolves.
Technical Highlights:
- 2SFF Bay Capacity: Adds two small form factor positions to the DL380 Gen10 Plus, the most direct way to grow local drive count without a platform change.
- SAS + SATA Dual Interface: A single cage accepts either drive protocol — relevant when your storage tiers mix transactional SAS spindles or SSDs alongside higher-capacity SATA media.
- 0.94 lb Kit Weight: Negligible chassis load impact — fully populating this cage with two drives keeps you well within standard rack weight limits for the DL380 Gen10 Plus.
Deployment Considerations:
- Confirm your DL380 Gen10 Plus chassis has an available bay slot and that your server's backplane configuration supports this cage position — Gen10 Plus and Gen10 are not the same platform and this part is not cross-compatible.
- Drives are not included; source SAS or SATA drives separately and verify HPE's supported drive list for the DL380 Gen10 Plus to avoid compatibility issues at the firmware level.
Best fit for DL380 Gen10 Plus deployments — such as on-premises NVR storage builds or edge compute nodes — where the initial drive bay count is insufficient for current retention or data volume requirements and a chassis replacement is not justified.
