First-time poster here; been lurking and learning for a while. I'm building a DIY disk shelf using an HP DL380 G8 2.5" SFF drive cage and I can't seem to get the drive LEDs to work. I took inspiration from another post here (Converting an HP DL380e Gen8 14xLFF Server to a Disk Shelf). I was curious if someone might be able to point me in the right direction or simply confirm that the drive indicators aren't going to work with my configuration. This will ultimately become a TrueNAS array, so I understand that the management LEDs probably won't be functional without a hardware RAID controller--just looking for activity/power indicators here.
Like the LFF drive cage in the link above, the SFF version I'm using only has connectors for data and power (SFF-8087 and Molex Mini-Fit Jr.). The backplane is connected to the host computer with an HP H221 HBA. I chose this adapter because I suspected that the drive indicators are a proprietary HP thing and wanted to stick with HP firmware to keep the components simiar. What I've built here is essentially the same thing as if you installed an H220* in a DL380 G8 server and connected the hot-swap array to it. (*Note: I am using an H221, which is equivalent to the LSI 9205/9207-8e--external connectors. The H220 is the 8i variant.)
Here's what I've tried (drive LEDs don't work):
Other info that might be helpful:
Like the LFF drive cage in the link above, the SFF version I'm using only has connectors for data and power (SFF-8087 and Molex Mini-Fit Jr.). The backplane is connected to the host computer with an HP H221 HBA. I chose this adapter because I suspected that the drive indicators are a proprietary HP thing and wanted to stick with HP firmware to keep the components simiar. What I've built here is essentially the same thing as if you installed an H220* in a DL380 G8 server and connected the hot-swap array to it. (*Note: I am using an H221, which is equivalent to the LSI 9205/9207-8e--external connectors. The H220 is the 8i variant.)
Here's what I've tried (drive LEDs don't work):
- Original HP P11 firmware on the card
- Flashed HP P15 firmware (the latest available here).
- Cross-flashed to H220 P15 firmware in case internal/external connectors matter
- Cross-flashed to H220i P15 firmware because, why not?
Other info that might be helpful:
- The physical and logical drive bays are swapped, so drive 1 on the HBA is slot 8 in the drive cage. This is apparently a common issue and I've read where this mismatch causes the wrong LEDs to light up. For testing, I have drives installed in slots 4 and 5 (logical 5 and 4, respectively) just to be sure I'm actually seeing something illuminate even if the ID numbers are wrong. No lights.
- Running
locate
usingsas2ircu
produces a "SEP write request failed" error. I suspect this is because the SFF backplane doesn't contain a storage enclosure processor (SEP); i.e., probably that controller chip in the LFF backplane. If I don't have a SEP, how the heck does the DL380 G8 operate the drive indicators in a "real" DL380? Does this maybe require a hardware RAID controller like the P420 on the server's motherboard?