HGST / Netapp SAS Drives (most of the time) dont show up on Dell r730xd Backplane

[C_Lack]

Hi, my Name is Christian, first poster, long time Reader.

And I think i messed up or at least got a Problem i can not solve on my own:

I recently got myself a used Dell R730xd SFF Server with Dell HBA 330 Mini Mono SAS Controller and 24x SFF Front Backplane.
There were some Dell Drives included which work pretty well. And some of my Sata Drives i had lying around worked, too.

All Drives are 1.2TB SAS Drives, most of the Dell Drives are 6GBits, two of them are 12 Gbits. They work in every Position of
the Backplane.

The Servers Bios, Idrac, Lifecycle Controller, Backplane and the HBA 330 is on latest Firmware provided by Dell.

Later on i decided to get some other Drives off of Ebay, namely Netapp X425 drives. And there is my Problem begins:

The Drives are from HGST, Model: HUC101812CS4204 with a proprietary Netapp Firmware. And the drives didnt Spin Up
at first. After some Googling around i found out the drives had the Power Disable Feature on Pin 3. So i taped Pin 3 of the
Power Connector with some Kapton Tape and gave them a shot.

After Hotplugging the Drives they showed up and i thought i can call it da Day. But... not before reformating them to 512 Sectors
using sg_format. After the format finished all drives showed up ok and i was able to create an Data pool in Truenas.

After shutting down the Server i started it again and: Almost all Drives were gone. They show up in Idrac with 42 Gb and on the
OS lsblk shows the drives with "0" capacity. The Drives show up again after Hotplugging.

After lots of testing it turned out that somd drives occasionally DO show up, but completely random. I does not make any difference
where i put the drives or how many i put in the backplane.

And i can not enter advanced Adapter Properties of my HBA 330 Mini, the Controller hangs if i try to enter that Menu.

So for the last test i ordered a SFF8087 to SAS Cable to test the Drives on an LSI 9211-8i - and the work on this controller.

So i suspect the Controller is the Problem here, perhaps the Bios is messed up or something. I habe no clue what i can do after
all the testing i did. Does anyone have an Idea how to factory Reset the HBA 300 or something else i could try? I dont understand
why the Drives work just fine after Hotplugging them - only until i shut down the Server the next Time.

Errors from the Linux / Proxmox shell an Screenshots from the Idrac following here:

Here an Screenshot from the Idrac:



lsblk:

sda                             8:0    0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sda1                          8:1    0   1.1T  0 part
sdb                             8:16   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sdb1                          8:17   0   1.1T  0 part
sdc                             8:32   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sdc1                          8:33   0   1.1T  0 part
sdd                             8:48   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sdd1                          8:49   0   1.1T  0 part
sde                             8:64   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sde1                          8:65   0   1.1T  0 part
sdf                             8:80   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sdf1                          8:81   0   1.1T  0 part
sdg                             8:96   0   1.1T  0 disk
└─sdg1                          8:97   0   1.1T  0 part
sdh                             8:112  0     0B  0 disk

dmesg | grep shd:

[    9.344305] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Spinning up disk...
[  109.698184] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  109.698190] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Sense Key : Not Ready [current]
[  109.698195] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Add. Sense: Logical unit is in process of becoming ready
[  109.698625] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  109.698631] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Sense Key : Not Ready [current]
[  109.698636] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Add. Sense: Logical unit is in process of becoming ready
[  109.698643] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
[  109.698647] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] 0-byte physical blocks
[  109.699076] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[  109.699221] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Asking for cache data failed
[  109.699384] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  109.701955] sd 0:0:7:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI disk

sg_format /dev/sdh:

root@pve0:~# sg_format /dev/sdh
    NETAPP    X425_HCBFE1T2A10  NA04   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
      << supports protection information>>
      Unit serial number: 06H364SZ
      LU name: 5000cca02d3e2edc
MODE SENSE (10) command: Device not ready
    try '-v' for more information
sg_format failed: Device not ready

 

[C_Lack]

So, to answer my own Thread:

The Drives Firmware seem to have a Vendor Lock to function only in NetApp Appliances.
I was not able to flash another Firmware on the Drives by myself, so i contacted User E123
from HDDGuru Forums to reflash the Drives.

He did that very professional and for a okay price, Service was nice an friendly.

Now there is a generiy HGST Firmware on the Drives and they work flawlessly.