HP H240 HBA hangs on 0.00% when erasing drives

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TheWired

New Member
Jun 14, 2020
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Hello,

I have a problem with HP H240 in HBA mode. It is installed in a HP ML310 G8 server.
When I boot to Intelligent provisioning -> Maintenance -> SSA controller is recognized , drives shown too. But when I try to erase a drive (or several drives, it doesn't matter) it says that erasing is started. Progress indicator remains at 0% and it doesn't matter how long I wait to see any change. Last time I tried to wait for 2 days just to be sure. SSA is not frozen, I can cancel the erase, click elsewhere, exit SSA... Does anybody faced this (or similar issue)?

H240 itself is flashed to firmware version 7.20. SSA is 3.10.3.0. Please see the picture:
H240 SSA Erase.jpg

Another thing, not sure if it is related to this problem - when server does POST controller complains about missing capacitor. This is a HBA after all, it shouldn't require any batteries, capacitors, etc..., right?

Any help will be appreciated.
 

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oneplane

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Jul 23, 2021
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I mean, does wiping disks work ;-) Because the SSA and Intelligent Provisioning is just an old linux thing designed for legacy operations and hardware raid, not really for HBAs and modern things.

It's possible that it just sends an ATA ERASE or ATA SECURE ERASE command, it's also possible it just writes zeroes to all LBA's, who knows (I doubt they document it).
 

TheWired

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Jun 14, 2020
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It could be it sends these commands. Not sure, never dug that deep. In my case looks like it doesn't start to erase the drives. That was my question about - if somebody has seen this before to advise about a workaround, or SSA version to change to, etc...
 

oneplane

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Jul 23, 2021
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I would suggest simply not bothering with SSA or Intelligent provisioning. Those things are usually bolted on via a business acquisition and never really fleshed out beyond making the marketing funnel more attractive.
 

audiophonicz

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Jan 11, 2021
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Another thing, not sure if it is related to this problem - when server does POST controller complains about missing capacitor. This is a HBA after all, it shouldn't require any batteries, capacitors, etc..., right?
For the record, this is wrong. Its complaining about a super-cap, which is used more like a battery than a capacitor. RAID cards do commonly use batteries for volatile write cache. Its just saying you dont have the cache module installed for this card.

Is there a reason you need to use this SSA utility instead of using some CLI utility like sg_sanitize?
 

TheWired

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Jun 14, 2020
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For the record, this is wrong. Its complaining about a super-cap, which is used more like a battery than a capacitor. RAID cards do commonly use batteries for volatile write cache. Its just saying you dont have the cache module installed for this card.
I know what are for batteries and supercaps and what you say makes sense, but for a real RAID controller which has write cache. H240 is a HBA, which means RAID functionality is just nice to have. It has no support for cache module according to this and this. HPE QuickSpecs also do not say anything about cache and battery/supercap, etc.. Currently people ask about this problem, but except disabling the BIOS for this controller there is no other solution.

Is there a reason you need to use this SSA utility instead of using some CLI utility like sg_sanitize?
If I don't find a way to make SSA do the job I may need to use something else. Just wanted to utilize what is already available in the server and from HPE.
 

audiophonicz

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Jan 11, 2021
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technically RAID cards and SAS cards are both HBAs, so to me if it can RAID, its a RAID card, regardless whether or not the functionality is turned on. But i guess if HPE cant write the correct firmware to their cards, everything else is just kinda speculative anyways. To that end, yeah it might be related to that firmware problem, so who knows what else wont work right. might want to just default to sg3_utils.

but then again, just because I'm bored... this little white connector on the top left of the card
1670188449367.png

Looks eerily similar to the HPE battery backed write cache module
1670188605814.png
 

oneplane

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Jul 23, 2021
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I would always stay away from the 'built in' crap, regardless of the vendor. It's usually outdated, only partially performing to spec, non-transferrable between brands, non-transferrable within the same vendor most of the time as well... OpenManage is the same crap but from Dell instead of HPE. Cisco has it's own thing, as do all the others. They are all similarly broken, outdated and incompatible.

Easiest is to keep the vendor-specific firmware and compliance tools around as well as some universal CSM/UEFI boot drive that does all the standard stuff like hardware listing/detection, non-vendor firmware management, basic block device tools, filesystem tools. Even GRML or a basic Debian Live disk would do.
 
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TheWired

New Member
Jun 14, 2020
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I did not find an article describing connection of a battery to H240. Anyway, I will order one and try if it will make any difference.
Most interesting is why the connector is that big, and why it is for a Ni-Cd battery and not for a SuperCap. H240 is newer than P420 as far as I know, and P420s are usually with SuperCaps.
If the proud owners of H240s here could check their controllers have a battery and share could be helpful.
 

audiophonicz

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Jan 11, 2021
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for the record, I was not saying try that particular part number. Just referencing HPE batt module connectors in general.
 

TheWired

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Jun 14, 2020
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There are (at least) 3 types of H240s - H240, H240nr and H240ar. First is the famous PCIe PCB we all know, while the others look like this:


I will check to confirm if there are different firmware update files for these.
 

TheWired

New Member
Jun 14, 2020
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Checked and confirmed that for all types H240 adapter the firmware download file is the same. I'm still waiting for the battery and cable. When I receive them will test and write again if the problem is gone.