p410i does not recognize standard SAS 10k drives (from netapp appliance)

[DrStein99]

I have a stack of 10k sas drives from a netapp appliance, but I do not have a netapp appliance. I do have hp dl380 G7 with an internal (MERGED to the mainboard) P410I SAS RAID controller.

The controller recognizes these 146gb 15k drives. For reasons unknown, will not recognize any of the 450gb 6gb/s SAS drives I pulled out of the netapp trays. The 146gb drives are too small for me to use for the array I would like to build. I would like to use these 450gb drives - and for what the cost on eBay it seems to buy an entire used netapp appliance, it seems is almost the same as what it would cost me to buy only one LSI HBA card.... (frustrated).

Can anyone comment on their advice or experience with my situation ? I am ready to give up on the 410i controller. I believe I probably need to get a HBA controller, but I do not know if one of those universal LSI controllers will recognize the SAS drives I have, or if they can ever only be used in a NETAPP appliance, or if I need to burn some firmware, or other issue.

 

[i386]

Check the HDD subforum, IT has a sticky thread about Reformatting to 512b Block size.

 

[DrStein99]

I put the drive in my dell with the H700 controller, and it comes right up without an issue (and DELL does not force me to buy for a maintenance contract and license - unlike the HP 410i controller, by the way - in case anyone else was considering using this 10+ year old controller and generation 7 server).

 

[mrkrad]

I RAN p420i in g6/g7 server! twice as fast!

 

[DrStein99]

I would consider it, except HP demanding a licence for me to use my own raid array, and wants me to load keys and pay for stuff - on a server, that is off lease, purchased at auction that is 3 generations away from current. HP also want to charge me a fee for a different licensee for the smart-start utility that allows me to make changes to my own raid array. Then another licenses to update the firmware.

 

[YueLuo]

I'm pretty sure you can upgrade the firmware of an P410 without any license. I have done that outside an HP server (e.g on ASUS motherboard running windows).
As for making changes to RAID array, that can be done during boot() or after entering the OS(old hpssacli or newer ssacli). I don't recall ever being asked for a license, though the manual says you need to install a cache module with BBU or FBWC to perform online raid-level migration.

I would consider it, except HP demanding a licence for me to use my own raid array, and wants me to load keys and pay for stuff - on a server, that is off lease, purchased at auction that is 3 generations away from current. HP also want to charge me a fee for a different licensee for the smart-start utility that allows me to make changes to my own raid array. Then another licenses to update the firmware.

 

[DrStein99]

I got tired of scavenging for firmware updates and the website begging me for money and liscense with a maintained agreement.

I buy a LSI 9211 for like $40. The card immediately recognizes all the drives I have. I had to fuss with it's firmware for a few hours, but eventually got success. The most recent version of firmware was causing a pci error when I tried to enter its bios boot dialog.

I do not believe the 410I allows me to setup HBA mode. Without that I would be at the mercy of HP specific software to manage the raid array,.conflicting with freenas - and also unable to hot swap without rebooting and have to press f8 within 500ms time it gives me after waiting 10 minutes for it to boot up.

After going through this nonsense with HP service liscense, has changed my opinion on HP hardware. I will try and stay will Dell.

 

[Stefan75]

I'm using a DL380G6, it also has the P410i controller onboard.
The draw to getting a licence is annoying with HP servers/software.
But I was able to get everything I wanted after some searching
You can even get a trial licence for ILO.

G6 drivers here: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/home/driverHome?sp4ts.oid=3884088
Filter P410, newest firmware is 6.64 (Oct 2015) I think.
But you're right, it's a raid controller, no HBA mode.
I just use it to boot the OS disk.

I currently have a LSI9201-16e installed.
I externally connected a Supermirco SC846 24bay via HP SAS expander.
It's been working nicely.