FreeNAS only detecting 2 drives of Smart Array P420i

[myst02]

Hey guys,

I've been running FreeNAS on an HP ML350p Gen8 for quite some time with 2 disks now and its integrated Smart Array P420i (set to HBA mode) has been working just fine. Recently I wanted to put 2 more drives in the server, but FreeNAS is not detecting them. The drives aren't faulty since they are detected just fine when booting from an Ubuntu Live DVD.

I did some further testing and it seems like FreeNAS only detects drives when they are inserted in the first two bays. I also tried downgrading the P420i from firmware version 8.00 to 6.34, which didn't help either.

Is there any way to get this working or should I just give up on the P420i and buy a proper HBA?

Thanks in advance!

 

[kdragon75]

That card does not support HBA or IT mode from what I can find. this generally means no SMART data from the drives to detect impending dooooom. You likely need to add each drive as RAID 0 with one drive. Or you could spend 30-50USD and get the proper card and find out if your drives have issues BEFORE they fail and you lose everything.

 

[myst02]

The card does support HBA mode (it can be turned on in the HP SSA), but it seems to be unsupported by FreeNAS.

I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and get a proper HBA, will the HP H220 work?

 

[kdragon75]

but it seems to be unsupported by FreeNAS.

Not supported like the card does not get detected, or just the drives don't show up? If the latter, it's not true a HBA mode.

I'm probably just going to bite the bullet and get a proper HBA, will the HP H220 work?

Yeah thats probably what you need to do. It always sucks spending money but you will sleep better knowing you data is being properly monitored.
I personally have no experience with that card but searching the googles for "FreeNAS HP H220" I found this: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/flashing-hp-h220-h221-sas-cards.40052/

EDIT: I need to start reading my posts BEFORE I post...:p

 

[HoneyBadger]

I found another thread where a user had the same problem (HBA mode on this controller only shows two drives) and there was never a successful fix.

So unfortunately it looks like the resolution is "buy a better supported, pure HBA."

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hp-dl360p-gen8-p420i-controller.47956/

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

So unfortunately it looks like the resolution is "buy a better supported, pure HBA."

I second this recommendation. All my home lab servers used to be HP, and I could never get them to do JBOD. Even with LSI RAID controllers doing JBOD, there are still some wonky issues. LSI 9207's are reasonably cheap on eBay (~= $50), and they work great.

 

[myst02]

Thanks to everyone for your recommendations! Looks like I'm just going to get a HBA then.

LSI 9207's are reasonably cheap on eBay (~= $50), and they work great.

I've heard some horror stories about the fans ramping up to 100% when non-HP cards are used, so that's why I'm looking at the H220. Can you confirm that this does not happen with the LSI 9207?

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I've heard some horror stories about the fans ramping up to 100% when non-HP cards are used, so that's why I'm looking at the H220. Can you confirm that this does not happen with the LSI 9207?

No, I can't because I have never put one of those in an HP server. I moved to Cisco servers last year. Even if you get one of the HP branded cards, you will want to flash it to the LSI IT firmware.

 

[Chris Moore]

Here is an HP card, but it has been flashed with the LSI firmware, which is needed for FreeNAS, so I don't know how an HP server will respond to it.

Drive Controller: SAS PCI-E 3.0 HBA LSI 9207-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID - - US $69.55
https://www.ebay.com/itm/162862201664

 

[HoneyBadger]

Unfortunately flashing the IT mode firmware will make the card be recognized as a vanilla LSI model, therefore a "non-HP card" so your fans will ramp up.

 

[kdragon75]

Unfortunately flashing the IT mode firmware will make the card be recognized as a vanilla LSI model, therefore a "non-HP card" so your fans will ramp up.

Reason 9887 I can't stand HP.

 

[drabadue]

I'm a couple weeks late, but I have a HP dl380p G8 with the p420i controller in HBA mode and it can recognize 7 disks.

I am running firmware version 8.32 for the controller. In order to update the firmware on the SAS controller, I had windows 10 installed off the optical drive SATA port. Then I used the HPE website to download the latest firmware for the controller for Windows. The firmware for Windows is an exe file, so I just double-clicked it and it updated the firmware automatically. In order to get the controller into HBA mode, I rebooted and during POST I used HP intelligent provisioning (F10?) and entered into the smart array configurator and deleted the configuration. (I think you can press F5 during post to get to the same smart array configurator). After the configuration was deleted, I could simply click the controller into HBA mode. After I had that done, I installed freenas 11 to USB. FreeNAS recoganizes 3 300gb SAS drives, and 4 40 GB Intel SSD's. I'm a little bummed to find out that HBA mode can't boot from the ssds. I had planned on running two ssds for a redundant boot off the p420.

I'm not sure which version of HP intelligent provisioning I have currently. I think it's 2.5. I would have to double-check.

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

If you get anywhere with HBA mode with the HP controllers, you have gotten farther than I ever did. I tried to do that with P410, P800, and P822 controllers with absolutely no success at all. One of my early versions of FreeNAS was one that used one of those controllers in HW RAID mode (Yes, I know. I was sufficiently roasted at the time, and now I am using supported controllers). One thing I will say is that the cisss driver was very good about reporting drive status even when the controller wasn't in HBA mode. smartd didn't see it, but the kernel would generate a syslog message that would end up in my e-mail when a drive was starting to fail. I have noticed that later versions of FreeNAS seem a little less tolerant of HW RAID controllers which is why I retired the LSI RAID controllers I was using even though they were in HBA/JBOD mode.

 

[drabadue]

I'm still very inexperienced when it comes to freeNAS, so I'm not sure if/how to check that the smart data can be seen in my setup. I scheduled a smart long test in the web GUI, so I'm waiting to see how that works. I'm going to try and see if I can get freeNAS to boot off the SSD's with the p420i in HBA mode, but it sounds like no one has had any luck in doing so. I guess I'm pretty lucky that my system even recognizes more than 2 drives.

The one thing I don't care for is how hot the p420i runs. With the system idle, I'm reading 52C in iLO4 for the SAS card. Due to that, 3 of the 6 fans (the ones on the same side of the chassis as my p420i) run faster than they need to. I've got 3 fans running at 6%, and 3 fans at 32% with the system idle. I'm going to see about adding a heat sink if I can find the p420i controller chip on the board, or a small fan to try and cool it down.

If all else fails, I have two Dell Perc H310 cards I plan to flash to IT mode and run off those. Then I too will have to figure out the fans running at full speed with "unsupported" HP hardware.

 

[bigphil]

I just setup two new home servers (DL360p Gen8, DL380p Gen8) and have my H220's flashed to the latest Broadcom firmware available (20.00.07.00) and my fans are not close to running at 100% speed in either system nor is my old ML350 Gen6 with the same card in it. All fans are usually around 20-40% depending on the system (360p runs hotter). Make sure you install the latest firmware for all components in the HPE system. SPP for Gen8 and then you'll need to download the latest iLO firmware and system BIOS directly from the HPE support site as the latest SPP for Gen8's doesn't include them. iLO 4=2.61, system BIOS=2018.05.21

 

[drabadue]

I just setup two new home servers (DL360p Gen8, DL380p Gen8) and have my H220's flashed to the latest Broadcom firmware available (20.00.07.00) and my fans are not close to running at 100% speed in either system nor is my old ML350 Gen6 with the same card in it. All fans are usually around 20-40% depending on the system (360p runs hotter). Make sure you install the latest firmware for all components in the HPE system. SPP for Gen8 and then you'll need to download the latest iLO firmware and system BIOS directly from the HPE support site as the latest SPP for Gen8's doesn't include them. iLO 4=2.61, system BIOS=2018.05.21

That's great to hear. I've bought a second HDD cage, and a bunch of HP sas drives and caddy's, so I am pretty well committed on making the dl380p G8 work. I'll be able to hold 16 SFF drives if all goes to plan.

When I tried to download the G8 SPP from HPE's website, it won't let me. I get an error that says:

"Support validation required
An active warranty or support agreement covering Proliant servers must be linked to your HPE Support Center profile to access this application"

I have an account, but I bought the server second hand. Not sure if I can contact HPE for a workaround.

That's why I went the windows 10 route and was installing firmware 1 by 1 with the .exe files.

I'm pretty sure I can update bios from iLO4 and if I can't get the SPP to download, I'll just keep doing them through windows 10.

 

[drabadue]

@myst02 - Do you have your flash based write cache (FBWC) card installed in your system? Its the so-dimm looking daughter card that connects to a battery. Looking something like this:

I decided to take mine out, in order to see what would happen. Lo and behold, only 2 drives show up in FreeNAS.

I found this post that may seem to back up this claim:

https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLia...420i-in-Gen8-DL380p-with-no-FBWC/td-p/6939786



And as pointed out in the thread linked by @HoneyBadger :

I found another thread where a user had the same problem (HBA mode on this controller only shows two drives) and there was never a successful fix.

So unfortunately it looks like the resolution is "buy a better supported, pure HBA."

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/hp-dl360p-gen8-p420i-controller.47956/

He wasnt using the FBWC card either.

That my be the whole issue.

And interestingly enough, with the FBWC card removed, the p420i temperature shows up 8*C cooler (i assume because its only handling 2 drives).



Also, Slightly off topic. I installed my dell Perc H310 card's, unflashed, into the dl380p g8 to see what the fans did. And they simply spun up like normal. In iOL 4 I can see PCI slots 2 and 3 are unknown, and the fans arent running at full speed. So thats another mystery slightly debunked. I will get those cards flashed and see what happens.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I decided to take (my FBWC module) out, in order to see what would happen. Lo and behold, only 2 drives show up in FreeNAS.

Confirmed. With no cache memory installed, there is a firmware maximum of 2 drives on the P420 series cards. This appears to even persist in "HBA mode"

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03527236

And interestingly enough, with the FBWC card removed, the p420i temperature shows up 8*C cooler (i assume because its only handling 2 drives).

Also because the FBWC/supercap isn't drawing extra power.

Also, Slightly off topic. I installed my dell Perc H310 card's, unflashed, into the dl380p g8 to see what the fans did. And they simply spun up like normal. In iOL 4 I can see PCI slots 2 and 3 are unknown, and the fans arent running at full speed. So thats another mystery slightly debunked. I will get those cards flashed and see what happens.

That's also excellent news if the fan behavior has changed to not ramp up to full speed. Keep us posted on the behavior with the LSI firmware on the H310s.

 

[drabadue]

Confirmed. With no cache memory installed, there is a firmware maximum of 2 drives on the P420 series cards. This appears to even persist in "HBA mode"

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03527236



Also because the FBWC/supercap isn't drawing extra power.



That's also excellent news if the fan behavior has changed to not ramp up to full speed. Keep us posted on the behavior with the LSI firmware on the H310s.

@HoneyBadger -

Finally got the Dell PERC H310's flashed to IT mode with the P20 firmware. Somewhat of a hassle, but I managed to get it figured out. I have 2 H310's in my dl380p G8 (capacity of 16 SFF drives total with 2, 8 bay cages). Both cards are fully working in FreeNAS. The Dell/LSI cards show up as 'UNKNOWN' in iLO4 under System Information>Device Inventory.

During POST, the fans spin up pretty loudly.

Once in FreeNAS, here is what iLO4 shows for fan speed:

#1 - 21%
#2 - 21%
#3 - 21%
#4 - 34%
#5 - 43%
#6 - 43%

Before the H310's were installed, the fans did run a bit slower (from memory):

#1 - 9%
#2 - 9%
#3 - 9%
#4 - 34%
#5 - 34%
#6 - 34%

Even at the higher fan speeds, it is no where near 100%, and not at all what I would consider loud. Similar results to what @bigphil had mentioned.

This is with all the latest firmware installed from HP for the server.

One thing I did notice are temperatures. Even though nothing is hooked to the onboard P420i, I am still seeing 52C for 'HD Controller' in iLO4. I looked to see if I could disable the P420i in BIOS, but I was not able to find an option to disable it. I think I will take the flash card and backup battery/supercap out, since they really aren't needed now, and see if that may bring the temp down.

I am kinda bummed that the HDD caddies no longer show any status LED's. I know its not a big deal, but I did enjoy seeing the little LED ring on the caddies light up as the drives were reading/writing. Part of me wants to find a HP p420 card (without the 'i', as I assume the 'i' stands for integrated), update the firmware on it, and set both p420's as HBA mode. That way I could keep the HDD status LED's, have the temps for both cards show up in iLO4 (I'm assuming), and possibly bring the fan speeds back down. May not be worth the hassle since the P420 cards run hot, so perhaps the fans speeds will stay high trying to keep both cards cool anyway.

 

[bigphil]

The p420i doesn't have a limit of only detecting two drives without a cache card (well maybe in FreeNAS, but that's a FreeNAS issue not a controller issue). It has a limit of only being able to create two logical drives...not the same thing as physical drives. Now why does FreeNAS act strangely with this card is the real problem here. Most likely a shat driver. Read the HP docs again for this controller and even the link from honey badger above...the fellow that posted on the HP forum was complaining about not being able to create more than two logical drives. With that said, I'd try upgrading the controller to firmware 8.32 and verify HBA mode is still set using the SSA utility. The version in Intelligent Provisioning on your system may not display the HBA setting...just tested on my server moments ago and it didn't, while the version on the latest SPP did show it correctly. Either way, I guess as long as you get the POST message about RAID disabled due to NVRAM setting, you should be set to HBA mode properly. Hell...even the latest VMware VSAN compatibility charts list the P420i as being supported via RAID0 or pass-through mode for VSAN 6.7. This alone gives me enough confidence that the card truly supports proper HBA mode when set correctly with the latest firmware if they list it as pass-through capable. I don't recall...are you trying this on FreeNAS 11.1?