HP H240 HBA Controller

[chinraam]

That is why I said this is not optimal. You really need to look through the hardware guide:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/hardware-recommendations-guide.12/
This hardware you are using is going to cause you problems down the line and if there is any way that you can get different hardware before you go into production, you should do that instead.
You have a hardware RAID controller and you need an HBA. It is not the same thing at all.

Ok let me check. But the data sheet of this controller shows HBA only.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04496620

 

[Chris Moore]

Ok let me check. But the data sheet of this controller shows HBA only.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04496620

It needs to be in Initiator Target (IT) mode so that when it is "HBA" mode, it passes all the data through to the operating system.
The kluge of setting each drive as a RAID-0 to pass the data through could cause catastrophic failure of the ZFS pool.
It is strongly advised against doing that and if you are not passing the drive status to ZFS, you are depriving the file system from the information it needs to smartly manage the storage.

 

[Ericloewe]

its HP H240 HBA Card

The actual IC on the card. I don't want/have the time to dig through obfuscated documents to figure out what controller the card is using.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have only two options with this controller. Raid Mode or HBA mode. I can see in HBA mode the disks are getting directly visible and even the serial number is visible including the hardware type.


root@freenas:~ # sas2flash --listall
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available!
ERROR: Invalid command --listall

Exiting Program.

Currently this card will not work. You need to flash it to IT mode with v20.00.07 firmware. If you can't do that get a card that is recomended and works correctly.

 

[chinraam]

Currently this card will not work. You need to flash it to IT mode with v20.00.07 firmware. If you can't do that get a card that is recomended and works correctly.

ok, can you please share me with some links or details of how to flash and the firmware download link

 

[SweetAndLow]

ok, can you please share me with some links or details of how to flash and the firmware download link

No, just Google it. That is what I would have to do to find you links so you should just do it.

'flash h240 to IT mode'

 

[chinraam]

After some tests and comparing with other devices I did the below change and seems SMART is working but I don't know what else is still stopped.

inside smart config file i changed

/dev/ciss1 -d cciss,1 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -m root -M exec /usr/local/www/freenasUI/tools/smart_alert.py -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(7)/..

to

/dev/ciss1 -d cciss,0 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -m root -M exec /usr/local/www/freenasUI/tools/smart_alert.py -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(7)/..

the zero after cciss,0. Now SMART is working. Please suggest.

 

[SweetAndLow]

After some tests and comparing with other devices I did the below change and seems SMART is working but I don't know what else is still stopped.

inside smart config file i changed

/dev/ciss1 -d cciss,1 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -m root -M exec /usr/local/www/freenasUI/tools/smart_alert.py -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(7)/..

to

/dev/ciss1 -d cciss,0 -a -n never -W 0,0,0 -m root -M exec /usr/local/www/freenasUI/tools/smart_alert.py -s S/(01|02|03|04|05|06|07|08|09|10|11|12)/../(7)/..

the zero after cciss,0. Now SMART is working. Please suggest.

I don't think you understand that we are not making this up. You need a different hba that is supported. It sounds like this is for a business and I think you are in way over your head. Go but the correct thing to do the job.

 

[chinraam]

I don't think you understand that we are not making this up. You need a different hba that is supported. It sounds like this is for a business and I think you are in way over your head. Go but the correct thing to do the job.

Sorry not going on my way but trying to find multiple options. This is for a very small requirement and I already have three controller cards of same type. Trying not to waste.

I just asked since it has started is there any way of verification or so.

 

[SweetAndLow]

Verification of what? That it doesn't work? Well it doesn't pass smart info correctly, it doesn't have IT firmware and I don't think you can flash it. What other verification do you want? It's not my job to verify it. I'm just helping you figure things out.

 

[Ericloewe]

Currently this card will not work. You need to flash it to IT mode with v20.00.07 firmware. If you can't do that get a card that is recomended and works correctly.

I'm not even sure it's LSI at all.

 

[danb35]

Currently this card will not work. You need to flash it to IT mode with v20.00.07 firmware.

What makes you (and @Chris Moore) think that only LSI makes HBAs?

 

[Chris Moore]

Sorry not going on my way but trying to find multiple options. This is for a very small requirement and I already have three controller cards of same type. Trying not to waste.

I just asked since it has started is there any way of verification or so.

There is a language problem here. You are not understanding.
The controller you are trying to use is not compatible. If you use it, you put the data at risk of loss.

 

[Chris Moore]

What makes you (and @Chris Moore) think that only LSI makes HBAs?

I didn't say that ONLY anybody. I said, based on the information provided by the OP, that the controller specified is not working in the correct way.

 

[chinraam]

There is a language problem here. You are not understanding.
The controller you are trying to use is not compatible. If you use it, you put the data at risk of loss.

Got it,

There is a language problem here. You are not understanding.
The controller you are trying to use is not compatible. If you use it, you put the data at risk of loss.

Chris,

Please see output 1 and output 2. In output 2 I can see the devices are SMART supported and enabled but in output 1 there is an error. The only difference in the command is the channel number which is changed from one to zero.

I feel this is a hardware driver compatibility but this has HBA.

Output 1 :

root@freenas:~ # smartctl -i /dev/ciss1 -d cciss,l
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/ciss1: Option -d cciss,N requires N to be a non-negative integer
=======> VALID ARGUMENTS ARE: ata, scsi, nvme[,NSID], sat[,auto][,N][+TYPE], usbcypress[,X], usbjmicron[,p][,x][,N], usbprolific, usbsunplus, 3ware,N, hpt,L/M/N, cciss,N, areca,N/E, atacam, auto, test <=======

Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary

===================================================================

Output 2 :

root@freenas:~ # smartctl -i /dev/ciss1 -d cciss,0
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: HP
Product: EG000300JWEBF
Revision: HPD3
Compliance: SPC-4
User Capacity: 300,000,000,000 bytes [300 GB]
Logical block size: 512 bytes
Rotation Rate: 10500 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Logical Unit id: 0x5000c5009faa939f
Serial number: W0K0NLBA
Device type: disk
Transport protocol: SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is: Tue Oct 31 07:50:04 2017 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Temperature Warning: Enabled

root@freenas:~ #

 

[Redcoat]

I just found this: "In the UEFI setup there's a SmartArray configuration utility, where it will allow you to switch the controller into IT mode. It will then act as a plain SAS HBA without RAID.' in a thread here: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/52588/ addressing HP Gen array issues. I have no idea if this helps or hinders... But it seems to be the only +ve comment in that particular thread, however it receives no positive followup.

 

[chinraam]

I just found this: "In the UEFI setup there's a SmartArray configuration utility, where it will allow you to switch the controller into IT mode. It will then act as a plain SAS HBA without RAID.' in a thread here: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/52588/ addressing HP Gen array issues. I have no idea if this helps or hinders... But it seems to be the only +ve comment in that particular thread, however it receives no positive followup.

Yes I have done the same and im in the mode as said in this article.

 

[bigphil]

What firmware is the card running? If not on the latest version, you may try to flash the latest version (as of now its 6.06). If it still doesn't work, I'll have to agree with the others and say get a card that is known to work with FreeNAS.

 

[chinraam]

What firmware is the card running? If not on the latest version, you may try to flash the latest version (as of now its 6.06). If it still doesn't work, I'll have to agree with the others and say get a card that is known to work with FreeNAS.

Yes I have already flashed to 6.06. the HBA mode seems to work since I can see all details of the hardware directly in Freenas. The only problem is the SMART service and as i mentioned in my previous post in output 2 as below I can see the devices are SMART supported and enabled but in output 1 there is an error. The only difference in the command is the channel number which is changed from one to zero.

I feel this is a hardware driver compatibility but this has HBA.

Output 1 :

root@freenas:~ # smartctl -i /dev/ciss1 -d cciss,l
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/ciss1: Option -d cciss,N requires N to be a non-negative integer
=======> VALID ARGUMENTS ARE: ata, scsi, nvme[,NSID], sat[,auto][,N][+TYPE], usbcypress[,X], usbjmicron[,p][,x][,N], usbprolific, usbsunplus, 3ware,N, hpt,L/M/N, cciss,N, areca,N/E, atacam, auto, test <=======

Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary

===================================================================

Output 2 :

root@freenas:~ # smartctl -i /dev/ciss1 -d cciss,0
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor: HP
Product: EG000300JWEBF
Revision: HPD3
Compliance: SPC-4
User Capacity: 300,000,000,000 bytes [300 GB]
Logical block size: 512 bytes
Rotation Rate: 10500 rpm
Form Factor: 2.5 inches
Logical Unit id: 0x5000c5009faa939f
Serial number: W0K0NLBA
Device type: disk
Transport protocol: SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is: Tue Oct 31 07:50:04 2017 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
Temperature Warning: Enabled

root@freenas:~ #

 

[MrToddsFriends]

The only difference in the command is the channel number which is changed from one to zero. [...]

root@freenas:~ # smartctl -i /dev/ciss1 -d cciss,l
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [FreeBSD 11.0-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

/dev/ciss1: Option -d cciss,N requires N to be a non-negative integer
=======> VALID ARGUMENTS ARE: ata, scsi, nvme[,NSID], sat[,auto][,N][+TYPE], usbcypress[,X], usbjmicron[,p][,x][,N], usbprolific, usbsunplus, 3ware,N, hpt,L/M/N, cciss,N, areca,N/E, atacam, auto, test <=======

In this command as shown here the second argument to the -d option is a l (small letter 'l') and not a 1 (numeric character '1'). Typo only in the forum or also on the console?