topic Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i in BladeSystem - General

BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Pierluigi Cecchi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:26:28 GMT

Hi

I'm installing and configuring a High Performance Computing cluster, based on CMU and RedHat 5.4.
The compute nodes are BL465C G7.

They have arrived with a single disk, without the Smart Array controller P410i.
The two cables coming from the drives chassis are directly connected to the system board,
but the Bios doesn't recognize the drive, so I can't install RedHat.

Is this configuration supported?
If so, what's the way to configure and present the drive?

Best regards and many thanks in advance.

Pierluigi Cecchi

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Johan Guldmyr — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:04:17 GMT

Hi!

So this 'drives chassis' - is this a storage blade (like d2200) that's installed adjacent to the bl465c g7? Or something else?

Are there any drives inside the bl465c g7 at all? It says in the quickspecs that the p410i is required for hot-plug drives installed in the bl465c g7 chassi.

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Pierluigi Cecchi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:15:55 GMT

Hi

There is no other storage blade adjacent to the server.
It has only one drive inside its cage; a SATA MDL 160GB.
The two cables from the cage connect directly to the system board.

But the Bios sees nothing.

I think the server cannot work without the P401.

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Johan Guldmyr — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:42:56 GMT

But isn't that drive a non-hot plug? In a server that should be non-hot plug?

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Johan Guldmyr — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:10:46 GMT

Sorry, mixed this up with another thread.

Ah okay, so the cage is the housing for the disk.

In the BIOS can you activate the SATA controller (might be called something else)?

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

David Claypool — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:41:07 GMT

http://www.hp.com/go/proliant --> BladeSystem --> BladeSystem Portfolio --> Server Blades --> 400 series --> BL465 G7 --> QuickSpecs

"NOTE: The HP Smart Array P410i controller is required for all blades that support hot plug drives."

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Jan Soska — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 08:11:42 GMT

Hello,
as mentioned above, you must find sata option in bios to enable the drive.
Jan

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Pierluigi Cecchi — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:59:45 GMT

Hi

I have checked this on the second node, and the system recognizes the hard drive. I've been able to install Red Hat and boot.
Only, the drive has always the amber light on, as if in fault.
The first node has the same Bios parameters, but doesn't see the Sata controller (AMD5100) at all. Probably it has a problem on the system board.

Furthermore the write speed is much lower compared to the system with the P401.

Many thanks.

Pierluigi

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Jan Soska — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:06:46 GMT

Hello,
it is nothing suprising it has lower perf - no cache, only software raid. But it is MORE chaper... :)

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Pierluigi Cecchi — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:46:54 GMT

Hi Jan

A colleague has told me this configuration is not supported, because for Hot Swap is mandatory having a P401.
What is really strange, the amber light on the drive(SATA MDL 160GB) is lit, like if it was in fault.

I have one more question: the Head Node, which uses Smart Array, doesn't show the Sata controller at start-up ( no drive connected however).
Is it normal?
This is the same bahaviour of the failing node, which doesn't recognize its drive.

Is there still something I'm missing?

Best regards.

Pierluigi

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Renato Ramonda — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:07:08 GMT

Hi all,

We have exactly the same blade model of Pierluigi. Right now we use it in a diskless configuration, but we wonder if there's a way to use 507127-B21, 300Gb SAS disk (or another disk model, we still have to buy the disks), without p410i smart array that would be used as local scratch space. We don't need to hot-swap the disk.
Thanks,
Renato

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Johan Guldmyr — Wed, 11 May 2011 07:13:38 GMT

Hi,

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13654_na/13654_na.html#Models

All the models you can buy are with the p410i.

I haven't ordered a CTO blade before, but a thought is that maybe it would be possible to skip Step 3 (storage controller?)

Re: BL465c G7 without Smart Array P410i

Proliant VMS San Mgrs — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:26:33 GMT

Pierluigi, I know nothing about the BL465G7. I have ordered a CTO driveless BL460 (G1) and that came with nothing: no controller, no disk, and (!) no USB ports (that is documented). YMMV.