topic Re: BL460c Raid in BladeSystem - General

BL460c Raid

Desktop_OR — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 14:26:45 GMT

I am trying to set up new BL460c servers with VMware. The servers have Dual SSD M.2 kits installed. When I go through HP Intellegent Provisioning the drives do not show up. When I go through the VMware install, it shows as two seperate drives. What I would like to do is to have this configured in a RAID 1 so that the two drives are mirrored. I am new to this technology so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Re: BL460c Raid

Jimmy Vance — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 16:15:53 GMT

While in the HP SSA utility and configuraing an array, the 'Select Ohysical Drives' screen defaults to SAS drives, click the drives type drop down and select SSD

Re: BL460c Raid

Desktop_OR — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 18:02:50 GMT

Thank you for your reply. I do not have an option to select SSD however. Upon further investigation, the SSA diagnosis report is showing the host bus adapter as a Wellsburg 6 port SATA controller. Does anyone know if this will even do RAID???

Re: BL460c Raid

Jimmy Vance — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 19:19:11 GMT

It appears the M2 kit connects to the embeded SATA controller which is a B140i Dynamic RAID controller, or when disabled, just a plain AHCI SATA controller.

Re: BL460c Raid

Desktop_OR — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 19:22:09 GMT

This sounds like a BIOS setting. I will investigate and let you know what I find

Re: BL460c Raid

Desktop_OR — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 18:56:37 GMT

Thank you for you hint. It is a BIOS setting that needs to be adjusted. This is for a different model but is basically the same:

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/docs/iss/shared/troubleshoot/189465.htm

And in case the link magically disappears:

HP Dynamic Smart Array B140i drives are not found when RAID mode is disabled

Description:

When an HP Dynamic Smart Array B140i RAID controller is enabled on a server and RAID mode is disabled in the UEFI System Utilities, then the drives will be listed as AHCI drives or HP H220i drives and the RAID controller is not found in POST or device manager. When RAID mode is enabled, the drives will appear as HP Dynamic Smart Array B140i controller drives.

Action:

Press F9 during the startup process to access the UEFI System Utilities.
In the Systems Configuration menu, select BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) > System Options > SATA Controller Options > Embedded SATA Configuration > Enable HP Dynamic Smart Array RAID support.
Press F10 to save the configuration.
Reboot the server.

Now you should be able to access the Smart Array and configure RAID as needed

Re: BL460c Raid

andrewhead — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 20:21:39 GMT

I have an issue with it only reading one of the m.2 ssd drives. If I change the controller to the AHCI both SSD Drives show, change it to the dynamic and its goes back to only showing one......

I even replaced the entire m.2 card and both SSD's to no avail.