MSA50 on P800 with ProLiant ML350 G5 - Array Not Detected

[Mihai_Ionescu]

Hello everybody!

I thought of writing here as a last resort, maybe someone ran into this before and can and is willing to help.

We have a Server (ProLiant ML350 G5, P/N 440189-421), which has a P800 controller installed.

In that controller there is a MSA60 connected, which works fine.

Then we tried to connect a MSA50 to it (P/N: 364430-B21, SAS HDDs) on the available external port, but no luck so far.

Our O/S is Windows 2003 SP2. We installed a miniSAS (P800) to normalSAS (MSA50) cable for that to work.

Array Configuration Utility (ACU) doesn't even see it. We had an error a while ago which said that no operations could be done with the controller until batteries are changed, so we changed them. I used a v7 then a v8.75.12 (v9 returned an error saying that cache was detached (!) ) but in both those versions the new array does not appear at all.

After any reboot the ACU still did not see the Array.

The driver version for the P800 is 6.20.0.32.

Is there a certain minimum firmware version for any of these components that has to be in installed (and in that case which one)? I don't have any other option for connecting the Array except a MSA2012i, which, as I've been led to understand, can't be extended with the MSA50, although physically that is possible.

I'm also thinking of booting the server with the Offline ACU (I'm thinking v8, not v9) to see if that works, but I can do that only well outside office hours, as this is a highly accessed fileserver.

Any idea that springs to mind is more than welcomed. Also, I'll keep an eye for any info I may gather that may help you helping me :)

Great week ahead,

Mihai

(aka Mike in English :)

P.S. This thread has been moved from ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL) to Storage > Disk Array. - HP Forum Moderator

[Mark Matthews]

Hi Mihai,

The nearest thing I've had to this was trying to connect a third party SAS Disk shelf to an ML530 G5 / P212 controller once.

I was tearing whats left of my hair out, when I realised it was the SAS cable.
There seem to be 2 types of SAS cable available, 1x and 4x.
It seems that the 1x type are only for connecting SAS tape drives, and you need the 4x type for connecting JBODs.

Check you have the correct cable, I dont have any part numbers to hand at the moment (might be able to dig them out) but it should be printed 1x or 4x on the cable itself...

Thanks,

Mark...

[Mihai_Ionescu]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply.

I ordered a 2m cable after the Array was shipped and I chose the P/N from the specs: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12245_div/12245_div.html

which is 419571-B21 - this is now installed.

Our local supplier delivered it to us and imprinted on the cable is "Foxconn" and "SAS 4X" so it should work I reckon.

There are also labels on the cable: on the Controller End it reads:

408908-003 REV A

408772-001

and on the MSA50 End:

2GFPGBX-03H

[Mark Matthews]

Hmm, ok then...

Do you have anything on the internal connectors on the P800?

I know you cannot normally have something on the same internal connector as external connector.

Bit hard to explain, but there are still only 2 'channels' over the 4 connectors...

[Mihai_Ionescu]

No, only the external connectors are connected.

One is the MSA50 and the other one is MSA60 (already operational for 2 years).

[Mark Matthews]

Ok, the MSA50 is on the official supported list for the P800 so no problem there...

My next move would be to update the firmware of the P800, the MSA50 and even the disks in the MSA50.
Also make sure you're using an upto date version of ACU.
Have you tried running a report in ADU to see if that points to any clues?

[Mihai_Ionescu]

Hi, I'm sorry for the very late reply.

Firmware sounded like a good option for me too, but I had to wait until this Saturday, as I cannot afford Arrays experiencing downtime during the work week.

So today I took a deep breath and updated the firmware to the latest I could find, v7.24, and then rebooted the server.

So... nothing happened. ADU (diagnostics) doesn't see the new array, but I don't get errors either.

I also tried runnning ACU 9.20.9 (as a local application rather than the web based gui). The MSA50 still doesn't show up. The number of arrays in ACU is still 1 :(

I'll do some further digging on this matter tomorrow.

[Mihai_Ionescu]

I know it's been a long time, but to mark this as closed - the array was faulty - imagine that! - and replaced under warranty a few months ago.