HP Smart Array 6402-128 & RAID issues

[Marco Gariboldi]

It has been quite some time now, since I purchased the HP Smart Array 6400 series, Smart Array 6402-128 (P/N: A9890A), dual-channel Ultra320 SCSI RAID-controller. Since that time, I haven't been able to use it. Neither does the HP-certified reseller from which I purchased it know how to help me, although they've certainly tried to (for which I'm very grateful). Thus, hence my question here.

The following seems to be the problem. Whenever I connect my Ultra320 SCSI SAN (dual channel, with on-board RAID-controller), it will give me a "self-test faillure" ("faillure code = 0092") within the EFI environment.

Recently I discovered that even with the SAN switched off, but the SCSI cable still connected, the HBA gives me the same error. So, that I find rather peculiar.

I've tried several cables, including an HP-branded/manufactured one (P/N: C2362A). It makes no sense to me, because the SAN (an AXUS Demon SA-16U4P) works fine with the rx2600's on-board LSI 1030 SCSI-controller. Then termination therefore shouldn't be an issue either. The problem is, this is the only SCSI SAN device I have at the moment and since it does work with other controllers, such as the on-board controller (and another SCSI controller). There might be compatibility issues, but I still doubt the blame can be put on the SAN altogether.

Something which AXUS' customer support suggested to me, is to check whether one can disabled "RAID" functionality itself on the Smart Array HBA. I haven't found a way to do that. If there's a way, I'd gladly try that. (Any information with regard to that will be much appreciated!)

Overall, it's a rather depressing issue for me. I hadn't foreseen these problems. Regardless of that, I still need a suitable controller. Would else the following P/N: A7173A be a better idea?

Thanks in advance.

[cnb]

You should use A7173A Dual SCSI HBA and not the SA6402 for this application. AFAIK you can't disable it's RAID functionality.

The SA6402 is a hardware RAID controller, which is totally different than LSI 1030 on the rx2600 that works.

The LSI 1030 is just an U320 SCSI controller, a kin to the A7173A U320 SCSI controller.

http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/storagesnf2/ultra320/

Rgds,

[Torsten.]

>> Whenever I connect my Ultra320 SCSI SAN (dual channel, with on-board RAID-controller),...


The SA6402 needs real disks, no other RAID controller.

You should use a normal SCSI HBA to connect your RAID or connect real disks (e.g. MSA30) to the smartarray controller.

[Steve Reece_3]

It sounds to me like you have two issues here.
First it sounds like the SmartArray is bad. I wouldn't expect it to give you self test errors, even if there's no disks connected to it. It should tell you that there are no disks connected during power up, but shouldn't give an error.
To verify this, disconnect all of the disks and power the box up with the SmartArray running without anything connected.

Second, the SmartArray controllers expect to have disks connected, not SCSI partitions presented from another RAID controller. The terminology you're using here is a bit muddled Marco. Is the disk array that you have connected to a Storage Network or is it a SCSI array that needs to be connected to a SCSI card?

If your array needs connecting to a SCSI card then you're probably better returning the SA6402-128 and buying a plain old SCSI adapter instead, like the A7173A. I'd expect it to be cheaper.

Bear in mind too that the A7173A, like all of the SCSI adapters for Integrity servers that VMS works with, is single ended. It doesn't do traditional high voltage differential SCSI. This may be a reason for you problems too.

Steve

[Marco Gariboldi]

Thank you very much for all the responses.

Just as I assumed, it's a RAID issue after all. When I bought the card, which was for some reason cheaper than the A7173A, I thought it might work when one forces the SAN to operate in JBOD mode (since I saw that with the on-board LSI 1030 it'd list all the individual disks with their original model codes in the EFI).

I'll just get an A7173A instead.

[Torsten.]

>> because the SAN (an AXUS Demon SA-16U4P) works fine with the rx2600's on-board LSI 1030 SCSI-controller.

SAN = storage area network


A single device is never a network, btw.



However, sounds like a solution, right?

[Marco Gariboldi]

I know that. Well, it somewhat qualifies, in the 'network' sense, that it would be shared with more than one system through OpenVMS' shared storage clustering over a fiber optical network (which would be 10GbE, in my case). Anyway, that's the ultimate goal, once I have a suitable SCSI controller.

I guess I'm too used to FC terminology. I apologize if I may've confused you.