DL380 Gen9, 878783-B21 M.2 Riser kit and two 2TB M.2 drives. Not coming up

[MonsterMaxx]

I have a DL380 Gen9 & the 878783-B21 M.2 Riser kit and two 2TB M.2 drives.

I see nothing.  I don't see them in bios, I don't see them in Windows (server 2019), I don't see them anywhere.

Pretty sure I have it installed right.  It's in the top slot and plugged into the two sata ports on the motherboard.

My plan was to mirror them, transfer the OS onto a small partitioin and have the rest for some fast storage.

Any help on this would be most appriciated. Thanks in advance.

[MonsterMaxx]

I found the manual and moved it to the bottom slot as it indicates.  I definately have it installed right.

First card I orderd got lost in the mail, so I reordered, they both showed up.  Same condition.

Controller is there, win driver is installed.  But no drives appear.

It's a 2280 M.2 drive, IDK why it doesn't work.  Goes into the socket pretty hard too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LB9TMYK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[MonsterMaxx]

Doesn't seem like this is going to work. 

The riser kit claims to support 2280 M.2, but I tried it with two 2TB sticks AND 1 512GB stick just in case it was a size issue. 

I ran SUM and it updated the B140i's driver, and some other stuff, but no firmware for the B140i if there is such a thing.

I even stuck them in my workstation to see if there was something on the HP B140i issue. 

Nada from HP's riser card with two completely different 2280 M.2 drives.  They don't show up in Bios or Windows 2019.

I have a cheap single riser (no raid, no sata) and both sticks test fine.

Am I down to just buying one of Highpoint's $300 m.2 Raid cards to get this working?  UGH!

[Cali]

Hi MonsterMaxx,

try this:

Booting from M2. need UEFI Mode, it did not work in Legacy BIOS Mode.
If you already have UEFI Mode check this:
During server boot, press F9 (System Utilities) to load the System configuration.
Select BIOS/Platform Configuration (RBSU) and press enter.
Choose Storage Options, select SATA Controller, and press enter.
Under Embedded SATA configuration, select “Smart Array SW RAID Support” from the drop-down list.
Press F12 to save and exit.
Reboot Server, go with F10 into Intelligent Provisioning" and "Smart Storage Administrator".
You should see S100i Controller and two M.2 SSD,
Create Logical Drive with Raid 1, save, and Exit.
Should work now.
If not, try to disable Secure Boot.

Cali

[MonsterMaxx]

Thanks for the tips,  but I actually did all of those things.

Bottom line here is that this card is not made for all 2280 M.2 sticks.  Seems that ONLY HP propriatary sticks will work.

2TB HP stick = $2000

2TB commercial stick = $200

Needless to say I'm not buying the sticks that are $2k/each.

I ordered one of the Hipoint SSD7104 multi stick RAID controllers and am returning the HP ones.  Goes into a 3.0x16 slot and holds 4x of just about any M.2 stick - this gives me room to add more later.  It is a software raid and can only be booted on a single stick, so no OS move like I originally planned.  But the two mirrored spinning platters the OS is on are fine.  I'll move my main critical data array to the M.2s and pull out the drives, and this will give me 6 bays open to expand the multi terrabyte Raid5 which is the one that's out of space and driving this project.

So in the end I'll have more space in my big array and the critical data array will get a nice speed improvement.

[SanjeevGoyal]

Hello,

Follow the below documents for use M.2 drive.

DL380 Gen9 Quick Space.

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04346247

M.2 SSD

HPE Universal SATA HHHL 3yr Wty M.2 Kit 878783-B21

NOTE: M.2 drives go in PCIe slots and use B140i SATA controller only.

NOTE: M.2 supports Software RAID only.

NOTE: No HPE Flexible Smart Array supported

2TB M.2 drive not supported by the DL380 Gen9 server.

Follow the below documents for your reference.

HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 Server - Option Parts

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=emr_na-c04438847

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   

Regards,

[MonsterMaxx]

Returned the HP cards and Recieved the HighPoint controller today.  Populated it the the Barracuda Q5s.  Had a little trouble with their webapp, wants a port open and a reboot (but didn't tell me.)  But once I got past that it was ok. Setup2x  as a mirror'd pair.  I'm pulling all the data off my old drive now and onto the new.  Seems like things are working.  Going to be a lot faster than the old RAID, I can tell that already.

Off to do other things while it copies 1.2TB

I'll update this thread with some benchmarks once I get them

[Ed Bass at Born Capital]

Hello Sanjeev,

I've got a semi-related question regarding the M.2 SSD enablement kit 878783-B21.  We've ordered one from our 3rd party vendor, including two 240GB M.2 HP SSD sticks approved for use on the card that we're planning to install in a DL385 Gen10 Plus.  I haven't been able to find installation documentation on the kit, which is a bit frustrating, but in general, is this correct approach from a high level?  End goal is to have a RAID 1 array of the two SSD disks.

1. Install M.2 cards on the PCI card,
2. Install the PCI card in a primary PCI riser slot (seemingly the lower one).
3. Connect the two SATA cables to the PCI card and also to the onboard system board SATA ports.
4. Build a RAID 1 array with the S100i software RAID "controller"

Thanks!

Ed

[Cali]

As Sanjeev says "Software Raid" means inside the Operating System.

The S100i is called Software Raid Kontroller, as he has no dedicated Raid Chip, but he is unable to do an NVMe R1.

Raid Controller for NVMe is only available with the newest Gen10 Plus Server.

[Ed Bass at Born Capital]

Hi Cali,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm a bit of a newbie with the newer Gen10 Plus servers, so apologies in advance if my questions are a bit naive.  This is a DL385 Gen10 Plus server.  Since it is a Gen10 Plus, do you think RAID 1 will be possible using the onboard SATA controller and S100i RAID?  Or is that only possible in Gen10 Plus V2 servers?

Alternatively, the server does have a P408i Smart Array card.  Do you know if it will recognize the M.2 sticks on the PCI card as SATA drives?  I'm betting "no", but thought it worth asking.

Thanks,

Ed