Hp DL385 g2 p400 and smart 642 controller with MSA 500 g2 priority initailizing

[Osama Odeh_1]

Hp DL385 g2 They have 2 local disk SAS connected to smart array P400 which is installed on slot1.

We add smart array 642 with riser card to these nodes and connect them to external MSA500 g2

We use Smart Start CD v 7,91 and we create one logical drive raid 1+0 on two local disks,

After windows complete installation we connect SCSI cables between smart 642 and msa500 g2

And create 3 logical drive by ACU within windows , we check the disk numbers on disk management for windows we found disk 0 (for logical volume on local drives), disk 1,2,3(for external logical drive on msa 500 g2)

The problem now when we restart the server ,smart array 642 initialized first then P400 we found the order for disks on windows changed disk0,disk1,disk2(external logical volumes on MSA 500 g2) and disk3(logical volume on local SAS disk)


we have special software need disk 0 for logical volume on local disks SAS to appear first on disk management for windows as disk0.

[Jimmy Vance]

I can't find my notes at the moment, but from what I can recall if you put the P400 in slot3 it will ID first on the PCI bus

[Osama Odeh_1]

after we check with another server dl385 g2 with win2003 64 bit ent with sp1 disk order its ok disk0 for local drives and disk1,2,3 for external storage msa500
we move local disk to our server its working fine also
but if we reionstall windows again through smart start 7.9 the problem appear again
so the problem not on orer of initilizing the raid controller but on windows 2003 it is OS problem.

[juan quesada]

Have you try to set the boot controller order in the RBSU? (also know as BIOS, F9 option during post) you can set the controller priority, also make sure that the MSA is up and running before you start the server

[Osama Odeh_1]

boot order is correct and msa power on and ready before the server .

ther is no hp bios configuration needed because we
we move 2 disk with windows 2003 already running perfect without any problem with disk oredr ok then we start the server wiyh these disks it is also running perfect and every thing ok

so the problem on MS windows.

[Osama Odeh_1]

boot order is correct and msa power on and ready before the server .

ther is no hp bios configuration needed because we move 2 disk with windows 2003 already running perfect without any problem (disk order on windows ok) then we start this server with new disks it is also running perfect and every thing ok

so the problem on MS windows when.

[Osama Odeh_1]

see attached disk management page pic

[Osama Odeh_1]

after contact Hp support
they found the solution as following :

Windows Server 2003 enumerates disks in different way from previous Windows. It detects disks simultaneously and marks the disk which is initialized first as Disk 0, not sequentially.

This can be changed by modifying the registry to change the sequence of driver loading.

P400 controller is using Hpcisss2.sys driver and smart array 642 controller is using cpqcissm.sys driver. We can start P400 controller driver first to initialize the disk attached to it by the following action


1. Open regedit
2. Drag to the following key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Hpcisss2
3. Double click on tag (REG_WORD) value and change it to 3F from 103

4. Close the regedit console.

5. Restart the server