ML110 G5 Hard drive Firmware Upgrade (im)possible?

[Ben_Nieblij]

Our ProLiant ML110 G5 server contains 250GB HD type GB0250C8045. The drive performs disappointing. Reading is OK, writing is slow. Firmware version currently is HPG1. Most current available version for this drive is HPGC (B). (cp014484)

Have been trying to upgrade the firmware for this drive with all possible tools known to me. Last try: Service Pack Proliant 2012.10.0  (as advised by HP service desk)  and  Smart Update Firmware DVD 9.30.0. In latter the needed cp014484.scexe is present.

But running those tools the (very) old version of the firmware of this harddisk is not found and also did not get updated.

Did someone succeed in updating the harddisk firmware in this specific server?

Why is the drive (firmware) not recognised by the update tools?

Is it possible at all to perform a harddisk update in an ML110 G5?

I'm out of ideas. Any help much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Dennis Handly]

>The drive performs disappointing. Reading is OK, writing is slow.

I'm not sure how a firmware upgrade will fix this?  You typically get speed by throwing hardware at it:

1) More spindles

2) Faster disks

3) SSD

4) Larger cache in memory, controller or disk

5) Connection type, SAS vs FC

I suppose if the controller knows about a bug in the old FW, it could slow things down to compensate?

[Jimmy Vance]

The release notes for the online firmware update show the drive needs to be connected to specific models of a Smart Array controller which the ML110 doesn't have.

I found a customer advisory for the drive (different issue) that states:

For ProLiant 100-series servers and certain ProLiant 300-series servers:

For ProLiant 100-series servers and ProLiant 300-series servers using the HP Integrated SATA RAID Controller, HP SC40Ge HBA, or HP SC44Ge HBA, use the Offline Flash Tool for SATA HDD FW available for download as SoftPaq SP43542 at the following URL:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/pubsw-windows/p787421430/v53295/

SoftPaq SP43542 contains a USB Key based offline SATA hard drive firmware upgrade utility. The utility will upgrade SATA hard drives to Firmware Version HPG6. Follow the instructions in the "100 series USB Drive FW Update Tool how-to.doc" file that is created when SP43542.EXE is executed. The "how-to" document contains additional information and sample upgrade instructions for select platforms.

For additional information, refer to the HP drive key boot utility for ProLiant servers guide at the following URL:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00218060/c00218060.pdf

Searching,  I couldnt find a newer version of the offline tool. Here is a link to advisory

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01612429

[Ben_Nieblij]

Thank you Dennis for your quick reply.

The reasons I would like to perform the update are:

1. a similar harddisk I tried in the same machine did not show the writing slow down

2. in the Enhancements for the update for this harddrive this behaviour is mentioned

3. the HP helpdesk advised me to do the update

Although your suggestions might improve speed, it does not anwer my question why the tools offered by HP are not able to do the update they are supposed to do.

Is there a reason that the update tools offered by HP do not function in this specific ProLiant?

(If there is a specific reason that is not communicated by HP, I can stop trying)

[Dennis Handly]

>The reasons I would like to perform the update are:

Those all sound good to me.

[Ben_Nieblij]

Hi Jimmy, thank you for your quick reply and the effort you took to find a relevant solution.

The link you mention I did find already in the several hundred pages I visited.

The strange thing is that in the  "100 series USB Drive FW Update Tool how-to.doc" file there are instructions for DL-servers only. Nowhere is there any mention of the ML110 (or a ML100 series). So I thought that our ML110 is not supported. I tried nevertheless with no succes. I think it might be because our harddrive is connected to the SATA port on the motherboard the is known to have an Intel 828011R SATA IDE controller.

Do you think that is correct?

Is updating the drives firmware via the onboard SATA controller possible at all?

Of course adding/replacing with another harddrive is an option, but if a firmware update could result in a perfectly usable drive I would not just toss it in the bin.

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

Most of the 100 series systems use the embedded SATA/SATA software RAID controller. You will have to use the offline tool listed to update the firmware. It may be possible to unpack the latest update and copy the firmware file to the media with the offline tool to update, but I'm only guessing that would work as I have no way to test or verify.  The offline tool does have an update version of the firmware, it is just not the latest.  I'm not really sure that would help anyway. That is a relatively slow drive to begine with. it is 7200 RPM SATA 1.0 which is only 1.5Gb/s

[Ben_Nieblij]

Hi Jimmy, thanks again for your encouragement to stay on my path. From your reply I got the impression that it should be possible. It made me look again, this tim emore precisely. I repeated the steps in a Win XP install in a virtual machine mounting the fwutil iso as a diskdrive. The USB stick I got out of this worked right away. The firmware upgrade to HPG6 finished in no time. My first test show that the speed of writing to the disk is now three times quicker than yesterday an the writing is smooth, where before the update the writing was interupted every 3 seconds for about 2 - 4 seconds. I will be testing wether I can update to even newer firmware with the same USB stick.

You've been a great help. Thank you very much!!