ML150 G3 and RAID 5 (P400)

[No Probs]

I am in the process of migrating to an ML150 G3 server and need to create 1TB RAID 5 array. So I purchased the P400 RAID controller to go with the five 250GB Hard Disks I have. Unfortunately I have realised that the P400 is not supported on the M150 and I can not get it to recognise any drives or get to ORCA.

Has anyone had similar experience/solution or can anyone recommend a good RAID card which will work (E200 doesn't support RAID 5)

Thanks,

Jon

[Víctor Cespón · Accepted solution]

ML150 G3 supports SmartArray E200, and SmartArray E200 supports RAID 5 if you purchase the optional BBWC.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12527_div/12527_div.html

[No Probs]

Thanks,

Yep I missed the BBWC option for RAID 5.

Unless anyone knows how to get the P400/512MB working (which I have bought) then I will go and purchase the E200/128.

Jon

[sanesh vig]

Hi,

P400 SAS controller is not supported on ML150 G3 server.

Please check the worldwide quick specs for this server
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12527_div/12527_div.html

[e4services]

OK. I have to ask.
WHY?
What would keep the P400 from working? You use the word 'supported', what happens? Or is it that there is no PCIe slot in the G3? Well, now you made me look I was so interested, and though there seems to be no document I could find that detail what the G3 has (the User Guide does not mention what the slots are), it does not look like it has a 64bit PCIe slot to actually accept the card.
Is that correct? If so, you would need an older PCI RAID card that supports, I am guessing here because of the 250GB, SATA

[Víctor Cespón]

Well, ML150 G3 has:

3 x PCI-X (64-bit/100MHz)
2 x PCI-Express (x4\x8)
1 x PCI (32-bit/33MHz)

So physically you could fit almost any disk controller, the problem is what's supported and what's not.

[KarloChacon]

yes

it's right that server has this

2 x PCI-Express (x4\x8)

so e200 is x4 and p400 is x8 so p400 fits but "No Probs" says server does not detect HDDs weird jeje

regards

[No Probs]

yes is it weird.

I have the P400 card in the PCIe 8x slot and the server (BIOS ans OS) recognises the card just fine but never presents the option "to press F8 for ORCA/BIOS)". Similarly from the OS Array Utility recognises the card but not the disks attached.

Whilst I accept that purchasing the P400 was an error on my part I am use to Unsupported meaning it works but.... Eg the Dell PCI-X Raid card I have in another HP server works fine but I wouldn't call HP for support on it.

With the above problem I initially thought the RAID card was faulty so I replaced but I have the same issue with the 2nd card.

If anyone knows a workaround or why HP would stop you from using a better RAID card in a server then I would keen to know.

Jon

[KarloChacon]

mmm I'm just guessing something in BIOS to enable RAID that maybe once enabled shows the F8 option so check BIOS

regards

[No Probs]

Karlo,

Thanks - I tried quite a few different BIOS options eg disable embedded RAID but had no success :(