Proliant DL360p with Smart Array P420i - can't expand array

[Jeremy Gelber]

Hi,

I have 2 x HP Proliant DL360p Gen8 servers (E5-2620v2 1P 4GB-R P410i/ZM 460W PS Server/TV) which both report having the P420i Smart Array controller installed despite the model description on the invoice saying "P410i".

I have one obvious question first: what does "P410i/ZM" mean, ie. the "ZM" specifically - does that suggest there is no battery backup write cache with this model and if so (a) do I need one and (b) what would the part number be for my system?

The real issue though is that I am having difficulty with the RAID arrays. I started with 2 x 300GB SAS drives in a RAID1 mirror, and added 1 x 500GB SATA drive as a single array so that left me with "SAS Array A" and "SATA Array B". I ran out of storage space so purchased 2 x 600GB SAS drives and put them in. Both were recognised but I was unable to create a third array either using the ACU in Windows Server 2008 R2 or going through the BIOS / POST utility. I WAS able to add one of the 600GB SAS drives as a hot spare to the SAS array though.

So, figuring there was an issue with having more than 2 arrays (despite no documentation that suggests this is the case) I removed the 1 x 500GB SATA and tried to create a new array with the 2 x 600GB SAS drives. That didn't work either, there was simply no option to create an array.

As a final resort, I removed one of the 300GB SAS drives and that forced a rebuild of "SAS Array A" using the other 300GB drive and the new 600GB drive. I then swapped out the remaining 300GB drive for the other 600GB drive, leaving me with a RAID1 array using 2 x 600GB drives and 2 spare 300GB drives which are currently sitting on my desk.

What I now want to do is expand the 300GB logical drive to be the full size of the RAID1 array which is 600GB. The array reports "Unused Space" of 559GB (50%) so it knows there is free space but there simply isn't an option to expand the array. I also can't create a new logical drive, that option ALSO doesn't exist anywhere.

Can someone please help, I'm tearing what's left of my hair out with this and in the meantime my VMs keep pausing themselves because they're running out of disk space!

Thanks a lot,

Jeremy

[PGTRI]

hi,

ZM=Zero Memory 

You can create up to 2 logical drives and all options like expand, extend array ect. are "locked".

So...you need FBWC (capacitor+cache).

Thanks

regards,

[Jeremy Gelber]

Ah. Ok. So is FBWC something I can add easily and if so do you have a product code or at least be able to point me in the right direction?

[Jeremy Gelber]

I just bought this: 631922-B21. Hopefully that's correct!