Proliant ML110 and ML115 RAID Monitor

[MJGroup]

Hi,

We're currently having trouble with getting RAID monitoring software to work. The RAID is set up through the nVidia nForce chip on the board. The "Smart array" monitoring software from HPs support site says it isn't compatable with this hardware. Does HP provide any RAID monitoring software?

Thanks in advance. 

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, what OS are you on?

HP ProLiant Smart Array SAS/SATA Event Notification Service for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008

As found here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3683706&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3683705&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=1005#78214

[MJGroup]

Hi

Thanks for your response. We are using Windows Server 2008 standard 64bit version. The hardware is a HP ML115 G5 machine. The BIOS seems to indicate that RAID element is a nVidia 3400 series controller. We have enabled the RAID in the BIOS & set it up to work as Raid 5, with three Samsung HD103SJ 1TB hard drives forming the single array. We are trying to add a fourth drive as a "hot spare" but are struggling to find the software that will us to do this on this type of machine. We are also looking for software that will notify us automatically of any failures/problems with the array.

The software we have tried so far from the HP site fails to load, with the message "software not compatible with this hardware" or something along those lines.

The only software we have found so far that will load is the nVidia Mediashield v9.28 software. This does not give us the options to add a "hot spare" or to notify of problems.

Thanks again for your comments so far.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi,

which software on HP's site did you try?

Have you found the manual for the raid adapter/server? Maybe you need to specify hot spare at the same place as you set up the RAID (I suppose this is in POST/BIOS?).

[MJGroup]

Hi

We have tried the software shown under the ML115 G5 section on the main HP software/drivers web site.

We have not found any manual for the RAID element access through 'F8' in the BIOS on booting the machine. We have looked in this area for the option to add a 'hot spare' & cannot find anything that will allow us to do this here.

This is why we are looking for other software to be able to do this. As I say the only software that so far has loaded with this OS is nVidia's own Mediashield software. We have found a manual for this software (although not specifically for the version number of software we have loaded). There is nothing in this manual that states how we can set the 'hot spare' up or for remote notification of array status problems. Again from our previous experience of other RAID setup's we cannot see anything in this software either, hence our post.

We are starting to feel this RAID provided by HP is very basic & not well supported at all?

Thanks again.

[Johan Guldmyr]

This post seems to indicate that there is no hot spare available for this controller: http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/ML115-on-board-raid-query/m-p/4512103/highlight/true#M95431

I guess the notification software I linked to above only is for smart array cards.

I feel the same when it comes to the embedded raid controllers on these HP servers, they do lack some functionality in comparison to the smart array controllers.

[MJGroup]

Yes, it would also be our understanding that the software is not compatible with this built in nVidia firmware.

HP support themselves have just stated that they do not support either "the software that you are using nor the nVIDIA 3400 are supported by HP"

In a nut shell useless really, they build in a feature that they then do not what anything to do with. On top of that they put misleading information on their drivers download site implying the stuff you need is available to download. You only find it doesn't work when you get to trying to run it.

Priceless - only something a big manufacturer could get away with!!

[Johan Guldmyr]

HP support themselves have just stated that they do not support either "the software that you are using nor the nVIDIA 3400 are supported by HP"

What if you say "the internal raid controller on the ML110" instead of "nVIDIA 3400"?

I think that's what's been causing confusion. For example some SAS/SCSI HBAs are "Atto" but there's no correlation in the HP documents between the HP models and the actual manufacturer for some raid controllers, or if there is it's probably hard to find.

Of course the internal raid controller on the system board on the ML110 is supported by HP. 

I guess it makes sense that HP wants you to buy smartarray cards instead of the cheaper ones. But they should still give you support for it.

[MJGroup]

Hi

Understood, but again it draws a blank. We have had a couple of phone calls to HP support (& emails from them) & basically they are useless & give misleading information. They know what we have as hardware (or at least they should do as we have told them enough times & it's written down in our requests for support including the machine serial number)

Finally we got out of them a link to the RAID config on the ML115 G5 server - this link took us straight to a page we had already tried & gives the nVidia brand of MediaShield. Interesting the HP pages says it's for Windows server 2003, yet the HP support guy knew we were using Windows Server 2008 64bit! We challenged on this he said it should work with both but he couldn't be certain.

Next he gave us HP System Insight Manager (SIM) as the program for monitoring & notifying us of hardware issues. During one of the conversations he however said he didn't think it worked with the ML115 G5 unit. So why did he send us this link in the first place if it doesn't work with the hardware we have?? He's supposed to be a hardware support engineer!!

Then he suggested we purchased additional Smart Array cards - when asked for a model he gave us information that was for SCSI drives, again knowing full well we are using SATA drives!

  Suggesting things for us to try yet they know when we pushed them that they don't work with our hardware - time wasters!! He's now gone back to ask his manager to contact us. We won't hold our breath though. Perhaps he will understand our disatisfaction & find us a solution?