add 4 more physical disks to my server (Proliant 350p gen8)

[JustinK101]

I am looking to add 4 more physical disks to my server (Proliant 350p gen8) that already has 4 disks in RAID10. I have seen online others say that in-order to expand the RAID array, it requires a RAID controller battery pack. Is that indeed true? My server does not have a battery pack and want to make sure this will work.

Here is what iLO is showing under storage information:

Controller Status OK
Serial Number XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Model Smart Array P420i Controller
Firmware Version 8.32
Controller Type HPE Smart Array
Cache Module Status OK
Cache Module Serial NumberXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Cache Module Memory 2097152 KB

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

I understand that you have an ML350p gen8 8-SFF model server where you are looking to add another 4 SFF drives.
For Array expansion and logical drive extension, both cache and capccitor pack are required.

From iLO, I understand that there is a cache module installed with status "OK" so, I believe a Capacitor pack should be installed.

I would like to check the Array Diagsnostics report from the server to check and confirm. Please let me know the Operating System running on the server so that I can share steps to generate the logs.

[JustinK101]

@BPSingh thanks for the reply.

> From iLO, I understand that there is a cache module installed with status "OK" so, I believe a Capacitor pack should be installed.

Really, where should I see the capacitor/battery pack in the server? I bought it second hand, so pretty sure there is not a battery pack. Is this information in iLO anywhere?

> I would like to check the Array Diagsnostics report from the server to check and confirm. Please let me know the Operating System running on the server so that I can share steps to generate the logs.

The server is actually virtualized using XCP-NG (https://xcp-ng.org/). The dom0/root runs CentOS though.

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

In iLO, under System Information->Storage Tab, you can find storage sub-system details. If you see only cache details then, please generate AHS logs from iLO  (Steps on web-link below) and log a support case to further check.

https://techlibrary.hpe.com/docs/iss/DL360pGen8/tsg/advanced/Content/151471.htm 

Support link: https://pg-receiver-pro.glb.itcs.hpe.com/WclWeb/WclEntry.aspx?origin=acc&cc=IN&lang=EN&co=hpe 

[Jimmy Vance]

If your controller has a cache module, it has the capacitor/battery pack or an error would display during POST.  This document shows how to change it

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03349735

[JustinK101]

Thanks.

So I should be able to just pop the new drives in, go to the HP array configuration utility, and expand the array. Any other steps I need to do in the array configuration utility?

[Jimmy Vance]

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@JustinK101 wrote:

Thanks.

So I should be able to just pop the new drives in, go to the HP array configuration utility, and expand the array. Any other steps I need to do in the array configuration utility?

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Yes, if the option to expand the array is missing then we need to figure out what the issue is.   I also make this standard diisclaimer to anyone attempting to modfiy an array. Make sure you have a valid data backup just in case something goes wrong.