Correct cabling for SmartArray P222 and ProLiant Micro Server Gen8

[robin24]

Hello all,

I just purchased an HP SmartArray P222 RAID controller for my ProLiant Micro Server Gen8. I received the controller card along with a capacitor pack, and installing the card in the server's PCIE slot was no problem. However, I think it's necessary to connect the hard disks to the controller card directly, so that the RAID card will be used instead of the embedded controller. As I understand, the manual for the ProLiant Micro Server Gen8 suggests that I unplug a Mini SAS cable from the mainboard and then connect it to the RAID card. However, on the image it's kind of hard to see where that cable is supposed to be, and I somehow can't seem to locate it on the mainboard. I already called technical support because of this, but they weren't able to help me either. In the end, they suggested me to purchase a Mini SAS cable, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with that. I'm a bit confused as to how I can connect the HDs to the actual RAID card, so any help with that would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

Robin.

[Jimmy Vance · Accepted solution]

The connector on the board is labeled mini-sas. The connector is located at the very front of the system in between the PCI-e slot and the power connector.  Push on the small metal tab and lift the cable up to remove from the embedded controller connection.

[robin24]

Hi Jimmy,

many thanks! It was a piece of cake installing the controller with that explanation :-)

Thought it would be much more complex, especially after speaking with that tech support person!

I did have one rather interesting issue after installing the RAID controller though: after booting up the server, Debian would no longer detect any network interfaces. I couldn't bring them back, no matter what I tried... Even more interesting that ILO, which shared the network port with Debian was working just fine, just no way for Debian to detect the NIC... I couldn't see anything in the RBSU either, and the only thing that actually helped was to reset the BIOS to factory defaults... After that and subsequent reboot, network interfaces were working fine once again...

No idea if this has remotely anything to do with the RAID controller, but like I said this happened right when I booted the server after installing it...

Once again, many thanks Jimmy!

Robin

[Jimmy Vance]

The only thing I can think of is the Smart Array and the NIC's were using the same IRQ, resetting to defaults moved them to different IRQ's. Normally sharing IRQ's doesn't cause issue, but I have seen various problems over the years resolved when moving devices around so they are not sharing

[UlfLaursen]

Hi

Thanks for this post - I have followed it and it works great on my Microserver too with the P222 controller.

I have one question though. Would it be possible to get the LED for HDD activity to change to the P222 controller?

Thanks

Ulf