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Re: SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

 
CA707630
Advisor

SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

Just deployed a DL380 G2 with a SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 and I must say the controller and management software are minimal in features. Compared to an old Adaptec AAA-133U2 and it CI/O Management I just dumped, the Compaq:

1. cannot blink drives.

2. cannot test spares periodically

3. status messages (log) are not dated.

4. status messages are cleared upon reboot. This is terrible if one wants to examine a history.

5. does not automatically refresh after a rebuild. I had a drive go bad, reinsrted it and a rebuild on a 4GB partition started. After a long wait, I clicked on the "refresh" icon and, lo and behold, the operation had already completed. However, the drive icon was still in its rebuild mode until I clicked refresh.

6. does not display any progress information during a rebuild.

7. the controller does not display devices found on the SCSI bus during POST.

8. controller does not format or surface scan drives duting POST.

These all seem to be pretty basic features for any RAID card. Unless I'm missing something here, I'm disappointed with this setup.

4 REPLIES 4
CA707630
Advisor

Re: SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

Also, when the drive went bad I received NO alert.

No beep, no window message, nothing.

Surely this is a supported feature?
Chris Rosan
Valued Contributor

Re: SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

Do you have the management software installed? This can be setup to either send SNMP traps, or just send an email to someone in a smaller installtion.

The SA-5304 is a VERY old card, but i've had it doing some of the things above. Make sure you install the relevant PSP for your O/S (get the latest one). I'd also make sure your firmware is up2date on such an old card.

You can blink drives from the O/S ACU as well. If it's MSwindows there is a gui in the start menu for the ACU (and a gui to setup the email alerts), in linux there is a tui you can use.

You can also view it in a web page through the SMH (system management homepage, installed with the PSP at https://yourservername:2381

My servers that had 5302's always rebuild themselves, always displayed devices on post (these will come under the smart array controller post, not the machine post - it's when it spin's the drives up, and will also show you the configured array's

History of errors is displayed in the IML (integrated management log) which can be viewed through ilo, SMH, windows gui & novell/linux tui.
CA707630
Advisor

Re: SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

Using Win2K Pro.

This is becoming a greater learning experience than I anticipated. This server is for my home/business use. I purchased it for its redundant features and did not want to become a server administrator, per se.

Now, having to deal with PSP, Insight Manager, SMH, SNMP, Agents I'm a bit overwhelmed but getting there.

Installed latest firmware for ROM, controller and whatever SmartStart did. Installed Insight Manager and SMH and now I can see IML and blink drives.

What I need next is to setup an alert for sound and popup when errors occur. I assume that's where SNMP comes in? A brief readup on this and it's over my head.

Of course, I will set it up but any thoughts for a quick fix are appreciated.

Also, during machine POST, controller revs up and displays spinning slashes but not the drive list. Entering its software does display them.

Finally, what's the successor to this controller? I decided on it because U3 is fast enough for me (Seagate ST373405LC's) and it's dirt cheap used. Anything better and cheap?
Chris Rosan
Valued Contributor

Re: SA-5304 and Array Config 7.60 disappointments

I'd suggest you run the "firmware update cd", which can be downloaded as an iso from HP's site. This will update ALL the firmware on all devices in the server. Smartstart won't do firmware's.

On w2k3 you can setup alerts for hardware failure etc.
Start > Programs > HP Management Agents > event notifier config. You need to set a server for the agent to relay errors off, and email addresses for it to send the email to. You can specify multiple email addresses, so you may be able to sent an email to your mobile phone (if your provider supports it).

Not displaying the actual disks in the array controller post may not be a feature of either the firmware on the card (it has it's own firmware vs the bios version) - this may be resolved by updating it - if not then it's not a feature of the card.

Successor to this controller is the SA6402. As you've got a pretty simple server (ie only 1 using 1 channel of scsi) and throughput is fine, you can upgrade to one of the following models

SA6402
SA641
SA642

These are all Ultra320. The SA5302 & 6402 were upgradable to 4 channel (they come 2 channel) and you can also put more cache ram in the controller. I'd suggest sticking with the one you have, unless you can determine if the backplane in the server supports U320 (being a G2 i'm thinking it won't.