Smart Array P410 firmware update from 3.50 to 6.64?

[madsmaks]

I have been investigating a performance problem on a Windows SBS 2011 virtual server hosted on a Microsoft Windows Hyper-V 2012 R2 server host. The virtual machine and virtual hard drive files are stored in a RAID5 array running on a Smart Array P410 controller.

To cut a long story short I used HPSSACLI to determine that one of the drives has a status of 'Predictive Failure' but also noticed that this controller is running firmware version 3.50. The latest is currently 6.64.

My question is: "Is it safe to upgrade the firmware directly from 3..50 to 6.64?

[madsmaks]

I managed to answer this question myself by obtaining a Smart Array P410 controller with BIOS version 3.00 and trying it so I thought I'd post here in case anyone else finds themself asking the same question.

I set up the Smart Array P410 controller in a test system running Hyper-V 2012 R2 host with a couple of guest virtual machines similar to the production environment that requires the BIOS upgrade. I had the guest operating systems do some basic tasks while I upgraded the BIOS of the Smart Array P410 controller from version 3.00 directly to 6.64(B). There was no discernable pausing or other issues within the guest operating system during the firmware installation.

The host system did of course need to be rebooted to complete the upgrade but there were no issues here either and the whole operation was completed in under 3 minutes.

I will now attempt the same procedure remotely on the production system and keep my fingers crossed.

[Torsten.]

I would consider to replace the bad disk first, wait for the rebuild and upgrade once finished.

[madsmaks]

Yes, probably a good idea, Torsten.

I will order the replacement disk today and let you know how I get on.

Cheers

Jon

[madsmaks]

The drive replacement went perfectly and there were no problems with that but the firmware update on the production server presented more of a challenge.

I upgraded the firmware from 3.50 to 6.64 and rebooted but unfortunately the system failed to start properly and would only proceed with the Smart Array P410 Controller removed from the system. I was lucky enough to have a spare server less than an hours drive away that also had a Smart Array Controller installed so I was able to swap the drives into the spare server and return this to the customers site with only a few hours downtime.

I tried without success to contact HP Enterprise for an old revision of the firmware so that I could revert back to a version that worked with the motherboard in this server but the chap I spoke to didn't even know what a Smart Array Controller was and wouldn't help without the serial number of the card which I couldn't get at that time as the system wouldn't boot with the card installed.

I'm hoping that someone here may be able to help with obtaining an older version of firmware for the HP Smart Array P410 Controller - I know version 3.50 works in this motherboard so if anyone has a copy it would be much appreciated?

The other alternative is to figure out a method of getting the controller to work in an Intel S5520HC motherboard so if anyone has managed to get that working I'd be very interested.

Cheers

Jon

[Torsten.]

even after some hundreds of updates i have never seen such issue.
what is the error you get?

older versions are available if you click revision history tab.

[madsmaks]

There is no error. The boot process simply appears to stop after the Smart Array Controller has completed it's initialization and identified the logical drive. All we are seeing at that point is a black screen.

We have seen this problem before in some Intel motherboards but didn't realise that it was related to the firmware at the time. I wrongly assumed that as the board was already happily running with the Intel S5520HC motherboard that it would continue to do so after the firmware update.

I checked out the revision history but it only goes back as far as 6.60. Do you have any idea where I might look for an older version or is there anyone I can contact.

Jon

[Torsten.]

http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=3883933&swItemId=MTX_76b3f51ab60c4d4397d7688103&swEnvOid=1005#tab-history

[madsmaks]

Brilliant! Thanks Torsten.

I'll see if I can determine the latest firmware version that will run with that motherboard and post here in case anyone else has similar issues in the future.

[Torsten.]

In what server model this smart array is installed?

Are there other related components, a SAS expander for example?

[madsmaks]

The controller is installed in a bespoke server and the drives are contained in a Startech Mini SAS SFF-8087 to 4 x 2.5" SATA/SAS 5.25in Hot Swap Backplane. The same issue occurs is the drives are connected directly to the controller.

Anyway, I have finished my investigation and can now report that any firmware of 5.xx and above for the HP Smart Array P410 Controller when used with an Intel S5520HC Server Board will not allow the system to boot. I have reverted back to firmware version 3.66.

All I have to do now is return the repaired server to the client's site and swap their drives out of the loan server.

Thanks for your help, Torsten.

Jon

[kk102]

Hi Madsmarks/John,

How did you manage to revert firmware to a previous version while HP Smart Array controller halts booting process and does not allow to boot from any media? Did you remove the controller and put to a different computer where it doesn't stop booting process? Or maybe you know any other way to revert firmware to a previous installed version?

Unfortunatelly I have exactly the same problem with P400 controller. It was booting fine  in a HP Desktop dx7800  with Windows 7 prof. and worked with firmware v 4.6. Performance was poor and it was saying that firmare update is highly recommended. So I upgraded firmware to ver 7.22 that came with Smart Update Firmware DVD. ver. 9.30.

The upgrade  have "bricked" one controller. Beeing naive and thinking this is a bug in version 7.22 I took another P400 controller and updated the firmware to version 7.24  with exactly the same result. Each controller stopped to boot after an initialization, no matter what the configuration was (tried all options: with/without disks, with/without BBC, etc).

Looks like HP deliberately killed the second life of their P4xx controllers in not-Proliant servers with a newer firmware! 

Anyway, if you know any magic to revert firmware in a P4xx controller that stops booting process - I would greatly appreciate a hint.

Chris

[Torsten.]

Did you try this?

The "select boot volume" came with newer firmware versions.

https://h20565.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=3454575&docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-c04135224

[xmms]

hi kk102,

I had made P410 bricked , too.

My conclusion is : DO NOT UPGRADE FIRMWARE IF YOU ARE USING SMART ARRAY WITH NON-HP BOARDS.

My P410 was pulled out from Un-used DL380G7 , and ran with supermicro X9SRL-F-O for several days. This card was not used for a long time, and I found the firmware was so old (FW 3.3).  So, stupidly, I decided to upgrade firmware from 3.3 to 6.64.

Upgrade had done on windowns server 2012R2 with no error. but, once I rebooted the server, the server repeats rebooting forever. POST, Initialise P410, CRASH, RESET, POST, Init P410, CRASH, RESET..... I tyied to boot from USB-Flash, but nothing was changed,

I tested this briked P410 on several boards, mostly supermico, X8-1366-DP board, X9-2011-DP board, X9-1155-UP board,  and some old ASUS board, but result was all same except ASUS (ancient LGA775) P5BV-M (not P5B-VM) . I don't know why, but P5BV-M was able to boot and recognise P410 with FW 6.64.

I also tested this P410 with HP ML110 G6 and ML350p gen8 servers,  but they had NO problems at all. 

By this result, newer firmware has some compatibility issues for general hardware  (or kicked out non-hpe servers?). My suggestion is: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

thanks,

[kiwistag]

This is about the closest post I've come to a dielemma I'm having.

After going from v3.x on a P212 and 5.x on a P410i, when I have cache modules in either, I get a 0x14 error that the controller locked up. This happens after a while. Yes I'm running ESXi 6.5 on a dl380 G6, however until I upgraded the firmware the p410 was perfect..
Trying to get older firmware to test on the p212 is near impossible as some of the URL's pointing to it on the site don't work.

I upgraded the p212 firmware mainly as it wouldn't see 3TB disks.
I have 2x dl380 g7's coming in a week and hope I don't have to touch the firmware on these...

[ColinMA_42]

Did you every figure out this issue?  I am having the exact same problem with my G6.  Flashed 410i to 6.64 to allow 3TB drives and I get a 0x14 lock-up every so often.

I am planning to move this storage away from the G6, but it's not going to happen for a while...

Have you tried downgrading to an earlier BIOS revision?

[Moucceu]

The same trouble. After updating my p410i to 6.64 version only clean ESXi 6.5 can work fine. I can`t log in ESXi managment page. After reboot i see RAID error 0x14. Not customized HP image neither ESXi 6.5 + oflline bundle doesn`t work. HP DL 360G6. RAID array 5 consists of 7 300MB SAS + 1 online spare. 

After install offline bundle i`m getting (previous error code 0x14). Thanks God that clean ESXi 6.5 still can work so problem is customized HP raid driver.

BIOS is newest.