P400 smart array won't detect any SATA Drives!

[Guy McNeill]

Hi,
I have the P400i Controller (PCI-E x8) and it has the 512MB Cache with BBWC module.

I purchased this and was proud to be an HP Smart array owner.

However, I've attached new SATA breakout cables (official HP parts) but when adding 3 connectors to 3x BRAND NEW 1TB SATA drives they are not detected by the array in the boot up initialisation or in the Windows ACU.

I therefore did troubleshooting, tried one drive at a time, tried another SATA breakout cable, tried another internal connector (2i instead of 1I) but still no luck.

Then i saw tech specs saying it uses SATA150, not SATA300, so I used Hitachi utility to change hard disk SATA config to the 150 spec so hardware-wise the drives think they are the old style bus (for old BIOS compatibility). They still won't be detected individually or in a group of 3!

They spin up fine, they are all new and they are different models (suggesting its not just one model type that could be the problem). 1x Hitachi CinemaStar 1TB, 1x Hitachi Deskstar 1TB and 1x SEAGATE BARRACUDA 1TB.

Firmware LATEST at 7.22. I downgraded and then re-flashed to 7.22 incase firmware was bad but still no luck.

I'm really trying to build the array urgently!!! Can anyone please help! I love HP but this is really doing my head in!

[pis]

CHECK IF THE SATA CABLES BETWEEN BACK PLANE AND P400 ARE GOOD INSERTED

SET YOUR P400 TO BOOT FIRST FROM SETUP UTILITY

[Guy McNeill]

Hi there,
thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I've checked all cables several times. I have no backplane - they are attached directly to non-hot-swappable SATA drives directly via the SATA Breakout cable (Part numeber: 379266-001).

I've got them firmly in back of drives, and firmly on P400 card and you hear the base cable of the HP red leads "click" into place on the card.

Any other ideas?

[Torsten.]

Not 100% sure, but I guess the controller relies on HP branded drives (with HP firmware on it).

[Guy McNeill]

That would be awful if it only accepts HP Firmware! Can't believe it as not even dreaded DELL would do that! Hopefully someone from HP can reply to this and confirm the situation! Guy

[Torsten.]

I don't know if you are aware of this nice description of supported vs. unsupported, working vs. not working by a well known forum member ... however, reviewing the P400 quickspecs will show you what is supported by HP.


I came across this thread because it is in the Integrity subforum, but I assume you don't have such server.

[Guy McNeill]

Hi,
i've not seen this... do you have a link as I can't find it through the search?

Thanks,

Guy

[Torsten.]

See fourth reply here

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/DL360-G6-and-PCI-X-Array-Controller/m-p/4610426#M101402

and section "Related Options" here:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/archives_division/12400_div_v3/12400_div.html

[Moderator note: The above links are no longer valid. Please refer to https://support.hpe.com]

[Guy McNeill]

Thanks. but there's nothing there which describes or sheds light on the subject.

The HP parts are all standard SATA Drives. In fact, the marketing blub on the P400 says it takes low-cost commercial SATA Drives or Hot-Plug SAS or SATA.

So, can anyone (HP themselves please?????) help me on this! Does anyone have any idea why 3 brand new 1TB hard disks just don't get detected?

I know they are fine as connected to motherboard SATA controller and are picked up fine and I down-graded the SATA speeds to SATA150 via HITACHI Utility. (SEAGATE ONE HAS A JUMPER PIN WHICH HAS SAME AFFECT AS HITACHI SOFTWARE ON THE HITACHI DRIVES).

Thanks all - I'm still a big believer in HP... just want to be a proud owner!

[Guy McNeill]

Ps. FROM HP's OWN SPECS:

Key Features
The SA-P400 controller supports up to 18 drives..............

"3G SAS technology delivers high performance and data bandwidth up to 300 MB/s per physical link and contains full compatibility with 1.5G SATA technology"

Note Full compatibility with 1.5Gbps SATA!

[Torsten.]

Do't get me wrong, but this is part of the game: HP gives you a list about the supported environemnt, in this case a list of servers, disk enclosures and disks.
Anything not in this list is not supported, so it may work or not.

[Guy McNeill]

Can anyone else help me with this? Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

It can't be the BIOS of the motherboard as the card 'boots up'. But I've tried 4 different 1TB SATA HDs now and they all just don't work?!!! None are detected. Please, can anyone help?!

[cnb]

As Torsten pointed out, the P400 is designed to work with specific HP systems with HP BIOS, certain HP system slot configurations, HP disk drives with HP firmware, drivers and cabling. Anything else outside of the supported configuration matrix may or may not work.

I'm just curious as to the part number on your controller. The P400i is an embedded controller, whereas the the P400 is a plug-in PCIe controller.

Which system and motherboard are you using?

Can you run ADU and post the report?

You might want to contact the Vendor where you bought the P400 and cable to see if they can help.


Rgds,

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

I have a P212 with the latest firmware and no problems with Hitachi SATA disks. Can you attach an ADU report?

Regards,
Patrick

[Guy McNeill]

Hi all,
thanks for your help. But i've given up and sold the card and bought a better LSI Logic one which supports 3gbps SATA anyway (instead of 1.5gbps).

Shame as I was a real HP fan, but this whole "Only support HP drives" thing does my head in. When manufacturers like Adaptec, LSI Logic and Areca can all make cards and guarantee they work with SATA Hard drives (generic) I don't see why HP can't.

I've seen plenty of posts online where SATA drives were working but after firmware upgrades to the card they were no longer detected. Presumably nasty HP execs said to pull generic drive support at a point in the firmware to ensure people bought their branded drives (which are exactly the same, just with their firmware).

HP, if you're so generous, why don't you provide the firmware to people to flash their generic SEAGATE, SAMSUNG, HITACHI drives if you HAVE to have the SATA running supported firmware?

Thanks all anyway.

[Gruic]

I have a DL380-G4 with a P400 pci-e controller.  From my experimentation, it seems to accept any 2.5 SAS drives, but will not see *ANY* SATA.  I've tried numerous models of Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital SATA drives on the backplace, all without luck.  One comment -- I am not sure if the backplane in my DL380-G4 actually supports SATA, but everything I've read seemed to indicate that it should.

As far as I'm concerned I will not purchase any vendor's equipment that uses bios/efi to lock down the hardware environment so you're forced to buy their overpriced OEM parts.  I should be able to accept the risk of using (considerably cheaper) third party components, often which are almost identical to the OEM branded ones.  Third party warranties are often superior as well, such as Crucial's lifetime memory guarantee.

Kudos to IBM for letting me run any memory/harddrives in their systems.  Kudos for Dell for the same thing, however Dell had to learn the lesson the hard way when they locked down their PERC6h controller in the Dell R510s.  There was such an outcry from the dell user community, they then released new firmware that opened the controller back up to accept any drive.

Just my two cents on this topic.  If anyone figures out how to use standard SATA 2.5 laptop drives with a P400, please share it with the forum, you'll be a hero!

[Alexander_Lowen]

if you read the specs carefully,you'll see this :

'

Maximum Internal
Storage
Hot Plug SAS 4.0TB 8 x 500GB with standard internal hot plug SFF
SAS drive cage
Hot Plug 2.0TB 8 x 250GB

'

the p400(i) only supports up to 500gb per drive

[joshuahanley]

I figured out how to do this on a P400 Smart Array, but you need at least one SAS drive connected to the RAID controller but not part of any virtual disk (RAID volume) in order to get the controller to admit it can see the SATA drives (even though it obviously recognizes them during the controller boot up in POST).

In my case, I had three SATA SSDs I needed to use to replace a failed 3-drive RAID 5 (2 SAS disks died and we lost the RAID). I wanted to put the SSDs in RAID 5 just like the SAS drives had been. 

When I pulled the two bad and one good SAS HD, swapped all three SATA SSDs in, booted to the RAID controller, deleted the failed virtual disk, and tried to create a new virtual disk, the controller said no disks were available and I couldn't proceed. When I swapped out one SSD for the good SAS HD I had, booted back into the controller, and selected New Virtual Disk, the controller recognized both the SAS and SATA drives. I put the two SATA drives into a new RAID 1 virtual disk, shut it down, and swapped out my SAS HD for the third SATA drive. I booted back into the RAID controller, selected New Virtual Disk to confirm it could see the third SATA drive, then deleted the SATA-based RAID 1 virtual disk, and was able to successfully create a RAID 5 virtual disk with all three SATA drives.

[Darkside59]

Hi, 

I know this post is old. Just wanna see if you got it to detect. There's 2 mode on that controller. HBA Mode and Smart Array Mode. Plus you need HP latest SPE Smart Storage Administrator, aka HPSSA. If the controller is in Smart Array mode. OS will not detect any drives, but will show up in HPSSA as "Unassigned Drives", and in order for Windows or any OS to detect the drives, you have to create a Logical drive by creating a Raid, then your OS will see the drive. If you don't want to raid and just use as a single drive. Go back to HPSSA and switch it to HBA Mode and reboot system. Windows will see the drive/s

[amanosalva84]

I have the same issue with my p400 card but changing the  cable molex it work with generic disc, the new cable is HP PN 451375-001, Replace with Spare 457892-001. good luck!!