Adding 534562-B21 HP 1G Flash Backed Cache to ML350 G6, no drives seen

[greggmh123]

Hello!

I have an ML350 G6 with an embedded P410i ZM array controller. I have one array of two 450GB 15K SAS drives. When I bought it, Ingram Micro's HP support told me that cache is not needed for a RAID 1 array.

I want to add a cache module and change to RAID 10. The "HP 1G Flash Backed Cache 534562-B21" module was listed as an option, so I bought one and installed it. When it boots, the controller does not see the drive array and tries to boot from CDROM, USB, PXE, and fails to boot.

I pulled the cache module and rebooted fine. I am copying all VMs off of the array onto a USB backup drive, and I will image the OS installed on the array in case everything goes belly up.

I cannot find the proper procedure for adding a FBWC module to this server. Is there a special procedure? I don't even see any array controller messages during bootup.

What am I missing?

Thank you for your help!

Gregg

[Suman_1978 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Either the FBWC is faulty or the controller needs a firmware update.

Click here for the article.

Click here for the Drivers.

Thank You!
I am a HPE employee
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[greggmh123]

I have the 6.64(B) firmware from the HP Service Pack for ProLiant 2015.10.0:

Firmware - Storage Controller

Online ROM Flash Component for Windows - Smart Array P212, P410, P410i, P411, P711m, P712m, and P812

6.64 (B)

Recommended

cp027484.exe

For clarification, should this be as easy as shutting down and disconnecting power, inserting the cache module, and then powering on the server?

Do the cache modules have their own firwmare that may need to be updated?

The 534562-B21 I purchased actually has a sticker with SP#505908-001 and AS#570501-002 on it. Do these numbers work with the P410i ZM embedded controller?

Thank you for your help!

Gregg

[greggmh123]

I had to use F9 to get into the BIOS and unhide the Option ROM messages. I then see this error when booting with the cache module installed.

1783 – Slot 0 Drive Array Controller Failure!  Command failure (cmd=0h, err=00h, dlu=011:84h)

What does that mean? Does it confirm your suspicion of bad controller?

Gregg

[greggmh123]

Fortunately for me, the company from whom I bought my cache module accidentally sent me TWO of these cache modules, and I asked them if it was OK to open the second box that I was just going to send back to them. They said OK.

Prior to installing either cache module, I had run the October 2015 SPP to update my firmware from within Windows (it would not run when booted from USB, "Could not find vesamenu.c32" message...and the file was there). It identified my four new 2TB SAS 7200RPM drives as needing updating (cp024988), but said NOTHING about the two 450GB SAS 15K RPM drives. I updated those four new drives, shut down, and pulled them before doing anything with the cache module.

So, with the second cache module installed, the server booted normally!

I re-ran the October 2015 SPP in Windows, and it flagged the two 450GB SAS drives as needing a critical update (cp024971), from HPD2 to HPD6.

Now, if the SPP had looked at the SAS drives and seen the HPD2 firmware and flagged it for updating to HPD6, I wonder if this whole problem could have been avoided. 

There is NO WAY that I am going to remove the current, working, cache module to find out!

Thakn you for your help!

Gregg