Bought a DL380e G8 to use for FreeNAS

[dhenzler]

I understand the Raid controller needs to be disabled as FreeNAS wants to do this part.  Will I need to provide an SAS-9211-8i to connect drives or can the drives be accessed directly from the backplane & disabled Raid controller.

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

Please "Enable SATA AHCI Support" for the HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i/B320i Controller from server RBSU. 

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03871499

The Hard drives can be accessed directly from the backplane with the controller set to AHCI mode.

[dhenzler]

The DL380e G8 that I have has 14 LFF drive bays.  From what I have gathered I can only access them using the on board controller and access 6 drives with the 120i or 320i controller.  The 420i has enough capacity to access them all.  I could also use a LSI SAS-9211-8i IT mode.  I don't want to use RAID on the server... let FreeNAS do it.  So what is your recommendation in order to access 12 drives or 14 drives...?

[Jimmy Vance]

It's been a few years since I've tested this. You can refer to this thread https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-ML-DL-SL/DL380p-Gen8-P420i-exit-out-of-HBA-mode/m-p/6939006/highlight/true#M156401

Update the P420i to version 8 firmware or newer and you can switch it to HBA mode, or create 14 individual RAID 0 drives

[dhenzler]

do the B120i and B320i have an HBA mode?  How many drives can they access in HBA mode?

[Jimmy Vance]

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@dhenzler wrote:

do the B120i and B320i have an HBA mode?  How many drives can they access in HBA mode?

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The B120i / B320i are just standard SATA controllers (the 320 supports SAS with firmware/license), just set it to AHCI mode in RBSU.  They are software based RAID controllers,  a special driver provides the RAID functionality

Page 5 of the quickspec explain the various controller and drive options

https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04128166

[dhenzler]

Where do you obtain the firmware license, and at what cost?

If using the b120i on-board device how many drives can be accessed ?  I have 14 bays.

Dave

[dhenzler]

Question is... how many can be accessed?

Started to contact HP on this and a pop up came on with someone to help me?  I really didn't ask for any help at this point.  After explaining my plight the HP person flooded me with a bunch of boiler plate about he couldn't quote prices.  Asked if I were selling it or if it was part of my company... I said... for personal use.  The HP person started to sign off, and I interrupted ans asked aprox what would the charge be for the "license key" to provide SAS on hardware that I already owned.  He said $1000 USD....

I could barely control myself.... LOL.. ha ha ha ha... you must think I'm an IDIOT... I'll just use a LSI SAS-9211-8i for $20 then...

HP needs to get on board with the facts of life... old equipment cannot demand license key prices in the US when the stuff is sold for pennies on the dollar.  I paid $110 for the DL-380eG8 and the thought of dropping $1,000 for a license key for SAS is BEYOND REASONABLE.

Make me wonder if you're hooked up with Oracle... they're in LA LA Land too.

Dave