DL380p G8 Drive Lights Not Working After SAS Card Install

[bawalker]

Good evening all.  I have a DL380p G8 passed down to me from work.  I installed an HPE H220 card that was flashed to IT mode and when powering back up the server, the hard drive caddy lights aren't working.

The reason I installed the H220 card was because the P420i in HBA mode doesn't allow booting from the drives on Linux/Unix setups, and a project I'm doing requires using Linux for the system.

I assume that the caddy lights are controlled by the P420i card on the motherboard?  If so, is there anyway to change that to have the H220 controll drive lights?

This isn't the most critical thing in life, but I would like to have the ability to check the lights to see for drive failures, etc.

[TVVJ]

Hello,

The LEDs on the hard drives and also the hard drives themselves are controlled by the controller to which they are connected. If you need the LEDs of the hard drives to be controller by HPE H220 Host Bus Adapter, then they need to be cabled to this controller. 

When so connected all functions of the hard drive will be controlled by that controller, including the fact that you may need to create the RAID array afresh and install operating system and then restore data from backup.

Regards,

[bawalker]

Thank you for that information.  Is there a part number for the cable needed and instructions for cabling to the H220 HBA controller?  I would greatly appreciate any additional feedback that you may have!

Currently I use two 0.5 meter aftermarket SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 straight cables to connect the drive backplane to the H220 directly.  Are any other cables required, or do they need to be HPE official SFF-8087 cables?

Currently this server is not in production, so no data needs to be backed up.  I wanted to install the HBA before using the server for any production data.

[TVVJ]

Hello,

You review section PCIe option in the document titled "HPE ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Server - Cabling Storage" for cabling diagram.

I am not sure about the cables for this setup. But you may check if the "HPE MINI SAS STRAIGHT TO STRAIGHT 37IN CABLE", with option part number 662897-B21. suits this purpose. You may browse to HPE PartSurfer site and search for the option part number.

For more information, please visit the HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 Server - Option Parts and search for cables.

Regards,

[bawalker]

@TVVJ  I think there was a miscommunication earlier.  I do have SFF-8087 cables connected from the 8-drive backplane over to the new SAS H220 controller installed correctly in the PCI riser slot.

However the hard drive indicator lights are not working beyond a brief "test" when they flash on at power on and then go off.  This H220 card was an aftermarket card flashed with the LSI/Avago P20 version firmware.  I suspect that the IT mode P20 version firmware might be the cause.

Is there a way to downgrade the firmware on the card to an official HPE H220 firmware?

[TVVJ]

Hello,

You may try the HPE H220 Host Bus Adapter firmware and drive download page for the required version.

Regards,