HPE Smart Array P816i-a SR Gen10

[Steelsky]

Hi,

I have been asked to recycle 3 HP DL380 Gen 10 servers for a POC and I'm trying to create 2 arrays on them, one for OS and one for a block of storage.

On one server I'm seeing all the drives, one ons I'm only seeing the two smaller drives for the OS and on one I'm seeing a mix.

I have not worked with HPE hardware for a good while but I think it's related to mixed mode where it will take the drives that are currently not showing up to in the controller and will present them to the OS as raw devices.

Can someone tell me how to get the drives out of that mode so I can add them to an array?

HPE Part number of a drive that can't be added is: 872389-001

Kind regards,

Soren

[TVVJ]

Hello,

You can connect different types of drives to the controller, but when creating a RAID array all drives selected for creating the RAID array should be of the same type. Mixing drive types such as SAS, SATA, and SSDs in the same RAID array is not a permitted function.

Regards,

[Steelsky]

@TVVJ I would still expect all the drives to show up so I could add them into arrays.

I suspect it's related to a Mixed Mode that might have been set so those drives are presented directly to the OS instead of being available to the RAID controller.

/Soren

[BPSingh]

Greetings!

The HPE Smart Array P816i-a SR Gen10 comes with mixed mode (supports both RAID and Pass thru) enabled by default, which cannot be disabled. Any drive connected to it is directly presented to the operating system. If you want to create an array out of the drives you can do so using Smart Storage Administrator. 

You can access SSA using Intelligent Provisioning (F10) during boot. Please refer below web-link:

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sd00001085en_us&page=SSA_accessing.html

[Steelsky]

Hi,

My problem is still that I have a set of drives that do not show up in the internal tools, other drives do and I've shuffled so they can use the servers for the PoC they need.

I would like to know why those drives do not show up, maybe the answer is that they are of a type that can't be used in an array but only directly by the OS.

/Søren

[BPSingh]

Is this the drive spare?  872389-001 HPE 960GB 12G SAS RI SFF SC DS SSD- these should be supported on a P816i-a SR Gen10 controller. 
Are these drives not detected on all the 3 servers? 
What is the drive spare which is seen by the controller? 

[Steelsky]

Hi,

The drives do not show up at all in the RAID controller, they spin up and the status light at the front turns yellow.

There are 21 drives in total and I've spread them evenly acrodd the 3 servers, rolled on the latest SPP and created arrays on the other drives so the guys have something they can install their PoC on.

I've asked them to let me know if the drives show up in the OS when they install them but otherwise I'm out of ideas.

/Søren

[BPSingh]

How many drives out of the total 21 are undetected by the controller? 
Are all of these drives the same spare, specifically the 872389-001 HPE 960GB 12G SAS RI SFF SC DS SSD? 
Please provide the part number if there is a mix of drives installed.

[Steelsky]

Hi,

When I read "spare" above I read it as hotspare not spare part, apologies

The 3 servers currently have 7 each of 872389-001 and none of those drives can be seen by the servers.

They also all have two sets of drives, one set as a 480GB mirror for OS and one as a set of either HDD or SSD as a Raid 5. All three servers have been through the latest SPP for Gen10 so they should be fully up to date with a currently supported firmware baseline.

/Søren   

[BPSingh · Accepted solution]

As per below link 872390-B21 is the option part of the drive. 

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=sd00003054en_us&page=GUID-140751AC-628E-466C-81C3-39CF76998325.html

Upon checking the server quickspecs, the option part is not listed.

https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a00008180enw.pdf?jumpid=in_pdp-psnow-qs

Gen10 is not listed under "Server Gen Supported" on the provided web link below.

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=c03939448&page=GUID-41666B55-CAF4-4252-A3FF-2A686755CD53.html

[Helioz26]

@BPSingh Hi BPSingh,

Just replying to this thread, its good to know that Mixed Mode supports (Both RAID and Pass-thru), just want to drop this question since our team are also new to HPE Server. Is our server/smart array dont have any issue if we use DEBIAN Linux as our OS.

[BPSingh]

You can refer to the OS support matrix. 

https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/