HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

If they fix the SES2 support and the 1880s work, then I'm sold...not that I don't already have a bunch of their cards and HP SAS expanders. :p
 
I'm also requesting that they look into supporting dual-linking, meaning two interconnects between host card and expander, similar to how HP's raid cards support it. Doubling the interconnect bandwidth may not end up making a difference in actual use today, but at least the option would be there going forward as newer, faster drives continue to emerge.
 
@odditory: Thanks for the update, I offered Areca an HP SAS expander about a month ago too, but they told me at the time that they were too busy, I guess they were working on the 1880 (or at least I hope so) :)
 
odditory said:
Good news, I've sent an HP SAS Expander card (v2.02) to Taipei for Areca to work with directly, to resolve some of the issues with Areca 1680 cards (SES2), and also test with the upcoming Areca 1880 series SAS-2 cards. They seem enthusiastic since they've been following up frequently with me, so I should have a verdict fairly soon.

I'm going to squeeze them for a firmware update right afterward so we aren't stuck waiting for one of their bigger cumulative updates that are always slow coming.
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Awesome News...can't wait to hear more about this...

Blue Fox said:
If they fix the SES2 support and the 1880s work, then I'm sold...not that I don't already have a bunch of their cards and HP SAS expanders. :p
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You have too much already :p
 
I was wondering if it's possible to tell from the outside of the box whether there is a yellow/green PCB version of the SAS expander inside it. I have sourced a reseller of the card who has one in stock to go with my HP P411 but I want to make sure it's the new one before I purchase it. The company is unsure which revision it is and are unwilling to open the box to find out for me.

Regards,
Degsy.
 
Degsy said:
I was wondering if it's possible to tell from the outside of the box whether there is a yellow/green PCB version of the SAS expander inside it. I have sourced a reseller of the card who has one in stock to go with my HP P411 but I want to make sure it's the new one before I purchase it. The company is unsure which revision it is and are unwilling to open the box to find out for me.

Regards,
Degsy.
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Order from Dustin @ Synergy and you dont have to worry about it. His username is SynergyDustin. Just PM him and he will take care of you. I highly recommend this route for purchasing a HP SAS expander.
 
I'd love to but I'm in the UK. The SAS expander is more expensive over here.
 
Anyone know if the SAS expander is compatible with ether the Asus Pike 1068E controller or the AOC-USAS-L8i?

I believe they are both us the LSISAS 1068E chipset.
 
ManateeMatt said:
Anyone know if the SAS expander is compatible with ether the Asus Pike 1068E controller or the AOC-USAS-L8i?

I believe they are both us the LSISAS 1068E chipset.
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It is compatible with the LSI 1068E chipset. I'm running an expander via the 1068E built into my Asus P5BV/SAS. Seems to work quite well; I haven't had any issues.
 
ManateeMatt said:
Anyone know if the SAS expander is compatible with ether the Asus Pike 1068E controller or the AOC-USAS-L8i?

I believe they are both us the LSISAS 1068E chipset.
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I should have one of the expanders here within a few days and will be testing it on an AOC-USAS-L8i. I can post results when it gets here :)
 
Is there a way to know what version or firmware the expander is, I know the green one is the more recent but what about firmware version.

Will the shop that I am going to buy from be able to tell just by looking at it?

Not based in the us otherwise I will be purchasing from the member on here.
 
nbat58 said:
Is there a way to know what version or firmware the expander is, I know the green one is the more recent but what about firmware version.

Will the shop that I am going to buy from be able to tell just by looking at it?

Not based in the us otherwise I will be purchasing from the member on here.
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I don't believe you can tell from looking. I just got one of the cards in this week (thanks Dustin for the prompt shipping!). The only marking on it relating to version is "ROM V1.0 1776" on the back but it has version 2.02 firmware on it according to the display from the Adaptec card (the two cards aren't compatible but I put it in and connected it just to verify the firmware revision).
 
For odditory: I tried the mATX power solution for the HP SAS Expander with three motherboards this weekend. One MSI board didn't work, one did, and the Intel board worked. Ordered from Orbitmicro a while back, and scheduled ship date is 4/30 :-(
 
pjkenned said:
For odditory: I tried the mATX power solution for the HP SAS Expander with three motherboards this weekend. One MSI board didn't work, one did, and the Intel board worked. Ordered from Orbitmicro a while back, and scheduled ship date is 4/30 :-(
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Don't understand what you mean by trying the mATX power solution. Do you mean you were using spare motherboards to trying powering a card in an expander chassis?
 
odditory said:
Don't understand what you mean by trying the mATX power solution. Do you mean you were using spare motherboards to trying powering a card in an expander chassis?
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Yes. I think you posted something on this awhile back. Two of the three mATX boards worked with no CPU/ no memory. The somewhat strange thing is the HP SAS Expander lights lit up on the third, but the Areca controller couldn't see it. Using the other mATX boards, the expander saw it, as well as my 6 attached test drives, without issue.
 
pjkenned said:
Yes. I think you posted something on this awhile back. Two of the three mATX boards worked with no CPU/ no memory. The somewhat strange thing is the HP SAS Expander lights lit up on the third, but the Areca controller couldn't see it. Using the other mATX boards, the expander saw it, as well as my 6 attached test drives, without issue.
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That mobo probably just keeps the PCIe slots in the 'reset' state when no CPU and/or RAM is present - in this state the LEDs will light but the expander won't function.
 
pjkenned said:
Yes. I think you posted something on this awhile back. Two of the three mATX boards worked with no CPU/ no memory. The somewhat strange thing is the HP SAS Expander lights lit up on the third, but the Areca controller couldn't see it. Using the other mATX boards, the expander saw it, as well as my 6 attached test drives, without issue.
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Interesting. Which chipsets did all these boards use?
 
Hello, I am building a WHS server primarily for streaming videos.I plan on using the norco 4220 case, and had been looking for a chenbro card, but could not find one available. I finally found this thread on the HP expander solution,.

I had planned on using the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 with the chenbro card, and notice from the thread it will work with the HP expander.

I have a gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H board to use for the server.

Does anyone see any problems with this setup?
Does the supermicro card have a bios screen that will show if the HP card is connected?
I assume I will need an 8087 cable from the supermicro > HP expander.....then 8087 to the norco backplane?

thanks for any advice
 
If I'm using a HP P411, a HP SAS Expander and the equivalent of a Norco 4220 (sold by XCase in the UK) should I buy SFF-8087 cables with or without sideband signalling?
 
mikesm said:
Interesting. Which chipsets did all these boards use?
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This is going to be sad, but the board that didn't work, I know it is a MSI board based on an ATI chipset... but I have no clue what kind of board it is. I think I threw away the box, but if I can find a manual or something I'll post a follow-up. It was a Fry's motherboard special so I can't even check Newegg/ Amazon/ ZZF.
 
Degsy said:
If I'm using a HP P411, a HP SAS Expander and the equivalent of a Norco 4220 (sold by XCase in the UK) should I buy SFF-8087 cables with or without sideband signalling?
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I think the backplane on the 4220 uses SGPIO so sideband is not needed. BTW: XCase is selling the 4220, I got mine from them.
 
Degsy said:
If I'm using a HP P411, a HP SAS Expander and the equivalent of a Norco 4220 (sold by XCase in the UK) should I buy SFF-8087 cables with or without sideband signalling?
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Degsy where did you end up getting your HP Expander from in the uk?
Many thanks.
 
I don't have one yet. My P411 got delivered today. I ordered an SFF-8088 cable today and have been looking at which SFF-8087 are the best ones to buy. I've been researching a suitable way of powering the Expander in an external chassis and a decent place to buy it from. I've seen someone on eBay selling the Expander for £285, Span.com also sell the card for £275 but it has a 2 day lead time.
 
The XCase RM420 I have only has two LEDs. A green one to indicate that a drive is present and a blue one to indicate drive activity. I'm unsure as to whether the LEDs change colour/behaviour depending on fault conditions. I don't want to buy the wrong cables as the ones with sideband are double the price of the non-sideband variety. I also don't want to have to send them back if they don't work at all.
 
You dont need sideband for a 4220. Those backplanes do not have onboard logic.
 
treadstone said:
???

SGPIO uses the sideband signals to control LEDs on the backplane!
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Seems to work with the standard cables I bought from Span, LED indicators works well too. Maybe the Adaptec card I have is using some other method for led signalling to the backplane, it can indicate which drive by turning on the activity LED permanantly.
 
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I hope the mods don't mind me posting this again, I have started a new thread but no answer yet, probably getting impatient. :D

So here are my questions again, hope someone can help.

I have purchased 2 x HP SC44Ge SAS PCIE Host Bust Adapters 416096-B21, apparently this is a rebadged LSI SAS3442E-R adapter.

I have also purchased a couple of cables SSF8484 to 4 x Sata, wonder if they're the right ones as I have since heard mentioned the reverse type cables and whether this case applies here?

These are the cables I have purchased:
http://www.cross-mark.com/50cm-serial-attached-scsisas-sff8484-sata-cable-p-842.html?cPath=175_134

For future expansion would I be able to connect these two controllers to the Norco 4220 backplane (mini sas I beleive).
So to achieve the above is there such a thing as an SFF8484 to 4 x mini SAS or do I need to connect internal SFF8484 to 1 x mini sas on both cards then use the external SFF8470 to 1 x mini sas, which equates to 4 of the sas on the norco backplanes connected...

Or, should I sell one of the HP SC44Ge SAS PCIE Host Bust Adapters and purchase an HP SAS Expander.

Many thanks for all your help.
 
Those cables you purchased are fan-out, so you can connect the HBAs directly to drives. They're the right ones.

There are also SFF8484 to SFF8087 (miniSAS) cables, but they are fairly expensive compared to regular fan-out cables. So yes, you can connect the two controllers to the 4220 backplane. I have one I can't seem to get rid of.

As you said, that's only going to connect 4 of the 5 backplanes, plus the exorbitant cost of the cabling, it's not a very good solution.

It would probably be cheaper to go the route of the HP SAS expander if it is indeed compatible with that HBA.
 
nitrobass24 said:
You dont need sideband for a 4220. Those backplanes do not have onboard logic.
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Thanks for the info nitrobass24, that'll save me some money :D

Regarding my earlier question about whether it's possible to tell what revision of the expander is in the box without opening it, does the box come with the firmware version of the expander printed on the front of it? If it does then anything over version 0.20 (starting at 1.00?) should be a green PCB, right?
 
Thank you xnoodle and orpheus88 for you help, are the SFF8484 to 4 x SFF8087 called fan out cables too? any links that I may take a look at? I do agree that the HP Expander choice would be ideal, hopefully my motherboard and HBA are compatible.
 
No :) Fan out is anything that "fans" out, like a fan, hehe.

What you're going to want to do is to look for SFF8484 host to SFF8087 backplane cables.

Adaptec has some for example, but they're not available in the US. Not sure if they're available over the pond. Adaptec makes model ACK-I-SASx4-mSASx4-0.5m or ACK-I-SASx4-mSASx4-1m (see http://www.adaptec.com/ko-KR/products/cables/cables/sas/ )
 
xnoodle said:
No :) Fan out is anything that "fans" out, like a fan, hehe.

What you're going to want to do is to look for SFF8484 host to SFF8087 backplane cables.

Adaptec has some for example, but they're not available in the US. Not sure if they're available over the pond. Adaptec makes model ACK-I-SASx4-mSASx4-0.5m or ACK-I-SASx4-mSASx4-1m (see http://www.adaptec.com/ko-KR/products/cables/cables/sas/ )
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Ermm, I thought the x4 meant 4 SAS connection one end to one SAS connection the other, but it doesn't look that way on the Adaptec website photo representation, I can only guess that the x4 is for something else. :eek::confused:

I guess that's what you mean by SFF8484 host to SFF8087 backplane.
 
nbat58 said:
Degsy where did you end up getting your HP Expander from in the uk?
Many thanks.
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For anyone else in the UK wanting to buy the SAS Expander, here are the suppliers I've been in touch with:

MCI Diventi - £216 - confirmed as being the OLD card.
CleverBoxes - £260 - unable to confirm either way. They spoke to HP who said that any of the cards should be firmware-updateable.
SPAN - was £275 yesterday, £325 today. I asked them to see if they could find out what version of the firmware was on their cards, they said they would speak to their reseller about it. As they've hiked the price up by £50 today I'm no longer interested in buying from them.
Direct from HP - £305, £290 using promo code HPDISVR5. This is where I've bought my card from, I'd like to think that I'll be getting the newer version of the card if ordering direct from HP.
 
Degsy said:
For anyone else in the UK wanting to buy the SAS Expander, here are the suppliers I've been in touch with:

MCI Diventi - £216 - confirmed as being the OLD card.
CleverBoxes - £260 - unable to confirm either way. They spoke to HP who said that any of the cards should be firmware-updateable.
SPAN - was £275 yesterday, £325 today. I asked them to see if they could find out what version of the firmware was on their cards, they said they would speak to their reseller about it. As they've hiked the price up by £50 today I'm no longer interested in buying from them.
Direct from HP - £305, £290 using promo code HPDISVR5. This is where I've bought my card from, I'd like to think that I'll be getting the newer version of the card if ordering direct from HP.
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Thanks for the good information Degsy, I wonder whether these cards are only updatable via the HP410 or HP411 cards or whether you can do the updating using another card.

I wonder if my controller will work to update the Expander seeing it's an HP model: HP SC44Ge SAS PCIE Host Bust Adapters 416096-B21, a rebadged LSI SAS3442E-R adapter?

Why didn't you use one of the retailers that orpheus88 sugested? their price seems to be better than what you have paid, having said that, you can't really go wrong by buying via HP, good long term decision I think, especially if you need to use support.
 
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