HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

That's good to hear.

Since the AOC will be hooked up the HP, I'll probably go with the AOC-USAS-L4I instead of the MV8. This will make it easier for me to add the 2nd drive cage box down the line. I already have 32 2TB drives in transit from the egg and I still don't have most of the other parts for this build yet.

From the thread, the USAS-L4I was confirmed working but Tau posted that it was 'slow' when both interfaces was hooked up. Was this because both was connected to the same HP expander? I understand it's pointless to dual-link this. Just wanted to make sure the cause was because of that and not because both interfaces was 'active'. If the internal 8087 was attached to an HP and the external 8088 was attached to a 2nd different HP it shouldn't be 'slow', correct?

I suppose I can always go from the AOC to internal HP SAS with the 8088 connected externally to 2nd HP in 2nd box as well. Are there any potential reason to go with the MV8 vs USAS? Mainly support or problems I could end up running into with either.
 
Zerosum said:
From the thread, the USAS-L4I was confirmed working but Tau posted that it was 'slow' when both interfaces was hooked up. Was this because both was connected to the same HP expander? I understand it's pointless to dual-link this. Just wanted to make sure the cause was because of that and not because both interfaces was 'active'. If the internal 8087 was attached to an HP and the external 8088 was attached to a 2nd different HP it shouldn't be 'slow', correct?
Click to expand...

he mentioned having dual linked the HBA and HP expander, which is pointless, yes, since that HBA chip doesn't have the bandwidth to support more than a single link worth of bandwidth anyway. Bottom line the HBA didn't know how to deal with dual linking.

As far as daisy chaining two HP expanders (i think thats what you're referring to) off a single HBA, it *shouldn't* be an issue but all you can do is test it since every combination of devices has potential quirks. If you're asking about attaching two HP expanders directly to a single non-raid HBA without chaining, that's also a question mark. I've only tested it successfully with raid HBA's, maybe someone else would know.
 
Hi guys,

first of all, great thread!
I am looking to get an SAS Expander card for use with my Adaptec 5405 SAS Raid controller. Now, I am a little confused with what you wrote in your first post odditory:

Adaptec 5805: Yes* (Requires HP Expander firmware 1.00, which is limited to 1.5Gbps SATA)
Click to expand...

Does this mean I can ONLY use an HP card that comes with FW 1.00 (only allowing for SATA1 mode)?
Or can I upgrade the card to the latest firmware now?

I am looking to build a 12 to 16 drive raid 6 on the Adaptec (1,5 or 2TB SATAII drives). Anything else I should know?

Thank you!
 
For the AOC cards with external SFF-8088 connectors. I can just use a normal SFF-8088 to (HP SAS) SFF-8088 cable, correct? Are they different types of '8088' connectors? I see some places name it SFF-8088 while others are called miniSAS.

Any particular place to place an order for one of these? Guess I can always go through ebay. I just need one and these cables seems quite expensive so I rather avoid purchasing an incorrect one.

The card is AOC-USAS-L4I with an external link to the HP SAS (external of corse).

Thanks.
 
Oh, and another question:

I asked the guy selling those cards on ebay what firmware they ship with, and I got this as a reply:

468406-b21 Rev0A
Click to expand...

Revision 0 A.. is that a "yellow" card?
I would appreciate it if somebody with a "good" card could confirm (or deny) that this is in fact a green card.

Edit: Seller confirmed that it is indeed a green PCB card.
 
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Anybody know if the LSI00199 card works w/the HP SAS Expander? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118129
It's SAS 6Gb/s and It's under $200.

I'm kicking myself for not buying the areca 1300-4x when newegg had an open box...
I'm still debating getting a card w/an external or an internal...
I think I want the external in a small 1u to connect to sas expander and daisy chain later...

And is the list of compatible adapters in the first post updated? It seems kinda skimpy...
 
I've received quite a few emails/PM's lately for these, we're still bringing them in on an as ordered basis from HP, then updating the firmware prior to shipment.

$250 shipped ground within the US. Green boards, 2.02 firmware or greater (when released)

Thanks!

Dustin
 
Report on HP sas expander and LSI 9280-8e.
They worked with the original firmware on each card, and with several firmware updates. Both cards have been sitting on a shelf for several months.

HP sas expander, Firmware from August? 2009 worked with the LSI card with firmware from February? 2010.

Updated LSI 9280-8e to the 06-May-2010 firmware that is listed as version 4.4.1 on the lsi website, and listed as version 2.70.03-0862 in the MSM software... LSI 9280-8e now gives a firmware fault at boot and does not load, only when connected to the hp sas expander.

Updating the firmware on the HP sas expander to version 2.06 (via a hp p411) corrected the problem.
 
Ok, now I remember why this is on the shelf, and I'd like to know if anyone else is seeing the following.

HP sas expander, LSI sas-6g raid controller (lsi 9280-8e). Same behavior when the lsi raid card is connected to any port (internal or external) on the hp sas expander. Same behavior through multiple firmware versions on both the expander and the raid card.

1. When viewing the physical disks through the megaraid storage manager (msm), all disks are reported as located at "slot 0" (not as slot 0, slot 1, slot 2, etc).

This makes it difficult to identify an individual disk.

2. Related to #1. When multiple disks are connected, they are loaded in random order.

This makes it difficult to identify an individual disk.

3. The "locate disk" function in MSM returns an error, but the "prepare for removal" function appears to work and blinks the target disk.

4. While the raid card appears to detect all connected disks, the last disk is not actually detected. The last detected disk, is just a ghost of the first disk.

Example: If I connect 4 500gb disks, the raid card sees all 4 disks. If I "prepare for removal" disk 1 or 2, it works correctly. if I "prepare for removal" disks 0 or 3, both 0 AND 3 are disabled.

Example: If I connect 8 500gb disks, the raid card sees all 8 disks. If I "prepare for removal" disk 1 ,2,3,4,5,6 it works correctly. if I "prepare for removal" disks 0 or 7, both 0 AND 7 are disabled.

Example: If I connect 8 disks in the following order: 750gb, 500gb, 750gb, 500, 500,500, 500, 500 (2x 750 + 6x 500).The raid card will see it as 8 connected disks. But it will see them as 3x 750 + 5x 500.
The last drive will only be a ghost of the first. It will see them as 750, 500, 750, 500, 500, 500, 500, 750. The 8th disk exists, but it is incorrectly listed as 750gb disk, not the actual 500gb.

If any action is taken on either the first or last disk, it applies to BOTH the first and last disks. Disabling disk 0 would also disable disk 7.
 
This sounds seriously screwed up. if you configure the disks in passthru mode, so no controller raid, etc..., does the OS see the disks correctly? I am wondering if the management software is not handling it properly but the the controller passes the info correctly...
 
I gave up trying to get the LSI 9280-8e working with any expander. The management software is a real POS too. I wound up returning it.
 
Thanks for the info.
That should be added to the opening post... so we know what not to buy...
 
mikesm said:
This sounds seriously screwed up. if you configure the disks in passthru mode, so no controller raid, etc..., does the OS see the disks correctly? I am wondering if the management software is not handling it properly but the the controller passes the info correctly...
Click to expand...
This is without any raid volumes defined. The issue is with properly seeing the raw disks.

Blue Fox said:
I gave up trying to get the LSI 9280-8e working with any expander. The management software is a real POS too. I wound up returning it.
Click to expand...
I like the MSM config software, but not the bios config utility.
 
Hi

Anyone know if an IBM ServeRAID-8s (Adaptec ASR-4805SAS) is compatible with the HP Expander?

Thanks
D
 
Some people did post theyre experience with te DELL PERC 5/i
i dont remember if it worked but I think they had to flash it with the LSI firmware?
or did it not work....
we should update the list on the first page :-D
 
Hi guys-

Just received confirmation we have 16 Sas Expanders due in from HP early next week. Listed @ $300, preferred pricing for you folks @250 shipped ground. PM me to order.

Thanks!
 
Can someone tell me if all 6 led's are supposed to be activated on the HP expander. My new board has 2 which are off and my Areca 1680x can't "see" any drives. At POST the Areca information is displayed but says no disks are found. I have tried 2 different computers with the same results.

I'm trying to troubleshoot either the new HP Expander or Areca.
Any troubleshooting tips and thoughts are welcome.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
if this card only needs power from the motherboard, why didn't they make it a 1x connector?
 
Kritter said:
if this card only needs power from the motherboard, why didn't they make it a 1x connector?
Click to expand...

They didn't do that because HP servers pretty much only have PCIe x8 slots and the longer connector provides more support. This card was never intended to be used outside of HP systems.
 
Finally finished debugging my Arc-1680lp + hp sas expander & GA-EP45-DS6 motherboard issues.

The 1680lp works find in either of the PCIe16x slots, and the hp sas expander appears to be working correctly in one of the open-ended PCIe 4x slots. The only major issue is this motherboard is amazingly sensitive to slightly incorrectly seated PCI or PCIe cards and will a) not cold-boot POST or b) sporadically reset during boot. After adjusting how close the motherboard was to the expansion slot retainer brackets on the case it's working fine. What made this hard to debug was Windows wasn't actually logging anywhere in the usual places that it was failing to boot at all, I'ld only notice because the raid controller would beap when it recieved a PCIe bus reset signal.

This is a massive improvement over my old arc-1260 even before I migrated from 12x1tb wd greens in raid6 to 8x 2tb hitachi drives in raid6. The sas expander permitted me to have both arrays online at the same time(powering was 'fun') and the arc-1680lp easily beat what the old 1260 could push when copying from one array to another.

And importing made everything dramatically cheaper compared to trying to buy locally.
 
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How would windows log to a file if it hasn't even booted or the power is cut when it's loaded? Magic?
 
It failed during the boot process, this is something signficiantly different than it never starting to boot begin with(which is trivial to observe). Windows has logging for practically every step of the boot process once you get past the kernel loader, which it did.
 
Blue Fox said:
Disabled SES2? You need to unless you have the beta firmware.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the Firmware/Bootrom beta? Cause I only see v1.48 as being the latest on the Areca ftp site. Or are you talking about the CLI Expander software? I noticed that the Areca 1680ix-12 came w/ a console cable but I can't configure minicom to connect :(

I'm assuming I'll need to login via the Expander CLI to set the cable length. I bought a Tekram 2M cable and I'm also having issues getting the Areca & HP SAS Expander to work together via external cable. Works peachy using internal SFF8087 cables but at a reduced throughput :(.

If someone knows the default cable length setting I'd just go buy a cable at that length versus try to configure it via CLI at this point.
 
The beta firmware isn't available on Areca's site. You'd know if you had it. I'm not sure where to get it now unfortunately. Without said firmware, you might have to disable SES2 for proper functionality, but that will disable your internal ports unfortunately. For the serial console, are your settings 115200/8/1/N? I order to set the external cable length in the CLI, you'll first do "DR -O 0x2" and then "ST 0xFF". After that you'll need to reboot. I sold my 1680ix-24 and bought a 1680i as the integrated expander was causing issues, so I can't really give you more specifics unfortunately.
 
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Blue Fox said:
The beta firmware isn't available on Areca's site. You'd know if you had it. I'm not sure where to get it now unfortunately. Without said firmware, you might have to disable SES2 for proper functionality, but that will disable your internal ports unfortunately. For the serial console, are your settings 115200/8/1/N? I order to set the external cable length in the CLI, you'll first do "DR -O 0x2" and then "ST 0xFF". After that you'll need to reboot. I sold my 1680ix-24 and bought a 1680i as the integrated expander was causing issues, so I can't really give you more specifics unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Excellent! That gives me something to work with. I had the 8N1 correct but not the 115200 nor the VT100 setting. I'll assume I don't have the beta and just turn the SES2 to disabled for now.

I wish I hadn't bought the 1680ix just the 1680x w/ two external ports. :)
 
SynergyDustin,
How about one ordered and received from you that has 1.0 firmware? Can it be sent to you to update? I am stuck on 1.0.
 
wingfat said:
Can someone tell me if all 6 led's are supposed to be activated on the HP expander. My new board has 2 which are off and my Areca 1680x can't "see" any drives. At POST the Areca information is displayed but says no disks are found. I have tried 2 different computers with the same results.

I'm trying to troubleshoot either the new HP Expander or Areca.
Any troubleshooting tips and thoughts are welcome.

Thanks,

Jeff
Click to expand...

wingfat: go back a whole bunch of posts and look at my experimentation with my 1680i and two HP SAS expander cards. You may have the same issue I ran into originally.

You can also read about it in my build-log (post #3)!

The top most LED (closest to the external connector) on the HP SAS Expander card should be blinking steadily. If this is not the case on your card, that means that the processor inside the expander chip is not running.

Hoe this helps...
 
We have about 10 in stock today, ship same day payment is received. $250 to your door. PM for more info.

Thank you all-
 
nitrobass24 said:
How does that thing work?
Click to expand...
They just essentially crammed 2 motherboards onto one PCB. Think of it as 2 separate computers. Everything is independent and not shared with the exception of the USB ports and audio as far as I know (which means they just have a mux on them).
 
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