HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

Just a quick update. Got mine new LSI SAS2008 card (9200-8e) from AliExpress. It costs ~$165 (with EMS delivery) and works perfectly with HP SAS Expander plus do support 3 Tb drives (unlike mine older 1068E).
 
Which part# are good? There are a couple different ones and I want to make sure they're okay.

468405-001 - coming up cheaper, why?
468406-B21

both are greens. Thanks
 
JensS said:
According to the HP Part Surfer 468405-001 does not exist ... just a cheap fake? :D

Back to the facts, -B21 is an option kit including miniSAS cables, -001 is a single part, so just the expander card.
The expander itself is 487738-001, according to the Part Surfer. http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=468406-B21
Click to expand...

JensS - Actually it is a legit part #, it is in an enterprise advance spare parts kit that is available for the proliant through the HP large enterprise program. I know it isn't on surfer but the ones out there are usually people that just dumped the unused spares when they have depreciated out the server and replaced them.
 
For the HP SAS Expander 36 Port.

Port 1: Is for External Tape (Can I use this to connect to backplane)?
Port 2 - 7: Connect to backplane

Port 8 - 9: Connect to Areca 1880ix card. (Can I use the unused port to connect to my backplane?

I was able to utitlize Port 2 - 7 to connect 24 of my hard drives. However, I assumed I would be able to connect 36? Or am I wrong?
 
You can use any port for any purpose. They're not limited to only certain things and the SAS expander functions very similarly to an ethernet switch.
 
I recently went to switch my Norco 4220 from 12 up to 16 drives and couldn't get any other lanes to populate.

Tried cable swaps, figured I must have a bad backplane, then I got a NEW Norco 4224, and still the same issue so I figure my HP SAS expander might/must have bad ports?

What current alternatives to replace the HP SAS expander are reasonable and reliable?
 
Dgephri said:
I recently went to switch my Norco 4220 from 12 up to 16 drives and couldn't get any other lanes to populate.

Tried cable swaps, figured I must have a bad backplane, then I got a NEW Norco 4224, and still the same issue so I figure my HP SAS expander might/must have bad ports?

What current alternatives to replace the HP SAS expander are reasonable and reliable?
Click to expand...

Chenbro and Intel make good expanders or you could just get another HP.
 
thx...I managed to finally figure out I had BOTH a bad 8087 cable AND a poorly compressed Molex on my power string. Ugh.
 
Looking for some help - I have an Areca ARC-1680ix-24 Raid card in system 1 (no drives hooked up to it - currently using the Sata cards that came with the system - Supermicro SC846TQ with SAT2-MV8 controller cards).

I have a second Supermicro SC846TQ system that I have put an HP SAS Expander (468406-B21 - support to be with the latest firmware) in.

When I connect the two cards with a SFF8088 cable, and shudown server 1 and restart - the Areca card never gets past the BIOS bootup (where the raid card waits for 300 seconds for the card to be recognized). With the external cable unplugged, when server 1 boots it boots all the way into Windows Server 2008 R2.

I have validated that I have the most recent firmware for the Areca card (v1.51).

I'm looking for troubleshooting help. The Areca card was working just fine in a system I ended up taking down to build this new setup.

Thanks for any/all suggestions.

-DC

**Update**

I have this working now. For some reason the external cable wasn't working. I was able to connect an internal SAS cable and after reboot my Areca card sees the expander and all 24 drives.

And I found out that my HP SAS expander has f/w 2.10

Thanks
 
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Hi!

I'm new in the area, but I'm interested is a sas expnader.
I want to use it for home NAS-storage.

I'm looking for 36 port sas expander. I can't find it on the market (HP).

I found this :
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-RAID-Expander-RES2CV-Family/dp/B007ILDJW0

I would like to know, is it compatible with a cheap RAID card like IBM 1015M ?
And where can I buy there cards ? (I don't have them, just a Highpoint Rocket Raid 1820 PCI in an Atom based system) this what I want to upgrade to some Pci-E based expanded raid for linux based openmediavault.

Best regards!
Peter
 
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Hello. I am looking for help in understanding what ports I need to use to connect 2 HP SAS Expander cards to 1 Areca ARC-1680ix card. Goal: have all drives in server 2 & server 3 show up via the SAS expanders on server 1.

Current working configuration:

Server 1: Supermicro SC846-TQ, 3x Supermicro SAT2-MV8 Rev 3 cards, 1x Areca ARC-1680ix 28-port card. No internal drive on server 1 connected to Areca card. All 24 drives in server 1 are connected to the SAT2-MV8 cards.

Server 2: Supermicro SC846-TQ, HP SAS Expander (rev 2.10) with port 8 connected with internal SAS cable to Areca internal SAS port for drives 21-24. All 24 drives in server 2 are connected to HP SAS card.

Configuration Change - NOT currently working:

Server 1: (see above)

Server 2: (see above)

Server 3: Supermicro SC846-TQ, HP SAS Expander (rev 2.10) - currently have port 8 connected with internal SAS cable to Areca internal SAS port for drives 17-20. Only 7 drives currently in server 3 connected (looking for future expansion with current drives)

When I have servers 2 & 3 booted, I boot server 1 and it hangs on the Areca BIOS check - waits 300 seconds and then fails to boot, initiates reboot.

Background: The external port on the Areca does not appear to work. I have tried 2 different brand new SFF-8088 cables - the BIOS for the Areca never completes - hits 300 seconds and times out and reboots. For this reason I went with connected with internal SAS cable that comes out the back of server 2 to server 1 (same for server 3 to server 1)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am disconnecting server 3 and going back to original working configuration.

Thanks!
 
Hello. I found a lot of places online that sell the HP SAS expander cards, but very few can guarantee that you get the latest firmware on the card.

Going through this thread I found a gentleman that was selling the cards with the latest firmwares and I ended up buying both of mine from him. I will sent you a PM with his contact info.

I hope this helps.

-DC

HalasKYO said:
Hi!

I'm new in the area, but I'm interested is a sas expnader.
I want to use it for home NAS-storage.

I'm looking for 36 port sas expander. I can't find it on the market (HP).

I found this :
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-RAID-Expander-RES2CV-Family/dp/B007ILDJW0

I would like to know, is it compatible with a cheap RAID card like IBM 1015M ?
And where can I buy there cards ? (I don't have them, just a Highpoint Rocket Raid 1820 PCI in an Atom based system) this what I want to upgrade to some Pci-E based expanded raid for linux based openmediavault.

Best regards!
Peter
Click to expand...
 
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Is there a way I can check to see what version firmware my HP sas expander is running without having an HP raid card? My HBA is an LSI MegaRaid SAS 9260-16i.
 
I am in need of a firmware update on my SAS expander. I have the latest and greatest on the P410 and for whatever reason I still have not been able to get it to recognize the sas expander. I have tried every which way I can think of. I have read most of the 107 pages of this forum.

Is there anybody willing to do a firmware update on my card? I'm in STL or can ship. Name your reasonable price. If I can't get anyone to do it Im just gonna do away with both the card and the expander and go with an Intel Expander and a more reputible card.

Thanks,
DigitalHoarder.
 
What FW rev is your current expander on? Some of the earlier expander (pre 2.08) firmwares flaked when the controller tried seeing the expander at all or warning that the expander wasn't supported with p410/p410i controllers which you can see here.
As to doing a flash... Unfortunately, the saying that no good deed goes unpunished is true. In the past, I offered to update someones expander. They shipped me a physically damaged card and then blamed me for damaging it, so I apologize but I can't do the upgrade for you. If you do decide to do the flash in a non-HP environment you need to mod one of the files on the bootable firmware updater, do a search here for the mod.
 
I do not get the error that you hot linked. I assume all risks for the any shipping damage to the card.

The HP P410 has been updated to 5.x firmware and I think I updated it to the point where it can't see the expander.

For all I know the expander may be non functional but it does give two solid green lights when plugged in. I tried messing around a bit with the hpacu cli but could not find a point at which I could get it to show up.

When I am in the array utility i do see something attached to it but it has a "red x" denoted next to it and it reads it as generic. If I have any drives plugged into it at the time it does not see any drives attached to the expander.

At this point Im ready to scrap the whole plan and go with a 6x8087 raid controller as I am seriously tired of working on this and trying to get it to work and dont want to run into the same problem with a Chenbro or Intel.

If anyone wants to update it I would be greatly appreciated, could pay good money, and assume all risks.

Thanks in advance,
Digital Hoarder
 
Need some help...! I have 2 HP SAS expander cards in 2 servers. I have a 3rd server that I am trying to get to see all the drives from all 3 servers (2 of them via the HP SAS card). I have 1 card at 2.08 and the other at 2.10 firmware.

My Areca ARC-1680ix card started going out. I got to the point of no drives attached at all on a cold boot and the card couldn't get past its' bios on bootup.

I purchased a High Point RocketRaid 4522 card as it appeared to have what I needed - 2 external connections (drives from the main system are connected internally). I have updated the firmware on the RocketRaid card to the most current - 1.52 and it is running 1.40 BIOS (most current as well).

I can get the card to show up on bootup - and it quickly (2-3 seconds) scans for drives and then moves on (with nothing connected to the card). The card shows up in Windows 2008 R2 and all looks good. I then shutdown and connect an external SFF-8088 cable from server 2 to the RocketRaid - it gets to its BIOS screen where it is scanning for disks and never finds anything - eventually times out and continues booting into the OS. I shutdown and tried connecting to the other external SAS port on the RocketRaid card - no difference.

I repeated these same steps on the 3rd server - same exact behavior.

I purchased a SFF-8088 to SFF-8087 (external to internal) cable and will try that tomorrow, but I'm not hopeful.

Does anything have any other suggestions? The list in this thread of verified cards did include 1 HighPoint card (the 4320) but I haven't been able to find any info on compatibility of the HP SAS expanders and the RocketRaid 4522.

If I need to return the High Point card - no big deal - I just want something that will work.

Any suggestions to connect 2 systems via HP SAS expanders to my main system? I don't need the card to connect to any drives internally - just to connect the HP SAS expanders.

Thanks!
 
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vorpel said:
Need some help...! I have 2 HP SAS expander cards in 2 servers. I have a 3rd server that I am trying to get to see all the drives from all 3 servers (2 of them via the HP SAS card). I have 1 card at 2.08 and the other at 2.10 firmware.

My Areca ARC-1680ix card started going out. I got to the point of no drives attached at all on a cold boot and the card couldn't get past its' bios on bootup.
Click to expand...

vorpel-
Before we go any further, I just want to make sure I am understanding how you have things setup. Are servers 1&2 complete machines with motherboards, their own operating systems and arrays or are they just being used as enclosures and the motherboard for power (eg their respective drives are hooked to their respectiv expander, but to no other SAS HBA in server 1&2?)
 
mwroobel said:
vorpel-
Before we go any further, I just want to make sure I am understanding how you have things setup. Are servers 1&2 complete machines with motherboards, their own operating systems and arrays or are they just being used as enclosures and the motherboard for power (eg their respective drives are hooked to their respectiv expander, but to no other SAS HBA in server 1&2?)
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct - here is the setup:

Machine 1 (where I want all the disks): Supermicro SC846TQ server case from eBay with 3x of the Supermicro SAT2-MV8 8 drive controller cards, 24 hard drives on Windows 2008 R2 with FlexRaid. Currently also has the High Point RocketRaid 4522 card.

Machine 2: Supermicro SC846TQ server case from eBay with HP SAS Controller card, 24 hard drives all attached to the HP SAS controller (v2.10) on Windows 2008 R2.

Machine 3: Supermicro SC846TQ server case but with non server motherboard - running a Intel Core i5 with the 2nd HP SAS expander (v2.08) on Windows 7. All 24 drive bays are wired to the HP SAS card, but only 7 drives actually installed.

I'm running full systems/OS as machine 2 is now my primary domain controller, and machine 3 is really just there for misc work - video re-encoding, etc.

This was a complete overhaul of my home system. The cost on the Supermicro cases/systems were just too good to pass up.

I had wanted to use my Areca ARC-1680ix-24 card in machine 1 and it was working for a few weeks, but the card just started flaking. I eventually got to the point of the card would not be able to get past the BIOS screen and would timeout at the 300 seconds and reboot the system and go into an endless cycle.

I didn't have a lot of time to research the High Point RocketRaid 4522 controller (just started a new job) - I found a good price on eBay and took a chance. If this isn't going to work, I'm okay with that. Ultimately what I want/need is a controller that can connect to 2 HP SAS expander cards and have decent performance. This is mainly video storage (disc rips and a ton of HD PVR 1080i video captures).

Thanks for any and all advice!
 
mwroobel said:
If you do decide to do the flash in a non-HP environment you need to mod one of the files on the bootable firmware updater, do a search here for the mod.
Click to expand...

I've searched and searched. Found the post about editing the blacklist. Ok so far, but still not a complete solution for me. Is there a further edit somewhere, anywhere... a hack, whatever, to allow flashing of a HP SAS Expander either directly through PCI or via an LSI SAS HBA ???

:confused:
 
I just Stumbled across this PCI-E board that connects the Mainboards PCI-E 1x via USB 3.0 cable to a Board with an PCI-E 16x and it's own Power plug. This could be a cheap solution for people using the Expander in an JBOD case and searching for a way to power the Expander.
COULD because i don't know if the 16x Board neeeds the connection to the 1x board to bring the Expander up.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/121300769569
 
If SATA connector would get real 3.3V it may work even without USB part.
Anyway, it looks so-so - if it could be ~$5 it is the deal :) Otherwise you better to feed the board from ATX connector like I did (search mine posts).
 
i think the 16x Board gets its power from the molex plug which provides +5V and +12V. The +3,3V are generated by the Voltage regulator between the 3 capacitors.
 
Hi,

Anyone knows if the HP SAS Expander is compatible with Adaptec Series 7H HBA?? I want to use it with an Adaptec 7805H card and I want to be sure it's compatible before purchasing the expander.
 
I'm fairly green to the RAID compatibility/expansion game, so I wanted to double check what I've read to make sure I understand it correctly before I go ahead.

I have an LSI 9260-8i currently with CacheCade (SSD caching). This is in my Hyper-V box, which has 4 x 2TB HDDs and a 128GB SSD on the LSI, plus a few older drives of varying capacity on the m/b SATA controller. The box itself is a dual Xeon E5-2620 with 128GB RAM. I have a Qnap TS-859 Pro with 8 x 2TB HDDs, which I'm planning on selling and putting the drives into the other server. I've started moving things like Logitech Media Server into linux VMs, as they are more reliable, so I'm not really using the Qnap for anything other than file sharing currently.

From what I've read from this thread I can run 2 x expanders from this LSI card. I would put one in the current server that would then control all of the current HDDs, including migrating the m/b HDDs onto the expander. I could then put another into a spare chassis with a m/b to provide power to the card. I can then put the Qnap drives into this spare chassis and run the 8 x drives from there, plus support any others in the future.

I would connect one of the 8087 connector from the LSI to the expanders 8087 port, to deliver the SATA ports for the Hyper-V box. Then the other LSI 8087 connector to the expander port in the other chassis, so I would have to run an external cable from the LSI to the external chassis (bit messy, but fine). So I need to get hold of a 8087 to 8087 cable (one short and one long).

After a little googling I've found the expander version I think will fit the bill: http://www.m4store.co.uk/hp-468406-b21-peripheral-controller.html

So if one of you more knowledgeable peeps can spot any issues, misunderstanding, or incorrect assumptions here please let me know.

P.S. If anyone has 3 x 4TB HDDs I can borrow to migrate my data from the Qnap I would be eternally grateful ;-)
 
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Quick question for those in the know. I have 2 HP SAS Expander cards connected to an Areca ARC-1680ix-16 card. One of the HP SAS expanders is connected with a SFF-8088 (external) to SFF-8087 (internal) connectors and it works. The second card is currently connected with an external to external SFF-8088 cable and it is not being recognized. I had the same problem with the first HP SAS expander which is why I went for a external to internal cable.

It appears that the external SAS connector just doesn't work. On the non-working 2nd HP SAS expander card, I have the 24 internal drives connected to SAS ports 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I read that the external port is SAS port 1.

Am I connecting the internal drives to the correct SAS ports, or is there a change I need to make?

If I get some time tonight/this weekend, I will play around with it and see if I can get the external port working. For now I'll just feed an internal SFF-8087 to internal cable between the systems to get up and going.

Thanks for any and all help!

-DC

Edit: Everything I am finding online keeps saying that the external port is for a tape backup drive. I wonder if it can be used to connect to controller at all. If not, I'll just buy another 8088 -> 8087 cable.
 
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9 Sep 2014 firmware version 2.10 (C) was released.

Fixed an issue where the offline check protocol was not included in the component installer, allowing the component to run in an online environment.
Click to expand...

On rare occasions during a power-up sequence, the HP SAS Expander, would be unresponsive. When the HP SAS Expander was unresponsive, the attached HP Smart Array P410 or P410i Controller was not allowed to discover drives that were attached.
Click to expand...

source: http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/si...x.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

There also is an alternative way to update the firmware without HP Smart Array (P410 etc) controller, using a Linux LiveCD and SAS HBA. This requires a SAS host bus adapter (HBA) and not a SAS RAID controller that might hide all devices (like expanders) connected behind it. This Linux LiveCD HP SAS Expander Card firmware update method is described at: http://serverfault.com/questions/63...rd-without-smart-array-controll/631575#631575
 
Thank you for this useful link, just now I've successfully updated my HP SAS Expander card up to version 2.10 using this guide !
 
rmqkr said:
There also is an alternative way to update the firmware without HP Smart Array (P410 etc) controller, using a Linux LiveCD and SAS HBA. This requires a SAS host bus adapter (HBA) and not a SAS RAID controller that might hide all devices (like expanders) connected behind it. This Linux LiveCD HP SAS Expander Card firmware update method is described at: http://serverfault.com/questions/63...rd-without-smart-array-controll/631575#631575
Click to expand...

I tried this method, and everything seems to work, but when I reboot lsscsi shows the expander still at 1.00. Any ideas? I've tried directly from a Xubuntu install, and from a livecd as well. Sas HBA is m1015 crossflashed to 9211-8i IT mode.
 
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Markus.Schragner said:
I just Stumbled across this PCI-E board that connects the Mainboards PCI-E 1x via USB 3.0 cable to a Board with an PCI-E 16x and it's own Power plug. This could be a cheap solution for people using the Expander in an JBOD case and searching for a way to power the Expander.
COULD because i don't know if the 16x Board neeeds the connection to the 1x board to bring the Expander up.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/121300769569
Click to expand...

Whilst an old post, i needed a solution to powering the expander without using up a pcie slot &, having seen this, bought a semi-identical one on the off chance & it works perfectly.

Yeah, along with confirming that it does work, I'm really grateful to you for the idea as it's helped me out no end. :)
 
Had a quick read through this fantastic thread, looking for comments on speed differences/comparisons between the same array connected to a raid card and then to an HP (green pcb) SAS expander.

I presently have 8 x 3Tb Hitachi drives in a raid6 array on an LSI 8260-8i. I consistently get upwards of 800Mb/s using HDTune/Atto.

I am looking at increasing the size of the array to 10 or 12 disks and adding a 2nd raid6 array using larger drives and am keen to establish whether or not I will see similar speeds using the expander, or is it worth the extra to upgrade to a 16/24-port card like the 1882ix ?

Hoping someone can share their experience. Thanks.
 
fritzman said:
Had a quick read through this fantastic thread, looking for comments on speed differences/comparisons between the same array connected to a raid card and then to an HP (green pcb) SAS expander.

I presently have 8 x 3Tb Hitachi drives in a raid6 array on an LSI 8260-8i. I consistently get upwards of 800Mb/s using HDTune/Atto.

I am looking at increasing the size of the array to 10 or 12 disks and adding a 2nd raid6 array using larger drives and am keen to establish whether or not I will see similar speeds using the expander, or is it worth the extra to upgrade to a 16/24-port card like the 1882ix ?

Hoping someone can share their experience. Thanks.
Click to expand...

You will see no appreciable difference. In many/most cases, the >8 (Some 12, depending on SOC) lane boards are all expander-inclusive, meaning that the board has an expander of their own. Going with the higher port count card will save you a slot, will remove cabling from the inside of your case and will in most cases give you more consistent support for the highest speed per lane (Some HP expanders for example may only negotiate SATA150 when they are SATA300 or SATA600, and there is no rhyme or reason with board rev or with firmware version. I have seen it with some Intel's as well)
 
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