HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

Can anyone help me update the firmware on my HP SAS Exp? They are both at ver 1.00.

Also would consider trades, if someone needs one that works with Adaptec or something else...

Also, since the controller used is only an SAS1 device, but it can combine two ports to one expander, how is the bandwidth shared?

Ex: SAS2 drive -> SAS Expander (link at SAS2? or SAS1?)
SAS Expander -> SAS RAID (Link only at SAS1... but double width...)
Would the faster drive 'split' its bandwidth across the slower sas exp to sas raid card interface, so it still has the throughput?
Or if there were faster drive*S*, would they split their bandwidth across the double wide interface?

Thanks!
 
boylermaker said:
I seem to be having the same problem a few others are having/had with regard to connecting a Super Micro AOC-SASLPMV8 with the HP expander in WHS.

1) with no connection between cards - no message to install drivers - NO BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ?

2) with cards connected without hard drives - message to install drivers for "HP HP SAS EXPANDER SCSI ENCLOSURE DEVICE" - no BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ?

3) with cards connected, with HDD- message to install drivers for "HP HP SAS EXPANDER SCSI ENCLOSURE DEVICE" - BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ? . Drives show up in device manager, and can be added to pool.

The BSOD gives me the good ole IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

I have tried all the suggested "silver bullets" I have seen on here including: flashing the SM X8SIL-F mb to the latest bios, installing the latest drivers for the AOC-SASLP-MV8, disabled (and tried enabled) the INT13 in the SM controller settings, moved countless cables, enable/disable the PnP setting in MB bios, and trying each stick of RAM individually. If ANYONE has any insight on how to get this fixed (or other things to try) it would be GREATLY appreciated!!

EDIT: System - SM X8SIL-F, Kingston 128gb SSD to mb SATA, i3-530, 4gb SM approved RAM, HP Expander, SM AOC-SASLPMV8, up to 8 - 2TB Hitatchi HD (I have tried all different combinations), Norco 4220
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I can't offer any assistance but I can tell you that like a couple others here I am having the exact same issues you are with the SAS Expander and the SM AOC-SASLPMV8. Have you updated the firmware on the SASLP? I didn't do that but I did see there was a newer version than what I have on mine on the SM FTP site. What version FW are you on the SAS expander? Mine is on 2.02, not sure if that is involved in the issue or not. I would be really interested if you come up with a resolution to this.

I stopped trying to work on it because the only way I could even get the HP SAS expander to work at all was to put a piece of tape over the PWRGD PIN. There is some issue with my motherboard supplying it the proper amount of power so I chalked the BSOD etc issues up to that as well after I was able to get it to work with the piece of tape. I was just going to purchase a new motherboard anyhow to fix that issue, so I stopped trying to "fix" the BSOD/HP SAS expander detected in device manager issue.
 
SynergyDustin said:
I've been lucky to help quite a few folks out here with the expanders. If anyone is still searching for them, I have them in stock w the oem cables.

-Dustin
Click to expand...

1. their product is great
2. I didn't order through Dustin directly, but should have: I went through the web store by mistake
3. they verified which firmware they flashed to
4. they verified that they don't include any 8087 cables
5. it works!

I have the Highpoint 4320 SAS in a 4220 enclosure. so all I needed was one more 8087 cable to go from my Highpoint RAID card to the HP Expander and I was set.

First I set my Highpoint RAID to unplug all my current drives then I shutdown.

Opened my 4220, put it into the extra X16 PCIe slot since all it needs is juice from the pins.
unplugged to two 8087s from my Highpoint card, put them on SAS 2 and 3 on the HP expander.

Took the new 8087 to go from one of my HP cards controller ports into port 8 of the HP expander.

Checked that all the 8087s were clicked in, and not crimped or bunched at odd angles.

Powered up, entered POST RAID menu to check Array hardware wise...all my drives appeared, array showed Normal.

Exited POST RAID, moved to WinVista64, opened my Computer, and there was my RAID 5, just like I left it.

Checked In-Band RAID (WebGUI) and it looks just like I left it except for the location codes are like 13-16 and 21-24 instead of 1-8.

Will run some speed tests but it does appear totally transparent to Vista so far.

Thanks to all here, and to Synergy and Dustin.
 
Dgephri said:
Checked In-Band RAID (WebGUI) and it looks just like I left it except for the location codes are like 13-16 and 21-24 instead of 1-8.
Click to expand...

Those drive locations showing up as 13-16 and 21-24 are because of the particular ports on the expander that you plugged into. Where you plug in is purely academic anyway, just like plugging into an ethernet switch. Modern raid cards also don't care if drive locations are changing and rearranging between reboots, just that all array members are present.
 
odditory said:
Those drive locations showing up as 13-16 and 21-24 are because of the particular ports on the expander that you plugged into. Where you plug in is purely academic anyway, just like plugging into an ethernet switch. Modern raid cards also don't care if drive locations are changing and rearranging between reboots, just that all array members are present.
Click to expand...

I figured as much, but my little bit of OCD keeps ticking in the back of my brain that if I ever need to figure out which drive has a SMART error I ought to have that numbering system set in place for reference. ;)
 
well you can always refer to the port numbering diagram in the OP if you want to change that. plug into ports 2 and 3 on the expander (since port 1 is the external SFF-8088 connector).

note I'm going to add the Highpoint 4320 SAS to the HCL in the OP (enough acronyms?).
 
Blue Fox said:
Has someone tested one at this point?
Click to expand...

I would be curious as well if the 1880 series works with the HP SAS expander. I was going to buy a 1680 series to go with my HP SAS expander for my WHS upgrade plan but at this point I haven't seen any good deals on used 1680's. The retail price difference (currently) between the 1680 and 1880 series being so minimal, if I have to buy new I may as well get an 1880 IF it works with the HP SAS expander and Hitachi 2TB HDS722020ALA330 drives I have.
 
I was about to buy one off newegg, but I realized that 15% restocking fees suck for large items like that. :p
 
Seen it, I'm after an 1880x though. Either they're going to loan me an 1880i review unit or I'll buy an 1880x, whichever comes first.
 
Nitrobass sold me a SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 adapter at quakecon, so I'm good either way. I have plenty of external cables around the house to hook up multiple cards. I just need confirmation that they work as I don't feel like wasting $100 in restocking fees.
 
Dgephri said:
...
I have the Highpoint 4320 SAS in a 4220 enclosure. so all I needed was one more 8087 cable to go from my Highpoint RAID card to the HP Expander and I was set.
....
Click to expand...

Great note, thanks for confirming it works with the 4320!
 
Does anyone have any experience so far with the 1880i and the HP SAS expanders (or any SAS expanders)?

This will be my first setup like this and going with the 1880i + SAS expander is a lot cheaper then getting say the 1880ix-24 or a 1680ix. I'm assuming the only benefit to the ix in this situation is that there are no compatibility problems with the built in SAS expander and things will generally work as long as you use supported drives. I'd hate to run into problems down the road due to the SAS expander.
 
@Abit667: running a low port count HBA + hp expander is the whole reason this thread was started, because its a lot more efficient, so you came to the right place and your reasoning is sound. not to mention its easier to sell an 8port card down the road and replace it with a newer/different 8port card, rather than worrying about recouping cost selling a big $1200-$1600 24port raid card. much more interchangeable.

1880 + HP Expander compatibility is the big question right now, its just a matter of who's going to get one and test it first. i'm not rushing into it until the exact model I want becomes available, because i have a feeling it's only going to show about a 20% overall performance edge over the 1680 series, despite being 6G and everything. as it is the 1680 series gives me "enough" performance so an 1880 would really only be for kicks.

for anyone buying new though, the 1880 would be the way to go given the small price difference to 1680, and assuming HP expander compatibility. i'd be VERY surprised if they were not compatible.
 
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Blue Fox said:
Nitrobass sold me a SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 adapter at quakecon, so I'm good either way. I have plenty of external cables around the house to hook up multiple cards. I just need confirmation that they work as I don't feel like wasting $100 in restocking fees.
Click to expand...

i've got a few 8087 to 8088 PCI brackets from pc-pitstop.com laying around but i'd like to avoid extra hops in the signal chain not to mention extra cable mess inside the case. why? call it Obsessive Computing Disorder.
 
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Therealmaster967 said:
Can anyone help me update the firmware on my HP SAS Exp? They are both at ver 1.00.

Also would consider trades, if someone needs one that works with Adaptec or something else...

Also, since the controller used is only an SAS1 device, but it can combine two ports to one expander, how is the bandwidth shared?

Ex: SAS2 drive -> SAS Expander (link at SAS2? or SAS1?)
SAS Expander -> SAS RAID (Link only at SAS1... but double width...)
Would the faster drive 'split' its bandwidth across the slower sas exp to sas raid card interface, so it still has the throughput?
Or if there were faster drive*S*, would they split their bandwidth across the double wide interface?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Anyone have any ideas on how the bandwidth is shared? Thanks.
 
I'm wondering the same thing. You connect the SAS-expander to 1 mini-sas port. That port has 6 gigabit of bandwidth. Encoding overhead makes this 4,8 gigabit. That's 600 MiB/second.

I know my Samsungdrives achieve over 100 MiB/sec sequential transfer rate (large files). So in theory, I can connect 6 drives to the expander without it being a bottleneck.

Many people are connecting far more drives to it. So either I'm wrong about the bandwidth or there is something else going on.

OR it might be 600 MiB times 4 (1 port = 4 lanes). That would add up to 2,4 GiB of bandwidth, which would be plenty!

I googled it (found the info on toms hardware). It seems that it would indeed be 2,4 for a wide SAS-mini port. Can anyone confirm?
 
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It is 2.4GiB per mini sas port, But! My question more revolves around having four lines running parallel (or eight, depending). I'm assuming these lines are packet switched or something higher level than circuit switching. (I hope I'm right).
Does each connection between devices auto negotiate between the two endpoints, or just the two ends of the cable?

For a brainstorm, assume all drives can saturate their interface, or at least close to it.
Say I'm running 16 high speed drives, across SATA 150, to an SAS 2 expander, then through a four lane SAS connector to an SAS RAID Card. If the host card is SAS 2, and the expander is SAS 2, but the drives are SATA 150, would the lanes between the card and the expander be throttled down to the maximum bandwidth of SATA 150, or would they remain at SAS 2 speeds?

Or for my setup, I'm running 24 drives off of one expander, with half of them SAS 1, and the other SATA 150/300. Will running the expander with the 1.00 firmware (keeping speeds down to 150MB on SATA and 300MB on SAS) bottleneck the link between the drives and the controller, making it worthwhile to upgrade the firmware in the expander, or will it not make a difference what the link speed is?

Thanks.
 
Zerosum said:
I have 32 drives attached to the HP SAS. With this card, opensolaris will only see 24 of my 32 drives. With nothing else changed, I plugged my 1680 in and opensolaris sees all 32 fine. 1680+HP in FreeBSD shows all my drives as well. I didn't tried the USAS+HP in FreeBSD.

The card's config has 24 listed for maximum 13h supported drives but I thought that's only for booting and once in the OS, it wouldn't care.
Click to expand...

This is the only mention I've seen about running this type of config in FreeBSD (on this thread at least). The 8.1 HCL + arcmsr driver doesn't list that card as compatible.

I'm planning on running ZFS (raidz) on freebsd with the HP expander. The only variable for me is which HBA to get. The HP 4xx series are definitely supported.

Does anyone have experience running this type of config on bsd?
 
I've seen a few mentions of the areca 1680ix series cards here. Seems it is working with latest firmware and the hap sas expander in some cases??? Anyone know if this works with the 1680ix-8 then because I didn't see that one specifically? Does it depend on mobo too?
 
I have not had such good luck with the Highpoint 4320. I connected it in different configurations, port 1 and 2 of the controller to ports 8 and 9 of the expanders (and all variations) and it does not recognize my drives. Any thoughts appreciated.

I troubleshot the expander in several different motherboards and still cannot get it to work. The top LED is solid. I decided to take it to work and checked it againse an HP DL360 G6 and an HP DL380 G6, both with Smart Array P410 controllers with 512MB of RAM and I have the same results.

Is there anything else to test?
 
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dirtrider said:
I've seen a few mentions of the areca 1680ix series cards here. Seems it is working with latest firmware and the hap sas expander in some cases??? Anyone know if this works with the 1680ix-8 then because I didn't see that one specifically? Does it depend on mobo too?
Click to expand...

FWIW, I'm using the 1680ix-8 (firmware v1.48) with the HP SAS expander (firmware 2.06) and hitachi 7K2000 drives on a Tyan motherboard (http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=645) without issue, connected internally (though I bought an external cable just in case - haven't needed it yet though).

Got a very good open box price on the Tyan from the 'egg or else I would be using one of the equivalent supermicro 'boards.
 
dirtrider said:
I've seen a few mentions of the areca 1680ix series cards here. Seems it is working with latest firmware and the hap sas expander in some cases??? Anyone know if this works with the 1680ix-8 then because I didn't see that one specifically? Does it depend on mobo too?
Click to expand...

It will work with most harddisks but Areca 1680 "ix" models are not recommended for anyone buying new at this point because you're essentially daisy-chaining an expander to an expander (the HP expander uplinking to the onboard expander of the raid card). In mrwilby's case he hasn't run into any problems because he's running drives that the Areca 1680ix expander doesn't have issue with, but as soon as you add certain WD or Seagate drives then you'll see the drives dropping out of arrays.

So for anyone that already owns an "ix" model Areca, its not a big deal, you'll just be more limited with harddisks that are compatible, but for anyone buying new definitely stick with non-onboard-expander models. Or better yet buy an Areca 1880i, which gets my highest recommendation for a RAID card to use with the HP expander.
 
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Kinda odd considering the 1680ixl cards have integrated expanders. I imagine it just has a mux between the external and one of the internal ports? I think the original 1680 card was set up that way. The odd thing is, the 1880ixl-8 has room on the back of the card for another connector, so I'm not exactly sure what they're trying to do considering there are only 8 lanes to work with. Still a bit pricey for what you're getting. Too bad they don't have an equivalent to the 1680LP in the new 1880 line.
 
I could be completely wrong and maybe the expander chip is on the back of the PCB or something, but pics don't make one apparent. True dat about lack of 1880LP in the line- one internal and one external would be ideal for a 2-chassis, 48-drive system. /derail
 
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What does an intergrated expander mean exactly?

And Odditory, according to me (after Adaptec told me it is the expanders job to do spinup), HP expanders do not support staggered spin up. I just thought you would would like to know ^^
 
Integrated expander means that that one is present on the card itself. Pretty much anything past 8 ports is going to have one (unless it uses a mux to let you choose between an internal and external port).
 
Jeroen1000 said:
What does an intergrated expander mean exactly?

And Odditory, according to me (after Adaptec told me it is the expanders job to do spinup), HP expanders do not support staggered spin up. I just thought you would would like to know ^^
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what Adaptec is talking about, but my Areca 1680 cards spin up my drives that are attached to HP expanders just fine. Even if that wasn't the case its not an issue because I have a decent 750W power supply for my 20 and 24 bay cases, something you might consider.
 
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It is just me or is support often dead wrong ^^.

They said that if I use the expander with their cards the expander needs to spin up the drives and otherwise it wouldn't work (because the expander would not pass the command).

This forum is an excellent source of A+ info!

BTW: what drives are you using? I checked the +10TB thread but you're not in there:)
 
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In general, one is better off asking some random guy on the street, than asking level 1 support...
 
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