HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

gmitch64 said:
If you check out the table on Page 6 of The PERC technical guidebook it says that the H700 supports SAS and SATA drives, but the H800 supports SAS only. I've also seen that mentioned in a couple of other places too.

I've got a call in with our Dell storage guy, since I'm looking to spec up a couple of servers at work with a mix of SAS and SATA, and that's a deal killer for me.

G
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for the link, I haven't gone through that yet... I wonder what happens if I order an H800 w/Sata drives... will they cancel or ship it and not support it, even though it works...

That would be a deal breaker, since we're looking at a dell server w/ SATA drives... We may just go with the LSI controller in a dell server... let us know what you find, because i proposed a dell r310 w/an h800 or sas 6 hba connected to a hp sas expander or norco ds-24e as a storage solution... if the dell card doesn't work, ill have to price out the lsi or areca controller...
 
I'd also be interested if the H800 actually works with SATA drives... I'd replace a few controllers here with that, I just don't have the capital to be able to drop for one if it don't work, like the spec says it ain't supposed too.

Good luck, Please report back here if she does - and if she works well with the HP SAS expanders
 
I'm at a loss as to what to do with this card. The 6th led keeps blinking upon boot. I've tried it in three different motherboards: gigabyte ga-ep45-ds3r, asus p5n7a-vm and asus p7p55d-e pro. I've tried them in each of the two pci-e x16 slots on each of the motherboards. I've tried taping over the A11 pin with both scotch tape as well as electrical tape.

Any suggestions? I'm really not looking forward to sinking more money to try to get this working but i will if necessary.

Thanks in advance.
 
Bookmage said:
will they cancel or ship it and not support it, even though it works...
Click to expand...

I am guessing that it won't work. Check out section 3.4 on page 13 of the guide.

Non Dell certified drives will be blocked.
Click to expand...

So I am guessing that the drives will show up in the RAID manager, but show as being blocked, and won't let you use them.

What Dell are pushing is Near Line SAS drives (at $550 for a 2TB as opposed to $100 for a consumer 2TB - now I remember why I used 3rd party drives in our MD1000s for our backup solution).


G
 
Therealmaster967 said:
What card do you have the expander attached to?

What cables are you using?
Click to expand...

I am using an AOC-SASLP-MV8 with norco cables inside of a norco 4224 case. The MV8 works fine when it's hooked up to the top two backplanes and my computer boots up normal. When I use one cable to go from the MV8 to the sas expander the MV8's "boot" process fails, not recognizing any drives, and locks up the computer. When I use one cable to go from the MV8 (channels 0-3) to the backplane and then one to the sas expander the MV8 recognizes the drives connected on channels 0-3 but the it fails to recognize drives connected to the sas expander and locks up the computer.
 
Well, after some more digging, it looks like Dell released a new version of the firmware that DOES allow 3rd party drives to be used - they just haven't updated their documentation yet...

Firmware Update.

There are some releases after this version, but this is the release that removed the non Dell drive blocks (according to the docs - I don't have an H800 to test it on).


G
 
lazy7689 said:
I am using an AOC-SASLP-MV8 with norco cables inside of a norco 4224 case. The MV8 works fine when it's hooked up to the top two backplanes and my computer boots up normal. When I use one cable to go from the MV8 to the sas expander the MV8's "boot" process fails, not recognizing any drives, and locks up the computer. When I use one cable to go from the MV8 (channels 0-3) to the backplane and then one to the sas expander the MV8 recognizes the drives connected on channels 0-3 but the it fails to recognize drives connected to the sas expander and locks up the computer.
Click to expand...

I had a similar issue with one of my MV8s - the solution (for me), was to update to the latest firmware for the MV8, and then it all started working.


G
 
gmitch64 said:
I had a similar issue with one of my MV8s - the solution (for me), was to update to the latest firmware for the MV8, and then it all started working.


G
Click to expand...

I'll check my firmware version and if it needs updating i'll do that as well.

Did you try your sas expander plugged into the motherboard but not plugged into anything else, hba/raid card or backplanes? When I do this I still get the same lights - 1, 2 and 3 solid green with 6 blinking.
 
gmitch64 said:
Well, after some more digging, it looks like Dell released a new version of the firmware that DOES allow 3rd party drives to be used - they just haven't updated their documentation yet...

Firmware Update.

There are some releases after this version, but this is the release that removed the non Dell drive blocks (according to the docs - I don't have an H800 to test it on).

G
Click to expand...

yeah, the newer firmware unblocks non dell drives, but the question is whether the H800 w/new firmware will read SATA drives or still be limited to SAS drives... The latest firmware also supports drives greater than 2TB...

So now, we just have to figure out if the H800 can read SATA drives and see if its compatible with the HP SAS Expander and if its cross flashable w/the respective LSI firmware...

and i should check the firmware on my Dell SAS 6 HBA...
 
I dont see how they could block just SATA drives, seeing that part of the SAS spec is backwards computability with SATA.
 
Bookmage said:
yeah, the newer firmware unblocks non dell drives, but the question is whether the H800 w/new firmware will read SATA drives or still be limited to SAS drives... The latest firmware also supports drives greater than 2TB...

So now, we just have to figure out if the H800 can read SATA drives and see if its compatible with the HP SAS Expander and if its cross flashable w/the respective LSI firmware...

and i should check the firmware on my Dell SAS 6 HBA...
Click to expand...

Yeah. That would be nice, I'd like to upgrade from my PERC6. It aught to be compatible with the H800, if the PERC 6 is... just a generational difference...

Why would you want to cross flash it to the LSI firmware? what features would you rather have that the LSI firmware gives you over the H800?
 
Because LSI makes the chip, because LSI writes the firmware for their OEM partners, and because historically, being able to cross-flash an OEM card to LSI firmware meant the removal of certain artificial limitations that existed in the OEM firmware, not to mention tended to be the most updated version of firmware available. More recently however LSI began disallowing the practice with some of their newer cards -- that's a whole separate discussion..
 
Updating my HBA (AOC-SASLP-MV8) to the latest firmware didn't solve my problems. I'm at a serious loss.

Can anyone recommend a cheap socket 775 motherboard that has two pci-e x16 slots (for my hba and the expander) that will properly power up the sas expander? I've already tried multiple motherboards and all the pci-e x16 slots on those motherboards.

Or, maybe i'm doing the taping of the A11 pin incorrectly, but it seemed pretty self-explanatory. The only thing I can think of that I'm doing wrong in taping it is putting it on the wrong (B) side. The A side is the "top" of the card, right? The side with the sas ports.
 
@lazy7689: Have you tried to hook the AOC-SASLP-MV8 to the HP SAS expander but no drives connected to the AOC-SASLP-MV8 or the HP SAS expander?

Does your system boot with just the HP SAS exander connected?
Try using one of the cables you used to connect between one of the backplanes and the AOC-SASLP-MV8 direct as you already know this cable works! Connect it from the 1st AOC-SASLP-MV8 port to port 8 or 9 on the HP SAS expander.

If the status LED on the HP SAS expander is already flashing (compared to just solid on), then you don't have to tape the A11 pin as the expanders processor is already running!
 
treadstone said:
@lazy7689: Have you tried to hook the AOC-SASLP-MV8 to the HP SAS expander but no drives connected to the AOC-SASLP-MV8 or the HP SAS expander?

Does your system boot with just the HP SAS exander connected?
Try using one of the cables you used to connect between one of the backplanes and the AOC-SASLP-MV8 direct as you already know this cable works! Connect it from the 1st AOC-SASLP-MV8 port to port 8 or 9 on the HP SAS expander.

If the status LED on the HP SAS expander is already flashing (compared to just solid on), then you don't have to tape the A11 pin as the expanders processor is already running!
Click to expand...

I guess I misunderstood what I was reading. I thought if the 6th led was flashing, it was bad - that solid was good.

As with connecting the card, I just tried your suggestions and here are the results using my verified good cables:

mv8 port 1 -> backplane 1, mv8 port 2 -> backplane 2 and hp sas expander inserted (but not connected to anything = boots just fine and the sas expander led has 1, 2 and 3 solid with 6 flashing.

mv8 port 1 -> expander port 8 and expander port 2 -> backplane 1 = no boot with the same leds light (1, 2 and 3 solid with 6 flashing)

mv8 port 1 -> backplane 1 and mv8 port 2 -> expander port 8 and expander port 2 -> backplane 2 = mv8 recognizing drives on backplane 1 but hanging when it tries to detect the drives connected through the expander.
 
@lazy7689 the easy way to tell if the sas expander is active is to see if the light is blinking. that confirms the motherboard is powering the expander properly.
if the light blinks on boot, like you said, then the card is working and the problem lies between the mv8 and the hp expander... might be your cable?
first verify your cable works by going straight from mv8 to a backplane.
then confirm the mv8 works in both/all the pci express slots.
then confirm the hp expander powers up with blinking lights.
then plug mv8 to hp sas expander on port 8 or 9 and cable to backplane on port 2 or 3
 
I can confirm the Dell 6Gbps SAS HBA works with the HP SAS Expander 2.02 firmware. It reads my Seagate 1TB ST31000340AS drives at 3Gbps, says max link is 6Gbps

The LSI configuration BIOS reads For Dell PERC H200 v7.01.09.00 (2010.03.22)
LSI SAS2008
MPT Firmware Rev 2.15.63.00-IT
Package Version 7.01.33.00.
NVDATA version: 00.0A.00.15

This sounds like a rebranded LSI SAS 9200-8e but I'd need the real card to compare...

The latest dell firmware for this is 07.01.33.00, A03

The latest LSI 9200-8e bios is 7.15.00.00 dated nov 01, 2010
and firmware is 8.00.00.00 dated nov 01, 2010

The previous LSI bios is 7.11.00 dated jul 30, 2010
firmware is 7.00.00.00 dated aug 05, 2010

any one else more familiar w/lsi products have any input?
some of the engineering release notices for hte 8.00 firmware seem important...
i'd like to see this side by side w/an lsi 9200-8e just to compare before i try cross flashing...

so now i just need a permanent mobo to power this hp sas expander and this box will be done...

it would be nice to have a list of cheap/oldmobos that power the hp sas expander w/o the cpu/mem... or how to determine which mobos will work and which wont...

the asus m2a-vm w/ no ram & no cpu that i have doesnt boot the hp sas expander. it powers but the lights on the hp sas expander stay lit, not blinking. i think i need to find the thread about the pins and pwrgrnd?
a gigabyte h55n-usb3 mini itx motherboard w/ram & cpu does power the board...
 
Bookmage said:
@lazy7689 the easy way to tell if the sas expander is active is to see if the light is blinking. that confirms the motherboard is powering the expander properly.
if the light blinks on boot, like you said, then the card is working and the problem lies between the mv8 and the hp expander... might be your cable?
first verify your cable works by going straight from mv8 to a backplane.
then confirm the mv8 works in both/all the pci express slots.
then confirm the hp expander powers up with blinking lights.
then plug mv8 to hp sas expander on port 8 or 9 and cable to backplane on port 2 or 3
Click to expand...

I've tried all of the above. Everything appears to check out: cables work when plugged directly into the mv8, all of the pci-e ports work (i've tried my mv8 in all of them) and the expander appears to be receiving power in all of the pci-e ports as well. For some reason, in reading treadstone's troubleshooting of the blinking 6th led, I interpreted it as blinking = bad and solid = good.
 
yeah i was a bit lost at first too... until i googled for hp sas expander led which brought me back here :-p
nothing worked at first because i had the wrong fanout cables... *grumbles about his chinese cousins in china who cant read and not labeling parts on ebay or making 2 way fanout cables...

so i had to hunt for forward fan out cables i would look at a newer controller, but that does mean more money... but you could get a newer generation card...
 
@lazy7689: What I meant was, connect the AOC-SASLP-MV8 port 1 with a known good cable to the HP SAS expander port 8, but DO NOT connect any drives to the AOC-SASLP-MV8 or the HP SAS expander and see if your system boots!

@Bookmage: I was the one that figured this pin A11 (PWRGD) business on the HP SAS expander out. You can find some more info in my build log.
 
@Bookmage: I think the H200 might be a LSI 9200-8i design (not an OEM product as the board layout of the H200 is completely different!).

Is there an LSI IT firmware for the 9200-8x series???
 
yes, i remember coming across that info months ago and hoping i would never have to use it... but without any real sas expander power options, i might have to trace out the connections on this mobo... :-/

sigh... im not sure if i wanna spend the time hunting back on this thread looking for people's power solutions... i remembers odditory's orbit micro hack... i wonder what backplane HP uses to power these cards...
 
Just to recap,
odditory got thePE-2SD1-R10 working in the original Norco 4020 case w/o any modification. All that was needed was to permanently jumper the ATXCTL and use the power supply to turn on/off

Did anyone ever test out the IEI HPE-3S2-R10 ? It is slightly cheaper and uses an ATX20 pin, but may be a good alternative?

Did anyone ever test out cheap motherboards that worked w/o cpu/ram?
Or would determining which motherboards give off the high PWRGD signal be too difficult to test or compare?
 
treadstone said:
@lazy7689: What I meant was, connect the AOC-SASLP-MV8 port 1 with a known good cable to the HP SAS expander port 8, but DO NOT connect any drives to the AOC-SASLP-MV8 or the HP SAS expander and see if your system boots!

@Bookmage: I was the one that figured this pin A11 (PWRGD) business on the HP SAS expander out. You can find some more info in my build log.
Click to expand...

MV8 and expander plugged into my mobo. Connected from MV8 port 1 to expander port 8. No drives plugged into mv8. Boot drive plugged into mobo. It boots up like normal (MV8 properly identifies that there aren't any disks hooked up to it).

Any other ideas?
 
Bookmage said:
Just to recap,
odditory got thePE-2SD1-R10 working in the original Norco 4020 case w/o any modification. All that was needed was to permanently jumper the ATXCTL and use the power supply to turn on/off

Did anyone ever test out the IEI HPE-3S2-R10 ? It is slightly cheaper and uses an ATX20 pin, but may be a good alternative?

Did anyone ever test out cheap motherboards that worked w/o cpu/ram?
Or would determining which motherboards give off the high PWRGD signal be too difficult to test or compare?
Click to expand...

I use the Second listed backplane to run my expander. Works fine!
 
Rudde93 said:
Hello, I have this expander and I'm planning to build a server with in it, I don't have a RAID card yet and looking for other parts.

I was wondering if I could use a 4 SATA -> SAS connector on thisd motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131643

And connect it to the expander?

Or if I could connect this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151227

to it, since it have SAS onboard, and if yes does it count for other Tyan boards as well?
Click to expand...

I'd look for a motherboard with a built in SAS controller, like the Tyan board which has the LSI SAS2008 controller onboard. The LSI SAS2008 is pretty compatible with the HP SAS expander.
 
Bookmage said:
You used the IEI HPE-3S2-R10? how do the holes match up? How do you turn it on and did you have to jumper anything to turn it on? no mods to it? just open and plug in?
Click to expand...

Yup, That one.

I don't know how the holes matched up, I did not line them up with the standard ATX mounting holes. The case has a latching switch on the front, so IIRC I paralleled those lines to the ATXCTR Lines, and to the second PSU which was not plugged in via the 20 pin connector. The spec sheet spells it out pretty easy, I did not have any trouble walking through the steps to make it work. I did not modify it at all, just wired it up and slid the card in.
 
Rudde93 said:
Hello, I have this expander and I'm planning to build a server with in it, I don't have a RAID card yet and looking for other parts.

I was wondering if I could use a 4 SATA -> SAS connector on thisd motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131643

And connect it to the expander?

Or if I could connect this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151227

to it, since it have SAS onboard, and if yes does it count for other Tyan boards as well?
Click to expand...

Either of those will work.
The Asus does have a SAS controller it is just using a 7pin SATA connectors instead of a SFF8087 connector, which doesnt matter, you just need different cables. The only negative about the ASUS is it requires you to purchase the ASUS PIKE 2008 8-port SAS2 6G RAID card to support SAS.
 
Question from a friend of mine who plans using the card with an Asus P6T WS (iirc) which also uses those 7pin connectors - what cables are needed for this? Will any SFF-8087 to SATA fanout be ok or is some special cable needed? And will the expander work with just 2 channels (instead of normally 4 in one 8087) as uplink?
 
I don't know whether this is helpful diagnostically, but i hooked up a forward breakout cable to a hard drive. This makes my connection MV8 -> expander -> hard drive (via breakout cable). When I did this, the MV8 did not even acknowledge that there was a drive hooked up.

Any way to know whether i just have a defective card? Going by the lights, it seems like it is working fine but there's no way for me to verify this...
 
In case anyone is interested.. I have an Areca 1880i and HP SAS Expander v2.06 Firmware running on an Asus P5WDH motherboard with no issues so far
 
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I currently have a adaptec 31605 which is now full with drives and have drives left over was planning on getting another raid card as i needed to add the other drives (this is just for storage not speed, originaly had a 52445 which died about two weeks ago so now using my old card).

My current case has 4 bay backplane still left so want 4+ controller, but would also like to keep my options open for a hp sas expander, as even after I get the 4 drives in I still have another 8 with no home. I'v read over a few pages and have noticed the adaptec cards arnt the best with hp expander and as i need a new card can you give me some options? I dont want to spend more than £250 ($400), also do the hp p212/p410's work on non hp systems as I'v got a bog standard Asus with a i3.

The list of cards on the the first post seems limited im sure there must be more raid cards that work with the sas expander and most on the list are just too much for me atm.
 
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Hi folks. I just got confirmation that we're getting over 50 of the expanders in late next week, and I still have stock. PM me for any additional information.

Thanks!
 
I'm working on my first ZFS build right now. I plan on buying one of these expanders when I'm ready to expand my zpool, but I might buy it ahead of time, as it sounds like they're pretty awesome.
 
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