HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

white-hot said:
I have read in here about "gray-market" cards (odditory mentions it above on this page in fact) but I don't think that is the case here. It came from a reputable seller (eBay), came in the HP Spares box with all the included items you would expect and matching serial numbers, and has firmware version 2.06. Still, I can not seem to connect any faster. Drives, both SAS and SATA, connected directly to the LSI card work as normal at 3.0 or higher depending on the drive.

So, suggestions? Would flashing or reflashing the firmware perhaps fix this issue? Any known settings that I may have missed mentioned elsewhere in this (VERY long) thread? I have tried searching and generally those that have this issue never seem to find a solution and either accept it or move to another expander. While this is not an I/O intensive system (basically a home/web server) I dislike the inability to fully utilize the speed of the drives.

In addition, I notice a number of people early in this thread would flash firmware for those that do not have an HP controller. Does anyone still offer this service?Thanks
Click to expand...

Well thats exactly what grey market is. A seller may have tens of thousands of positive feedback but that doesn't preclude them from passing off refurb units.

I'd agree, you dont want to settle on SATA-150, not an option. I would return the card if you can and try from another seller, or get something like the Intel 24-port expander.

Lastly, a firmware flash isnt likely to do anything if its already 2.06. I'm still not sure why some of these are only negotiating at SATA-150, and unfortunately haven't had time to look further into it.
 
Point taken. I guess anything not directly from HP would be "grey". I would really prefer not to play Russian roulette with these things, so I guess I will find an Intel/LSI expander. I see new ones are starting at $250+, which is considerably more than the HP, but if it works....

Thanks Odditory for the comment. I had high hopes for this setup after reading this and other threads, but cutting corners by getting used items does not always pay off. Have a great weekend!
 
If it were me I'd keep trying -- the ones that negotiate at SATA-150 seem to be the exception rather than the norm.

Or tell the ebay seller to send you another one.
 
Sadly that is not an option. I purchased it well over a month ago and have been trying to get it to work with several different RAID controllers (not a expander issue it seems), each failed until the LSI9261-8i, though it only connects at 1.5. I guess I should have returned it straight away but I did not and now it is too late. If you could point me to a seller you would recommend, perhaps via PM if you prefer, then I would consider getting another HP unit. I have seen some "new" ones listed on other sites, Amazon as an example, however they are close to $300 and for that money I would rather just go with an Intel/LSI unit.
 
On the expander and LSI cards...

I currently use a 9260-8i and have some trouble managing this setup - all drives show up in the MSM but all are on slot 0 of the enclosure and there is no logical order how the drives show up.
The drives are arranged by their device ID but this seems quite random and as there is no serial number of the drive listed in the MSM identifying a drive is more 'Hope you pull the right one!'...

The expander has FW 2.08, the RC the latest available and the MSM is also the latest version

So: PEBKAC or normal for this combination?
 
JensS said:
On the expander and LSI cards...

I currently use a 9260-8i and have some trouble managing this setup - all drives show up in the MSM but all are on slot 0 of the enclosure and there is no logical order how the drives show up.
The drives are arranged by their device ID but this seems quite random and as there is no serial number of the drive listed in the MSM identifying a drive is more 'Hope you pull the right one!'...

The expander has FW 2.08, the RC the latest available and the MSM is also the latest version

So: PEBKAC or normal for this combination?
Click to expand...

I had an LSI card with an expander before and they'd always change order...
 
Hi Everyone,

I currently have a LSI 9211-8i card (Flashed to IT mode) thats connected to a Chenbro 36-Port 6G SAS expander card with 2 - SAS cables. 24 SATA drives are connected to the SAS expander.

How can I tell if Dual-Linking has been enabled? Which LSI tool that I can use to show the status of the card?

Thanks for your help!
 
On the 9260 - there's a simple solution... :D

9260 out, 9750 in, works perfectly.
The 3DM2 assigns VPorts by the order the drives were connected - but it manages to show the correct enclosure slot and the drives serial. :)
 
I have a Flexraid license and running 5 harddrives from motherboard.
Windows 7 pro 64.

I'm now considering more drives and buying a M1015 and flashing it so it works with flexraid.

Now the seller has markes it as "Reconditioned", is this same thing as Refurbished or should I avoid this specific card?

On Ebay there is a seller selling M1115 for 125usd, not sure if that can be flashed?
 
can port #1 in the SAS expander (the external port) be an input?
 
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I tested my Adaptec 5405 with the HP SAS Expander and figure I should post my findings:

Tested Config
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-v Pro (Bios 1805)
Raid Card: Adaptec 5405 (Firmware and Boot Rom 18948)
SAS Expander: HP SAS Expander (Firmware 2.06)
Existing Array: 4 x Samsung HD322HJ in Raid 5 Config

Connections:
Adaptec 5405 in Motherboard slot 5
HP SAS Expander in Motherboard slot 7
SFF8087 from 5405 connected to SFF8087 port 8 on HP Card
Drives connected by SFF8087 to 4x sata breakout

Notes:
Initialization Success. Card sees Expander.
Only the first 8 drives are seen on boot.
SAS Expander Appears in Adaptec Storage Manager Config Software with only connected drives showing.
Drive array was detected connected to any of the other SAS Expanders internal Ports (Could not test SFF8088 port on expander).
HD Tune test successfully completed on the array (Ran the test 3 times).
Sometimes some of the drives initialized to a SATA I instead of a SATA II connection.
Will need to do a proper stress test but need more drives.

HP SAS Expander also worked on an Areca 1680i (as expected from other users findings)
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
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HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.
 
HP Smart Update Manager no longer detects my SAS Expander, anyone else have this problem? I was able to update to 2.08 when I got the card but today I tried updating to 2.10 and the HP Smart Update Manager doesn't see the SAS Expander. All is well in the OS, all drives show up and work fine.

Edit: Not sure how that happened. It was not intentional
 
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I currently have over 36 hard drives of 1.5tb, 2tb, and 3tb sizes. This is mostly due to having copies of the same media collections on multiple computers and a 900sqft house with no room for my physical media collection. What I'd rather do is construct a NAS server with a lot of drives and downsize my other computers to just basic Win 7 workstations. I don't have to use RAID outside a few mirrored drives (lazy backups), though I'm sure I could make use of it in the future.

I was planning on using the Norco 24 bay server chassis, a 600w Thermaltake PS, and a spare AMD mobo with a 3 core CPU and a couple of gigabit ethernet ports. I have legitimate / legal versions of Windows 2003 Server and Windows 2008 Server, but I'm not adverse to learning Linux. I'm hoping to keep my build (case, expander, controller) below $1000.

What would be the appropriate combination of SAS Expander and SAS RAID / HBA?

I'm a bit worried about the firmware on the HP SAS Expander being out of date. Should I look at an HP SAS controller as well to mitigage the firmware update issue?

Or, should I go with the Intel 36 port SAS Expander and a different SAS controller?

I apologize if this has been covered before, but my brain is absolutely spinning after 10 days of research and pouring through this incredible thread. At this point, I could use some good recommendations from a more experienced group.
 
well your case is a 24 bay one, so a 36 port sas expander won't do much good. with disks of various capacities like that I would think a software raid solution like flexraid or something similar would work better than say ZFS

you can't go wrong with the IBM 1015s that can be had on ebay for like 100 bucks. you hook up an internal sas cable from the 1015 to the expander and then hook the drives up to the expander, or in the case of the norco, from the backplane to the expander and then if the software sees the drives which it should because almost every system should, you're good to go.
 
In a semi related question, what do you guys think of the p400 512 BBC? I have the e200 128MB with 8x 146 in RAID 5. The performance is lacking. The cache helps random and queued activity a little, but it's not enough. How much of an upgrade would the p400 be?
 
Howdy Folks,

So I managed to pick up a Cisco rebranded DL380-G6 a few months back, and have decided to make this into a decent NAS box, as performance of my current iterations of storage are, let's just say, less than satisfactory. Thus, am looking for *constructive* criticism on what I'm planning to do, since I normally play with routers and switches and firewalls and wireless, and storage is a little outside of my normal realm.

Based on everything I'm seeing, ZFS is the best way to go for good performance storage. It is appropriate to note that I plan to use this NAS primarily as an ISCSI target for several ESXI host servers.

Thus, here's what I am planning to do:
1) Add the HP 8-bay expander cage to the DL380G6
2) Add the HP SAS expander card to the DL380G6
3) Connect the four drive-cage cables to the SAS expander
3) Use the onboard HP410i to check/upgrade the firmware on the expander
4) Add an LSI 9211-8i, disconnect the expander from the 410i and connect to the 9211-81i.
5) Upgrade to 36GB DRAM.
5) Install FreeNAS onto a Samsung 16G SATA SSD in bay 0.
6) Use Intel X25-E 32G SSD in bay 1 as ZIL cache drive.
7) Use Samsung 128G SSD in bay 2 as L2ARC cache drive.
8) Use 12x 146GB SAS drives in bays 4-15 as RaidZ array.

Comments? Feasible?
 
ccie4526 said:
Howdy Folks,

So I managed to pick up a Cisco rebranded DL380-G6 a few months back, and have decided to make this into a decent NAS box, as performance of my current iterations of storage are, let's just say, less than satisfactory. Thus, am looking for *constructive* criticism on what I'm planning to do, since I normally play with routers and switches and firewalls and wireless, and storage is a little outside of my normal realm.

Based on everything I'm seeing, ZFS is the best way to go for good performance storage. It is appropriate to note that I plan to use this NAS primarily as an ISCSI target for several ESXI host servers.

Thus, here's what I am planning to do:
1) Add the HP 8-bay expander cage to the DL380G6
2) Add the HP SAS expander card to the DL380G6
3) Connect the four drive-cage cables to the SAS expander
3) Use the onboard HP410i to check/upgrade the firmware on the expander
4) Add an LSI 9211-8i, disconnect the expander from the 410i and connect to the 9211-81i.
5) Upgrade to 36GB DRAM.
5) Install FreeNAS onto a Samsung 16G SATA SSD in bay 0.
6) Use Intel X25-E 32G SSD in bay 1 as ZIL cache drive.
7) Use Samsung 128G SSD in bay 2 as L2ARC cache drive.
8) Use 12x 146GB SAS drives in bays 4-15 as RaidZ array.

Comments? Feasible?
Click to expand...

I think your approach is sound, but I do have one question: why use the expander? The DL380 G6 with two cages only presents 16 drives and you have plenty of PCIe slots to just use two 9211-8is. If you source them as OEM boards (e.g., M1015s) you'll spend FAR less buying two HBAs than 1 HBA + 1 Expander.

Don't get me wrong - I am not one of those "expanders are evil" zealots. I don't believe the FUD about using them with ZFS. But here you've got a use-case that just cries out "use two HBAs instead...".
 
PigLover said:
I think your approach is sound, but I do have one question: why use the expander? The DL380 G6 with two cages only presents 16 drives and you have plenty of PCIe slots to just use two 9211-8is. If you source them as OEM boards (e.g., M1015s) you'll spend FAR less buying two HBAs than 1 HBA + 1 Expander.

Don't get me wrong - I am not one of those "expanders are evil" zealots. I don't believe the FUD about using them with ZFS. But here you've got a use-case that just cries out "use two HBAs instead...".
Click to expand...

Appreciate the comments. Actually, the 9211-8i was an afterthought after I had already purchased the expander, and discovered through comments here and elsewhere that the onboard HP410i is not able to present the drives as JBODs, that I would have to do a whole bunch of individual RAID0 disks, and in turn would not be able to do hotswapping without a reboot of the machine. So, to that end, I've learned a little bit. ;)
 
You might just want to unload the expander on eBay. They are still quite popular - you might not even lose money on it.

More seriously...unless you are proposing using SAS SSDs, you probably also need to get some opinion on using both SATA and SAS at the same time on the same controller (and possibly behind the HP expander).
 
I have two DL380 G6's, and while they are awesome, they do not like off-brand SSDs. I've tried Intel and Kingston SSD's in the front bays, connected to the onboard P410, and an HP P812 Controller. I don't have the HP SAS Expander, so I can't comment on it, but do not expect the SSD's to work using the onboard P410. It sounds like you don't plan to, so you probably won't need to worry about it, just wanted to inform you I've had terrible luck getting them to work. (I've had no trouble with spinning disks that aren't HP branded, but SSDs typically will drop from the array on reboot, and need to be popped out and back in for recognition (not a problem if you never reboot!)
 
FINALLY! I have done the ATX -> PCI-E power connector ;)
It took me months to understand what is required and how to perform this, very simple in fact, thing.

I have bought regular PCI-E 1x -> 16x raiser (costs ~$3-5 depending on the place you are getting it from), simple 10 kOhm resistor plus ATX connector (from dead motherboard, used the thermo-fan to unplug it).

The expander works brilliantly! I have used the 20pin ATX connector which has single 12V pin and highly advise to get 24 ATX connector to divide 5 connections between 2 pins. Anyway, it works. If someone would be interested how it was made I may post more details there.
 
Highly intersting thing! :) Building a storage-only-enclosure without buying a new expander would be great.
 
Not too much of a hassle. My IBM 1015s will be an easy sell to a raid card if I need it
 
JensS said:
Highly intersting thing! :) Building a storage-only-enclosure without buying a new expander would be great.
Click to expand...

Note sure you understood it correctly. I'm bulding custom case with:
1) PSU
2) HP SAS Expander
3) 32 HDD
E.g. it would have drives, expander plus power unit and connect to external LSI card via 8088-8088 cable.

gigatexal, it is impossible to get anything affordable in mine place. While in US you may get SE3016 for few hundreds it costs ~$2000 in our place. Shipping is also extraordinary. So we have no choice but to build something hand-made... (and it may become more expensive than native case in US...)
 
That's exactly what I also want to build :)
So I could finally get rid of the last S775-hardware in my second storage, saving at least a 10GbE-NIC for this system while still improving performance and saving some energy.
 
Well, I shortly would take over mine Russian notes (yes, I'm not an English-man) and would attach a photo (pretty ugly, but do not afraid ;) ) for people to understand what exactly are to be done.
 
First of all, make sure you read the following Wikipedia articles (for ATX and PCI-E pinouts):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#Power_supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#Pinout
Now you ready to understand how power would flow from ATX to PCI-E connector.

What you need to have?
1) PCI-E flexible raiser (I have used 1x to 16x while you may be OK with 1x to 1x. The reason because 16x has been used - the better card stability);
2) 10 kOhm resistor;
3) 20 or 24 pin ATX connector (the one which accept PSU ATX connector, I have used the one taken from dead motherboard while you highly advised to order Minifit connector,
it is usually called MF2x12 and sold in 2 versions: board & cable, latter is preferred while I have used the first one)
4) Soldering iron with solder (flux is advised);
5) Paper-blade (to separate wires from the raiser);
6) thermo tubes (to isolate the wires), I have used 2 sizes, you may choose anything else from your local store, etc.

Before you start double-check that you located the A1 pin on your raiser. It is shorter than remaining pins. Mark this side or simply remember it;

So, let's roll! The basic plan is (I only used the left side of ATX connector, so it is easy to connect to):
12V: PCIE A2,A3,B1,B2,B3 -> ATX (pin 10, YELLOW) (5 wires to single pin 10! If you have ATX 24pin connector you may divide them between pin 10 and pin 11)
3.3V: PCIE A9,A10,B8,B10 -> ATX (1-2, ORANGE) 2 wires B8,B10 to pin 1; 2 wires A9,A10 to pin 2
PWRGD: PCIE A11 -> ATX (8, GRAY) 1 wire to pin 8
RES (10 kOhm): PCIE A10 -> ATX (pin 11, ORANGE for ATX20 or pin 13, ORANGE for ATX24) it is the first right side pin
GND: PCIE A4,B4,B7 (+A12,A15,A18,B13,B16,B18) -> ATX (pins 3,5,7, BLACK) 3 wires A4,B4,B7 to pin 7; 3 wires A12,15,18 to pin 5; 3 wires B13,16,18 to pin 3

As result you should get soldered 8 pins (7 on left side and 1 on right side).

Also note that you need GREEN ATX pin be connected to any ground (BLACK) pins for ATX PSU get started!

Some photos with comments. I will add the GLUE on top of the open pins to protect them and also plan to cover this with some sort of mini-case, just to make things look better ;) It is the work to do :)

aozy.jpg

renf.jpg

05cg.jpg

1r00.jpg

fzn4.jpg
 
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