After replacing the system board in a HP BL460c Gen8 Server blade,the Product name had changed from "Proliant BL460c Gen8" to "StoreEasy3830 Gtwy Blade". This is some thing that you can not change in BIOS settings. I believe both products use the same system board spare P/N 738239-001. Could someone please let me know how to change this. Thank you.
HP BL460c Gen8 Product name change
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A few things to check...
- Have you upgraded the controller's firmware to the latest version 2.04? Often times, HP controllers introduce new or improved functionality in the form of firmware updates.
- The Smart Array P600 controller is one of HP's first attempts at SAS/SATA connectivity. It's still a PCI-X card, so it may not be fully compatible with the drives you're using. It's rated for 1.5G SATA (versus the more common 3G and 6G now).
- You're using consumer disks. There could be an issue there.
- I'd recommend upgrading the firmware of your server as well to the most current revision.
- Make sure you're working with current version of the SmartStart CD for Array configuration. Older versions of the software may have problems with that capacity of drive.
- If all else fails, look for a used Smart Array P400 controller. Your server has two PCI Express slots. Those would be better suited to storage controllers than the PCI-X slot you're using now.
- BTW - RAID 10 may make more sense with the size of the disks you're using. Lower rebuild times, better performance, etc.
I've covered SSD interoperability and compatibility issues with HP servers several times here.
Check these posts:
HP D2700 enclosure and SSDs. Will any SSD work?
Are there any SAN vendors that allow third party drives?
So, the move from G6 and G7 HP ProLiants to the Gen8 variants forced a disk carrier form-factor change. HP went to the SmartDrive carrier with the Gen8 product, and that's created a whole set of issues that impact SSD compatibility.
I like the idea of choosing the most appropriate options for my environments and applications, within reason. With G7's, I could use HP's SanDisk/Pliant SAS enterprise SSDs when needed, but also Intel or other low-cost SandForce-based SSDs where it made sense. If using an external enclosure like a D2700 or D2600, I could also use sTec SSDs (which offer another quality SAS SSD option). Drive carriers for the old form-factor were easily obtained.
With Gen8 servers, much of this isn't possible. From the difficult access to the SmartDrive carriers to restrictive firmware and disk validation techniques to the obscenely high price of the HP-branded SSDs ($2500+ per drive), I think HP have priced themselves out of the market.
Their rebranded drives aren't stellar performers, but have tremendous endurance. That's not needed in every environment. Getting the best performance out of HP SSDs on current HP Smart Array controller also requires tuning or even additional HP SmartPath licensing. Previous controllers like the Smart Array P410 were limited by IOPS and other constraints.
A good development that may affect your application on Gen8 servers is the HP SmartCache SSD tiering. Much like LSI's Cachecade, this allows you to add SSD read caching and benefit from lower latencies where it matters. Also see: How effective is LSI CacheCade SSD storage tiering?
In general, I'm not concerned about SSD reliability in RAID setups with disk form-factors. PCIe-based SSDs introduce other concerns. I haven't had any endurance problems, but check: Are SSD drives as reliable as mechanical drives (2013)?
So what can you do?
The D2700 external enclosure may be key here. It uses the older G7 disk carriers. It's also a very solid unit and compatible with old and new generation controllers. You can stuff Intel/sTec/cheapo disks in it all day and be fine. Connect that to the adapter in your hosts, and that will give you the flexibility you require. Use a DL360p instead of a DL380p to save a rack unit.
Intel disks inside of the Gen8 server... I wouldn't do it, if for any reason than to avoid the
POST 1709errors. Plus you'll be self-supporting in a way that impacts the main server unit. I just had a customer try to fill a 25-bay DL380p Gen8 with Intel SSDs and eBay drive carriers. He had to return the Intel drives and use low-end HP SATA disks for the system to even work.
The HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 is offered in 8-bay, 12-bay15, 16-bay and 25-bay units.
The 8-bay has been fine. It's a good platform, especially if you add external storage.
The 16-bay Gen8 has no SAS expander card (and is incompatible with the excellent HP SAS Expander), so you need two internal RAID controllers to use it. As a result, your logical drives cannot span the two 8-bay drive cages. This is a departure from the G7s, where 16-bays/disks in one array was no problem.
The 25-bay unit has a concerning design flaw. The SAS expander is embedded on the 25-drive backplane. This backplane requires a P420i controller with FBWC cache to function. Fine. I had three RAID controller DIMMs die in a 60-day period, though. On the 8-bay units, this just disables write cache. On the 25-bay server, a cache failure makes the Smart Array a "zero-memory" controller and disables all access to the disks!! Avoid this model unless you can accept that risk. My failure rate on 2GB cache modules is far higher than 1GB modules, so I downgrade to the 1GB modules for this specific platform.
1746-Slot z Drive Array - Unsupported Storage Connection Detected - SAS connection via expander is not supported on this controller model. Access to all storage has been disabled.
Best Answer
An easy fix. When blade is posting, click into the “F9” bios screen, a blue box will open, click down about 11 rows to “SERVER ASSET TEXT” & click. A gray box will open & click on “SERVER INFO TEXT”, there you will see the “wrong name” you want to change in a blue box, click on that and you can EDIT that name out & type in the name of what you like, ie: “BL460C-G8”. Hit ENTER key to exit then hit the “ESCAPE” key 3 times to exit, hit F10 to save changes. You will not see changes in the O/A until you click out of that blade & onto another column (I click on “POWER & THERMAL” tab and then click back to “Device Bay” & click back on that particular blade & you should see a name change. This will also change if you do a reboot on that blade. If you still don’t see a name change, go back to the same procedures in the F9 bios tab again & see if it did indeed change, if not, edit again but that is your fix.