HP DL380 G7 using P410 controller with a SAS Expander card

hphp-smart-arraysas

A sever is fitted with a HP SAS Expander card and 10x disks (2x mirrored Arrays).

The server is not detecting any logical volumes or physical disks. So is it ok to bypass the expander card and connect one of the backplanes directly to rule out either the Controller (on the system board) or the Expander card?

The Expander card holds no array configuration right? So bypassing it should be fine as long as a whole single array is connected to the Controller?

Thanks in advance

Carlos

Best Answer

The HP SAS expander card does not have any array configuration. Drive array metadata is located on the disks, not the controller.

I feel like we're missing something here...

  • How long had the system been running with the 10 disks and 2 mirrored array groups?
  • What happened just ahead of them not being recognized?
  • What happens during boot/post?
  • Do you see any disk devices in the BIOS Array Configuration Utility?

My concern is that bypassing the expander in this case will tell the RAID controller that the drive positions changed. The change may be above the threshold of what your P410i can handle, and you could possible lose your array.

Example behind an expander:

   array C (SATA, Unused Space: 2651025  MB)

      logicaldrive 3 (1000.0 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)
      logicaldrive 4 (500.0 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)

      physicaldrive 2C:1:1 (port 2C:box 1:bay 1, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2C:1:2 (port 2C:box 1:bay 2, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2C:1:3 (port 2C:box 1:bay 3, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2C:1:4 (port 2C:box 1:bay 4, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
      physicaldrive 3C:1:5 (port 3C:box 1:bay 5, SATA, 1 TB, OK)
      physicaldrive 3C:1:6 (port 3C:box 1:bay 6, SATA, 1 TB, OK)

Example without an expander:

Smart Array P410i in Slot 0 (Embedded)    (sn: 5001438010A99E30)

   array A (SAS, Unused Space: 0  MB)


      logicaldrive 1 (18.0 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)
      logicaldrive 2 (392.1 GB, RAID 1+0, OK)

      physicaldrive 1I:1:1 (port 1I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:2 (port 1I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:5 (port 2I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
      physicaldrive 2I:1:6 (port 2I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

   SEP (Vendor ID PMCSIERA, Model  SRC 8x6G) 250 (WWID: 5001438010A99E3F)

Basically, the port numbers change, so it's a bit of a pain.

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