Smart Array P410 RAID controller fails creating logical disk with 2x1TB WD drives

hp-smart-arrayraidsata

I'm trying to build a new box with

an Intel DQ670W Motherboard (8GB RAM + i5/2500)
an HP SmartArray P410/512 RAID controller (with battery)
2x WD10EALX 1TB SATA drives

I'm falling at (almost) the first hurdle. It boots the BIOS, and the SmartArray detects and shows the drives when it starts and goes into ORCA (the ROM BIOS Raid Management tool)

The ORCA Utility reports the two drives correctly and allows me to select a logical disk as a RAID 1+0 disk of 985GB.

BUT – when I hit ENTER to create the logical disk, I immediately get

==Configuration Error==
A fatal error has occurred.
Command: 51h
SCSI Status: 0000h
Command Status: 0004h

Pressing ESC just takes me back.

I've tried:

other known-good SATA disks (also detected properly by ORCA)
using different cables
using the other microSATA slot

All with the same result – and I'm stumped.

The microSATA fan-out cables are pukka HP ones – not cheapy ones off eBay.

Am at a loss… can anyone shed any light on what's wrong?

Thanks folks.

Best Answer

What is the setting on the "Battery Cache Override" selection in the ORCA? Try switching that on/off to see if that has any impact on your ability to create the logical drive.

Can you try configuring one drive as a RAID 0 to test the process? Depending on the OS you plan to use, you may be able to work with the HP utility once the OS is bootable. That may also give you an opportunity to update the firmware.

I don't recall if HP SmartStart CDs are bootable on non-HP hardware, but there is a small (80MB) bootable HP Smart Array - Array Configuration Utility CD available that provides a GUI to manage the controller.

Try those options...

Related Solutions

HP – Smart Array P600: Can’t Get Drives Recognized on Port 2i

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.

RAID-5 – Slow Parity Initialization on HP Smart Array P411

Well, it's a little odd. I don't see many cases of mixing HP Smart Array controllers and Dell servers. Either way, the parity initialization doesn't begin until I/O is started on the new logical drive. May I ask how you're monitoring this? Via the HP Array Configuration Utility webpage? Perhaps the HP ACU command-line tool? If you have the latter installed, can you provide the output of:

ctrl all show config detail

We'd like to see that output to see if there's a potential issue with one of your disks.

From the HP Smart Array manual:

Background RAID creation 
When you create a RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 6 logical drive, the Smart Array controller must build the 
logical drive within the array and initialize the parity before enabling certain advanced performance 
techniques. Parity initialization takes several hours to complete. The time it takes depends on the size of the 
logical drive and the load on the controller. The Smart Array controller creates the logical drive, initializing 
the parity whenever the controller is not busy. While the controller creates the logical drive, you can access 
the storage volume which has full fault tolerance.

Also, check the firmware on the Smart Array P411 controller. Do you have a cache module installed with a battery or flash backup? If not, you'll have other performance problems over time.

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