Hardware monitoring HP H220 controller

[crosdorff]

Hi,

We have a number off vSan servers with HP H220 controllers (LSI SAS2308 chip). This controller is on the official vSan HCL.

However nobody knows how to monitor the hardware state for controller and disks.

I'm able to get some information with the lsiprovider vib.

But I don't have an option to get the relation between disk identifier and drive bay.

I've support cases with VMware and HP, but both without success after one week.

The opinion is that a controller with pass-through is easier to work with. Initially it was...

Is there anyone who knows how to handle this properly?

[TobiasWillers]

Hi,

what exactly do you want to monitor?

Hardware failures, or performance data?

A controller failure should be detected by HP OneView or HP SIM and a disk failure, too.

With the OneView integration in vCenter you should see failures in the Web Client / C# Client.

[crosdorff]

Hi Tobias,

Thanks for your reply.

The H220 and it's disk are not visible in the ILO and are not visible on the Hardware Status tab. (Although the HP Cim provider is installed.)

We would like to be able to relate a naa.5xxxxx id to the correct drive-bay numbers.

On normal HP controllers you would use hpacucli or hpssacli for that purpose. But the H220 controller is not recognized.

[jesse_gardner]

crosdorff, have you had any further information on this?  We're getting a VSAN of DL380p Gen 8's set up, and were advised to procure H220 over the built-in p420i due to poor performance.

[crosdorff]

Hi Jesse,

Both VMware and HP has not been much of a help.

I've found two semi useful tools my self:

1: lsiprovider (CiM provider)

2: Sas2IRCU (cli program)

Both tools are available in on the lsi.com website.

The first one presents some information about the controller and its disks in the hardware status.

The second one is the most valuable. It provides information about the controller and the disks in the vmware cli:

~ # /opt/lsi/bin/sas2ircu LIST

LSI Corporation SAS2 IR Configuration Utility.

Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18)

Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.

Adapter Vendor Device SubSys  SubSys

Index Type ID      ID    Pci Address          Ven ID  Dev ID

----- ------------  ------  ------ -----------------    ------  ------

0     SAS2308_2 1000h    87h 00h:07h:00h:00h      1590h   0041h

SAS2IRCU: Utility Completed Successfully.

~ # /opt/lsi/bin/sas2ircu 0 DISPLAY

LSI Corporation SAS2 IR Configuration Utility.

Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18)

Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.

Read configuration has been initiated for controller 0

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Controller information

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Controller type : SAS2308_2

  BIOS version : 7.25.06.00

Firmware version : 15.10.07.00

Channel description : 1 Serial Attached SCSI

Initiator ID : 0

Maximum physical devices : 255

Concurrent commands supported : 8192

Slot : 2

Segment : 0

Bus : 7

Device : 0

Function : 0

  RAID Support : No

------------------------------------------------------------------------

IR Volume information

------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Physical device information

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Initiator at ID #0

Device is a Enclosure services device

Enclosure # : 2

  Slot # : 0

  SAS Address : 5001438-0-314c-aad3

State : Standby (SBY)

Manufacturer : HP

Model Number : Gen8 ServBP 25+2

Firmware Revision : 3.30

  Serial No : PC1L

GUID : N/A

Protocol : SAS

  Device Type : Enclosure services device

Device is a Hard disk

Enclosure # : 2

  Slot # : 1

  SAS Address : 5000c50-0-7e13-c73d

State : Ready (RDY)

  Size (in MB)/(in sectors) : 286102/585937499

Manufacturer : HP

  Model Number : EH0300FBQDD

Firmware Revision : HPD3

  Serial No :XXXXXXXXXXXXX

GUID : 5000c5007e13c73f

Protocol : SAS

  Drive Type : SAS_HDD

Device is a Hard disk

Enclosure #                             : 2

  Slot # : 2

  SAS Address : 5000c50-0-7e13-17b9

State : Ready (RDY)

  Size (in MB)/(in sectors) : 286102/585937499

  Manufacturer : HP

  Model Number : EH0300FBQDD

Firmware Revision : HPD3

  Serial No : XXXXXXXXXXXXXL

GUID : 5000c5007e1317bb

Protocol : SAS

  Drive Type : SAS_HDD

Even the locatorled function is working. That makes it possible to find a broken disk. (Although an error is printed turning on a led.)

I think the poor performance for the p420 is only in pass-through mode.The commando queue is much bigger than on the H220. And all the monitoring and cmd-line tools are working out off the box.

I remember some information from a HP consultant about the need for cache memory on the P420 to enable optimum bandwidth. Even if only used for single disk raid0 sets.

[Ramakrishna Kempaiah]

what version of the VMware software you are on ?

In vSphere 6.0 (whats new in VSAN) we have added lot of newer functionalities with respect to Disk Serviceability Improvements

(http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsan/VMware_Virtual_SAN_Whats_New.pdf)

w.r.t to monitoring HP 220 controller.  you need respective plugins (vib packages) on the ESXi host, if its not already installed.

Eg:  the controller

vmhba2  mpt2sas           link-n/a  sas.500605b006e0863a                    (0000:07:00.0) LSI Logic / Symbios Logic HP H220 Host Bus Adapter

# esxcli software vib list | grep -i lsu

lsu-hp-hpsa-plugin             1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2494585            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-03-04 

lsu-lsi-lsi-mr3-plugin         1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2405070            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-01-05 

lsu-lsi-lsi-msgpt3-plugin      1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2405070            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-01-05 

lsu-lsi-megaraid-sas-plugin    1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2405070            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-01-05 

lsu-lsi-mpt2sas-plugin         1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2405070            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-01-05 

lsu-lsi-mptsas-plugin          1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2405070            VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-01-05 

now using esxcli you can get the hardware informations such has

# esxcli storage core device physical get -d naa.5000c50064b93eb0

   Physical Location: enclosure 2, slot 11

# esxcli storage core device raid list -d naa.5000c50064b93eb0

Device with name naa.5000c50064b93eb0 is not a logical device   <=== since the disks i have is passthrough i don't get any raid information

# esxcli storage core device  set 

  -f|--force            Force the device state to be set.

  -L|--led-duration=<long>

                        Set the duration of LED in seconds. If not specified, use maximum duration that hardware can support.

  -l|--led-state=<str>  Set the disk LED state. Valid values are:

                            error: Turn on error LED.

                            locator: Turn on locator LED.

                            off: Turn off LED.

PS: These are exposed via UI interface too. you need to have proper plugins available/installed on the vSphere depending on the supported hardware/drivers

Thanks

[crosdorff]

Hi,

We are still on 5.5u2 with the latest patches.

Esxi 6.0 will not be GA before Q2.

The modules you mention are 6.0 only I suppose?

[Ramakrishna Kempaiah]

Yes, its for 6.0

Thanks,

[Aaron Kopel]

Reviving this thread a bit.

We are just getting started on setting up some vSAN nodes with HP DL380s. We are also noticing that the iLO is not showing disks or disk health (which prevents HPSIM or OneView from properly monitoring hardware health). Does anyone know if this still the case with a SmartArray with Passthrough (say the P440). We haven't tried the H240. Our current test setup is using the H220..

AK

[Magnusvr]

Any Updates on this? I have a customer with a VSAN and H220 controllers, and am not getting things like firmware version presented in the GUI, so I get a warning.

We have all the modules mentioned above, but most of them av labelled version 6.5.

Running 6.5u1 at the moment.

esxcli software vib list | grep -i lsu

lsu-hp-hpsa-plugin             2.0.0-12vmw.600.0.0.2494585          VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

lsu-lsi-lsi-mr3-plugin         1.0.0-10vmw.650.1.26.5969303         VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

lsu-lsi-lsi-msgpt3-plugin      1.0.0-7vmw.650.1.26.5969303          VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

lsu-lsi-megaraid-sas-plugin    1.0.0-8vmw.650.1.26.5969303          VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

lsu-lsi-mpt2sas-plugin         2.0.0-6vmw.650.1.26.5969303          VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

lsu-lsi-mptsas-plugin          1.0.0-1vmw.600.0.0.2494585           VMware     VMwareCertified   2017-09-06

Anything else I can do or try?

Thanks,

Magnus

[TheBobkin]

Hello magnusvr2,

Not positive what will be displayed when using passthrough but have you tried using the hpssacli command-set?:

kallesplayground.wordpress.com/useful-stuff/hp-smart-array-cli-commands-under-esxi/

You won't see firmware for controller using any esxcli (and for hpsa I don't believe you will see it in boot.gz like it does for lsi_mr3).

vSAN Configuration Assist is available in 6.6 and will show this:

docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.virtualsan.doc/GUID-8FAF9FC7-AF88-4ADB-9E27-398EBD552FF1.html

youtube.com/watch?v=ciWu2r3_1-U

Bob