HP ML 350e G8 / Smart Array B120i

[HansPeter3]

Hi,

anyone knows if ESXi supporting the raid configuration from the Smart Array B120i.

I am unsure if the B120i is a plain software raid controller, sadly I am not found anything on the web about it.

Thanks

Hans

[a_p_]

Can't tell you for sure. The controller isn't listed in the VMware HCL, but at least HP claims support for "VMWare version 4.1 u2 and 5.0        u1"

see http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14343_div/14343_div.html

Andé

[Josh26]

There's an ESXi 5.0 driver here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=au&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=5293146&prodNameId=5293151&swEnvOID=4115&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-4dcf5a79ae4c45659e9300d14e

I can't find anything definite about whether it's bundled in 5.1 or whether it just won't work.

As with all Smartarray cards, I wouldn't recommend it without the BBWC, or newer FBWC.

[RomeoEcho62]

I too am trying to get ESXi 5.1 to run on an HP server with a Smart Array B120i controller.

HP seems to have a KB article that says that these controllers are generating errors in all versions of vSphere past v4 that relate to being unable to write kernal dumps to local storage.  They do not mention that the need for the kernal dump is because ESXi 5.1, as it ships IS NOT COMPATABLE with the  Smart Array B120i controller.  It crashes every time it trys to load.  Every time.

The work around of course, it to have the time and the resources to create a custom image with the driver that does work with this controller.  Nice!

The HP web site is full of products that contain this controller and list themselves as "VMWare Compatable".  Of course, what they do not tell you is that it is only compatable with VSphere from two or three versions ago.

Do not buy ANY HP servers that use the B120i Smart Array controller if you intend to install ESXi 5.1.

Way to go HP!!  I think I will be calling Consumer and Coporate Affairs over that bit of false advertising.

RE

[peetz]

According to http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/vmware/supportmatrix/hpvmware.html the ML350e Gen8 is supported with ESXi 5.0 U1/U2 and ESXi 5.1, but you need to use the HP Customized ISOs for installation.

Have you tried these or were you using the vanilla VMware ISO?

You can find download links for the HP customized ISOs and other useful HP stuff on my HP & VMware Links page at http://www.v-front.de/p/hp-vmware-links.html.

- Andreas

[RomeoEcho62]

Thank You Andreas :smileyhappy:

Your help is greatly appreciated. Yes, I was using the stock VMware ISO for my install. I have never had to go to a custom image before. I have built a couple of these over the years and I guess I just got lucky. The stock images always worked.

Rolf

[knotbeerdan]

Any word on if this controller has successfully been used in 5.1? I am looking to purchase one of these servers for a SMB, but not too sure if I want to purchase a hardware raid card as well.

[RomeoEcho62]

Hello,

It turns out that the VMware hosts a few manufacturer specific sub-web sites on its primary web site.

These hardware manufacturer specific sub-web sites are maintained by the hardware manufacturers. They are used to distribute versions of the vSphere install image that are pre-loaded with the manufactures hardware drivers. A current list of all of the recent versions of vSphere and all of the cross referenced vendor hardware compatibility is kept there as well. If your box is supported, this is where you will find the install image that will work with it.

The image I downloaded from there worked perfectly on my DL 320e G8 server with the B120i controller on board.

I am sure if you go to wmware.com and do a search for HP, you should find it.

[knotbeerdan]

I am interested to hear about the disk speeds you are seeing using that controller. I will likely use a P400 controller with battery backed cache as I am running one of those cards in a DL380 G5 starwind server (iSCSI target) at another location and even though I am using 4 seagate maxtor 500GB drives in a RAID 5 the speeds are respectable. Of course I would like the read speeds to be faster, though I cant really complain as our main bottleneck is the network speed.

RomeoEcho62 wrote:

Hello,

It turns out that the VMware hosts a few manufacturer specific sub-web sites on its primary web site.

Can you give an example? I use the Custom images from vmware to install, could this be what you are talking about?

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=285&downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.1.0-GA-10SEP2012

[knotbeerdan]

Not sure if you have tried it yet, but I just got our ml310e gen8 today and the disks are detected independently instead of the raid volume.

[RomeoEcho62]

Go to this download:

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=HP-ESXI-5.1.0-GA-10SEP2012&productId=285

This ISO file will create a CD that contains the VMware installer that INCLUDES the HP controller drivers. With the proper drivers preloaded into the install image, ESXi will properly detect your RAID volumes.

[knotbeerdan]

That is the image I used to install ESXi 5.1

Do you have the optional battery unit or anything extra?

I have a RAID 1+0 array with 2 WD RE4 1TB drives and as I said in my previous post, when I created a datastore in the vsphere client the four drives appeared independently rather than the raid volume I created.

EDIT - My storage view when adding storage

Luckly in my case I have a Smart Array P400 w/ battery backup and 512MB of memory on the way so I wont have to worry about this.... As long as the server boots with the card installed.

And I must note that I am running a HP Proliant ML310e Gen8 server

[Intel233]

Has anyone tried the latest custom ISO from HP with Vmware 6?  I would like to know before I buy the HP ProLiant ML310e G8 4U v2 if I can use the B120i and HP Intelligent Provisioning (2 X 1TB drives in RAID 1) that Vmware 6 will install.

[cykVM]

There were several reports that the integrated driver (hpvsa) version -92 in customized HP ISO is somewhat buggy, same apllies for version -90 which was included with 5.5 U2 customized ISO.

The 9x driver versions seem to create massive performance issues. So -88 version of hpvsa driver was recommended. See: Re: Very slow acces to datastores on HP MIcroserver Gen8. Can't edit System Resource Reservation with vSphere client.

I had similar issues with a B320i controller on upgrade from 5.5 U1 to U2, which installed the -90 hpvsa driver.