The original post states that an HP Service Pack, and thus a license, is
required to put the controller into HBA mode. Here is a legal way to do
it without requiring the service pack disk.
I recently purchased a DL360e GEN8 with a P420 controller from EBAY.
Here is the method I used:
1) Install the latest system BIOS. Not strictly necessary for this
procedure, but I always prefer to have the latest BIOS on a system
before upgrading RAID firmware.
HP DL360e G8 BIOS Link:
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_1ac4f36c578b45598a7a6e7098#tab2
2) The P420 firmware can be updated to the latest version without an HP
Service Pack disk using the windows online flash method. This requires
the host to be running a Windows OS for the flash procedure. Since my
hypervisor is Linux I installed a small Windows 10 installation for this
purpose. You don't need to activate Windows for this purpose. I deleted
the Windows partition after upgrading the controller firmware. I
couldn't find a method to upgrade the P420 firmware directly from Linux.
I'd be interested to hear if that's possible.
Link to the P420 firmware install image:
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_71b2939cd1d84aada5afece82b
2.1) I have since located a Linux version of the P420 firmware update tool. So no Windows required
for updating.
Link to the latest firmware: 8.32
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_42b6aa58956a438aa85bd73d0f
3) The ssacli command referenced in the original post can be downloaded
separately from HP. Download any Linux live USB image of your choosing.
Place the ssacli command on the USB disk. Boot the USB disk and issue
the ssacli hbamode= command as stated above.
HP ssacli downlink link:
https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=MTX_521fc533ba8f468f9ad9db20e4
I hope someone finds these steps useful.
Wayne