Did a search for this controller and mostly found initial setup issues. However i have unraid up and running on this card, it is built into my DL380p Gen8 machine. My question is i have noticed the drives are not hot swappable with this controller and i must shut down the whole machine to swap or add drives which involves some work done in the HP raid array utility. Is there a way to make the 420i hot swappable with unraid? And if not, will getting a HP240 controller make it hot swappable?

You are stopping the array?  A Quote from the Manual:

 

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NOTE: In cases where devices are added/replaced/removed, etc., the instructions say "Power down" ... "Power up". If your server's hardware is designed for hot/warm plug, Power cycling is not necessary and Unraid is designed specifically to handle this. All servers built by LimeTech since the beginning are like this: no power cycle necessary.

 

And then for one type of operation the array :

 

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The procedure is:

1. Stop the array.
2. Power down the server.
3. Install your new disk(s).
4. Power up the server.
5. Assign the new storage device(s) to a disk slot(s) using the Unraid webGui.
6. Start the array.

 

RAID controllers are NOT recommended for many more reasons than just the one you are having. 

 

Even without RAID controller no point in hot swapping array or pool disks since Unraid won't do anything with the new disk until you assign it, and you have to stop the array to make assignment changes. 

See if you can flash that controller to IT mode

5 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

You are stopping the array?  A Quote from the Manual:

 

 

And then for one type of operation the array :

 

even with stopping the array in unraid the "do not eject" led is lit on all of the drive caddies.

9 minutes ago, trurl said:

RAID controllers are NOT recommended for many more reasons than just the one you are having. 

 

Even without RAID controller no point in hot swapping array or pool disks since Unraid won't do anything with the new disk until you assign it, and you have to stop the array to make assignment changes. 

stopping the array is a given, however the goal is to eject the drive and swap without powering off the machine. This is how this controller normally works. However with unraid you have to set all drives to raid 0 on the controller itself so unraid can see the drives. This is what i believe is the cause of not being able to eject the drives while on.

Edited August 7, 20223 yr by Uaeladen

14 hours ago, Uaeladen said:

you have to set all drives to raid 0 on the controller itself

14 hours ago, trurl said:

RAID controllers are NOT recommended for many more reasons than just the one you are having

14 hours ago, trurl said:

See if you can flash that controller to IT mode

 

 

 

Here are some problems encountered with RAID controllers.

 

RAID controller may not:

• pass the drive serial number to identify the disk. And if there are changes, the identification the controller passes can change, so Unraid can't know how disks are supposed to be assigned.
• pass SMART report, so Unraid can't monitor drive health.
• present the drives with their standard size, which can make it difficult to replace a disk since replacements must be same size or larger, and no data disk can be larger than any parity disk.
• allow drives to spin down. Unraid can spin down disks that are not in use, saving power and wear.

Maybe others I don't remember right now.