Ok, I am a noob to unraid. What can I say?

 

i got all excited about the things UnRaid could do after speaking with a coworker. He had built his own box.

 

i went out and purchased an HP Proliant DL380 with a P410i raid controller and 8x1TB drives. It seemed like the way to go . . . Buy an actual "server". What do I know.

 

anyway, I can't get the install to even see the drives.

 

will unraid work with a P410i raid controller?

 

can anyone point the way?

 

thank you in advance!!!!!!

P410i should work, only thing is you will need to put each disk into its own Raid0/JBOD to pass it to the OS, is it's a full blown RAID card as opposed to an IT Mode LSI card which is a pure HBA

@jonnie.black and others may be able to comment more of the reliability of the card, but I don't see why it shouldn't work, just some SMART/ATA commands may not pass through to the disk depending how the controller feels about it



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You cant put the P410i in JBOD/IT mode, on my HP DL370 G6 I had to get a HP H220 SAS card, this is the exact listing I got mine from https://www.ebay.com/p/HP-638834-001-LSI-Sas9205-8i-6gb-SAS-Pci-e-HBA-Card-Host-Bus-Adapter-660088-001/1540401135?_trksid=p2047675.m4096.l9055

If you need more ports you can get this SAS Expander http://www.ebay.com/itm/468405-002-468405-001-HP-24-BAY-3GB-SAS-EXPANDER-CARD-W-4x-CABLE-/131875011137?epid=723600883&hash=item1eb45cfa41:g:PBoAAOSwq~tZXRnq

 

These are the exact ones I have.

Edited July 24, 20178 yr by AnnabellaRenee87

You cant put the P410i in RAID/JBOD/IT mode

 

Wrong. P410i can do single drive Raid-0's.

 

This will work for Software NAS's such as UnRaid or ZFS based systems

 

 

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1 minute ago, miniwalks said:

 

Wrong. P410i can do single drive Raid-0's.

 

This will work for Software NAS's such as UnRaid or ZFS based systems

 

 

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Half right, without the RAID key installed on the board you can only do 4 arrays, after that you have to have the key.

Oh you quoted me before I edited the RAID out of my post

Oh you quoted me before I edited the RAID out of my post [emoji14]

Yeah.
Also, latest firmware for the P410i will support 64 logical volumes with the 256mb cache installed


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Just now, miniwalks said:

Yeah.
Also, latest firmware for the P410i will support 64 logical volumes with the 256mb cache installed


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I just call the Cache Module a key because I'm too lazy to type it lol.

I had a problem with it being able to spin down the disk and unRAID wouldn't read the SMART data from the disk either on the latest firmware for it.

I just call the Cache Module a key because I'm too lazy to type it lol.
I had a problem with it being able to spin down the disk and unRAID wouldn't read the SMART data from the disk either on the latest firmware for it.

Yeah, as I said, I never used the P410i in an UnRaid setup, I used it for 5 days in a ZFS FreeNAS before I started to hate the card, and just started using H310/M1015's


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5 hours ago, miniwalks said:

P410i should work, only thing is you will need to put each disk into its own Raid0/JBOD to pass it to the OS, is it's a full blown RAID card as opposed to an IT Mode LSI card which is a pure HBA

Keep in mind if you go this route, then if the controller dies, or you want to move the disks to another controller, or whatever, unraid will see the disks as being incorrect. There are ways around it, but it's a pain, and can make data recovery more risky.

 

Much better to use a card that lets unraid manage the drives directly, that way you can migrate the drives and USB license key to any other system with a standard controller.

Keep in mind if you go this route, then if the controller dies, or you want to move the disks to another controller, or whatever, unraid will see the disks as being incorrect. There are ways around it, but it's a pain, and can make data recovery more risky.
 
Much better to use a card that lets unraid manage the drives directly, that way you can migrate the drives and USB license key to any other system with a standard controller.

These are some of the quirks I was talking about, along with the other parts like the powerdown control and smart not working 100%


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What a great user community forum!

 

Thank you all for your prompt responses and the great knowledge base.

 

Following the advice given in this thread, I did the following:

1- Using the P410i, I created 8 individual RAID 0 groups from the 8 installed HDs

2- I installed UnRaid and configured it with 2 failover drives and 6 data drives.

 

Questions:

1- The post from AnnabellaRenee87 referenced a SAS controller and a SAS expander. I believe these would accommodate the 8 drives and by pass the P410i, right?

2- The biggest liability to my configuration listed above is that I would not be able (without great difficulty) move my USB key and drives to another system? Using the SAS controller/expander would allow me to drop my drives on another box and UnRaid would recognize them? If so, that is a great feature. Given the form factor, the 2.5" drives, it would probably be pretty painful to do that, but I want to understand the system.

 

Again, my thanks to all your responses.

 

MM

If you want the ability to spin down the drives and access smart data, and have the ability to move them around "more" freely, then you need something like an h220 with the sas expander. This will allow you to access the drives JBOD vs. in a raid 0. If you only get the expander, then you're only creating more access ports for the P410i and it's raid configurations.

 

I use an h220 with an sas expander. It's less difficult to move disks vs raid-0 disks run through the P410i. I'll be moving an unRaid setup from a dl380 g6 to a 580 g7 in the coming days, using the h220&expander. All I need to do is keep track of disk locations and if they "move" on the first boot, correct the location/order. 

If you can pickup a H220 that would be the best bet for software raid control


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Hello,

 

what about enabling the HBA mode?  
 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj-gfHniI7qAhUqAWMBHVvGCjwQwqsBMAB6BAgKEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DJuaezJd4C3I%26vl%3Den&usg=AOvVaw026E21Y5ZMr-hnEeqpv_UW

 

this would turn raid off. 
 

-Thomas

 

P series in HBA mode isn't all that great. there are issues (see my sig.)

Get an H220 or H240 controller to replace it. (also see my sig.)

they're inexpensive and will serve you better.

For those still trying to figure out a solution to the issue of using a P410i on a G7, I found the solution here: https://medium.com/@terryjx/enable-it-mode-on-hp-smart-array-p410i-raid-card-on-hp-dl380-gen7-servers-4e827eeb78ca

 

Basically you have to compile a little tool to force the controller into HBA mode, then patch the kernel to see the raw drives. Work like a charm on Ubuntu 18 and 20 LTS.

Good luck

16 hours ago, netadvanced said:

then patch the kernel to see the raw drives

Because of the way Unraid is packaged and distributed, I STRONGLY advise against going through all this work to get a p410 running in Unraid. Every time a major update is released, you will have to go through the same work all over again, and hope it still works, otherwise your drives won't show up.

thank you to everyone in this thread.  i'm new to Unraid and purchased the pro.  i'm also new to building servers as i'm coming from desktop environment. i have the DL380 G7 with its disc storage array partner that i want to hook up.  i will have all my data on the array and then hook it to the server.  i do however have 2 backplanes 8drives on each for a total 16 on the server itself i'd like to make use of, so i'm currently dealing with this JBOD issue in order to have Unraid do what its supposed to do. 

 

people are saying go w/the H220/240 and a SAS expander to get the best performance and is the best solution.  is this true because others are using LSI HBA to get the job done?  i would think either way i need the sas expander for my situation.  I am also understanding i would need to flash whatever controller card i get in order for it to work properly? if so, can someone point me in the right direction for the firmware i would need to flash maybe w/ a tutorial?  im assuming i hook the sas expander directly to the controller once everything is setup and the drives to the internal ports on the sas expander and the array to the external ports on the controller. 

 

i found another thread on here that says they used sas2flash to get the job done. https://forums.unraid.net/topic/79188-difference-between-hp-h220-card-models/ is this correct?

 

Side note, can someone explain to me what a RAID key is and how do i find it or get it so i can back it up properly in case i need it in the future.? would it be under manage license in the RAID config menu? 

 

i'm new so im trying to get a real understanding for this, so all advice and education is welcome and very much appreciated.

 

 

Update to my question above about a tutorial and firmwares, etc.  Friend gave me this cool guide that maybe can help someone else out here.

 

https://www.truenas.com/community/resources/detailed-newcomers-guide-to-crossflashing-lsi-9211-9300-9305-9311-9400-94xx-hba-and-variants.54/

 

 

UPDATE: 

For anyone wondering what i did for my HP DL380-G7, read below.

 

• First i watched this video by Art of Server. https://youtu.be/hTbKzQZk21w
• I bought 2 different raid controller cards based on his video off eBay (both came in half height brackets; so double check what you need as far as full height or half height).

  • SuperMicro-AOC-S2308L-L8E (8 port internal PCI-E card) - used this for my internal drives

  • LSI-HP-SAS9200-8E (8 port external PCI-E card) - used this for my disc array

• both came in IT mode already, so i didnt even need to flash the firmware.
• server seems to be as noisy and hot as i expect, but i will update this post if anything changes over time.

any questions let me know i can try to help.

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 20214 yr by sirhotness