# RAID Controller on a Budget - HP P400i



## SectorNine50

So, I suppose you could call this a review or build log of sorts, but it's more of a story and with a happy ending.

I recently decided that I needed to get my home server off the software RAID and onto a real RAID card. The problem being that I really didn't want to break the bank. This being the case, I figured used would be a good way to go-- off to eBay! I stumbled around looking at what was available, filtering through the cheap "RAID" cards and wincing at the uber expensive ones, when I stumbled upon the 'ol HP P400.

The P400 has had a rough history; I should know, we have a few of them here at work. They have a reputation of painfully slow performance in RAID 5, and rightfully so, they were _so_ painfully slow. However, one day I was checking on the servers that had those cards in them and realized that they were very much overdue for a firmware upgrade. They were sitting on 5.1x and HP had released 7.xx not too long ago. Figured why not, can't make them slower than they are, and proceeded to download the firmware and upgrade the cards.

After the upgrade, these suckers were _fast._ Back-up speeds were at least 2-3 times faster, and the network was now the bottleneck instead of the controller. With wide eyes, I scanned over the Firmware history, and discovered that around version 5.2x, HP had found the source of the performance problems with RAID 5/6 configurations, and fixed it.

So back to my home server. It seemed these cards still don't seem to be valued very high, being proprietary cards and having a poor history. So, as an experiment, I grabbed this guy for $35 (was amazed that he accepted my offer, honestly):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261097455277?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

When I received the card, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had come with a 512MB cache stick instead of the advertised 256MB. Lucky me! However, I had forgotten that they came with the slim PCI brackets. That lead me to buy one of these:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/200798138321?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

So, now I'm into this decent RAID card with battery backup for only $46 so far, but still needed a SAS/SATA cable. So I visited Newegg and grabbed one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812228053

That was almost as expensive as the RAID card it's self...! Brought the total up to $77.99; a number I am still very pleased with. Looking back, I wish I had looked for a 90 degree adapter, since the way the ports come out of the bottom of the card are a little awkward, but live and learn.

My home server is running the ProxMox hypervisor. It's a decent hypervisor that utilizes KVM in the Linux kernel. It has a nice web interface and has the ability to do OpenVZ as well (I ran into performance issues with OpenVZ, so I avoid it). The P400i is attached to three 7200RPM 500GB SATA drives running in RAID 5 for capacity. Each virtual machine is running off of a QCOW drive, and the Windows server I did the testing on is attached to the drive using the IDE interface.

After I got the card, I needed to download the offline configuration tool from HP's website, as well as the offline firmware upgrade utility. The card didn't seem to care that it was running in a non-HP box, and configured and upgraded without a hitch.

To wrap this up, I am actually very pleasantly surprised with it's performance! Previously, I had long load times and database queries were slower than hell. I had started to regret virtualizing, and had wished I had just left the server running straight Windows Server 2003. Here is the CrystalDiskMark results from within the Windows Server 2003 VM:



Just for a comparison, here is my work laptop; a measly 2.5" 5400RPM 160GB drive:



And that's my story! I don't know that I have the best card out there, but I'm certainly pleased with the results. A stand-alone RAID card with on-board cache with battery backup for $80? I'm happy









Let me know what you guys think! Was there a better way to go about this?


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## 350 Malibu

For $80, I wouldn't complain!


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## killabytes

Excellent post. I'm glad to see some actual sever info in here for once!

I've toyed with the idea of moving to a HP device.

Thanks!


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *350 Malibu*
> 
> For $80, I wouldn't complain!


Absolutely! No complaints here! I'm just glad to see this kind of performance from SATA drives. Maybe some day I'll make the leap to a few SAS drives and _really_ take advantage of this card.








Quote:


> Originally Posted by *killabytes*
> 
> Excellent post. I'm glad to see some actual sever info in here for once!
> I've toyed with the idea of moving to a HP device.
> Thanks!


Glad to help!









I actually really recommend this card once they are upgraded. The thing has been solid and the HP interface makes configuring everything very, very easy. I haven't researched much, but I know there is an online configuration tool for Windows, so I imagine that there is one for Linux as well (HP's Linux server support is really pretty good).


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## Dream Killer

which firmware did you use? i tried this about a year ago and the card didn't recognize any drive.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Dream Killer*
> 
> which firmware did you use? i tried this about a year ago and the card didn't recognize any drive.


I believe it was 7.22


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## utnorris

The only downside to this card, just like the PERC 5/6i cards, is that to my knowledge they do not support any drives past 2TB, otherwise they use an LSI 1078 chip, same as the PERC's, and are cheap as can be. By the way, you can get cables on Ebay or Amazon for around $10 if you don't mind waiting a few weeks for them to get here from China.


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## tycoonbob

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *utnorris*
> 
> The only downside to this card, just like the PERC 5/6i cards, is that to my knowledge they do not support any drives past 2TB, otherwise they use an LSI 1078 chip, same as the PERC's, and are cheap as can be. By the way, you can get cables on Ebay or Amazon for around $10 if you don't mind waiting a few weeks for them to get here from China.


Yup. Controllers that use the LSI SAS 2008 and newer RoC can support drives larger than 2TB. The Dell series started using the LSI SAS 2108 in the PERC H720 series controllers, which are the first Dell controller to support larger than 2TB drives.

The HP P400i doesn't use an LSI RoC, and instead uses a good ol 440 PowerPC Proc, which is comparable to any controller running the LSI SAS 1078 RoC. The P400i should be able to support 3TB drives with a firmware flash...

From HP Support Document:
-HP Smart Array Controller Firmware Version 5.06 is the minimum firmware version required to support 3TB or larger HP SAS/SATA hard drives attached to an HP Smart Array P212, P410/P410i, P411, or P812 Controller.
-HP Smart Array Controller Firmware Version 5.32 is the minimum firmware version required to support 3TB or larger HP SAS/SATA hard drives attached to an HP Smart Array P711m or P712m Controller.

The fact that this says "...to support 3TB or larger *HP* SAS/SATA hard drives..." makes me wonder if this will work with any drive or not.


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## utnorris

I didn't realize there was a difference between the P400 and the P400i. Good to know they can support larger drives. I wonder if it has to be in a HP system to flash it or if it can be done from any MB.


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## Deeeebs

There is no difference in the P400 and the P400i other than the P400i comes "integrated" in to the system like in a blade series server.

If the system recognizes the card then you should be able to flash it from that system.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *tycoonbob*
> 
> Yup. Controllers that use the LSI SAS 2008 and newer RoC can support drives larger than 2TB. The Dell series started using the LSI SAS 2108 in the PERC H720 series controllers, which are the first Dell controller to support larger than 2TB drives.
> The HP P400i doesn't use an LSI RoC, and instead uses a good ol 440 PowerPC Proc, which is comparable to any controller running the LSI SAS 1078 RoC. The P400i should be able to support 3TB drives with a firmware flash...
> From HP Support Document:
> -HP Smart Array Controller Firmware Version 5.06 is the minimum firmware version required to support 3TB or larger HP SAS/SATA hard drives attached to an HP Smart Array P212, P410/P410i, P411, or P812 Controller.
> -HP Smart Array Controller Firmware Version 5.32 is the minimum firmware version required to support 3TB or larger HP SAS/SATA hard drives attached to an HP Smart Array P711m or P712m Controller.
> The fact that this says "...to support 3TB or larger *HP* SAS/SATA hard drives..." makes me wonder if this will work with any drive or not.


They work with any drive, I am using non-HP drives...









I've learned that Dell and HP only "certify" drives. From what I've witnessed at work, only their SAN hardware actually requires you use one of their specific drives.

The funny thing is, the BIOS's they flash simply tell the device that they've been certified, beyond that, they are exactly the same as the drives you can buy at the store.


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## xstefanx

Thanks to this post I bought a P400 last night. Offered a guy 40 for a car with a 512 BBWC and battery and he accepted. Bought a cable to run from the card to 4 sata's for about 7 bucks from a US seller(or at least it shipped from the states). Being 47 bucks in, including shipping, I'm pretty happy about the purchase. It should all be here by next weekend.

I plan on using this, for the time being, on a windows 7 machine. I have plans to eventually build a new machine, and at that point this machine will be swapped to a purely server use, so will either get win server or a linux variety.

I was wondering if you could link to the downloads you used. I just want to find the correct firmware, and not have to hunt around on the HP site for the right one. Their site tends to be a bit of a mess IMO.

I also wanted to ask if anyone knew which driver I should use, or if Win 7 will just recognize and install the proper driver for it. I know people have used the Windows server 2003 driver for XP but I haven't seen anyone say which they have used on windows 7. Any thoughts?

Oh, and other computer information in case anyone is wanting to know. Just bought a new MOBO, Biostar TA790GX 128M, will be using an Athlon 64 X2 5400+ for the time being, but with the new board I plan to upgrade to the Phenom II X4 965 as soon as I put together the cash. The current plan is to use 3 st2000dl003 drives in raid 5 and get a fourth before too long.


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## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *xstefanx*
> 
> Thanks to this post I bought a P400 last night. Offered a guy 40 for a car with a 512 BBWC and battery and he accepted. Bought a cable to run from the card to 4 sata's for about 7 bucks from a US seller(or at least it shipped from the states). Being 47 bucks in, including shipping, I'm pretty happy about the purchase. It should all be here by next weekend.
> 
> I plan on using this, for the time being, on a windows 7 machine. I have plans to eventually build a new machine, and at that point this machine will be swapped to a purely server use, so will either get win server or a linux variety.
> 
> I was wondering if you could link to the downloads you used. I just want to find the correct firmware, and not have to hunt around on the HP site for the right one. Their site tends to be a bit of a mess IMO.
> 
> I also wanted to ask if anyone knew which driver I should use, or if Win 7 will just recognize and install the proper driver for it. I know people have used the Windows server 2003 driver for XP but I haven't seen anyone say which they have used on windows 7. Any thoughts?
> 
> Oh, and other computer information in case anyone is wanting to know. Just bought a new MOBO, Biostar TA790GX 128M, will be using an Athlon 64 X2 5400+ for the time being, but with the new board I plan to upgrade to the Phenom II X4 965 as soon as I put together the cash. The current plan is to use 3 st2000dl003 drives in raid 5 and get a fourth before too long.


I hope this card works for you. HP cards are pretty finiky about which boards they will actually work in. I got lucky and was able to run a P410 on my EVGA P55 micro SLi board. I tried a newer P420 on that same board with a 2GB and a 1GB cache card and it just wont boot.

The HP site is actually pretty easy to use. Let me grab the links for you... Yes the Windows 2008 R2 drivers should work for you.

Firmware

Driver


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## xstefanx

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> I hope this card works for you. HP cards are pretty finiky about which boards they will actually work in. I got lucky and was able to run a P410 on my EVGA P55 micro SLi board. I tried a newer P420 on that same board with a 2GB and a 1GB cache card and it just wont boot.
> 
> The HP site is actually pretty easy to use. Let me grab the links for you... Yes the Windows 2008 R2 drivers should work for you.
> 
> Firmware
> 
> Driver


Much appreciated. The card comes in tonight, and the cable is shipping through USPS so I don't have much tracking info on it, but I'll be sure to post back here with my results.


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## xstefanx

Board came in today. Got it installed on my Biostar TA790GX 128M with no problems. Windows auto installed a driver for me, but it was 6.12.x.x so I used the link you provided to update it. Firmware that cam on it was 7.09 or so, so I upgraded that with your link as well. Grabbed the array configuration utility and checked everything out and it looks like it should be ready to go once my cables get here. Excited to get it all set up.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *xstefanx*
> 
> Board came in today. Got it installed on my Biostar TA790GX 128M with no problems. Windows auto installed a driver for me, but it was 6.12.x.x so I used the link you provided to update it. Firmware that cam on it was 7.09 or so, so I upgraded that with your link as well. Grabbed the array configuration utility and checked everything out and it looks like it should be ready to go once my cables get here. Excited to get it all set up.


Glad to hear it worked without trouble!









I'd honestly be pretty surprised if the P400 series cards didn't work in all motherboards that support PCI-E RAID cards. HP used that card in everything ranging from workstations to servers, so it was a pretty flexible card. If I recall correctly, it's very closely based upon an LSI card.


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## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SectorNine50*
> 
> Glad to hear it worked without trouble!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'd honestly be pretty surprised if the P400 series cards didn't work in all motherboards that support PCI-E RAID cards. HP used that card in everything ranging from workstations to servers, so it was a pretty flexible card. If I recall correctly, it's very closely based upon an LSI card.


Stil.. HP cards are more proprietary then other off the shelf cards. They are made to work WITHIN HP products. Thats not to say they will not work on other boards. The P410 in my server at home on my EVGA board takes longer to POST then it does in a HP server. I am betting that is because it it looking for the health agents and other HP proprietary stuff on the board to communicate with. Using any HP product especially a SAS card on a consumer board can be hit or miss with getting it working. I am in the process of trying to figure out why the P420 will not work but the P410 will on my board.


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## keen81

Thanks a million for this advice!

I was stuck at 21MB/s write performance with this P400i-card, which is just awful! I followed your advice and upgraded the firmware from like 1.18 to 7.24(!!!). At first, it wouldn't give me the performance boost you promised, but after installing HP Array Configuration Utility and enabling all write-caches etc, I know get a flying 239MB/s write performance!!! Joined this forum just to tell you that.

Btw, I am running Server 2012, and I had to disable signature checking of drivers at Windows Server 2012 boot to be able to install the latest driver 2008 R2-drivers.


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## keen81

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *keen81*
> 
> Thanks a million for this advice!
> 
> I was stuck at 21MB/s write performance with this P400i-card, which is just awful! I followed your advice and upgraded the firmware from like 1.18 to 7.24(!!!). At first, it wouldn't give me the performance boost you promised, but after installing HP Array Configuration Utility and enabling all write-caches etc, I know get a flying 239MB/s write performance!!! Joined this forum just to tell you that.
> 
> Btw, I am running Server 2012, and I had to disable signature checking of drivers at Windows Server 2012 boot to be able to install the latest driver 2008 R2-drivers.


And I am using RAID5 with 4 HDDs, which is quite relevant in terms of possible performance. The RAID-card now is simply FLYING!


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## killabytes

What is everyone running for a battery?

I bought a HP P400 a while back and the battery it came with was DOA. I then purchased 2. One was DOA.

I did disassemble the battery and found it's replaceable with an off-the-shelf type. I made a YouTube video on how to disassemble it. I'm STILL waiting for the batteries to come from the US.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *keen81*
> 
> Thanks a million for this advice!
> 
> I was stuck at 21MB/s write performance with this P400i-card, which is just awful! I followed your advice and upgraded the firmware from like 1.18 to 7.24(!!!). At first, it wouldn't give me the performance boost you promised, but after installing HP Array Configuration Utility and enabling all write-caches etc, I know get a flying 239MB/s write performance!!! Joined this forum just to tell you that.
> 
> Btw, I am running Server 2012, and I had to disable signature checking of drivers at Windows Server 2012 boot to be able to install the latest driver 2008 R2-drivers.


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *keen81*
> 
> And I am using RAID5 with 4 HDDs, which is quite relevant in terms of possible performance. The RAID-card now is simply FLYING!


Whoa, you had some serious gains! Glad I could help!









Quote:


> Originally Posted by *killabytes*
> 
> What is everyone running for a battery?
> 
> I bought a HP P400 a while back and the battery it came with was DOA. I then purchased 2. One was DOA.
> 
> I did disassemble the battery and found it's replaceable with an off-the-shelf type. I made a YouTube video on how to disassemble it. I'm STILL waiting for the batteries to come from the US.


When you say what is everyone running for a battery, what do you mean? I wasn't aware that there were different battery models for this card.

I'm running the battery that came with the card, seems to have been doing fine so far!


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## killabytes

The factory battery is no longer produced. You can only get old stock. So I was implying that has anyone else modded theirs like I indicated in the video.

I bought 3 batteries and 2 were dead. Just saying.


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## Deeeebs

that should use the same battery as the p410 cards just a different cable connecting it to the cache.


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## mikedegan78

I have two of these P400 raid cards. Both are recognized at boot, and no matter was brand I have tried, the p400 will not recognize the discs. I have updated the firmware to 7.24(b) and still no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions?


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mikedegan78*
> 
> I have two of these P400 raid cards. Both are recognized at boot, and no matter was brand I have tried, the p400 will not recognize the discs. I have updated the firmware to 7.24(b) and still no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions?


Are you using the offline configuration tool at boot or the Windows configuration tool to assign disks?


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## mikedegan78

During boot the P400 shows it its initializing, then shows no logical drives and continues to boot windows normally. Once in windows, I try the windows configuration tool, but it again says there are no logical drives attached. I have tried pressing F8 while the P400 is initializing, but I am unable to get into its bios. I have tried various manufactures from 80GB to 2TB, SATA and SAS, but no drives seen. I know the breakout cables are good, since they work fine on other controllers.


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## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mikedegan78*
> 
> During boot the P400 shows it its initializing, then shows no logical drives and continues to boot windows normally. Once in windows, I try the windows configuration tool, but it again says there are no logical drives attached. I have tried pressing F8 while the P400 is initializing, but I am unable to get into its bios. I have tried various manufactures from 80GB to 2TB, SATA and SAS, but no drives seen. I know the breakout cables are good, since they work fine on other controllers.


The problem you are having is that the P400 is a proprietary card and MADE and only TESTED for HP motherboards/servers. You may have luck with a different MB its hit or miss. Have you tried different cables? The other controller port on the card? What motherboard are you using?

You want to see a working combination with the P410? Check out Blackbox in my sig...


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *mikedegan78*
> 
> During boot the P400 shows it its initializing, then shows no logical drives and continues to boot windows normally. Once in windows, I try the windows configuration tool, but it again says there are no logical drives attached. I have tried pressing F8 while the P400 is initializing, but I am unable to get into its bios. I have tried various manufactures from 80GB to 2TB, SATA and SAS, but no drives seen. I know the breakout cables are good, since they work fine on other controllers.


Try downloading the offline configuration utility. Did you buy the card second-hand? I suppose it's possible that it's a busted unit.

Hopefully this question doesn't offend, but I suppose it's worth asking just in case: you have power to the drives, correct? The plugs look like they cover both the power and the SATA ports, but you still have to plug in power into the back of the plugs.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> The problem you are having is that the P400 is a proprietary card and MADE and only TESTED for HP motherboards/servers. You may have luck with a different MB its hit or miss. Have you tried different cables? The other controller port on the card? What motherboard are you using?
> 
> You want to see a working combination with the P410? Check out Blackbox in my sig...


I don't really buy that, I can't imagine I got lucky on 3 separate motherboards, one of which was AMD while the other two were Intel. That isn't including the Dell desktop at work I have one of these P400i's in.

It's a generic LSI RAID card that HP rebranded, it doesn't have any BIOS or hardware restrictions (as long as the motherboard supports PCI-E storage devices). They added extensions to the card's BIOS to work with iLO, but it doesn't keep it from working if iLO doesn't exist. HP only *supports* it in HP stuff, but the OEM supplier doesn't care what you put it in.


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## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SectorNine50*
> 
> Try downloading the offline configuration utility. Did you buy the card second-hand? I suppose it's possible that it's a busted unit.
> 
> *Hopefully this question doesn't offend, but I suppose it's worth asking just in case: you have power to the drives, correct? The plugs look like they cover both the power and the SATA ports, but you still have to plug in power into the back of the plugs.*
> I don't really buy that, I can't imagine I got lucky on 3 separate motherboards, one of which was AMD while the other two were Intel. That isn't including the Dell desktop at work I have one of these P400i's in.
> 
> It's a generic LSI RAID card that HP rebranded, it doesn't have any BIOS or hardware restrictions (as long as the motherboard supports PCI-E storage devices). They added extensions to the card's BIOS to work with iLO, but it doesn't keep it from working if iLO doesn't exist. HP only *supports* it in HP stuff, but the OEM supplier doesn't care what you put it in.


I ummm happen to work there (HP) in diags testing... Just because you says its an LSI board does not mean that HP hasn't worked with LSI to make tweaks for our own model.

If what you are saying is the case tell me why the P420 does not work in the SAME machine as the P410 that I have....

You will find there are many things that HP touches that will not work on a consumer motherboard compared to the generic counterpart.

There is a good post over on [H] about running the HP smart array cards in generic motherboards.. Might want to check it out.

BTW I am not saying stuff WONT work just not all, you will just have to find configurations that work.

Also the bolded part above all depends on what break out cable from the card he is using.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> I ummm happen to work there (HP) in diags testing... Just because you says its an LSI board does not mean that HP hasn't worked with LSI to make tweaks for our own model.
> 
> If what you are saying is the case tell me why the P420 does not work in the SAME machine as the P410 that I have....
> 
> You will find there are many things that HP touches that will not work on a consumer motherboard compared to the generic counterpart.
> 
> There is a good post over on [H] about running the HP smart array cards in generic motherboards.. Might want to check it out.
> 
> BTW I am not saying stuff WONT work just not all, you will just have to find configurations that work.
> 
> Also the bolded part above all depends on what break out cable from the card he is using.


I'm speaking from research I have done on the P400 specifically. The only changes made to the BIOS to make it an HP "BIOS" are hooks into iLO, if it exists (and even then, the iLO integration is _really_ lame on the P400). There isn't a reason why it wouldn't work in a motherboard unless the motherboard itself does not support PCI-E RAID cards. If you have further information on the changes made to the LSI chipset on the P400, I'm all ears, I just haven't found any information that says otherwise.

My motherboard isn't "tricking" the device into working, it's fully aware that it isn't running in an HP ProLiant server:


If you have a link to the forum, I'd appreciate it. There are hundreds of forum posts out there about different HP RAID cards.

In regards to the 420, I don't have any information about it since I haven't done any research on that card. It appears to be quite a bit newer than the 400's we're talking about.


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## Deeeebs

To each their own.. I am not going to do research on google and link you to it. You have a pc and internet. You have your personal experiences and I have mine.

And I never said anything about "tricking" the machine. And I was also talking about p410s not just the p400. And there are more then just iLO hooks... There are health agent hooks and all sorts of stuff.


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## jibesh

Just because the motherboard has a pcie slot, its silly to think any pcie device will work on it. The bios of each of the motherboards work differently and this can cause certain pcie devices not to work or work properly.

But that doesn't appear to be the case here since he is able see the P400 during POST.

What type of breakout cable are you using? Reverse or forward? Are the cables connecting directly to the drives or through a backplane?


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## Deeeebs

I will conduct a test here for you. Since I was planning on taking down my esxi box and playing with hyper-v anyways.

I will be using Commander Herbie in my sig.

I will test the following cards on the Sabertooth x58:

P400 256MB with battery
P410 512MB with battery
P420 1GB with capacitor
P420 2GB with capacitor

Will report back when I get a break out cable fort he P400.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> To each their own.. I am not going to do research on google and link you to it. You have a pc and internet. You have your personal experiences and I have mine.
> 
> And I never said anything about "tricking" the machine. And I was also talking about p410s not just the p400. And there are more then just iLO hooks... There are health agent hooks and all sorts of stuff.


You spoke as if you knew the thread, I wasn't asking you to research it for me.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> Just because the motherboard has a pcie slot, its silly to think any pcie device will work on it. The bios of each of the motherboards work differently and this can cause certain pcie devices not to work or work properly.
> 
> But that doesn't appear to be the case here since he is able see the P400 during POST.
> 
> What type of breakout cable are you using? Reverse or forward? Are the cables connecting directly to the drives or through a backplane?


No one is saying that any device will work in any PCI-E slot... The BIOS most certainly has to support PCI-E storage devices for this card to work. My buddy had a fairly recent EVGA board that required a BIOS update to support PCI-E RAID cards and the such.
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> I will conduct a test here for you. Since I was planning on taking down my esxi box and playing with hyper-v anyways.
> 
> I will be using Commander Herbie in my sig.
> 
> I will test the following cards on the Sabertooth x58:
> 
> P400 256MB with battery
> P410 512MB with battery
> P420 1GB with capacitor
> P420 2GB with capacitor
> 
> Will report back when I get a break out cable fort he P400.


What hypothesis are we testing here?


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## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SectorNine50*
> 
> What hypothesis are we testing here?


Which ones work and which ones don't. Or does my sabertooth x58 not support PCI-E storage devices?









And I do know the thread... I've been a part of it since December.


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## SectorNine50

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> Which ones work and which ones don't. Or does my sabertooth x58 not support PCI-E storage devices?


So I take it we're no longer talking about just the P400? That is all I'm speaking about here. I'm not saying that any RAID card ever made by HP is going to work in any motherboard ever made.

My point is plain and simple: Unless you have information that you can supply, the P400 is simply an re-branded LSI and should work in any motherboard that supports PCI-E storage devices.

Again, if you have evidence that says otherwise, I am all ears.

EDIT:
I see where the confusion might be now, I'm not talking about the entire P400 series, _just_ the P400. The P400 is the only one I've done research on, and is the card this thread was aimed at.
Quote:


> And I do know the thread... I've been a part of it since December.


Then would you mind linking it?


----------



## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *SectorNine50*
> 
> So I take it we're no longer talking about just the P400? That is all I'm speaking about here. *I'm not saying that any RAID card ever made by HP is going to work in any motherboard ever made.*


That's all I was trying to point out to the other guy. Glad you are with me now
Quote:


> My point is plain and simple: Unless you have information that you can supply, the P400 is simply an re-branded LSI and should work in any motherboard that supports PCI-E storage devices.
> 
> Again, if you have evidence that says otherwise, I am all ears.


Did I ever say it was not a re-branded LSI? No...
Quote:


> EDIT:
> I see where the confusion might be now, I'm not talking about the entire P400 series, _just_ the P400. The P400 is the only one I've done research on, and is the card this thread was aimed at.
> Then would you mind linking it?


And I thought you meant I didn't know this thread! Haha. And yes I know this thread is aim'd at the P400 and I was replying to the guys post about his P400. (Really he should have started a new thread)

But yes the other thread on [H] is here. It is quite long... I have not read it all but have read a gooood majority of it. It deals mainly with the SAS expander card. BUT if you are so inclined to dig in to that thread you will read posts about what I have been saying this whole time. Yes there are mentions of other RAID cards in that thread but there are mentions of the P400 and P410 in there scattered throughout.

I can already report back.

Sabertooth x58

P400 does recognize logical drives and will boot.
P410 does not recognize logical drives but will allow system to boot.
P420 with either cache module... does not boot blank screen and blinking under score after P420 firmware loads...

Just for giggles this is my P410 Raid 5... 8 x 2TB drives...


Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> Just because the motherboard has a pcie slot, its silly to think any pcie device will work on it. The bios of each of the motherboards work differently and this can cause certain pcie devices not to work or work properly.


HI JIBESH


----------



## awdspyder

Unfortunately, I can confirm that the HP P400 card appears to be motherboard picky. In fact, I found this thread hoping to find a "motherboards that work with the P400" thread.







I have verified that the P400 will not initialize properly on at least two Supermciro boards. I have multiple P400, E200, and P600 cards to test with and the E200s (PCIe-X4) and P600s (PCI-X) work fine. Motherboard and card firmware is up to date in all cases.

The first is an older server-class board for Core2/Xeon procs - the Supermicro X7SBE. The card will begin to initialize, even recognizes existing HP RAID metadata from previously formed arrays, but then bombs with one of several errors. These are great boards, and can be had cheaply enough on eBay ($50-ish with Core2 proc and 2GB RAM). I run a set up with an E200 and P600 and can say the E200 performance is not good even with BBU and 128MB cache.

The other board is the Supermicro Atom D525 board with IPMI. Again the P400 does not initialize (though this could be because it's slot is running in x4 mode). I have another AM3 board I may test with, but I've heard from many a forum that the HP cards are quite picky with mobos, especially in consumer boards, though, I haven't seen much better with Supermicros.

Some additional notes regarding the HP E200 (and possibly others) cards on the Supermicro X7SBE -- I had to ensure the first NIC's option ROM was enabled as the mobo wouldn't even acknowledge the card's presence otherwise. Something to consider for other boards, perhaps.

So back to the original question: is there a list somewhere of boards the P400 _does_ work with? (boards from this thread duly noted)

**Deeeebs: good looking numbers on that array -- might I ask what drives you're using? For comparison, we see roughly 900-1200MB/s writes out of small-ish local arrays with the P410s and 2.5" 600GB SAS drives here at work, so your numbers are solid if those are 7k consumer drives.


----------



## Norse

Quick question whats the command to get into the card during boot up or is it only via software for config?

Pondering getting one to run alongside my Perc 5i


----------



## jibesh

To get the P410 to work with my SuperMicro board, I had to turn off the Option ROM on the pcie slot the raid controller is in.

You won't be able to boot from drives connected to the card but can access the controller and drives from within the OS.

Got this info from the [H] forums.


----------



## awdspyder

Norse:

Should be F8 to get into the ORCA Option ROM for Smart Array cards during POST. I'm pretty sure this is across the board for the HP cards.


----------



## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *awdspyder*
> 
> Norse:
> 
> Should be F8 to get into the ORCA Option ROM for Smart Array cards during POST. I'm pretty sure this is across the board for the HP cards.


This may not work on non-HP systems.

Best to use the offline array configuration utility.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-3c888073127c4c65b7bd8559eb&mode=5


----------



## awdspyder

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> This may not work on non-HP systems.
> 
> Best to use the offline array configuration utility.
> 
> http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-3c888073127c4c65b7bd8559eb&mode=5


Correct. *If* the BIOS recognizes the card correctly, which my Supermicro boards do just fine for the E200/P600 cards, then it's F8 for ORCA. Not all non-HP boards will get you there, however, as Jibesh has noted.


----------



## killabytes

I have my P400 in an Intel board and I can see the BIOS show up, but it will not allow me to enter it.


----------



## gdeloach

Great thread!!!

There is an offering on ebay for a P400 (not 400i) brand new for $14.95 with 256MB. Does anyone know the practical differences between the P400 and the P400i, and whether it might or might not work with SuperMicro motherboards?

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/smartarrayp400/index.html

Thanks guys!


----------



## andymiller

the I stands for intergrated.

if this runs along the same lines as the dell perc range this will just mean it was designed to come with a hp server, likely new it would have been missing the metal pci brackets, fittings etc, and probably came with backplane plugs instead of hdd fanout cables.

if your going to buy the p400 it might be wise to invest in the 512mb BBWC module to enable write back as it will make a noticeable difference to performance of the card.


----------



## killabytes

Question for the other folks running the P400(i)...

What are you using to monitor your RAIDs?


----------



## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *killabytes*
> 
> Question for the other folks running the P400(i)...
> 
> What are you using to monitor your RAIDs?


I haven't found a good or simple solution to this yet. RIght now, I log in one a week and check the ACU for problems.

If you find a solution, let us know lol.


----------



## killabytes

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> I haven't found a good or simple solution to this yet. RIght now, I log in one a week and check the ACU for problems.
> 
> If you find a solution, let us know lol.


I installed HPs event log notification program which creates event logs for RAID errors and such. I then created a filter for it in Windows Home Server 2011. With this filter I have it E-Mail me the alert.


----------



## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *killabytes*
> 
> I installed HPs event log notification program which creates event logs for RAID errors and such. I then created a filter for it in Windows Home Server 2011. With this filter I have it E-Mail me the alert.


What do you include in the filter? a particular event id?


----------



## killabytes

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> What do you include in the filter? a particular event id?


As of right now, nothing. I have no idea what the event ID would be for any of them. So, I tend to get a lot of E-Mail when the server restarts for updates.


----------



## MARSTG

Thread necro : I am considering getting one of these cards from eBay, to get a raid 5 matrix for my media content. Do you guys have any idea, if I hook 3 1TB drives, is it possible to get a raid 0 logical drive, that will also be bootable and to have the rest as a raid 5 logical drive? And should I go with new consumer drives, or used enterprise drives?

Actually I am looking at Smart Array P400.


----------



## NothingToDo

I've got a P400 with 8 x WD1001FALS in RAID 5 running on my GA-EX58-Extreme. Had to downgrade from 7.24 firmware to 5.26 to make it boot all the way through. Just transferred 980 GB worth of movies to it. Highest transfer rate was 98 MB/s on Windows Task Manager's Resource Monitor. About matches with % utilization on Task Manager's Networking tab.
BTW, the P400, unlike the P410, will allow RAID 6 without having to purchase a license.
I also have a P410, but I can't seem to get that to boot even at firmware 3.66. I went this route because the DL380 G5 I have is just too loud for home use. If anybody has had success with the P410 on Gigabyte GA-EX58 boards, I would sure appreciate any advice. I'm also considering buying a Supermicro dual 1366 board if I can get confirmation the the P400 or P410 will run on them.
One last question. Anyone know the pin out on the DL380 G6 drive cage power connector? I don't have that server model to use multimeter on.


----------



## jibesh

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NothingToDo*
> 
> I've got a P400 with 8 x WD1001FALS in RAID 5 running on my GA-EX58-Extreme. Had to downgrade from 7.24 firmware to 5.26 to make it boot all the way through. Just transferred 980 GB worth of movies to it. Highest transfer rate was 98 MB/s on Windows Task Manager's Resource Monitor. About matches with % utilization on Task Manager's Networking tab.
> BTW, the P400, unlike the P410, will allow RAID 6 without having to purchase a license.
> I also have a P410, but I can't seem to get that to boot even at firmware 3.66. I went this route because the DL380 G5 I have is just too loud for home use. If anybody has had success with the P410 on Gigabyte GA-EX58 boards, I would sure appreciate any advice. I'm also considering buying a Supermicro dual 1366 board if I can get confirmation the the P400 or P410 will run on them.
> One last question. Anyone know the pin out on the DL380 G6 drive cage power connector? I don't have that server model to use multimeter on.


To get the P410 to work on non-HP servers, you have to turn off the option rom for the pcie slot you have the P410 installed into. You can't use it as a boot device but the OS will see it when you boot to the OS.


----------



## NothingToDo

Thank for the info. Since I can't do that on my Gigabyte board (GA-EX58-UD4 and GA-EX58-Extreme), I take it that you're referring to the Supermicro boards. I haven't had any experience with them. I'm thinking of getting a X8DTi-F to try it out. Also, I was just reading a 1-year-old post on another site (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1818688) about the P410 on Gigabyte X58 board. I'll try to downgrade the Motherboard bios tonight to see if that'll allow me to boot.
BTW, I was able to install Windows 7 on a test RAID 6 disk with the P400(fw 5.26) and boot from it. But I'm not seeking to be able to boot from the RAID. just to be able to run as redundant file server (thinking about setting up 2 Windows 2K8 R2 servers and doing file replication). I have a SSD connected to the onboard controller for boot.
I asked about the pin out for the DL380 G6 cage because I have a spare drive cage and want to hook up power to it and run it from the P400 or preferably the P410 with some 900GB 2.5" SAS drives.

Edit:
Seems I stumbled upon the answer to my question about the DL380 G6/7 drive cage power pin-out (http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=962861 in post #10). But now i'm thinking of doing what he initially set out to do.


----------



## EvilMonk

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> that should use the same battery as the p410 cards just a different cable connecting it to the cache.


Don't, they are not the same... I have both batteries to replace them when they are worn out at home and used the P400 battery when I replaced the dead one in my P410 and vice versa in the P400 and it displayed an error message next time I rebooted warning me that write cache had been disabled because the wrong battery module had been installed and that until I replaced it with the proper part number it would remain disabled. They don't have the same part number and the controller is able to detect it when it boot up.







just to let you know before you spend money ordering one and have to order one and waste money afterward to order the right one


----------



## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *jibesh*
> 
> To get the P410 to work on non-HP servers, you have to turn off the option rom for the pcie slot you have the P410 installed into. You can't use it as a boot device but the OS will see it when you boot to the OS.


JIBESH HI!!!!!
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NothingToDo*
> 
> Thank for the info. Since I can't do that on my Gigabyte board (GA-EX58-UD4 and GA-EX58-Extreme), I take it that you're referring to the Supermicro boards. I haven't had any experience with them. I'm thinking of getting a X8DTi-F to try it out. Also, I was just reading a 1-year-old post on another site (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1818688) about the P410 on Gigabyte X58 board. I'll try to downgrade the Motherboard bios tonight to see if that'll allow me to boot.
> BTW, I was able to install Windows 7 on a test RAID 6 disk with the P400(fw 5.26) and boot from it. But I'm not seeking to be able to boot from the RAID. just to be able to run as redundant file server (thinking about setting up 2 Windows 2K8 R2 servers and doing file replication). I have a SSD connected to the onboard controller for boot.
> I asked about the pin out for the DL380 G6 cage because I have a spare drive cage and want to hook up power to it and run it from the P400 or preferably the P410 with some 900GB 2.5" SAS drives.
> 
> Edit:
> Seems I stumbled upon the answer to my question about the DL380 G6/7 drive cage power pin-out (http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=962861 in post #10). But now i'm thinking of doing what he initially set out to do.


Hello NothingToDo,

So you want to use the drive cage like this?









http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=158206&highlight=hp+blackbird
Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EvilMonk*
> 
> Don't, they are not the same... I have both batteries to replace them when they are worn out at home and used the P400 battery when I replaced the dead one in my P410 and vice versa in the P400 and it displayed an error message next time I rebooted warning me that write cache had been disabled because the wrong battery module had been installed and that until I replaced it with the proper part number it would remain disabled. They don't have the same part number and the controller is able to detect it when it boot up.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> just to let you know before you spend money ordering one and have to order one and waste money afterward to order the right one


That may be the case now. This thread is quite old from when that was posted. And let me explain to you how that would work. HP has removed some part numbers from the SAS cards FW. So the FW of the card will report they are not compatible. Back in the day to save on development costs older batterey part numbers were included in the SAS controllers FW. This might not be the case but that is how it normally happens. Its normally about getting the customer to spend more $.









Weird to see this thread still going. I would have thought there would be a more popular thread and people would be going for those big 6G sata controllers rather then this proprietary cheap old HW.


----------



## EvilMonk

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> JIBESH HI!!!!!
> Hello NothingToDo,
> 
> So you want to use the drive cage like this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=158206&highlight=hp+blackbird
> That may be the case now. This thread is quite old from when that was posted. And let me explain to you how that would work. HP has removed some part numbers from the SAS cards FW. So the FW of the card will report they are not compatible. Back in the day to save on development costs older batterey part numbers were included in the SAS controllers FW. This might not be the case but that is how it normally happens. Its normally about getting the customer to spend more $.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Weird to see this thread still going. I would have thought there would be a more popular thread and people would be going for those big 6G sata controllers rather then this proprietary cheap old HW.


Well I still have 3 old DL380 G5, DL385 G5 and DL360 G6 running on Smart Array P800 P400 and P400i that are using the same batteries for all 3 controllers so I stacked up on them before I couldn't find any more. I have more of the G6 and G7 gen servers with P410/P420 & P212 controllers but I won't just throw away those old 8 cores / 32Gb of RAM servers yet, they still can do plenty of work fine for some time...


----------



## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EvilMonk*
> 
> Well I still have 3 old DL380 G5, DL385 G5 and DL360 G6 running on Smart Array P800 P400 and P400i that are using the same batteries for all 3 controllers so I stacked up on them before I couldn't find any more. I have more of the G6 and G7 gen servers with P410/P420 & P212 controllers but I won't just throw away those old 8 cores / 32Gb of RAM servers yet, they still can do plenty of work fine for some time...


Nice rack and network infrastructure. Tidy cable management given the setup.


----------



## EvilMonk

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> Nice rack and network infrastructure. Tidy cable management given the setup.


Thank you! I'm a Sys admin/ Network admin. I have to keep up to date on my certifications which is taking quite a lot of my time lately but it's part of the job to keep certs up and renewed


----------



## NothingToDo

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Deeeebs*
> 
> JIBESH HI!!!!!
> Hello NothingToDo,
> 
> So you want to use the drive cage like this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=158206&highlight=hp+blackbird
> That may be the case now. This thread is quite old from when that was posted. And let me explain to you how that would work. HP has removed some part numbers from the SAS cards FW. So the FW of the card will report they are not compatible. Back in the day to save on development costs older batterey part numbers were included in the SAS controllers FW. This might not be the case but that is how it normally happens. Its normally about getting the customer to spend more $.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Weird to see this thread still going. I would have thought there would be a more popular thread and people would be going for those big 6G sata controllers rather then this proprietary cheap old HW.


Hello. I guess I'm the guilty one for resurrecting this thread.







I actually have an ML370G5, DL380G5, and ML350G5 at work. Also got another DL380G5 at home that was given to me by a friend. While they still work quite well in the office environment (in a separate room), the small fans generate too much noise for the home, even in a separate room. That's the reason I've decided to build a hybrid one. Much quieter even in the dead of the night. I'm using old hp stuff because I'm relatively familiar with them and more importantly, they're very affordable.

I don't think I can build one quite as nice as the blackbird. It'll probably look ugly as hell, but funcitional. For now, I have 2 machines running 8x1TB 3.5" SATA RAID 5 arrays for backup/redundant file servers. My plan/goal is to build a 18-24 2.5" SAS drive machine because....I have nothing better to do. Just wish I could make the P410 work on my Gigabyte boards. Them sff-8087s make cable management easier.

By the way, anybody have any experience or comments in general about the Supermicro X8DTi-F??


----------



## Deeeebs

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NothingToDo*
> 
> By the way, anybody have any experience or comments in general about the Supermicro X8DTi-F??


Might get more replies if you start a separate thread for that question.


----------



## NothingToDo

Thanks for the suggestion. That's one of the boards I'm looking at for next build. I'll start new thread once decision becomes more concrete.
Regarding the P400 and P410 batteries, I just ran into that exact problem last week. Bought P410 512mb cache with battery on Ebay to replace 256mb on P410. Turns out the battery that came with the cache is for the P400. Got the error message on boot.


----------



## EvilMonk

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *NothingToDo*
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion. That's one of the boards I'm looking at for next build. I'll start new thread once decision becomes more concrete.
> Regarding the P400 and P410 batteries, I just ran into that exact problem last week. Bought P410 512mb cache with battery on Ebay to replace 256mb on P410. Turns out the battery that came with the cache is for the P400. Got the error message on boot.


Yup, as Deeeebs pointed out, it might be something that is done with HP to boost profit now and they check the part number, you might want to try an older firmware and see if the same battery will work. It might just do the trick, I don't know if you will have a performance decrease doing it though


----------



## NothingToDo

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *EvilMonk*
> 
> Yup, as Deeeebs pointed out, it might be something that is done with HP to boost profit now and they check the part number, you might want to try an older firmware and see if the same battery will work. It might just do the trick, I don't know if you will have a performance decrease doing it though


Yes, since the P410 is in the DL380G5 now, I think I'll try that to see if it'll work. Will post results.

Update: No luck!! Went down to fw 2.74 on the P410 and still got error message. Have a battery from ebay on the way.


----------



## savvy2

old long post. 1 more for the end cap here.
vast links to here and the [H] forum per above. Vast google hits here so I posted here, just for my lil,discoveries.

i too found the truth.
running P410 (the 410i (i)means the raid chip are on the main board, DL380G7, for example. 410 is x8 express card , x4 is no good,
The P400 use a NiMI battery (only you cant mix these parts with below.

the P410 uses a *super ,cap* and flash back card, with *data retention* making above , look sick. it's not a HP plot to corner the battery market and the battery can be hand replaced if you can solder. (2 x 35Farad 2.7dc super caps in series) totally unlike the above 400. The HP manuals even tell this CAP stuff,. if you want to look.
now the secret, #2

I too wanted to put a *P401 (1GB FB cache) in my ALIEN, HP wx4600 and and New ALIEN ASUS PC.*

the F8 key is dead, but we don't need it as long as your run HP FREE and best SSA or old 2015 ACU.

in fact SSA does a better job, .! bar none.

The secret I discovered, by myself testing is this. (with great care and all 8 usb ports, tried) As I also know some PC the USB 2 ports work but not USB3 booting ROM.

The keyboard is totally dead, while the P410 scans for 127 hdd, in fact. ( the numlock and caps lock and pause keys are dead, see that) *bingo.*
The card is for only a HP servers, nothing else.!

and the server real has iLo3, (G7) (its like a super smart remote desktop , in fact can turn on sever or off, from 12,000 miles away.
the ilo3 does the keyboard scans (hand shakes scan codes and all that.)

But our iLO gone , P410 can not see the keyboard. because ilo3 (or 2 or whatever version) is missing. (ilo is ARM chip and ROM and has it's owe NIC port)

*solved the reason,*
no cure, as one can see.

hope this helps all users of P400s or near there. G6/7 era.

in what i call ALIEN PC's
I run have video server on this card, in XW4600. fast is it. Raid 5.

BTW one more trick, the P410 FW up grade gets you for free now the advance software kit, no more need for any P410 license for ever. and >2TB drive patch and RAID 6 and up patches, all for free. (darn nice of HP to do that to legacy cards ! kudos to HP.

the card 410 cost me 6bucks. (free really) and got 2 for that.

BTW3:
the card may not like your old drives laying about. (for sure LSI formatted drives)
the Card wants to see blank HDD,
or see HP meta data formatted HDD. (SSA create drive)
if you put a drive from say an Apple pc there, it will not see it at all, for very very good reasons.

How ever, mine allowed me to insert a w10 formatted ReFs disk with 500GB of data and I did create disk, and lost nothing. I then added more disks and it did the expansion is 5 to 10 hours.
The other reason is the autoexpand feature, ill stop here and point to HP books, for all that. but I wanted to explain why some disk are not seen.
answer DBAN the disk version 1.07, no newer,,,and bam HP likes it.

cheers !


----------

