Re: HP DL380G9 Disk Controllers

[Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>]

Somewhere around the Px1x they implemented a new firmware interface (which
supports MSI and otherwise does look a little more efficient).  Our driver
doesn't support it, which is a little unfortunate.  However, at least through
the Px2x series the old interface is still supported and works fine.

We have P410 and P420 controllers in a number of the TNF machines.  They work
great and the flash-backed write cache really does avoid a lot of the annoying
problems with batteries that we've had with other RAID controllers.

I don't have any Px[34]x controllers to test with.  If the old interface is
still there, they'll work.  If not, they won't.  They have some really nifty
looking features, though, like full rate controller-based encryption (which
for obvious reasons, you really really want with SSDs).  I'd love to know
whether they work.

HP has historically done a really good job maintaining backwards compat
with these controllers.  From the Px1x to the Px2x they changed out the
hardware from LSI to PMC-Sierra but our driver still works just fine.  And
their firmware is usually more stable and sometimes more performant than
what the RAID chip vendor ships on their equivalent cards (certainly I have
not had good luck with the "Adaptec" branded PMC-Sierra cards).  However,
a couple of years ago I believe they sold the IP and possibly the development
team for these products to PMC-Sierra so I don't know what that means for the
very latest models.

On Sun, Nov 27, 2016 at 12:30:04PM -0500, Scott Burns wrote:
> Looking to buy a new file server replacing an older HP DL380G5. Does anyone
> have any experience with any of these controllers with NetBSD/amd64 7.0.2 on
> a HP DL380 G9?
> 
> HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller
> HPE Flexible Smart Array P440ar/2G FIO Controller
> HPE Flexible Smart Array P840/4G FIO Controller
> HPE Smart Array P840ar/2G Controller Performance Models
> HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i Controller
> HPE Flexible Smart Array P440ar/2GB
> 
> The ciss(4) page indicates some P4xx and P8xx controllers but not the
> specific models listed above.
> 
> Compaq Smart Array 5300 version 1
> Compaq Smart Array 5300 version 2
> Compaq Smart Array 5i version 1
> Compaq Smart Array 5i version 2
> HP Smart Array 5312
> HP Smart Array 6i
> HP Smart Array 641
> HP Smart Array 642
> HP Smart Array 6400
> HP Smart Array 6400 EM
> HP Smart Array E200
> HP Smart Array E200i
> HP Smart Array P400
> HP Smart Array P400i
> HP Smart Array P410i
> HP Smart Array P600
> HP Smart Array P800
> HP Smart Array V100
> HP Smart Array 1 through 13
> 
> Thank you
> Scott...

-- 
 Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls%panix.com@localhost
	
			Ring the bells that still can ring.