Stuck at 3Gbps?

[kthelen]

Hello all!

I've successfully assembled a few FreeNAS systems using HP DL360 G6 servers, USB flash drives for booting, HP D2600 drive arrays, LSI 9200-8e controllers (flashed to v20 IT firmware), and bunches of Seagate 4TB 6Gbps SAS drives (ST4000NM0023). Everything worked great. With that done, I've moved onto a new project.

The server in question is a HP StorageWorks P4500 G2 (basically a DL180 G6 bundled with SAN software). I installed a Dell H310, cross-flashed with 9200-8e firmware (as here); and added a small SATA SSD to one of the on-board SATA ports for booting (easier than wiring up an internal USB port). FreeNAS installed and booted fine.

The trouble came when I installed the drives - same model as mentioned above. Each displayed "300.0000MB/s transfers" on the console as I pushed them into place. This leads me to believe that I'm only running at 3Gbps.

The drives are capable of 6Gbps. The controller *should* be capable of 6Gbps (unless there's some hitch related to cross-flashing that I don't know about). A bit of quick Googling suggests the server's built-in expander is capable of 6Gbps.

So, what am I missing here?

 

[Spearfoot]

Hello all!

I've successfully assembled a few FreeNAS systems using HP DL360 G6 servers, USB flash drives for booting, HP D2600 drive arrays, LSI 9200-8e controllers (flashed to v20 IT firmware), and bunches of Seagate 4TB 6Gbps SAS drives (ST4000NM0023). Everything worked great. With that done, I've moved onto a new project.

The server in question is a HP StorageWorks P4500 G2 (basically a DL180 G6 bundled with SAN software). I installed a Dell H310, cross-flashed with 9200-8e firmware (as here); and added a small SATA SSD to one of the on-board SATA ports for booting (easier than wiring up an internal USB port). FreeNAS installed and booted fine.

The trouble came when I installed the drives - same model as mentioned above. Each displayed "300.0000MB/s transfers" on the console as I pushed them into place. This leads me to believe that I'm only running at 3Gbps.

The drives are capable of 6Gbps. The controller *should* be capable of 6Gbps (unless there's some hitch related to cross-flashing that I don't know about). A bit of quick Googling suggests the server's built-in expander is capable of 6Gbps.

So, what am I missing here?

Are you certain the HP server supports SAS-2/6Gbps? A quick search shows that they're spec'd for 2TB SAS drives, which makes me think they won't support rates above 3Gbps, and may not support a fully populated backplane if you use drives > 2TB.

 

[kthelen]

The backplane is the same part number used in a standard DL180 G6, which claims to support 6Gbps SAS. It did seem content with a full load of 4TB drives (12 total), so that wasn't an issue. Hmm.

 

[Spearfoot]

The backplane is the same part number used in a standard DL180 G6, which claims to support 6Gbps SAS. It did seem content with a full load of 4TB drives (12 total), so that wasn't an issue. Hmm.

Curiouser and curiouser... :)

Did you flash the LSI card with the boot BIOS? If so, you should be able to press Ctrl-C at boot-up and load the board's option ROM code. And that might give you some insight on how the card is interacting with the drives.

 

[HoneyBadger]

If you were using SATA drives I could see it presenting an issue as IIRC that model was designed for SmartArray cards that only did SATA2, but you're using SAS. So seconding the Hmm from Spearfoot above.

Might be a firmware issue on the backplane itself. Check to see if there's an update, but you'll need an HP-branded RAID card or HBA to flash it.