[TriLUG] B320i RAID controller driver

[Bill Weinel via TriLUG]

I've been running BSD with NAS4FREE as the NAS software using raid1 here
for 6+ years and have never had any issues with it besides the occasional
hardware disk failure. Then it's just a quick disk swap and array rebuild.
I've also run software raid1 and raid5 with Unbuntu server on a number of
systems at the office with the same results. Never had any data loss on any
of them (...even after hardware failures.)  Consequently, I'd agree with
the majority here that software raid in linux (or BSD for that matter) is
the way to go.

cheers,
bill


On Fri, May 22, 2020 at 11:18 AM Matt Flyer via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
wrote:

> I have an HP Proliant server that has a B320i RAID controller in it.
> There are four 300 GB SATA disks configured as a 1+0 ARRAY that
> logically looks like one 300GB disk, which is more than enough storage
> capacity for what I use.
>
> I have been using Centos 7 on it, which is as integrated with Python
> 2.7 as M$ Windows (is) was with Internet Explorer. As it is getting
> long in the tooth, I am having severe trouble getting the packages
> needed to run current versions of Rails and I have decided to throw in
> the towel on Centos 7.
>
> I tried running an online 'update' to Centos 8 and it failed on a
> number of packages, mostly Python I believe, so I tried to restored my
> backup and decided to punt, and put the system in a messed up state. At
> this point - a wipe and install of something more modern is the path
> forward.
>
> The problem I am running into is that the driver for the B320i is
> proprietary and it looks like HP has built drivers for every damned
> raid controller, including really old ones, EXCEPT the B320i.  I do not
> see a driver for for this controller for either Red Hat 8 / Centos 8 or
> Open Suse 15, which I would be willing to try.
>
> What's odd is that if you do an LSMOD and search for the B320i driver,
> which is listed on HP's site as "ksmod-hpvsa" this does not appear
> anywhere in the list.  Rather AHCI does, and LSPCI shows that it's
> using AHCI as a standard SATA controller. So I am not sure where this
> driver embeds itself past install or why it can't see the disks at
> install.
>
> Rather you go through a convoluted install process, where you interrupt
> the standard install, run "linux dd" and then are supposed to load a
> driver that you get as an ISO from HP (that doesn't exist for RH 8 or
> Suse 15).
>
> It is looking like my only viable path forward is to disable the
> hardware RAID controller and let the OS have the disks directly.  I
> suppose I could use MDADM to create a software array, but this isn't
> without it's own issues and additional maintenance.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?  I don't get why they would
> fail to provide the driver for this controller but do so for all the
> others. Perhaps I can put a different raid controller in there that is
> supported?
>
> --
> This message was sent to: Bill Weinel <tube.radio at gmail.com>
> To unsubscribe, send a blank message to trilug-leave at trilug.org from that
> address.
> TriLUG mailing list : https://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> Unsubscribe or edit options on the web  :
> https://www.trilug.org/mailman/options/trilug/tube.radio%40gmail.com
> Welcome to TriLUG: https://trilug.org/welcome