HP Z8 G4 to install Megaraid 9460-16i SAS controller

[Jonahk]

Hi all

Am trying to install a Megaraid 9460-16i SAS controller, 12Gb/s in our Z8 G4 workstation, with no much luck at the moment.

BIOS boot up

Installing the card is easy, but trying to get into BIOS configuration for the 9460-16i  but not been able to get any hot key to enable to get into configuration of the 9460-16i SAS controller.

HP z8 motherboard HII not available?

Based on Broadcom link, "new" motherboard should be have a HII but the HP Z8 

https://www.broadcom.com/support/knowledgebase/1211210843172/unable-to-enter-9400---9460-series-cont...

[DGroves]

the LSI card you are trying to install may indeed have a conflict with the HP systems onboard Bios/LSI bios if both devices use the same keypress to enter the config bios

this link may help

https://www.broadcom.com/support/knowledgebase/1211161500948/unable-to-enter-megaraid-bios-webbios-c...

https://www.h3c.com/en/d_202005/1299715_294551_0.htm

[SDH]

One tip that might help also is that in the security section of HP BIOS there is subsection with a long list of on-motherboard devices and virtually all of them are set by default to Enable. By changing the one you want to not have the operating system see you can change that to Disable, and I believe it also becomes invisible to BIOS at a very early phase of BIOS boot.

I have used this method to disable the on-motherboard NIC (aka "LOM") when we were having conflicts with wireless PCIe network cards we needed to use. Remember to return that setting to Enable if you want to go back to use of that on-motherboard device or it will remain invisible to the OS and BIOS. Also, I attach a note about this setting change to the inside of the cover for the future. I also believe that if one were to do a CMOS reset to factory defaults that would change the setting back to Enable (which could be a problem if you did not know that potential issue).

It is worth a try...

[Jonahk]

Thanks DGroves and SDH.

Found the solution - Unlike Dell T7920 workstations, the HP Z8 Bios is basically bare as it does not has any facility with BIOS to support Megaraid 94xx SAS controller.  Quite disappointed in this workstation to be honest. Almost all other motherboard vendors under the sun has the AMI facility within BIOS to tap into SAS controller bios setup but not Z8 machines.

Megaraid 94xx onwards do not use Ctrl + H functionality anymore. It relies on the motherboard BIOS to get into the SAS BIOS config.  

I had to format a bootable FAT32 usb stick and ran the STORCLI.efi to initialise virtual disks etc. All working now.  

Felt like HP Z8 had cut a lot of corners so far, that important features are left out......

Jon

[DGroves]

first of all the previous workstations (which i own or have serviced) do have a LSI bios embedded in the HP bios, because they have a motherboard mounted LSI "ROC" chip that does BASIC raid functions and since this ROC chip lacks cache/battery backup raid 5 if used is extremely slow which is why HP offered several approved LSI raid cards

the  HP Z8 G4systems only have Intel based software raid (0/1/5/10) no motherboard raid chip,........so no onboard LSI bios and they are quite a bit faster than the previous "ROC" based systems using the LSI 9640 card will offer no benefit speed wise 

next you complaint that the PCI-E based LSI raid cards lack the ability to merge with the HP raid bios, sorry to tell you but they never did,......... the cards were/are standalone and configured through the LSI cards bios not the HP bios

During POST when the LSI MegaRAID info screen is displayed, hit Ctrl+H or Ctrl+C depending on the controller version. 

if this is not displayed, and the previous post does not get the lsi card bios to show during post, you can configure the drives attached to the card via the

last, the 9240 series is not a retail LSI card, they were OEM based cards and quite a few had custom firmware that used different keys to access the bios (like dell/IBM based 9240 cards)

[Jonahk]

Hi

Thanks for your message and notes, greatly appreciated.

Am by no means whinging about the Z8, otherwise I would not have bought a Z8 machine 🙂

Megaraid - just for record of what I found, from 94xx series onwards, Ctrl H or Ctrl C is not longer supported in BIOS boot up DOS environment.

OEM raid controllers - I would say after spending few days looking through all pc workstation mfg, HP, Dell, Levnovo and DIY motherboards mfg. All apart from HP Z8 motherboard have the facility within their BIOS to identify OEM SAS controller, as you called it. ie ALL other vendors apart from HP Z8 motherboard are able to configure the 94xx SAS controllers WITHIN BIOS.

Intel VROC - it is still very much software based, not as fast as a Megaraid SAS controller. Even if you wish to talk about NVME drives, it still need connection, which eg 2 to 3x 2.5" NVME 15.36TB NVME drives still requires an interface that HP Z8 does not support unless you have a middleman, ie a SAS controller. The Intel VROC is not able to do a direct connection to qty 3 NVME 2.5" drives, isn't it. I do agree the PCI 3 bus that HP Z8 or Dell can be a bottleneck, Lenovo has a PCIE 4 bus, but software based RAID is not ideal, although Intel has been flogging it hard.    

[DGroves]

again,..............if the motherboard does not have a onboard Raid chip the motherboard bios WILL NOT have any LSI bios or the ability to access a PCI-E raid cards bios if you think different feel free to provide links to such a board/system

i di not say the intel VROC  was faster than a 9240, (it is in raid -5) i stated a SOFTWARE RAID setup will be faster as the cpu's on a z8 are much faster than the 9240's ROC chip

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Product-Roundup-Intel-LSI-RAID-cards-98/

last the intel vroc  is a bit of a strange beast as it has a software AND A HARDWARE component which resides in the intel cpu's that are vroc capable 

https://www.trentonsystems.com/blog/what-is-intel-vroc#:~:text=Intel's%20VROC%20is%20partly%20consid....

[joselso]

While reading this interesting discussion, I could not help wondering why no mention is given to MicroSemi SmartHBA2100-4i4e SAS Controller, offered by HP as Factory Configured in Z8 G4 workstations, or as an After-Market Option Kit HP p/n 1FV90AA.

[Z8 G4 QuickSpecs URL:

https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c05527763.pdf

pages 12 and 56].

The MicroSemi Adaptec SmartHBA2100-4i4e SAS controller is a 12Gb/s RAID card for RAID 0, 1 and 10.

According to its manufacturer data-sheet Product Spec, URL:

https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/sas/sas/aha-2100-4i4e/

its BIOS Configuration Utility is accessible by CTRL+A, just like all previous SAS and SCSI controllers by Adaptec.

It is also uEFI compatible. It requires 8-lane PCIe Gen3 slot.

Admittedly, the shift of HP from its long relationship with LSI SAS controllers (both ON-Board and Add-In PCIe cards), towards Adaptec/MicroSemi SAS controller, seems quite surprising to me. Still, this controller is quite worthy of installing in Z8 G4, and it is hardware-based as opposed to software-based RAID alternatives.

[Jonahk]

Joselo - yep there is the 2100-4i4e from HP but it is only 4i, ie 4 max internal SAS/SATA drives support.

I've configured my Z8 4x SAS drives and 3x NVME drives for cache/storage via the 9460-16i. Just in case you ask what about the 2x PCIE NVME cards that one can use, I have used up both slots with NVME too.   

Thanks

[Jonahk]

DGroves - do have a look at the Dell T7920 workstation, similar to Z8 spec. or the Lenovo P620 although P620 is AMD based. 

I purchased HP Z8 mainly because it looks sleek compared to Dell T7920 and far quieter. But this lack of support is a bit of a bumper, though not end of the world as I have managed to get the SAS drives configured via DOS environment, the old way.

I know SAS is perhaps not on high priority by pc vendors but until NVME gets cheap, there is still a big market for SAS for reliability and speed (it is still fasted than SATA despite what the specs says) + the mechanical movement sound of SAS drives sounds GOOD.