RAID on Z440 is not working properly

[Zamfirel]

Hello,

I have bought a Z440 system with 2xHDD 500GB. The disks should work in RAID1 configuration. I have tryed to reboot with only one HDD and the station gives me a lot of errors also if one HDD is powered off the system crashes completely. 

According to the doc found on HP site for configuring my disks in RAID I should enter in POST phase with CTRL+C (or I or H) and from LSI 2308 menu confgure my RAID matrix. But the new layout of BIOS does not gives me the posibility to activate view of POST messages and as a result LSI menu is not accessibile. 

From Winwows 10 64bits I have tryed to use Intel RST to view somw status of the RAID matrix or the status of the disks but it also doesn't gis me access to configuration menu. 

I need an urgent sollution to make RAID working properly on my computer and to find an application or commands (CLI) which can give me data about the status of the disks and a replacement procedures in case of a disk failure.

I thank in advance to anyone who can HELP me!!!

Best Regards,

Zamfirel

[DGroves]

first make sure you are creating the raid-1 properly

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/899901/Hp-Z440-Workstation-Series.html?page=120

then install the OS to the array  (to test remove the sata cable from one drive)

windows 10 should report a failed drive to reenable read the HP z440 service manual linked above

when replacing a failed drive, you must follow the recovery steps in the proper order or you will have problems

for the intel/windows RST software raid

what most people miss, is that they must FIRST REMOVE THE FAILED DRIVE FROM THE ARRAY, before the actual physical

drive is removed ,........ IE-go into the array manager and select the failed drive and remove it

pnce the failed drive is replaced, again go into the array config and this time add the new drive to the existing array

if using a 3rd party Raid controller, the recovery process may be diffrent as REAL RAID CONTROLLERS,

(those with Ram and onboard cpu's for x-or calcuations)  may (or may not) fully support hotswapping/ auto drive ID

and other vender specific options that affect how the card handles a failed drive. due to this you need to read each card's manual on failed drive recovery steps

[Zamfirel]

On the Z440 I have a SAS LSI 9217-4i4e installed on a PCIe. Both HDDs from RAID matrix are connected to this card. 

All documentation indicates that in order to configure RAID matrix I shoud configure RAID by accessing LSI Logical Configuration. According to it I should press CTRL+C during POST but on my workstations I have new version of BIOS which doesn't give me the posibility to access LSI logical configuration. This new version of BIOS looks completely different.

Please advise!

[DGroves]

read the LSI or HP documentation on this card, and while menu layouts may change the steps required do not

the 4i and 8i cards have the same features/software only diffrence is the number of SAS/SATA ports on the card

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04474148

https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9217-8i#downloads

[Zamfirel]

1) I have installed MegaRAID Storage Manager on my workstations and after that I was able to confirm that the HDDs are configured in RAID1 also this application gives me the status on the disks and enough information  about them;

2) Intel RST came preinstalled on these computers but it is useless I suppose that it will work only if the diks will be connected directly on SATA ports not on SAS 9217 4i4e;

3) I still do not know how to configure RAID matrix; LSI Logical Configuration is not accesibile with this BIOS version

4) Regarding crashes on the two sistems which needed complete recovery I do not have a full understanding about what has happend but I'll keep observing these systems; It is a possibity that it has crashed because shut down was executed by abruptly interrupting the power;

Since my main problem is solved I'd like to thank you DGroves for you assistance. It was really helpfull.

[DGroves]

the z440 unlike the z640/840 does not have onboard LSI SAS/SATA  embeded into the motherboard, it is provided by a addin PCI-E card

to enter the LSI card's bios, you power on/Warm boot and watch the Post screen

the post process starts and will first show the Intel RST SATA Bios prompts (access with Ctrl and I keys)

if you do not press the above two keys, the  boot continues and 

at some point it will state LSI controller initlizing, then it will display "press ctrl and c" to enter the LSI cards setup

when the above message appears, you will have about 2-3 seconds to press both keys at the same time (Ctrl and C)

the boot process will then finish and instead of proceding to the windows loading screen you will enter the LSI card bios

please note that the LSI 9217 card as configured by HP is capable of only RAID (0, 1, 1E and 10)

https://support.hp.com/lamerica_nsc_carib-en/product/hp-z840-workstation/6978842/document/c04474148

[Zamfirel]

The procedure provided by you can be applyed on the old work stations/BIOS versions. I have cheked that and you are right but. 

The workstations that I have bought are not displaing any POST message and does not prompt for anything. All I can see is a blue HP logo for about 30 seconds and after that it starts to load Windows. 

F9, F10, F11, F2 are working fine if I want to aceess BIOS or boot menu etc but I have tryed Ctrl+I in all possible ways and is not working. Of course I have read also other forums tryed also Ctrl+C, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+S but nothing works. 

BIOS installed on my computers (M60 v02.34) looks completely different.

Please advise!

[explorecloud]

Same here, Z240, no POST message on startup, CTRL-i won't work at all.

Have a Dell Precision, POST message only show when more than 1 drive installed. On my HP, already installed 2xHDD in addition to NVMe, still not showing POST.

[DGroves]

your bios is configured to hide the post screen messages and just display a HP boot picture screen

enter the bios and enable  display "post messages"

i don't own a z2xx system so i'm unable to give exact directions on how to enable the bios post screen 

[Zamfirel · Accepted solution]

Hello!

Thank you for your answers!

Actually I have installed MegaRaid Storage manager which can monitor the status of the disks. Remeber that I do have a LSI2308 and it is a dedicated card which creates a hardware RAID1.