raid installation problem

Any chance you don't have the required 256MB of cache RAM on the controller?   Also make sure you have current drivers, firmware, and BIOS.  Download latest SMARTSTART from HP website to make sure.

Exactly, you can NOT build a RAID5 unless you have 256 MB or more.  The firmware does not support it, and the reason is that without the added RAM then there is no place to safely store the XOR parity that it must write.   (The alternative is to perform additional I/Os in scratch area of disk which would KILL performance).

While you are at it, better buy the battery backup .... otherwise you will surely think the hardware is broken because it will be too slow on writes.

How on earth have you ended up with two RAID controllers in it since you've presumably only got one disk backplane? What a waste of money and electricity.

I'd remove the additional P410/256 (since you can't remove the P410i) and move the RAM from the P410/256 to the motherboard clip so it's on the P410i. And as dlethe points out get a battery for it to offset the RAID 5 write penalty.

thanks for you all for clearing my doubts. I got  idea regarding my issue.

i have one more issue forgot to tell you. I configured RAID 1 (140 GB) with Hot Spare ( 300GB).
the Hot Spare disk is not showing the indicated light. I mean i am getting green light indicators for two 146 GB hard drives which are in RAID 1, but I not getting neither green nor amber light indicators.
why i am not getting light indicator for Hot Spare ( 300GB) ? Because if i added to RAID as a disk its showing green light indicator. Only when i am adding as a Hot Spare its not showing anything.

help me.

"IF you got a hot spare drive. That drive is powered down, when not in use, all LED's off.
Check ACU" or SIM for status of that drive

Look at last post: http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1290672428804+28353475&threadId=1259463

Hi all,
thanks for your valuable suggestions. I connected the p410 controller to the drive case and now both the controllers are online and each of the controller showing 4 HDD each. Like, 1st to 4th HDD comes under P410i controller and 5th to 8th HDD comes under P410 controller. Now i got the other issue.
Actually i would like to configure RAID 1 on P410i controller which is integrated slot with two 146GB with a hot spare of 300GB HDD and RAID 5 on p410 controller with the remaining five 300GB HDD. This is what i want to configure in my server.
I am able to configure the RAID 1 with Hot spare. But When creating RAID 5, i am getting the issue. here i am unable to access the 300GB HDD which is showing in P410i controller.
Can't we access the HDD from other controller to make RAIDs ? like the 4th HDD of P410i controller should be accessed by the P410 controller to make a RAID 5 with the five HDD.
If we can do that, tell me how can we do that configuration?

Please help me.

No, they are separate.  You cannot make a Raid 5 array with 5 HDDs on this system.  You can just have 4 disks in the Raid 5 array (disks 5,6,7 and 8).  Disks 1,2,3 and 4 will have to be mirrored, striped or just a bunch of disks unless you add memory to the P410i controller.  Then you could have another 4 disk Raid 5 array but you cannot include disks in an array that are on two different controllers.  If this is essential, you may have to consider software RAID.

I don't think it's a supported option to have two controllers connected to one backplane. Do the LEDs work properly in that configuration? You also won't be able to use the hot spare globally because it'll only be attached to one controller.

Take the P410 out, take the RAM off it, throw the P410 in the bin. Then you'll have the proper parts required and no extra controller to confuse you.

Agree with andyalder. Or buy another drive cage, disconnect P410i from first cage and connect it to second. Replace 2x146GB into the second cage.

Yes, my comment yesterday was muddled and based on 4 drives per card cage.  Sorry!  

If you only have the one card cage, then davorin and andyalder are right.  
If you have two card cages (space for 16 small form factor disks in all), then I am (mostly) right and you can achieve what you want as follows:
1. Have the P410i controller connected to the card cage for disks 1-8 and populate this with the two 146Gb disks and the 300Gb hot spare. Configure these for Raid 1 (mirroring) with hot spare.
2. Connect the P410 to the card cage for disks 9-16 and populate this with the remaining five 300Gb disks and create a 1.2Tb RAID5 array.

If you currently only have one card cage, then davorin's suggestion to buy another card cage is best in my opinion.

HP Drive Cage Options HP 8SFF CAGE 380G6 516914-B21
NOTE: Supports the HP ProLiant DL380 G7 server.
NOTE: Second drive cage installation replaces internal optical bay.
NOTE: Second drive cage requires second controller or HP SAS Expander Card (468406-B21).

From: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13595_div/13595_div.html

If they get a second cage you can bet your bottom dollar their next question will be how to share the hot spare between two controllers :(

I guess you will get the bet ;)
And also that you know the answer.

hi all,
sorry for late reply,
Is it possible to share a hard disk as a hot spare for two RAID  arrays. like, if i configure RAID 1( 2 nos 146 GB) with hot spare of 300 GB hard disk and RAID 5 ( 5 nos 300 GB) in the same controller. Is the hot spare of RAID 1  will be available for RAID 5 ? is it possible ? can we share a hot spare disk for two RAID arrays (like if RAID1's hdd fails it will go to RAID 1 and if RAID5's hdd fails it will go to RAID5 automatically which both the RAIDs were configured in a single controller?

Is there any possibility to share a hot spare in two different controllers? if we can do that, can anybody tell me how to share the hot spare between two controllers?

Thanks.

To share a hot spare you assign it to Array A, then you assign it to Array B. Since some of your disks are 146GB and some 300GB the spare has to be a 300GB one. Smart Array disk sparing is temporary, when you replace the failed disk it copies the data from the hot spare to the replacement and the hot spare is again a spare disk so having a 300GB disk as spare for an array that has 146GB ones isn't a problem.

You cannot share a spare between two controllers, haven't you removed the extra one yet?
(I was wrong, it wasn't their next question)

@andyalder
Yup, you lost your bet.
And also I was wrong with the first part of my previous comment...

http:Q_26637138.html