[TUTORIAL] Hp smart array p420i HBA mode complete guide.

[b345]

i take 0 responsibility on any unexpected problem with your systems. do this at your own risk, it works for me, i've done 3 times already. Happy hacking

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the pdf attached has some screenshots along with the commands in blue

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Download the latest version of SystemRescue.

Create a USB bootable from the downloaded iso. On Microsoft Windows, one could use Rufus. Or, the cross-platform free USB flash tool for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux, balenaEtcher.

Insert the sd card inside the DL360 server SD Card Slot. Ensure that SD Card is empty.

Before starting SystemRescue from the USB drive, make sure to delete all the RAID configurations on the controller by pressing F8 at boot time. This is mandatory! And, make sure to make a backup of everything for obvious reasons, otherwise, your data will be wiped!

• Power on the DL360,
• F10 intelligent Provisioning,
• then f8,
• Exit this screen if it comes up
• 
• Then F8 again
• Select the Delete Logical Drive , and follow the on screen instruction to delete any existing drive
• 

Once everything has been deleted, this page should now displayed


Insert the USB that has the systemrescue

Reboot the server and then do F11 for Boot menu and then 3 One time boot to USB DriveKey

In the system rescue menu, select SystemRescue using default options.

after booting SystemRescue you could type startx in order to start a neat and clean Xfce session.

Format the sd card

open the terminal, and run command:

fsdisk -l

wipefs -a /dev/sdj replace the j with the letter the system assigned to the sd card

open the terminal, and run command: sudo pacman -Syu to update packman

command: Pacman -Sy

command: sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git wget yajl

command: nano /etc/passwd

change nobody:x:65534:65534:KernelOverflowser:/:/usr/bin/nologin to nobody:x:65534:65534:Kernel Overflow User:/:/bin/bash then save

commands below:

cd /var/tmp

su nobody -c 'git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/ssacli.git'

cd ssacli

su nobody -c 'makepkg -si'

cp -vr pkg/ssacli/opt /

cp -vr pkg/ssacli/usr/share /usr/

cp -vr pkg/ssacli/usr/bin/* /usr/bin/

hash -r

Finally, it’s time to enable the HBA mode (pass-through)

ssacli controller slot=0 modify hbamode=on

you can re-enable hardware RAID and disable HBA mode at any time by starting over from step 1 and only set hbamode=off instead of hbamode=on.

Confirm the HBA mode has been enabled:

ssacli controller slot=0 show | grep -i hba

ssacli controller slot=0 show

We’re done! Poweroff the server:

Remove systemrescue USB

Insert the proxmox bootable USB drive in the server USB Ports

Poweron the server

install proxmox in my case I installed it as ZFS Raid1 but uncheck the flag "automatically reboot successful after installation".

When the installation is done, instead of clicking reboot, hold CTRL+ALT+F3

fsdisk -a my sd card was sdj





gdisk /dev/sdj



lsblk command show a new partition name sdj1 and sdj2

Now mount rpool to /mnt with zpool import rpool -R /mnt

• mount -t proc proc /mnt/proc
• mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/sys
• mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
• mount -o bind /run /mnt/run

chroot /mnt

if encounter error about “contains a file systems vfat” when running boot tool command ,try command: fdisk /dev/sdj then take the GPT option, then type quit to exit. Then below again

proxmox-boot-tool format /dev/sdj2 --force and proxmox-boot-tool init /dev/ sdj2

Now check if the UUID of /dev/sdj2 from blkid /dev/sdj2 is inside /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids, if not try to run proxmox-boot-tool refresh

zpool export rpool, not needed

• ctrl+alt+f4
• now click reboot
• remove proxmox usb installer

credits to :

https://www.babaei.net/blog/disable...hrough-perform-freebsd-root-zfs-installation/

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/move-boot-partition-zfs-usb.137870/

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/ap9usf/proxmoxzfs_installed_on_hp_dl360p/

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=198066

https://unix.stackexchange.com/ques...b-flash-installed-on-two-nvme-d/662861#662861

https://www.linuxquestions.org/ques...not-exist-~-trying-to-mount-a-nas-4175685417/

https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/booting-proxmox-from-internal-sd-card-only-boot-partition.94957/

 

[kwhitewind]

Does this have to be done via an SD Card, or can it be done via a second USB or USB-C through an adaptor? I am sure that I have an SD Card hanging around somewhere or can get one, I just wanted to know if it HAD to be an SD Card.

 

[b345]

Does this have to be done via an SD Card, or can it be done via a second USB or USB-C through an adaptor? I am sure that I have an SD Card hanging around somewhere or can get one, I just wanted to know if it HAD to be an SD Card.

I believe SD Card is the recommended way as it's internal.and. once hba mode is enable that's the first place the system is going to look for a boot drive, so am not sure if USB would load

 

[linksanguinario]

you rock!!!

 

[crowleympatrick36]

so i hit the portion where you make the package for ssacli and i run into a password problem. i completed the passwd steps to a t but still cant get it to install the package. any suggestions? my next attempt im just going to create a new user and set it as a sudoer. also am i installing proxmox on the sd card?

 

[hambone]

so i hit the portion where you make the package for ssacli and i run into a password problem. i completed the passwd steps to a t but still cant get it to install the package. any suggestions? my next attempt im just going to create a new user and set it as a sudoer. also am i installing proxmox on the sd card?

I got past that snag by temporarily allowing nobody to run sudo without a password.

(1) Optional: enable nano as the editor for visudo. I believe the default editor is Vi, but I find nano easier to use:

export EDITOR=nano


(2) Edit the sudoers file using:

sudo visudo


(3) Add the following line at the end to allow nobody to run sudo without a password:

nobody ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Be sure to <ctrl>o to "write" the changes to the file, then <ctrl>x to exit nano.


Then was able to rerun the offending command:

su nobody -c 'makepkg -si'


After this step, you can revert the changes in sudoers to avoid security risks.

 

[hambone]

I'm trying to get Proxmox set up on a HP DL380p Gen8 that has 16 SAS drives; 8 connected to the on-board P420i in "slot 0", and 8 connected to the P420 (no "i") in "slot 6". I was able to set both controllers to HBA mode by following the instructions above (thanks b345!).

I'm having trouble using an internal SD card as the boot drive. An initial setup on a newish 16GB SD card went well but it appears to have failed with lots of I/O errors. Trying setup again with another SD card, this one 32GB, yielded a similar batch of I/O errors, which makes me suspect the SD card slot. I've decided that I have to rule it out as a boot drive.

My current plan, based on postings I've seen about the DL380p in the TrueNAS community about P420 reliability issues as well as its inability to be a boot drive in HBA mode, is to replace/abandon the P420's with a pair of LSI 9211-8i HBAs and add another SAS cable 675611-001 with straight connectors. If I understand correctly, that should eliminate the need for a separate SD card boot drive.

Meanwhile, I've noticed what appears to be a 2.5" drive tray, oriented vertically, in the front-right corner. That in combination with the "slimline" SATA motherboard connector, makes me wonder if anyone's tried adding a SATA drive as a boot drive...

​

 

[jlivin25]

OMG, this absolutely worked for me, thank you so much OP for the guide.

 

[b345]

You're welcome, glad it workout

OMG, this absolutely worked for me, thank you so much OP for the guide.

 

[carminefox]

I didn’t understand the purpose of “fsdisk -a my sd card was sdj,” as fsdisk doesn’t exist, nor does fdisk -a. Moreover, I skipped that part and followed everything else, but in the end, the UUID of /dev/sdj2 (in my case /dev/sdh2) was not in /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids even after running proxmox-boot-tool refresh. I tried rebooting anyway and booting from the USB, but instead of starting Proxmox, it launches the Proxmox installation from the USB, and I can’t figure out how that’s even possible!

 

[anish03]

I'm trying to get Proxmox set up on a HP DL380p Gen8 that has 16 SAS drives; 8 connected to the on-board P420i in "slot 0", and 8 connected to the P420 (no "i") in "slot 6". I was able to set both controllers to HBA mode by following the instructions above (thanks b345!).

I'm having trouble using an internal SD card as the boot drive. An initial setup on a newish 16GB SD card went well but it appears to have failed with lots of I/O errors. Trying setup again with another SD card, this one 32GB, yielded a similar batch of I/O errors, which makes me suspect the SD card slot. I've decided that I have to rule it out as a boot drive.

My current plan, based on postings I've seen about the DL380p in the TrueNAS community about P420 reliability issues as well as its inability to be a boot drive in HBA mode, is to replace/abandon the P420's with a pair of LSI 9211-8i HBAs and add another SAS cable 675611-001 with straight connectors. If I understand correctly, that should eliminate the need for a separate SD card boot drive.

Meanwhile, I've noticed what appears to be a 2.5" drive tray, oriented vertically, in the front-right corner. That in combination with the "slimline" SATA motherboard connector, makes me wonder if anyone's tried adding a SATA drive as a boot drive...

View attachment 76678​

Did replacing the P420's with LSI 9211-8i HBAs work for you?

 

[gollum1]

Note: after deleting the array, continue with the immediate start of systemrescue, any reboot of the server causes the default creation of an array with all the disks already aggregated.

In my case the procedure was not successful, it tells me that hbamode is not supported.

If I use an internal tool during the server boot phase, which diagnoses the controller, it tells me that it manages the HBA... decide... does it exist or not?