CentOS 7 and HPE B320i Controller

It took the other day to install an old CentOS 7 on an old ProLiant 360e Gen8. The task is already exotic, but you never know - suddenly someone will come in handy, Maintenance updates for 7 have been promised before June 2024, and gen8 can still serve. First, I will describe the problem, then there will be a step-by-step guide.

Intro

So, we have CentOS / RHEL 7 and ProLiant Gen8 with Dynamic Smart Array B120i / B320i SATA RAID Controller. The B120i and B320i are very similar, differing in the number of physical drives supported (6 and 8, respectively) and the optional support for SAS drives with an additional license in the B320i. The controllers are "lightweight" and do not work without a proprietary driver, in contrast to full-fledged Smart Array (without Dynamic). The manual applies to all models with this controller.

The issue is documented in I s the HP Smart Array B320i, B140i, B120i, B110i controller supported by RHEL or RHELOSP on the Red Hat website.

Issue: Some of the HP Gen8 and Gen9 systems are shipping with either a Smart Array B320i, B140i, B120i, B110i, or other Bxxxi controller that requires a closed source driver to make RAID functionality available to the OS.

There are two ways out:

• switch the controller to SATA mode and build the array using OS software;

  
  
  
  
  

• provide the driver to the OS installer.

  
  
  
  
  

For details, see the HP Dynamic Smart Array B120i and B320i Controllers - Driver Support and Configuration document on the HPE website, and here is about switching controller mode. Documentation - QuickSpecs and User Guide for Dynamic Smart Array Controllers.

2- . , - ! - , , boot ..

: , .. , .

.

1. . HPE Dynamic Smart Array B120i/B320i SATA RAID Controller Driver for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit).

   
   
   
   
   

2. , iso:
   
   $ gunzip hpvsa-1.2.16-136.rhel7u8.x86_64.dd.gz && \

mv hpvsa-1.2.16-136.rhel7u8.x86_64.dd hpvsa-1.2.16-136.rhel7u8.x86_64.iso
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

3. - ( , iso- fat32 USB-):
   
   $ mkfs.msdos -C hpvsa.rhel7.floppy.img 1440

$ mkdir /tmp/hpvsa.rhel7.floppy

$ sudo mount -o loop hpvsa.rhel7.floppy.img /tmp/hpvsa.rhel7.floppy

$ sudo cp hpvsa-1.2.16-136.rhel7u8.x86_64.iso /tmp/hpvsa.rhel7.floppy

$ sudo umount /tmp/hpvsa.rhel7.floppy

$ rm -r /tmp/hpvsa.rhel7.floppy
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

4. iLO Remote Console - , , F11 Boot Menu.

   
   
   
   
   

5. ( Tab):
   
   (.: 5 6 linux dd blacklist=ahci vmalloc=384M 32- )
   
   modprobe.blacklist=ahci inst.dd
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

   

6. :

   
   
   
   
   

   

7. .

   
   
   
   
   

. , , . - rhel7u5.

Command Line Smart Storage Administrator - ssacli.

1. HPE:
   
   rpm --import https://downloads.linux.hpe.com/SDR/hpePublicKey2048_key1.pub
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

2. 
   
   
   
   

   vim /etc/yum.repos.d/mcp.repo





[mcp] name=Management Component Pack

baseurl=http://downloads.linux.hpe.com/repo/mcp/centos/$releasever/$basearch/current/

enabled=1

gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/GPG-KEY-mcp
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

3. :
   
   yum install amsd ssacli
   
   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   

4. :
   
   ssacli help