RAID Controllers - Gen 10+

[a18041967 0]

Just purchase a GEN 10+ and was hoping to use my existing HP P410 controller but experienced the reboot options detailed in the GEN 10 forum, but there doesn’t appear to be any confirmation as to which cards work in the GEN 10+?

 

Ideally the P410 is the perfect form factor with connectors at the rear of the card but reading other post LSI controllers may get too hot. The other key point is cost, and compatibility, budget is max £80 and in an ideal world would like ESXi 7 support. I may have found a card that meets my requirements the HP 420 is £35 and according to the VMWare compatibility site is supported by ESXi 7, also appeared to work in the GEN 10 microserver.

 

Does anyone have any experience, should the P420 work, if not what other cards could I consider, even if only ESXi 6.7 support, and any considerations regarding temperature?

 

Whilst waiting for the P420, I’m going to check the P410 firmware versions and see if any GEN 10+ bios settings resolve the reboot issues.

[schoondoggy 869]

You need a RAID card that supports a UEFI BIOS. HPE recommends HPE Smart Array E208i-p SR Gen10 Controller. The P408 would be a higher performing choice. Although these are newer cards, I have seen a few on eBay from time to time:  

https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/options/controller-controller-options/smart-array-controllers-smart-host-bus-adapters/c/7109730

[a18041967 0]

If it helps anyone else I've received the HP P420 card, cost £30, with 1GB cache & battery and its working which is good news. These are the key points to consider:

 

• Currently configured the GEN 10+ in legacy mode, will try UEFI at a later date.
• HP P420 is recognised and initialises, but function keys to configure the RAID do not appear or work.
• RAID Configuration is via the F10 Provisioning menu and the RAID configuration, the P420 is then recognised.
• VMware ESXi 7.0 recognises the card without issue, depending on versions of the card firmware updates maybe required.

So all in all a great solution, cheap RAID card that's supported by ESXi v7.0, and temperatures appears to be OK, iLO showing green status for all sensors.