Hp proliant microserver gen 8 hdd issues

Finaljustice

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I'm setting up my own home lab with a hp proliant gen 8, I have 4 10tb wd reds, and I'm having 2 issues the first is that when I go into hp's built in setup manager it only finds the ssd I wish to use for my OS, it does not detect any of my hdds, I cannot therefore setup RAID or progress past this step,

Any ideas? Are 10tb Hdds too large for the proliant ? I have seen elsewhere people have used 8tb and even 12tb drives in the same unit?

The hdds have all been formatted using windows before hand (although I had not formatted them when I first tried to set this up a week ago and had the same issues)
 
I would first check the HP HCL (hardware compatibility list) to ensure the drives are supported. Unfortunately it happens far too often that drives you expect are compatible or supported, are not and don't show up.

The other thing you can try is get the RAID controller to rescan for drives. HP tend to use LSI controllers but it could be something else, like a rebadged controller or Microsemi/Adaptec or any number of others. You will get details on the controller specifics in the boot screen so you could do a little deeper or easier digging on the options for support and diagnosis that way.
 
I would first check the HP HCL (hardware compatibility list) to ensure the drives are supported. Unfortunately it happens far too often that drives you expect are compatible or supported, are not and don't show up.

The other thing you can try is get the RAID controller to rescan for drives. HP tend to use LSI controllers but it could be something else, like a rebadged controller or Microsemi/Adaptec or any number of others. You will get details on the controller specifics in the boot screen so you could do a little deeper or easier digging on the options for support and diagnosis that way.
seems like my choice of wd red drives is compatible,
 
could the issue be a matter of power? the stock psu not being able to power 4 10tb drives? research bring up soo many conflicting results, people have claimed they have used 8tb drives 10tb drives and 12tb drives (all WD RED)

what can can i do?
 
could the issue be a matter of power? the stock psu not being able to power 4 10tb drives? research bring up soo many conflicting results, people have claimed they have used 8tb drives 10tb drives and 12tb drives (all WD RED)
No, this is almost certainly NOT the problem

when I go into hp's built in setup manager it only finds the ssd I wish to use for my OS, it does not detect any of my hdds, I cannot therefore setup RAID or progress past this step,
Sorry (as usual) I should have read your first post more carefully. I think the problem is the HP Setup manager can only see configured disks, so it can of course see your SSD However, you have not yet created the disk array with your WD drives so their is nothing for the HP manager to see... which is quite correct.

You will first have to go into the storage manager utility and create the array, then it will appear as a disk present for you to use.

However if you have not installed the OS yet, then of course you will not have access to the HP Storage manager utility. So you will need to configure it by going into the raid controller settings when they appear at Boot up, that way you can perform the configuration without having to have the OS loaded first. Sorry I can't remember what the ctrl key sequence is but it will tell you when it is booting. It my be something like Ctrl +C or A or Something like that. Normally with HP servers there are several boot ctrl sequences for the various devices that are detected in startup, so you need to watch closely to see which one refers to the HBA/Raid card and hit the key sequence for that one.

If you have installed the OS on the SSD, you can then install the HP Software which you can then use to configure you WD disks. It is a little easier, but doing it from the Bios is not difficult either.
 
Found out is was ctrl-s, device list only shows one drive (the ssd for the os) all 4 hdd wd red 10tb drives are not listed at all. See attached
20220115_001203.jpg
 
Found out is was ctrl-s, device list only shows one drive (the ssd for the os) all 4 hdd wd red 10tb drives are not listed at all. See attached View attachment 1636700
No, this is almost certainly NOT the problem


Sorry (as usual) I should have read your first post more carefully. I think the problem is the HP Setup manager can only see configured disks, so it can of course see your SSD However, you have not yet created the disk array with your WD drives so their is nothing for the HP manager to see... which is quite correct.

You will first have to go into the storage manager utility and create the array, then it will appear as a disk present for you to use.

However if you have not installed the OS yet, then of course you will not have access to the HP Storage manager utility. So you will need to configure it by going into the raid controller settings when they appear at Boot up, that way you can perform the configuration without having to have the OS loaded first. Sorry I can't remember what the ctrl key sequence is but it will tell you when it is booting. It my be something like Ctrl +C or A or Something like that. Normally with HP servers there are several boot ctrl sequences for the various devices that are detected in startup, so you need to watch closely to see which one refers to the HBA/Raid card and hit the key sequence for that one.

If you have installed the OS on the SSD, you can then install the HP Software which you can then use to configure you WD disks. It is a little easier, but doing it from the Bios is not difficult either.
At this stage I'm totally confused, shall i just try to install windows and see if windows finds the hdds? And perhaps potentially sort out an array via windows?

I really wanted to use esxi and then install windows as a vm
 

Thanks Jim, the issue i have now though is the hp raid setup does not find any logical drives or physical drives (aside from my 1tb ssd)

i was able to get into the bios and enable sata ports which at least changed what options i had in the HP intelligent provisioning software, but with the new options it still fails to show any drives in my 4 bays.

i tried a couple of much smaller seagate 2Tb drives this afternoon too just to rule out the wd red 10tb's as being the issue.

i tried to reformat all 4 drives with my laptop (with a cable) to see if that would make them visible to the sever at all but nothing.

in case you have not yet guessed im totally new to this my last server was a wd my cloud unit super easy setup no OS at all,

i wanted more control and this is the price i guess lol.
 
Tried a firmware update?
 
What speed is the SATA controller? 3Gbps? I think those Reds are 6Gbps? Do they need to be forced to 3Gbps?
 
What speed is the SATA controller? 3Gbps? I think those Reds are 6Gbps? Do they need to be forced to 3Gbps?
thats a good point actually, yes they are 6gbps, how might i see about doing that? although when i tried smaller seagate drives earlier today they were 3gbps and i had no luck with those ?
 
It’ll be a jumper setting. They should renegotiate a slower speed, but sometimes you have to force it.
 

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