HP B110i, B120i and B320i RAID controller – howto

The RAID functionality for the B120i and B320i controllers in the “e” series ProLiant servers is provided by a software driver (FakeRAID). The driver for these RAID controllers is available in binary form on HP site (Currently only for RHEL and SLES). CentOS users (of course) should download RHEL driver but in this case, do not expect support from HP.

Without drivers, the disks won’t be seen as a parts of RAID array.

Option 1 – disable controller / don’t use it

For systems with the B320i SAS controller

  • Boot the server into System Options
  • Navigate to HP Smart Array B320i Raid Configuration
  • Change to DISABLED

For systems with the B120i SATA controller

  • Boot the server into System Options
  • Navigate to SATA Controller Options -> Embedded SATA Configuration
  • Change it to ENABLE SATA AHCI SUPPORT

Option 2 – install drivers

  1. Click here to download RHEL 6.x driver
  2. In “Software – Driver Update” section you’ll see the latest update (hpvsa-1.2.12-110.rhel6u6.x86_64.dd.gz). Download the file, extract into FAT32 formatted USB drive
  3. Boot Centos 6 from DVD (or how ever you want)
  4. On the main installation menu, plug in the USB drive. Press “ESC” to manually boot
  5. At that “boot” prompt enter the following command: linux dd blacklist=ahci
  6. Hit ENTER and select Yes for driver option. Select the USB drive, select the driver disk image and select OK.
  7. Continue with the OS installation

 

6 thoughts on “HP B110i, B120i and B320i RAID controller – howto

  1. If you have Centos/RHEL 7.4.
    The driver is not available at the time and HPE take a lot of time updating it.
    The driver for 7.3 does not work.
    You will get a kernel panic.

    If I would be in your position, I would just not use it.
    The next update they will probably be late again and until then you won’t be able to patch your system using the package manager.

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