HPE H241 HBA Hell? Can't get any linux server to see the card?

Hardware Enterprise Gear
, ,
1

I have a problem with my home lab setup and I could really use some help or someone to just hit me really hard on the head and put me out of my misery.

I am trying to connect an HPE H241 HBA PCI card to a HPE ML2024 Tape Library via SAS. I have tried the card in three different servers, but none of them seem to recognize it. I’m not sure if the card is faulty or if there is some HPE firmware issue that I am not aware of.

I am not experienced with storage systems and SAS connections in a home lab environment. In the past, I have only worked with upper-end HPE fiber channel systems that were set up by a systems integrator.

The servers I have tried it on are:

  • HPE ProLiant DL360p Gen8 Intel Xeon E5-2670
  • Supermicro A+ Server AS- 1014S-WTRT AMD EPYC 7232P
  • 2019 Mac Pro Xeon-W

Each of these servers is running either fully updated Debian 12.x or Proxmox 8.1x. I have tried the following to get the card to show up:

  • lsscsi
  • ssacli (ssacli ctrl all show)
  • modprobe sg
  • dmesg | “all the greps”
  • lspci | “all the greps”

On the HPE machines, the ssacli does show the internal storage controller (i.e., a P420i in slot 0).

When the card is in the machine and powers up, some lights on the back of the card start blinking (with or without the SAS cables connected). On the other side of the SAS cables, the Tape Drive and library are all happy and are showing positive SAS connections (i.e., Port A Status → “Ready, connected”, Speed → “6 Gb/s”, Hashed SAS address → “891F8F”).

I am not sure what else to look at. I could be missing something, and I am open to any suggestions. It feels like there are four possible causes for this problem:

  • The card is faulty and needs to be replaced
  • The card is fine, but it only works on a newer (G9 or G10) HPE Server
  • The card is fine, but it needs to be flashed with another firmware (even though it doesn’t show up at any level on any machine)
  • The card is fine, but I am not installing the right kernel modules to get it to show up

I would appreciate any thoughts, questions, and suggestions that you may have.

IMG_5002
IMG_50021920×2560 531 KB

1 Like
2

The lights on the back of the card… diagnostic lights or just activity indicators…?

3

Officially, the H241 HBA only works with Gen 9 servers and a VERY limited set of target devices (see page 3 of its spec sheet). The supported devices DO NOT include your tape library.

The H241 card is also reported to be very finicky on non-HPE hardware.

SAS IT mode HBAs are not rocket science. It’s the vendor/firmware lock that causes 99% of headaches.

Put yourself out of your misery: forget the H241 and spend $30 on an LSI 9300-8e that will work on almost anything and with almost anything.

1 Like
4

@qqk Thank you and thank you for the confirmation.

To the LSI 9300-8e I go!