If you are planning on deploying Storage Spaces Direct on HPE G9 hardware make sure that you check your Host Bus Adapters (HBA)’s to ensure that your firmware is up to date and current. Back in April 2017 HPE released a Critical Firmware Update for the H240ar Controllers. Here is a quick list of the issues that are resolved by having at least the 5.04 Firmware or later.

  • Kernel core dump using kdump might not complete in Linux when using Smart Array Gen9 firmware version 4.52.
  • Intermittent memory errors might cause the controller to stop responding. (POST Lockup 0x13)
  • System might stop responding if a parity error is found during surface scan of a RAID6 volume. (POST Lockup 0x13)
  • In rare cases, the controller might stop responding while running IO without displaying a lockup code.
  • Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) might occur on systems with a Windows OS and HPE Gen9 Smart Array or Smart HBA adapters and performing continuous reboot testing.
  • System IO might stop when using certain 6TiB and 8TiB SAS drives in a dual-path configuration with an HPE Gen9 Smart Array or Smart HBA adapter in HBA-mode, possibly resulting in an OS crash.
  • Physical slot location of SATA drives might not be returned correctly when using Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D).
  • Multiple direct attach SATA drives within a cluster might show the same World Wide Name (WWN) when using Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D).
  • Drive LED’s might be illuminated for the wrong drive and/or only illuminate momentarily when connected to an expander configuration with an HPE Gen9 Smart Array or Smart HBA adapter in HBA-mode.
  • Controllers using a 4GB cache module might fail data retention following an unexpected power event. (POST message 1793 – Data in Write-Back Cache has been Lost)


I have bolded the ones that will directly impact your Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Configurations.

As a side note HPE has started recommending that you use their P840 Controllers for its Storage Spaces Direct Solutions.

You can see more details on this critical fix here at HPE: http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-a00007847en_us&sp4ts.oid=7796454

Happy Learning,


Dave