Are cciss controllers supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7?

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Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • HP Smart Array Controller

Issue

  • Is cciss controllers supported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ?
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 does not have the cciss driver
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 fails to detect the P400 storage controller available with HP ProLiant DL380 G5

Resolution

  • Use a newer Smart Array controller model that is supported by the hpsa driver.

Root Cause

  • As per the release note, The following controllers which were supported by the cciss driver are no longer supported by the hpsa driver (which replaced the cciss driver):
    • Smart Array 5300
    • Smart Array 5i
    • Smart Array 532
    • Smart Array 5312
    • Smart Array 641
    • Smart Array 642
    • Smart Array 6400
    • Smart Array 6400 EM
    • Smart Array 6i
    • Smart Array P600
    • Smart Array P800
    • Smart Array P400
    • Smart Array P400i
    • Smart Array E200i
    • Smart Array E200
    • Smart Array E500
    • Smart Array P700M

Note: The above controllers are listed as no longer supported by the HP/HPE for use with the hpsa driver. You can try updating firmware to the latest versions, and that may get the cards at least recognized by the driver in some cases. However, since the vendor does not support these cards using the hpsa driver, if the card fails in any way we are unable to provide support as we're unable to engage the vendor through partner relationships for hardware they no longer support.

Diagnostic Steps

DISCLAIMER: The following information has been provided by Red Hat, but is outside the scope of the posted Service Level Agreements and support coverage. The information is provided as-is and any configuration settings or installed applications made from the information in this article could make the Operating System unsupported by Red Hat Global Support Services. The intent of this article is to provide information to accomplish the system's needs. Use of the information in this article at your own risk.

Two potential methods exist to get Smart Array controller models not supported by the hpsa driver recognized and potentially working.

Neither of these methods are supported by Red Hat.

  • The hpsa driver has the following module option hpsa_allow_any=1. This module option allows the use of PCI IDs that are not listed in the driver's pci-id table (recognition of Smart Array cards that are not tested/qualified with the hpsa driver). To make the installer detect the controller at install time, pass the following hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 at the install prompt. Per the RHEL 7 release notes, any cards detected by using this option are not supported by Red Hat.

  • Download the cciss driver from HP's open source project repository for the cciss driver. Since this resulting driver is not shipped by Red Hat, it isn't supported.

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