RE: [PATCH 0/6] Add support of the HBA mode on HP Smart Array P410i controllers

[Don.Brace]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ivan Mironov [mailto:mironov.ivan@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2018 2:30 PM
To: Don Brace - C33706 <Don.Brace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; don.brace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; jejb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; martin.petersen@xxxxxxxxxx; esc.storagedev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/6] Add support of the HBA mode on HP Smart Array P410i controllers

EXTERNAL EMAIL


On Fri, 2018-12-14 at 19:38 +0000, Don.Brace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> NAKing this series.
> - The P410 controllers do not fully support HBA mode and we do not support adding it to the hpsa driver.
>

Could you please elaborate on what exactly you mean by "do not fully support HBA mode"?

Don> HBA mode may have started on this controller family, but was not fully developed.
Don> Regardless of the server, It's not a generic offering and should not be accepted into the general driver space.
Don> Adding this to kernel.org means it will find its way into other Linux vendors and we do not want this either.

HBA mode looks supported on P410i (at least to some degree) because:
*) There is an official method to enable/disable it on these controllers. Only for itanium-based servers unfortunately.
*) This method is mentioned in various documents from HP regarding Integrity servers.
*) Controller reacts on the change of corresponging bit in nvram_flags by immediately removing any configured RAID arrays and by refusing to configure new arrays. Which is totally expected for HBA mode.
*) HBA mode works for me on P410i with patched driver.