A while ago I posted an article about my ESX whitebox and the HP P400 RAID controller I use in this whitebox server. At that time, I used ESXi 3.5 and there was no way I could configure or get the status from the RAID controller. Fortunately, someone commented that it was possible when using the regular ESX (no i) version by installing some HP software packages. I’ve been using ESXi 4 for some time now, but it was quiet annoying when of my disks died and I wasn’t informed about it or could not check the status, other than by restarting the server. I have switched to ESX 4 and now I want to be able to check and configure my P400 RAID controller. And I can! This is how I did it:

Download the following packages from the HP site:

hpsmh-3.0.1-73.x86_64.rpm
cpqacuxe-8.28-13.0.noarch.rpm
hpacucli-8.28-13.0.noarch.rpm

Copy these files to your ESX server (/tmp is a good location).

Install these packages with: rpm -ivh <packagename>

When installed, you can start the the acu web interface:

cpqacuxe -R

Open firewallport 2301 by using:

esxcfg-firewall -o 2301,tcp,out,HPACU

And your done. Go to: http://<esxhostname>:2301 and you can manage your HP P400 RAID controller:

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• September 11, 2009 -- VMworld 2009: Understanding “Host” and “Guest” Memory Usage
• July 15, 2009 -- VMware vSphere VCP 4 beta exam
• May 27, 2009 -- 1 week of G/A of vSphere 4.0 : getting started
• April 29, 2009 -- VMware vSphere 4: What’s in Enterprise Plus?
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Tags: ESX, ESX 4, esxi, ESXi4, HP Smartarray P400, P400, VMware, vSphere

1. Aaron Matlock Says:
   August 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 pm

   I tried doing the above but had no joy. Still unable to connect to the Systems Management homepage.

   Reply

2. Sake Says:
   August 25th, 2009 at 6:52 pm

   esxcfg-firewall -o 2301,tcp,out,HPACU must be esxcfg-firewall -o 2301,tcp,in,HPACU
   and of course esxcfg-firewall -o 2381,tcp,in,HPACU for the management homepage.
   Then I’m able to connect to as well to the management homepage as to the ACU

   Reply

3. Madeline Says:
   September 17th, 2009 at 11:07 am

   Hi,
   thanks for procedure, however:
   when installing package cpqacuxe-8.28-13.0.noarch.rpm on ESX 3.5 U4 I just get :
   error:
   libstdc++.so.6 is needed by cpqacuxe-8.28-13.0
   libstdc++.so.6(CXXABI_1.3) is needed by cpqacuxe-8.28-13.0
   libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4) is needed by cpqacuxe-8.28-13.0
   Do you know please where I can found these dependencies and how to install them on ESX ?
   Did someone do the installation without these messages ?

   thanks
   Eric.

   Reply

4. sake Says:
   September 30th, 2009 at 8:39 pm

   I did NOT get these errors

   ((Running P400 in a HP ML115 G1 (AMD Opteron))

   Reply

5. Andrea Says:
   December 17th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

   I have a HP laptop which has let me down time and time again. I have read more HP horror stories at http://hpfuckups.com – I’ll never deal with them again.

   Reply

6. mervincm Says:
   December 29th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

   Thanks for the new info! I will try and let you know.

   PS for those interested be careful with BIOS updates for the P400, I can’t boot with my PC with anything after 5.26 on my machine or it will freeze when initializing the drives (even with none attached)

   Reply

7. Jonathan Says:
   March 1st, 2010 at 5:54 pm

   Will this work for the P410 controller?

   Reply

   

   Sven Huisman reply on March 10th, 2010 4:52 pm:

   Sent me one and I will test it for you .

   Reply