You can use ssacli (smart storage administrator command line interface) tool to manage any of supported HP Smart Array Controllers in your Proxmox host without need to reboot your server to access Smart Storage Administrator in BIOS. That means no host downtime when managing your storage.

CLI is not as convenient as GUI interface provided by BIOS or desktop utilities, but still allows you to fully manage your controller, physical disks and logical drives on the fly with no Proxmox host downtime.

ssacli replaces older hpssacli, but shares the same syntax and adds support for newer servers and controllers.

Installation process of the ssacli package on any Debian based system.

bash <(curl -Ls https://dl.aryk.fr/ssacli)

or

bash <(curl -Ls https://github.com/RMartinOscar/ssacli/ssacli.sh)

To add HP's MCP repository to apt sources list use this command:

echo "deb http://downloads.linux.hpe.com/SDR/repo/mcp $dist/current non-free" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hp-mcp.list

Public keys are needed by apt to verify repository signatures, so we need to download and add them. There are four of them and we need to download and them all:

apt-key adv --keyserver keyring.debian.org --recv-keys C208ADDE26C2B797

First, we need to update available packages:

apt update

And then we can install the ssacli package:

apt install ssacli

Command short and long names All commands have a short name to reduce the length of the total input provided to the ssacli tool. You can use short or long name. Here is a list of all commands and their long and short names:

• chassisname = ch
• controller = ctrl
• logicaldrive = ld
• physicaldrive = pd
• drivewritecache = dwc
• licensekey = lk

You can specify disks also as:

• A range of drives (bay 1 to 3): 1I:1:1-1I:1:3
• Drives that are unassigned: allunassigned

Here are few examples of ssacli commands that you can use to diagnose and manage your HP Smart Storage Controller.

Show available controllers

ssacli ctrl all show

Show controllers status

ssacli ctrl all show status

Show detailed controllers information

ssacli ctrl all show detail

Show controllers configuration

ssacli ctrl all show config

Rescan for new devices Useful after swapping disks in bays, etc...

ssacli rescan

Show all physical disks (or their status) (controller slot 0)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show
ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show status

Show all physical disks detailed information (controller slot 0)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd all show detail

Show logical drives (or their status) (controller slot 0, all or specific logical drive(s))

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld all show
ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld all show status

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 show
ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 show status

Show detailed logical drives information (controller slot 0, all or specific logical drive(s))

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld all show detail
ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 show detail

Show array information (controller slot 0, array A)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a show

Show array status (controller slot 0, all arrays)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 array all show status

Create new RAID 0 logical drive (controller slot 0, disk in port 1I:box 1:bay 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1 raid=0

Create new RAID 1 logical drive (controller slot 0, disks in port 1I:box 1:bay 1 and 2)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1,1I:1:2 raid=1

Create new RAID 5 logical drive (controller slot 0, diks in port 1I:box 1:bay 1 to 4)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:1-1I:1:4 raid=5

Delete logical drive (controller slot 0, logical drive 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 delete

Add new physical disks to logical drive (controller slot 0, logical drive 1, disks in port 1I:box 1:bay 6 and 7)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 2 add drives=1I:1:6,1I:1:7

Add spare disks (controller slot 0, logical drive 1, array A, disks in port 1I:box 1:bay 6 and 7)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a add spares=1I:1:6,1I:1:7

Add global spare disks (controller slot 0, logical drive 1, all arrays, disks in port 1I:box 1:bay 6 and 7)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 array all add spares=1I:1:6,1I:1:7

Turn on/off blink logical drive LED (controller slot 0, logical drive 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 modify led=on
ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 modify led=off

Turn on/off blink physical disk LED (controller slot 0, physical disk port 1I:box 1:bay 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 1I:1:1 modify led=on
ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 1I:1:1 modify led=off

Modify smart array cache read and write ratio (controller slot 0, cacheratio 80% read/20% write)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify cacheratio=80/20

Show physical drive write cache status (controller slot 0)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=?

Enable/disable physical drive write cache (controller slot 0) Important: Because physical drive write cache is not battery-backed, you could lose data if a power failure occurs during a write process. To minimize this possibility, use a backup power supply.

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=enable
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify dwc=disable

Show status of smart array write cache when no battery is present (no-battery write cache option, controller slot 0)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify nbwc=?

Enable/disable smart array write cache when no battery is present (no-battery write cache option, controller slot 0)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify nbwc=enable
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify nbwc=disable

Enable/disable smart array cache for certain Logical Volume (controller slot 0, logical drive 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 modify arrayaccelerator=enable
ssacli ctrl slot=0 ld 1 modify arrayaccelerator=disable

Enable/disable SSD Smart Path (controller slot 0, array A)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=enable
ssacli ctrl slot=0 array a modify ssdsmartpath=disable

Show spare activation mode

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify spareactivationmode=?

Set spare activation mode

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify spareactivationmode=predictive
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify spareactivationmode=failure

Show rebuild priority

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify rp=?

Modify rebuild priority

ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify rp=low
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify rp=medium
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify rp=mediumhigh
ssacli ctrl slot=0 modify rp=high

Erase Physical Drive (controller slot 0, physical disk port 1I:box 1:bay 1)

ssacli ctrl slot=0 pd 1I:1:1 modify erase