Gather HP SmartArray cache battery information under HP-UX

When a RAID controllers cache battery fails it is a benefit if you can gather the spare part number without any downtime. If your server is equipped with a HP SmartArray controller you can easily get t hose information using the sautil utility. This requires the HP-UX products RAIDSA and RAIDSA-PROVIDER to be installed. For displaying the information the hardware path of the affected controller is gathered and passed to sautil:

# ioscan -funCext_bus
Class       I  H/W Path        Driver       S/W State   H/W Type     Description
=================================================================================
...
ext_bus     1  0/6/0/0/0/0/4/0/0/0      ciss         CLAIMED     INTERFACE    PCIe SAS SmartArray P400 RAID Controller
                              /dev/ciss1

# sautil /dev/ciss1|more
---- ARRAY ACCELERATOR (CACHE) INFORMATION -----------------------------------
  Array Accelerator Board Present?.... yes
  Cache Configuration Status.......... write cache temporarily disabled (code=1)
  Cache Ratio......................... 25% Read / 75% Write
  Total Cache Size (MB)............... 208
    Read Cache........................ 052
    Write Cache....................... 156
    Transfer Buffer................... 000
  Battery Pack Count.................. 1
  Battery Status (pack #1)............ FAILED

In this case the cache is 208 MB which is consistent with the 256 MB P400 model variant. There is also a 512 MB model with a completely different cache battery. If you want to make sure you’re ordering the right part you can check the cache size mentioned in the firmware by using the HP-UX Support Tool Manager. For this you might need to install the HP-UX product Sup-Tool-Mgr. The tool also requires you to specify the controller’s hardware path:

# echo "selclass hwpath 0/6/0/0/0/0/4/0/0/0;info;wait;infolog"|/usr/sbin/cstm|more
...
Controller : HP SmartArray RAID Controller
Device File: /dev/ciss1
Hardware Revision: 'E'
Firmware Revision (Currently Running): 7.22
Firmware Revision Rom: 7.22
Boot Block Revision: 0.04
Total Cache Size (MB) : 256
Battery Pack:    Battery Count : 1
Battery Status:  Battery Number ( 1 ) : BATTERY FAILED
Battery Voltage: Battery Number ( 1 ) : below reference voltage