I wanted to know if a certain server had a Battery Backed Write Cache module (BBWC) on it’s array controller.

I suspected it did not, but I had to be sure. Since this server was running production I couldn’t open (Visual Inspection) or reboot it.

The server didn’t have Insight Agents installed so I couldn’t query it via iLO or the Insight Agents webpage either.

I knew that when you do a full install of the array controller bundled software it comes with a commandline tool, hpacucli.exe.

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I ran into an error when I was upgrading hardware on an HP BL460c G6 Blade.

After placing 2 new (larger) hard drives the Array Configuration would hang after saving the configuration (It just kept blinking “Saving Configuration.” forever.

After a reset the Smart Array Controller (P410) halted a very long time on Initializing and eventually failed.

I retried the whole procedure with the same result but this time the controller reported: “previous lockup code 0xAB”.

My next step would be a firmware update and this kb article from HP confirms that it was indeed a firmware issue: HP Serial Smart Array Controllers P410/411/212/712m/410i – May Hang with Lockup Error Code 0XAB Configured in Zero Memory Mode.

This kb article also tells me why I didn’t have this error on another blade: that one had the Battery Backed Write Cache module.