Disabling RAID feature on HP Smart Array P400

I'm planning to use ZFS on my system (HP ML370 G5, Smart Array P400, 8 SAS disk). I want ZFS to manage all disks individually, so it can utilize better scheduling (i.e. I want to use software RAID feature in ZFS).

The problem is, I can't find a way to disable RAID feature on the RAID controller. Right now, the controller aggregates all of the disks into one big RAID-5 volume. So ZFS can't see individual disk.

Is there any way to acomplish this setup?

From serverfault Arie K

• If you simply delete the volume in the RAID BIOS that exposes the disks directly in some versions of the SmartArray controllers. We always use the controller even with things like ZFS.

  Chopper3 : This is the right answer - just delete the array in the ACU, that way the BIOS just sees the disk. That said are you SURE you don't want it managed by the P400? they're a damn good card.

  Arie K : Aha, so this bring back ol' software vs hardware RAID war :) Should I combine both setup: ZFS' pool on top of single RAID-5 (or even RAID 1+0) volume exposed by P400?

  3dinfluence : There are advantages to letting ZFS have the raw disks over a hardware raid controller. For one if you have a disk go bad ZFS will only need to rebuild the actual data rather than the entire block device speeding up rebuild and reducing the possibility of running into another problem while rebuilding. By giving ZFS the entire raw disk ZFS also manages the drive cache which improves efficiency. Third ZFS will properly detect and correct IO errors due to its exhaustive data checksumming. Because of this I wouldn't put a hardware raid inbetween ZFS and the Disks.
  From LapTop006

• The other option is to create each disk as a single-disk RAID-0 array (yes, it should let you do this). Then ZFS will see all the indidual disks.

  The 'technical' name for the option you're looking for is called JBOD - Just a Bunch of Disks.

  Arie K : Would this introduce additional overhead on the RAID controller?

  Farseeker : Don't know, I doubt it, but it looks like the other answer by Laptop006 is more appropriate as he seems to have more experience with this scenario.
  From Farseeker

• Be careful with the P400 single-disk RAID 0 setup. If you have a hotplug event (disk failure/drive removal), ZFS won't recognize the new disk without a reboot. The Smart Array controllers don't offer a true JBOD setting.

  From ewwhite