Hi there! unRAID user since ~2012 here 👋

I'm going through a bit of a storage upgrade and am a bit puzzled with what next steps to take.

 

Here's my build:

 

unRAID 6.8.3

Supermicro X9SCM-iiF

Intel® Core i3-3220

16GB RAM (using all 4 slots)

Corsair HX650 PSU

8x WD RED 2TB - 6 connected to motherboard, 2 connected to PCIe SATA card

1x 250 GB cache drive - connected to PCIe SATA card

Syba SI-PEX40064 PCIe SATA card (in bottom slot which is PCIe 2.0)

 

I've recently purchased 3x WD 8TB drives to replace my single parity drive and to add more storage. I had one remaining SATA port on my expansion card, so I needed to purchase another card. I spent many, many hours browsing these forums to make sure I don't mess things up. For example, I now know to avoid cards using Marvell chips and port multipliers (which is unfortunately most of the cards on the market).

 

Interestingly, the Syba card I've been using for the last 4 years is Marvell based but has served me well without any issues. Anyway, I went out to look for an ASMedia ASM1166 based SATA card and landed on this MZHOU(?) card. There's no multi/combo-chip going on here and no port multipliers either.

 

I slotted the card into the top slot (PCIe 3.0) with 3 drives attached -- 1 of the new 8TB drives, the existing 2TB parity drive and one of the existing 2TB drives (don't ask why not all 3 of the new drives; it just made sense to move things around 🙃). After booting up unRAID, I could see it was reporting the parity drive and one of the data drives as missing. These 2 drives are plugged into the new SATA card. The third drive just doesn't show, as I'd expect at this point.

 

I've tried every combination of different cables and I've tried the other PCI 3.0 slot as well as the 1 remaining PCIe 2.0 slot. Same results either way. I'm not thinking it's worth taking out the existing Syba card at this point just to try this new card out in its slot. Thankfully, I can confirm things are all good when I restore to my previous configuration; which is where I'm at right now.

 

My next step was to get into the BIOS to see if there's something SATA/AHCI/PCIe related to enable or disable 🤷‍♂️ but oh boy does it get worse... It would appear that a 2K21 bug is actually a thing (link 1, link 2, link 3). As of 00:00 1 January 2021, I can't get into my BIOS. Ridiculously unlucky timing for me. On a separate note, I feel like this bug should be a PSA somewhere in the unRAID forums if it's not already, as it seems to affect all X9xxx boards which I think were/are quite popular.

 

So, are we all thinking the new SATA card is to blame here? It's ironic that the Marvell one works but the ASM1166 doesn't. It's also ironic that I spent hours to research this stuff, only to get stung like this 😒

 

What's going on here? Am I just on a spree of bad luck?

 

Shall I RMA the card?

Could it be a hardware compatibility issue? (unlikely IMO)

Is it worth testing in another computer?

What else can I test without accessing the BIOS access?

Is it worth updating the BIOS in the middle of all these other changes I'm making?

If I do, is it sensible to continue going ahead with my changes/upgrade or should I confirm things are stable for a week/month before upgrading parity etc.?

Does a setting of some sort in the BIOS even make sense? (I think not). The BIOS bug only applies to accessing the BIOS itself (which I'm in no hurry to do).

 

I feel like there are a lot of variables all of a sudden. What should have been a straightforward task has turned into a multi-faceted mess.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice, thoughts or comments. When reading through the forums recently for my research, it was incredible to see some of the same names from all those years ago still being super helpful and keeping the community going -- you folks rock! Thank you and keep it up!

 

Omid

 

P.S. attached screenshots aren't interesting

 

Before:

 

After:

unraid-diagnostics-20210205-1255.zip

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Omid
Added unRAID version (not that it should matter in this case)

Please post the diagnostics: Tools -> Diagnostics

Thanks, JorgeB! Diagnostics zip added to OP ^
Apologies for not including that in the first place -- doh!

 

Quote

Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata5: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata2: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata6: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Feb  5 12:37:00 unRAID kernel: ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

 

FYI - this is okay, because I have plugged in one of the new 8TB drives into a mobo port that I've currently disconnected (to get back to stable/known config). By the way, my reasons for moving some of the cables into other ports was to try and spread the disk i/o load across different interfaces in the hope that I can preclear 2x 8TB drives at the same time, that little bit quicker. I'm hoping that logic is plausible 😃

 

I used to have all 6 mobo ports occupied and 3/4 of the Syba ports occupied. I've basically freed up 1 mobo port by moving existing parity drive to the 1 remaining Syba port and thus making way for new 8TB parity drive to be plugged directly into mobo port.

 

Thanks!

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Omid

No Asmedia controller is being detected, try a different slot if available.

Okay, you finally convinced me to try it on the only slot I hadn't already tried (because it was occupied by my existing card).

I can report that 4 drives are showing up on the new card when it's in slot #4.

 

Do BIOS' tend to have a per-slot enable/disable option? I can't remember.

unraid-diagnostics-20210205-1732.zip

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Omid
New diagnostics added

3 minutes ago, Omid said:

Do BIOS' tend to have a per-slot enable/disable option?

Depends on the boards, also some boards shares slots with other devices, only one can be enable.

39 minutes ago, Omid said:

Do BIOS' tend to have a per-slot enable/disable option? I can't remember.

i have the same board, and struggled with very similar problem some time ago - some card wont work on some slots. BIOS update to the latest solved all problems for me - know all slots are working as expected. so, are you on latest BIOS? 

1 hour ago, uldise said:

i have the same board, and struggled with very similar problem some time ago - some card wont work on some slots. BIOS update to the latest solved all problems for me - know all slots are working as expected. so, are you on latest BIOS? 

 

Thanks a lot for chiming in!

 

Tools > System Profiler shows my BIOS as Version: 2.0a, Release Date: 09/17/2012. It's not the latest (2.3a is) and I'm a little conflicted at the moment because of my findings regarding the Supermicro Y2K21 bug (see my OP if this is new to you)...

 

According to this, this and, in particular, these two posts, 2.0a is not affected by the bug, which only affects 2.1 - 2.3 🤷‍♂️ However, I can confirm that I experience the blue screen with AB error upon entering setup.

 

@uldise could you do me a massive favour and tell me what BIOS version you're currently running and what card(s) you're using. I have a Xeon E3-1230 V2 on its way to me for which I might have to update BIOS for anyways (see below). I just want to get as much information before I touch this fragile board any more.

 

At this point, I'd like to just replicate your config/hardware 

 

For anyone else who may stumble on this thread regarding this motherboard, take note of this particular footnote on the motherboard's official product page:

Quote

*** BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600.

 

I am on 2.0a (which I assume is >2.0), so I should be good to go as-is, but I'm thinking I should upgrade since I can't enter BIOS setup.

In fact, my version should be right in the sweet spot; it should not be affected by the Y2K21 bug (but is) and all of its PCI slots should be good (but they're not). I'm double losing 😢

 

 

Edited February 5, 20215 yr by Omid

1 hour ago, uldise said:

i have the same board, and struggled with very similar problem some time ago 

Thanks, didn't even notice it was an X9SCM, I've had the same issue where a 2 ports Asmedia controller wouldn't work in the CPU slots, only the PCH slots, will need to check the BIOS.

55 minutes ago, Omid said:

could you do me a massive favour and tell me what BIOS version

i'm not sure, updated it last year, i cant view it in IMPI. i think i'm on 2.3.

see release notes for new version here, i think it noted about youre 2021 problem..: https://www.supermicro.com/Bios/softfiles/12789/X9SCL-ii(F)_X9SCM-ii(F)_BIOS_2_3a_release_notes.pdf

58 minutes ago, Omid said:

what card(s) you're using

one GPU and one 10Gbit network card, and one USB3 card. before BIOS upgrade i can't get all three cards to work at once. once i upgraded, then no problems since.

9 hours ago, uldise said:

so, are you on latest BIOS?

I am now on the latest (2.3a), but I haven't noticed any different PCI behavior. I can get into the BIOS now and reviewed some related settings.

 

7 hours ago, uldise said:

i cant view it in IMPI

unRAID can show it: Tools > System Profiler

Thanks for sharing your cards and for the link -- I already had the whole zip downloaded

 

7 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Asmedia controller wouldn't work in the CPU slots, only the PCH slots

That's exactly what I'm experiencing. The two cards I have seem to only work in the bottom slot, which I believe is the only PCH slot on this board, and I've now overwhelmed it with a 6 port SATA card. My existing Syba 4 port won't have a place in this server (for now).

 

Per the footnote on the board's page, I might get my PCI CPU slots to work after swapping out the i3 for the Xeon E3-1230 V2 (next week).

 

I've now got all my array disks recognised and the three new drives sitting unassigned 👍 Thanks!

Strangely, I noticed no cache drive showing and after assigning the correct drive, it shows blue as a new device. I can't understand why; it's definitely the same drive. The only 250GB device. I presume there won't be any harm in just assigning it as cache.

 

2 hours ago, Omid said:

unRAID can show it: Tools > System Profiler

this board is now my main workstation, so, no unraid. but i checked with Linux tool, and i'm on version 2.2 now.

my problem was that with GPU and 10Gbit cards in, GPU works only in first CPU slot, network card shows under Linux, but wont work. After i updated BIOS, i can now place my GPU in first or second CPU slot, both works, network card works too in any combination.

you can try set your slots gen in bios. if you have PCIe 2 card, then set appropriate setting for that slot.  

On 2/5/2021 at 3:07 AM, Omid said:

i3-3220

but yes, this CPU simply have not enough PCIe lanes. according to intel: up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8 & 2x4. Supermicro can do it a bit different, then you need to read board manual. 

5 hours ago, Omid said:

which I believe is the only PCH slot on this board

Yes, that what I meant, in this board the 3 top slots are from the CPU.

 

2 hours ago, uldise said:

but yes, this CPU simply have not enough PCIe lanes. according to intel: up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8 & 2x4.

In my experience lower end CPUs can still use the 20 CPU lanes, despite not being officially supported, in the past I used a G2030 and was still able to use the 3 top slots and confirmed they were linking at x8+x8+x4.

Thanks @uldise & @JorgeB -- you've shared some very helpful information and insights.

 

I'm one click away from starting the array, but:

 

I noticed my cache drive was showing unassigned and after assigning the correct drive, it shows blue as a new device. I can't understand why; it's definitely the same drive. The only 250GB device. I presume there won't be any harm in just assigning it as cache (?) and firing it up. You can see the same drive serial number listed under Historical Devices -- a section I've not seen before.

 

Something to do with moving the cache drive from my old card to this new one? Serial can't change. Some other ID changed?

If there's no "all data on this device will be deleted" in red letters to the right of the cache you can start normally and it should pick up old cache, if it doesn't please post diags.

All good, thanks!