Issues adding drives

[Richamc01]

I am having some problems when trying to add additional storage drives. I've added drives in the past with no issues. When I built my server, I used smaller internal drives because they were inexpensive or I had them already lying around. Now, two years later, these drives are getting to be filled up. I have a 1 TB HDD and a 2 TB HDD that I am wanting to replace with larger drives. I bought two Seagate IronWolf 4TB drives to replace these, and I was wanting to connect them to my SAS expander card to run a preclear on them before swapping them.

 

I connected a Mini SAS to SATA cable to a spare port on the SAS expander card, connected the drives to power, and powered the server back up. To my surprise, Unraid did not boot up as it normally does, so I connected to the IPMI interface and launched a console to see what was going on. When it connected, I was receiving a message that says,

 

Quote

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key".

 

I powered down and double checked everything was connected properly and it was, so I booted it up again and received the same message. I rebooted again and went into the BIOS to make sure my USB was still selected as the boot device and it was. In the boot menu, I disabled all of the HDDs from being able to be used as a boot device, and made sure the only device is the Unraid USB and then saved the settings. I rebooted and received the same message. I went back into the BIOS and noticed that everything in the boot priority had changed. Now the Unraid USB wasn't showing as the only device. I changed the boot settings back to how they need to be and then rebooted again, only to receive the same message. 

 

I finally disconnected the new drives, to put everything back how it was before, and booted the server up. I went into the BIOS to make sure it was set correctly. Everything in the the boot priority menu had changed once again. I set everything back to how it needs to be (disable everything except the SanDisk USB) and rebooted. Now, without the new drives connected, Unraid boots up as it should. This was all a few days ago.

 

Yesterday I had some free time, and I tried adding the drives again, using a different port on the SAS expander card, and I got the same message. Disconnecting the drives results in Unraid booting just fine again. Both times I tried this, the SAS expander sees the new drives. 

 

Here are some system specs:

• Unraid Pro Version 6.8.3
• Motherboard - Supermicro X8DTL-i 
• Dell H310 SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i
• HP 487738-001 SAS Expander
• Seagate IronWolf 4TB ST4000VN008 - (drives that I'm trying to add)

 

This might less of an Unraid issue and more an issue with Supermicro, and I plan to post on their forums as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

[trurl]

Replace CMOS battery

[Richamc01]

1 minute ago, trurl said:

Replace CMOS battery

I had this same thought, but I tested the battery voltage when I installed the motherboard a few months back, and it was a solid 3VDC. Would this cause the system to not boot when adding the drives though? I didn’t think it would. 
 

Either way, I’ll give this a shot. Thank you for the reply! 

[trurl]

Just thought it might be why BIOS doesn't remember the changes you made.

[Richamc01]

1 minute ago, trurl said:

Just thought it might be why BIOS doesn't remember the changes you made.

That was my thought as well. I’ll report back once I get my hands on a new battery!