February 4, 20224 yr Hi all. I installed a Genuine LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA LSI 9211-8i (=9201-8i) P20 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID from Art of Server to connect my SAS drives. Originally I tried to connect my SAS drives to my motherboard SATA slots but of course they wouldn't work. I then purchased these cables, thinking connecting these would work. CABLEDECONN Mini SAS 36 SFF-8087 to (4) SFF-8482 Connectors with SATA Power 0.5m. For whatever reason, the drives aren't showing up at all even though I've connected the SFF-8087 cable to my HBA card (flashed in IT mode by Art of Server on eBay). In looking at my BIOS manual for my motherboard (Asus Prime B560-Plus Motherboard), I thought I might need to change my PCie Bandwidth Bifurcation Configuration to X8/X8 instead of PCIEX16_1. The PCie Bandwidth Bifurcation Configuration doesn't even show up in my bios at all. I was going to make a separate post on that, but figured I'd hold off as I didn't want to be accused of double posting. Are the cables I purchased right for connecting my SAS drives to my HBA card? My motherboard recognizes my HBA card but doesn't recognize the drives (no drives show up aside from my SATA SSD). In doing further reading, could I have purchased reverse breakout cables by mistake? Also unable to change the PCI mapping on the BIOS from 1x16 to 2x8 (assuming this is in reference to PCie Bandwidth Bifurcation Configuration, just a more universal name). Let me know of next steps.
February 5, 20224 yr Author Thanks @JorgeB attached are the diagnostics. tower-diagnostics-20220204-2059.zip
February 5, 20224 yr Everything looks normal with the HBA initialization, are the devices being detect in the LSI BIOS?
February 5, 20224 yr Author Everything looks normal with the HBA initialization, are the devices being detect in the LSI BIOS?How do I access the LSI bios? I know how to see the motherboard bios. Recommended video or link to instructions?Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 6, 20224 yr CSM Legacy boot must be enable, as well as OPT ROM for the PCIe slots, then CTRL + C during boot when you see the LSI BIOS.
February 6, 20224 yr One more thing, this is fairly obvious, but since it happened before, you did connect power to the SAS cables right?
February 7, 20224 yr Author 21 hours ago, JorgeB said: CSM Legacy boot must be enable, as well as OPT ROM for the PCIe slots, then CTRL + C during boot when you see the LSI BIOS. Ok, I think I was having issues with enabling the CSM, I'll check tomorrow after work. I gotta dig into that. 19 hours ago, JorgeB said: One more thing, this is fairly obvious, but since it happened before, you did connect power to the SAS cables right? I connected the SAS cales from the drives to the HBA controller, is that sufficient, or am I missing something completely?
February 7, 20224 yr 5 hours ago, jrd680 said: I connected the SAS cales from the drives to the HBA controller, is that sufficient, or am I missing something completely? Do you have a connector from the PSU to each drive?
February 7, 20224 yr Author No, only from the drives to the HBA. What would such cable look like or would I need adapters? I’m so so sorry for making such an easy mistake though I’m glad I’m retracing and going over things too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 8, 20224 yr Author Hey all, exciting news, she boots and a drive is recognized! I first looked and saw the SATA plugged into the power supply. Then I saw on the red cables I have a SAS to SATA attached, and detached it. Then plugged in like so Knew it was good when this shows as recognizing That said after plugging them in only 1 out of the 5 SAS drives I’ve plugged in work, that said it’s better then we started. Now what next steps to troubleshoot whether the other drives are dead or will boot? Maybe a 3.3v pin issue? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 8, 20224 yr That's a SATA SSD connected to the onboard SATA controller, if the SAS devices now have power boot Unraid and they should be detected there.
February 8, 20224 yr Author That's a SATA SSD connected to the onboard SATA controller, if the SAS devices now have power boot Unraid and they should be detected there.I did and only one seems to be spinning up. I can heard the others chugging along but they are loud and might not be working. Only the 1 SAS and 1 SATA is showing up in the bios and Unraid.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 8, 20224 yr 4 minutes ago, jrd680 said: I can heard the others chugging along but they are loud and might not be working. Most likely are not working then, but you can test in the working port to make sure.
February 8, 20224 yr Author I’ll look into trouble shooting later today Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 11, 20224 yr Author So I went ahead and troubleshooted. Turns out I have 1 SAS drive working and my SATA SSD drive working, all the rest appear to be dead drives. Also might have to enlist the help of a friend as trying to remove the drives on my case is a pain, the backside has the place where my 2.5 inch SSD drive is and then brackets and such that make it really hard to each in and unscrew the plastic things that are keeping the drives in. I think I’ll need a second pair of hands and also some more SAS drives. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 18, 20224 yr Author Added a 10tb SAS drive, isn’t being recognized as it’s SAS 3 and I think my HBA tops at 6gbps instead of 12 gbps. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 19, 20224 yr Author 8 hours ago, JorgeB said: SAS3 is backwards compatible with SAS2. Hmm, not sure what it is then. I thought it could be that the drive is dead. The seller assured me that it was working at the time of shipping it. I had also thought that since my controller is 6gbps and the drive is 12gbps that it wouldn't work because of that, but in posting in a UnRaid Facebook group others have gotten that to work with no issue. Also, I am unable to access the HBA bios as it's not showing up following POST. I learned about using Control + C but even then nothing is happening, it just goes into the motherboard bios. The motherboard bios just says there's one SAS drive connected and there should be 2 connected. I attached the tower diagnostics zip and syslog text. I think I'm just bummed, as I love UnRaid as a concept, I just haven't quite gotten to see it's full potential yet. tower-diagnostics-20220218-1150.zip syslog.txt
February 19, 20224 yr 10 minutes ago, jrd680 said: I learned about using Control + C but even then nothing is happening, it just goes into the motherboard bios Have you enabled the option bios in the motherboard bios for the pcie hba?
February 19, 20224 yr Author 4 minutes ago, SimonF said: Have you enabled the option bios in the motherboard bios for the pcie hba? Not sure, can't seem to find that in the bios manual. https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/13MANUAL/PRIME_PRO_TUF_GAMING_Intel_500_Series_BIOS_EM_WEB_EN.pdf. Is there another name that might be under? Would it be making sure the HBA boots and not tries to boot from the HBA?
February 19, 20224 yr 17 minutes ago, jrd680 said: Not sure, can't seem to find that in the bios manual. https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/13MANUAL/PRIME_PRO_TUF_GAMING_Intel_500_Series_BIOS_EM_WEB_EN.pdf. Is there another name that might be under? Would it be making sure the HBA boots and not tries to boot from the HBA? Option ROM Messages Configuration options: [Force BIOS] [Keep Current] [Force BIOS] The option ROM messages will be displayed during the POST. [Keep Current] Only the ASUS logo will be shown during the POST. You may have to set this to Force. in boot options. Edited February 19, 20224 yr by SimonF
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