Asus MB not "seeing" PCI/sata expansion: Diagnostics attached.

[crankyCowboy]

I'm new to unraid. Through my transition from Windows, I also purchased new equipment. I used to utilize a bunch of external usb 3.0 drive enclosures for my drives. I purchased a new rack mount server case that houses 12 HDs (https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-RSV-L4500U-Thickness-Rackmount-Server/dp/B097Y25FGK/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3FVJ7R9LUASBZ&keywords=rosewill%2B4u%2Bserver%2Bchassis&qid=1649617742&sprefix=rosewill%2B%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-3&th=1 ) I have an ASUS z690 mb (this one): https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/TUF-Gaming/TUF-GAMING-Z690-PLUS-WIFI-D4/, and I installed this PCI/sata expansion card:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095SJKMC9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The MB only has 4 sata ports, all of those detect the drives no problem. The expansion card lights up to indicate what port drives are connected to, but the MB doesn't "see" the drives. I've tried every bios setting I can think of and nothing seems to get it to see the drives. Any suggestions on what I need to do? That expansion card had great reviews and many claimed it worked great with unraid, but I just can't get the MB to recognize it.

[Frank1940]

Attach the diagnostics in a new post.      Tools    >>>>   Diagnostics    (You have to use a new post or no one will know that you have provided additional information...)

[crankyCowboy]

@Frank1940 asked that I upload this diagnostic file in hopes of helping me troubleshoot why my drives aren't seen.  The original post can be found here:

 

rodelaclan-diagnostics-20220410-1733.zip

[crankyCowboy]

1 hour ago, Frank1940 said:

Attach the diagnostics in a new post.      Tools    >>>>   Diagnostics    (You have to use a new post or no one will know that you have provided additional information...)

Thank you. I posted the diagnostic in a different post as you suggested. It can be found here:

 

[Frank1940]

9 minutes ago, crankyCowboy said:

I posted the diagnostic in a different post as you suggested. It can be found here:

 

I meant a new post in this thread/topic.   I have requested that a moderator move the post you made an a new thread to this thread...

[Frank1940]

I had a look through your syslog (which is a part of the diagnostics file) and I did not find any evidence that your SATA board had been recognized and initialized.   You might want to power down the server and move the card to the other 16X slot.

 

(To be fair, I am not a Linux syslog Guru and I may well have missed it it...)  Make sure that you have read the Manual for that board and you  have properly setup the Motherboard's BIOS for its use.

[crankyCowboy]

54 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

I had a look through your syslog (which is a part of the diagnostics file) and I did not find any evidence that your SATA board had been recognized and initialized.   You might want to power down the server and move the card to the other 16X slot.

 

(To be fair, I am not a Linux syslog Guru and I may well have missed it it...)  Make sure that you have read the Manual for that board and you  have properly setup the Motherboard's BIOS for its use.

I apologize frank. I completely misunderstood. I thought it was a bit odd that I needed to start a new post, but gave it a shot anyway.  In any case, I have gone all through my motherboard settings. I really think that I need to turn on compatibility mode where it loads legacy drivers; however, I can't do that. I'm using my CPU's GPU for quicksync  and Asus has done this rediculous thing that if you use the iGPU, then the legacy boot isn't an option. Others have suggested shifting to an LSI SAS card, but I'm afraid I'd have the same problem with that.

[Frank1940]

From the Amazon product page:

 

I am not completely certain this has been properly sset in your BIOS...

 

1 hour ago, crankyCowboy said:

then the legacy boot isn't an option.

UEFI has been pretty standard for Unraid for the last half dozen years or more.  Both of my servers are booting just fine using it.   Legacy is hanging around more for very old MB's...

 

[JorgeB]

PCIe controller is not being detected, this is not a sofware issue, you can try a different PCIe slot or try the controller in a different PC to make sure it's working, also note that controller has a SATA port multiplier and is not recommended for Unraid.

[crankyCowboy]

12 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

From the Amazon product page:

 

I am not completely certain this has been properly sset in your BIOS...

 

UEFI has been pretty standard for Unraid for the last half dozen years or more.  Both of my servers are booting just fine using it.   Legacy is hanging around more for very old MB's...

 

Thanks Frank. I have can't find anywhere to specifically enable AHCI mode in my bios (even doing a search for AHCI in the bios manual yields 0 results). All I can find regarding the sata mode is to enable or disable the sata ports and then also whether to they should be mapped under vmi.  I only mentioned the legacy mode and CSM because a couple people mentioned they had success in similar situations. I actually installed an external gpu and turned on legacy boot, but then none of my parity, array, or cache disks were detected anymore (which makes no sense).