UnRAID on Asus Pro WS W680-ACE IPMI

[Daniel15]

3 hours ago, JBoY said:

Do you know if they are compatible or this MB only accepts unbuffered? 

It only takes unbuffered. You'll need a more expensive server board if you want to use buffered RAM.

[Ben4]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:20 AM, JBoY said:

Hello, I am looking for buffered/registered ECC memories for the Asus Pro WS680M ACE SE with an i7-14700K. Do you know if they are compatible or this MB only accepts unbuffered? Even to indicate the maximum speed of 4800 MT/s it only appears in an image on the Asus website. It seems that there is not much information about the specifications in the pdf manual on the website itself.

I've seen that you have named the Kingstons (KSM48E40BD8KM-32HM and KSM48E40BS8KM-32HM)  but from what I understand they are non-buffered.

Thank you very much in advance.

From Asus website the memory that is supported. I usually buy from their list so I don't run into any issues.

 

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/workstation/pro-ws-w680m-ace-se/helpdesk_qvl_memory?model2Name=Pro-WS-W680M-ACE-SE

[JBoY]

@Daniel15@Ben4Thank you very much for your help and time!

[Ben4]

On 1/28/2024 at 8:17 AM, Ben4 said:

I had to return this board as it was unstable for me. Every time I rebooted unraid, the server would not boot back up and kept power cycling off and on. Then I would have to unplugg the power cable for about 30 seconds and plug it back in to boot. Also the IPMI BMC did not work for me correctly, I can log in and launch the viewer to control the PC, but the moment I used BMC to reboot the machine, it would freeze and loose connectivity and do them same thing I mentioned before. The BIOS and the ME were updated to latest version. Asus offered to RMA the board or return it to Amazon for a refund, which I choose the latter.

 

I say this to ask if anyone has experienced the same issue? I'm wondering if I simply got a bad board and try again with a new one or if this particular board is bad all together and should I go with a different board?

 

Thanks for the input.

So an update just in case anyone runs into the same problem I had with this motherboard (micro ATX version). I did end up returning the board to Amazon. I re-ordered the same board hoping I would not have the same problems, well I did end up having the same issue. I did some more troubleshooting this time only turning off and on some BIOS features one at a time. I've come to the conclusion when I changed the setting:

 

Onboard Device--->slimsas configuration------changed pcie to sata, the pc went into boot loop. For some reason it does not like it when I made that change. Hopefully a future BIOS update can resolve that problem.

 

Everything has been stable sor far, I've been able to reboot the machine successful. I do have issues still with the BMC and using it to power off and on my server, I run into the same issues as before, so I'm hoping an future update to the BMC will resolve that issue as well. I've only been running the new board for a couple of days, but at least it's not in a boot loop anymore.

 

For those curios about the BIOS changes:

 

Loaded Optimize Default - which disable VMD
AI- Asus Performance Enhancemnet--->Disable
Turned on pch storage configuration-----> enabled hot plug for sata 1-4

Turned off Tools-Armoury crate---->Disable
 

Edited February 5 by Ben4

[Daniel15]

3 hours ago, Ben4 said:

Onboard Device--->slimsas configuration------changed pcie to sata, the pc went into boot loop.

Are you actually using the SlimSAS port, or does even simply changing this config (without even using the port) cause the boot loop?

 

3 hours ago, Ben4 said:

Disabled Native Power State

Won't this cause it to use a lot more power, since it'll prevent it from entering deeper idle states?

[Ben4]

1 hour ago, Daniel15 said:

Are you actually using the SlimSAS port, or does even simply changing this config (without even using the port) cause the boot loop?

 

Won't this cause it to use a lot more power, since it'll prevent it from entering deeper idle states?

In regards to the Slimsas, I'm not currently using it although I did buy the cable and tested it to make sure my hard drive would be recognized. However for some reason, when I switched it to sata and hit save and reset in the BIOS, it goes into a boot loop and I have to pull the CMOS battery to be able to boot back into the BIOS. So I just left it at pcie for now I have three 16TB hard drives, won't be needing a 5th for a while.

 

For the Native Power State I did turn that back on recently I need to update my post to reflect that. Thanks

[Hypa]

I managed to login via ipmi, but now I have to reset the password...
Anyone know how to do that?

 

Thanks!

[Daniel15]

4 minutes ago, Hypa said:

I managed to login via ipmi, but now I have to reset the password...
Anyone know how to do that?

 

Thanks!

You can do it using ipmitool or ipmiview. `ipmitool user list` to list the users, then `ipmitool user set password 1 blah` where `1` is the user ID from the list and `blah` is the password.

Edited February 14 by Daniel15

[mikeyosm]

Just setup UNRAID on the W680M variant and a 14700 CPU.

Unfortunately I'm having issues with getting the iGPU to show up in Intel_GPU_top / GPU stats and also not showing available in Plex for H/W transcoding.

The iGPU is set to primary display and is the only display present (as well as the ASPEED). Tried with/without dummy plug, same problem.

 

Has anyone successfuly managed to the iGPU to work properly under 14gen Intel and this Asus motherboard?

[mikeyosm]

On 1/27/2024 at 8:36 PM, demps said:

Sorry if this was answered in this thread already but what is the trick to getting iGPU transcode working with this board? I'm assuming I'm need to change something in BIOS. 

 

I can plug a monitor in and get output but I can't get the iGPU to show up. /dev/dri only shows card0 in it. 

Same for me btw, I'm using a 14700 CPU. Did you fix it?

[jakea333]

4 hours ago, mikeyosm said:

Just setup UNRAID on the W680M variant and a 14700 CPU.

Unfortunately I'm having issues with getting the iGPU to show up in Intel_GPU_top / GPU stats and also not showing available in Plex for H/W transcoding.

The iGPU is set to primary display and is the only display present (as well as the ASPEED). Tried with/without dummy plug, same problem.

 

Has anyone successfuly managed to the iGPU to work properly under 14gen Intel and this Asus motherboard?

 

I've had issues with the W680M board and iGPU passthrough that appear to be related to the BMC that I wasn't able to resolve with the BIOS changes mentioned in this thread. These weren't present on Unraid 6.12.4, but began when I attempted to update to 6.12.6. Thanks to JorgeB in the 6.12.6 announcement thread, blacklisting the ast driver allows the iGPU to work again:

 

echo "blacklist ast" > /boot/config/modprobe.d/ast.conf

 

You'll lose the BMC during Unraid startup, but I don't generally use it at that point anyway.

[mikeyosm]

42 minutes ago, jakea333 said:

 

I've had issues with the W680M board and iGPU passthrough that appear to be related to the BMC that I wasn't able to resolve with the BIOS changes mentioned in this thread. These weren't present on Unraid 6.12.4, but began when I attempted to update to 6.12.6. Thanks to JorgeB in the 6.12.6 announcement thread, blacklisting the ast driver allows the iGPU to work again:

 

echo "blacklist ast" > /boot/config/modprobe.d/ast.conf

 

You'll lose the BMC during Unraid startup, but I don't generally use it at that point anyway.

Yes, this resolved the issue and now the iGPU is shown in gpustats properly. I wonder why the aspeed is causing issues?

[jakea333]

Glad it worked out. I am curious as to the root cause as well, as other boards with the Aspeed BMC don't seem to suffer in the same way. It's beyond my ability to troubleshoot, but I know that something changed between 6.12.4 and 6.12.6 that introduced this bug for me.

 

Maybe someone else can identify the specific fix that's needed. I'm planning to leave it blacklisted and check after each Unraid release. Hopefully it's fixed in time with kernel updates.

Edited February 18 by jakea333

[demps]

On 2/18/2024 at 9:27 AM, mikeyosm said:

Same for me btw, I'm using a 14700 CPU. Did you fix it?

I did but unfortunately I don't remember exactly what the end solution was.

One of those things where I tried a dozen things and it suddenly started working fine...

[Daniel15]

On 2/18/2024 at 5:12 AM, mikeyosm said:

Unfortunately I'm having issues with getting the iGPU to show up in Intel_GPU_top / GPU stats and also not showing available in Plex for H/W transcoding.

The iGPU is set to primary display and is the only display present (as well as the ASPEED). Tried with/without dummy plug, same problem.

 

There's a "multi monitor" option in the BIOS that you have to enable so that it enables both the ASPEED and the iGPU. Did you enable that?

[demps]

Has anyone definitely solved the booting issue? I can never perform a successful reboot. I generally have to try a hard reset (PSU off or unplugged, drain power) for it to come back up. Makes like difficult since I plan to have this sever offsite at some point.

Edit:
When it does this and I have a monitor plugged in it shows on the screen:

Configuring firmware is in progress...

Importing firmware configuration settings from OData server.
Pushing current configuration to OData server.

Then the screen goes black and the computer seems to be in a hung state. Short press of power button cycles it. 

Edited February 19 by demps

[Daniel15]

3 hours ago, demps said:

I can never perform a successful reboot. I generally have to try a hard reset (PSU off or unplugged, drain power) for it to come back up.

I haven't hit this issue, but the reset through the IPMI should be a hard reset if you do "Orderly shutdown" (or "immediate shutdown" if it's locked up and doesn't respond to an orderly shutdown) then "Power on server".  "Reset server" is a soft reboot.

Edited February 20 by Daniel15

[demps]

42 minutes ago, Daniel15 said:

I haven't hit this issue, but the reset through the IPMI should be a hard reset if you do "Orderly shutdown" (or "immediate shutdown" if it's locked up and doesn't respond to an orderly shutdown) then "Power on server".  "Reset server" is a soft reboot.

None of the reboot methods from the IPMI make it boot cleanly. To be clear, it will take the reboot commands from Unraid, IPMI, or via the power button but it then hangs after the OData messages and never gets to Unraid.

Either fully powering down (power out of all the caps and whatnot) or going to into Bios seems to be the only way to get it past OData.

[mrhanderson]

17 hours ago, demps said:

None of the reboot methods from the IPMI make it boot cleanly. To be clear, it will take the reboot commands from Unraid, IPMI, or via the power button but it then hangs after the OData messages and never gets to Unraid.

Either fully powering down (power out of all the caps and whatnot) or going to into Bios seems to be the only way to get it past OData.

 

Have you disabled Fast Boot?

If you have a 13th/14th gen Intel with iGPU, have you blacklisted the ast?

 

Without both of those I believe you are likely to experience boot/reboot issues.

[Daniel15]

6 minutes ago, mrhanderson said:

have you blacklisted the ast?

Won't this cause issues when trying to view the system via IPMI? There's a multi monitor setting in the BIOS that lets you use both the iGPU and the Aspeed GPU at the same time. 

[theDrell]

On 12/2/2023 at 10:14 PM, Daniel15 said:

Yeah you can either reduce the power limits from their defaults in the BIOS, or configure the CPU governor to use powersave mode and reduce the maximum clock speed. The "Tips and Tweaks" plugin can do some of that - it sets some powersave settings (but not all of them), and lets you disable turbo. 

Have any suggestions on this? I have the i9 14900k and it keeps touching the 100c mark without my processor doing much.  Tempted to maybe swap it with my desktop machine that has an i7 13700k but has way more headroom for cooling, but don't really want to lose all the cores in the server for all the dockers I am running whereas the i7 machine is mainly used for some coding and gaming.

[theDrell]

On 1/14/2024 at 1:36 PM, casperse said:

 

I am also trying to get the power consumption down on my i9 but the latest Bios update (3101) have a new setting for E-cores?
Do you? or anyone here know what settings is recommended to use here? (try to follow the guide below):

 

Did you ever get your i9 tamed?  I need to tame mine its running hot.

[Daniel15]

1 hour ago, theDrell said:

it keeps touching the 100c mark without my processor doing much. 

Are you sure the CPU cooler is working? Mine is usually around a comfortable 36-40C, but I do have a Noctua NH-D15 cooler on it, which is large enough that it barely fits in my case (Fractal Design Node 804). My CPU isn't as powerful as yours (I've got an i5-13500) but the i9 shouldn't be *that* much higher. The heaviest thing I'm running is a Windows Server 2022 VM running Blue Iris recording six security cameras 24/7, pinned to CPU 8, 9, 10 and 11.

 

 

If you install the "IPMI Tools" plugin in Unraid, it'll let you see the fan speeds along with a bunch of other stats:

 

 

Edited February 20 by Daniel15

[theDrell]

4 hours ago, Daniel15 said:

Are you sure the CPU cooler is working? Mine is usually around a comfortable 36-40C, but I do have a Noctua NH-D15 cooler on it, which is large enough that it barely fits in my case (Fractal Design Node 804). My CPU isn't as powerful as yours (I've got an i5-13500) but the i9 shouldn't be *that* much higher. The heaviest thing I'm running is a Windows Server 2022 VM running Blue Iris recording six security cameras 24/7, pinned to CPU 8, 9, 10 and 11.

 

 

If you install the "IPMI Tools" plugin in Unraid, it'll let you see the fan speeds along with a bunch of other stats:

 

 

 

 

I probably need to plug the motherboard fans into the IPMI card, but I was short on Molex connectors to get the 6 pin PCIE to it, although I have a route.  But yeah. 

I am using a Noctua NH-D9L as my cpu cooler.

Edited February 21 by theDrell

[sharpling]

Hi! First post here, 

Just got this board and maybe this is a stupid question but i cannot figure it out..

I have 3 corsair mp600 pro xt nvme drives, putting one in the m.2_1 works out of the box and directly detected by unraid but cannot get 2_2 / 2_3 working no matter what i do.

Is there some shared pcie/lanes setting to enable m.2_2 / m.2_3?
In that case where? 
 

Edited February 21 by sharpling