Hey everyone,

 

So I just upgraded from a 9206-16e to a 9305-16e LSI HBA Card. My system currently utilizes a dedicated server chassis, with 30 array drives in 2x supermicro JBOD's connected to the server via 4x SAS8644 cables (2x JBOD). Now I learned a lot when I purchased the 9206-16e as I had a ton of problems setting it up. Shout out to jcofer and Agent from the Unraid Discord for their help in finding the issues.

 

Now I mention this because I can rule out a lot of the typical HBA issues we all see.

-HBA is reading in System Devices in Unraid

-HBA is in IT Mode

-HBA is flashed to latest firmware

-HBA has all ports properly configured through lsiutil

 

Now I have both HBA's currently installed in my system while I'm attempting to get it working. When all 4 SAS3 cables are connected to the 9206, everything shows up and immediately works. But when I shutdown, switch the cables to the 9305, and boot back up, only the SAS drives are showing up.

 

It wont read the SATA drives and I don't know why. Can anyone lend some assistance here?

You should provide more details (diagnostics, expander model, hba).

Are the drives visible in bios?

If only sata drives are not detected that suggest a cabling issue (multipath)

Since you have both sas and sata drives do you have interposer on sata drives?

 

 

2 hours ago, caplam said:

You should provide more details (diagnostics, expander model, hba).

Are the drives visible in bios?

If only sata drives are not detected that suggest a cabling issue (multipath)

Since you have both sas and sata drives do you have interposer on sata drives?

 

 

I meant to post the diagnostics in the original post must have missed it. I will post them later this morning when I have a chance. 
 

As for the rest, the JBOD and subsequent SAS expander/backplane has worked without issue on the 9206 and is a SAS3 backplane, so I’m not sure how it could be related to the issue, however I’ll pull up the model number and post when I have a chance. As for the HBA….they're both mentioned a few times so I’m not sure what else you’re looking for there?

 

there is no BIOS loaded on this HBA. 

 

Cabling issue seems unlikely as well since all the internal wiring to the jbods hasn’t been touched, and the external MiniSAS8644 cables have been switched back and forth between the two HBA’s multiple times and the SATA drives show up on the 9206 every time like clock work. 
 

The one condition is that I do not have interposers. Which is of course a risk as mixing the SATA and SAS drives is not recommended, but it has been working in this configuration for 2+ years up until now. I did test removing the SAS drives from the JBODs to address any mixing in the lanes but even then it still did not read the SATA drives. 
 

Hope this helps. 

If you temporary unplug all SAS disk, does SATA disk show up ?

1 minute ago, Vr2Io said:

If you temporary unplug all SAS disk, does SATA disk show up ?

I did test this last night and unfortunately with all SAS disks removed from the JBODs the HBA then reads nothing at all 👎

7 hours ago, Ezekial66 said:

 As for the HBA….they're both mentioned a few times so I’m not sure what else you’re looking for there?

 

 

if they are flashed with genuine lsi firmware that should not interfere.

 

Perhaps you should try to connect one port at a time.

How long are your sas cables ?

Ah I see. Yes both HBA’s have no bios installed and have the most up-to-date firmware from the Broadcom website (9305-16e - 16.00.12.00). I did double and triple check to make sure both had the correct firmware zip files.

 

as for the cables, unfortunately that’s pretty dummy proof. The configuration of the cables where they are connected on the JBOD’s has not changed it in over two years of a working system and was triple checked to confirm they were in the primary ports. When leaving the JBOD’s, all four cables were connected to the 9206 HBA and the system was confirmed to be running as normal. Upon shutting down the system, each cable was removed from the 9206 HBA, and subsequently switched to the corresponding port on the 9305 HBA (0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3)