This one is a head scratcher for me.  I could use some advice on how to proceed. 

 

Hardware:

• Silverstone RM21-308 Case with included backplane
• Backplane connects to an Supermicro SAS/SATA add-on card: https://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-S3008L-L8e.php
• Three drives in ONE of the backplane lanes/cable are two SATA WD Reds (2x18TBs) and one SAS HGST/WD drive (10TB)
• CPU/Motherboard is an Intel i5-14500 and ASRock Z790M-ITX.

 

When I add a fourth similar 10TB SAS drive in the same lane/cable for the card/backplane, Unraid will throw a few hundred write errors and it then begins a parity check (the clearing stops).

 

HOWEVER, when I move that same exact drive to the second unused lane with no drives on it, it runs fine with the clearing process and no errors are thrown.

 

I've had no issues at all with the drives or Unraid.

 

Any ideas on how to proceed?  BIOS updates?  Firmware updates on the card (is that possible and how)?  Known issue with these cards?

 

Thank you!

 

 

Did you try more than once in the original slot?

16 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

Did you try more than once in the original slot?

I did and same results even after I pulled the card out and reseated it.  It has to be something with the hardware, and I'm guessing it's the card even though it has been working perfectly with the two SATA drives and the one SAS drive.  I'm rulling out the cables since they are connecting the card to the backplane.

 

My next step is that I've ordered an LSI card from The Art of the Server on his ebay site and I'm going to give that card a try.  Maybe it has the latest firmware, better compatibility, etc.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.  In the meantime, I'll be waiting on this card and will give it a try.

Edited September 5, 20241 yr by huntrm

To add a little more mystery, I switched the backplane cables to the card to see what would happen.  Results are:

 

- Cable1 (where the drives are) to Port 1 on the card, I got 128 write errors

- Swapped the cables so that Cable 2 would connect to Port 1 on the card, I got 1024 write errors

 

Odd...  Now I'm going to move all four drives to the lower portion of the backplane to see what happens.

 

EDIT:  Got the 1024 write errors by moving the four drives to the lower part of the backplane. 

 

Still unsure if it's a backplane, cable or card issue.  New card will arrive next week and will help to rule things out.  Following, I'll then order new cables and continue to work on this one.  I'm really hoping its not the backplane.  I'll end up living with the issue if so.

Edited September 6, 20241 yr by huntrm

Latest as of 9/12:  It doesn't appear to be a card issue.  The LSI card is throwing 1024 errors as before.

 

So now let's buy a new cable to see if that is the issue.  Just ordered an Oracle SAS cable SFF-8087 to SFF-8643 from the Art of the Server to see if that is the issue.  

Pls try boot in safe mode and test does disk drop again.

Edited September 13, 20241 yr by Vr2Io

Done, I put Unraid in safe mode with gui, and tried the above.  I still got the 1,024 read errors immediately after spinning up the disk. 

1 hour ago, huntrm said:

 I still got the 1,024 read errors immediately after spinning up the disk. 

Then try don't spin down disk to narrow down the problem first. Some user got spin down up then disk drop problem.

Edited September 13, 20241 yr by Vr2Io

I'll wrap up this thread by saying that a new cable and card didn't solve the issue.  It has to be a backplane and a SAS harddrive compatability issue to which I'll explain.

 

• The case is laid out as drives 1-4 on the top row and then 5-8 on the bottom row.  If I drop in a 2TB SAS drive that I have into drive bay 4, it spins up with no errors and the preclear begins. 

 

• If I take the problematic 10TB SAS drive and put it in that same bay 4 or even on bay 8 (both are on the far right of the case), 1024 errors happen immediately.  However, if I take that same 10TB drive and put it in bay 5 (under bay 1), the preclear works fine.  Looks like some sort of compatability issue that I don't feel like working on any further.  It's just a bit bizarre.

 

I didn't try to remove any security on that drive (it does have a code/serial on the top) and at first, I suspected this is the culprit but I'm unable to get a utility loaded into Unraid to solve this issue (and I don't want to deal with spinning up a linux boot drive and work from there since the drive is working in another drive bay.

 

And to add more mystery to this one, after the 10TB SAS drive was precleared and BTRFS formatted in drive bay 5, I moved it to drive bay 4 (the problematic bay) and the array spun up with no issues/errors.  I kicked off a SMART extended scan and after several hours, the famous 1024 errors popped up.  I'm gonna now move that drive away from bay 4 and down to a bay 5,6,7 and re-run the SMART scan.

Edited September 25, 20241 yr by huntrm

Have you seen art of server 2tb limit. He explains it here.

https://youtu.be/u55vIGMzzKw

12 hours ago, GaryF said:

Have you seen art of server 2tb limit. He explains it here.

https://youtu.be/u55vIGMzzKw

I watched it and didn't understand what youre trying to point out.  If I move the SAS 10TB drive to the inner slot of 2 or 3 versus being on the outside of 1 or 4 for the backplane, everything works.  Is that addressed in the video?