Using a nvme to sata adapter card

[mightypilot]

I'm a basic Unraid user. I've had a Unraid server for the past two years to do simple tasks like file storage, pi-hole server, plex server. The server is in a 15 year old Dell XPS workstation and has served its purpose well. But it's big and heavy and blows a lot of heat out the back. I only turn it on when I need to use it due to the heat and energy factors. I wanted to transfer the Unraid server to a small form factor case and came across an article in MaximumPC magazine about building a NAS server (using the Debian Server OS).

 

I liked the hardware build which used an ASUS Prime N1001 MB which uses passive cooling. The setup called for a Jonsbo N2 Mini-ITX case. To address the issue of the MB having only 1 SATA port the solution was to use a nvme to sata adapter. I bought all the components and set about to get it all running.  The computer boots to a trial Unraid OS thumb drive. The only sata port on the MB works fine with a hard drive plugged in and shows up in the Unraid screen and in the BIOS setup.

 

But... and the reason for this post to seek help and a solution to my problem is.. The Unraid OS/motherboard so far hasn't recognized the 6 port nvme to sata adapter card. It says plug and play in the listing. Has anyone else had success with one of these cards? Is there a setting in the BIOS to change to allow the adapter to work?  I've also tried a PCIE to sata adapter with the same non results.

 

While searching for help I've come across some mini-itx boards that look pretty cool. They use active cooling, but have 8 sata ports built in, 3 nvme ports, and other cool things to me.

[_cjd_]

Which adapter?

I use one with asm1166, no issues at all. It's not with the mainboard you're using though.

Edited September 23 by _cjd_

[mightypilot]

12 hours ago, _cjd_ said:

Which adapter?

I use one with asm1166, no issues at all. It's not with the mainboard you're using though.

This is the adapter.

SilverStone Technology ECS07 5-Port SATA Gen3 6Gbps Non-RAID M.2 PCIe Storage Expansion Card, SST-ECS07

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8TV1QRG

[JorgeB]

Please post the diagnostics.

[mightypilot]

On 9/23/2024 at 8:43 AM, JorgeB said:

Please post the diagnostics.

Thank you for taking the time to look.

towertest-diagnostics-20240925-0546.zip

[JorgeB]

On 9/22/2024 at 5:54 PM, mightypilot said:

The Unraid OS/motherboard so far hasn't recognized the 6 port nvme to sata adapter card

 

On 9/23/2024 at 4:38 PM, mightypilot said:

This is the adapter.

SilverStone Technology ECS07 5-Port SATA

 

I do see a 5 port JMB controller detected, is this the one or do you have another 6 port controller?

[ChatNoir]

The amazon link only shows 5 ports.

[mightypilot]

13 hours ago, JorgeB said:

 

 

I do see a 5 port JMB controller detected, is this the one or do you have another 6 port controller?

Okay, I started out with a different nvme to sata adapter (6 port) and then when it didn't work I started throwing money at the project trying to get something to work. It's interesting that Unraid has detected the nvme to sata adapter, because when you go to to the MAIN screen in Unraid to assign drives, no drives show up unless I plug a drive into the only native sata port.

 

The nvme to sata adapter that you say Unraid has detected is the one in the build right now.

 

Here's the link to the first nvme to sata adapter card I tried.

https://www.newegg.com/orico-pm2ts6-bp-pci-express-to-m-2-card/p/17Z-0003-00027

Edited September 26 by mightypilot

[mightypilot]

36 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

The amazon link only shows 5 ports.

Yes, that's the adapter in the build right now, although the Amazon link is for the first card I tried (6 ports) from Newegg.

[JorgeB]

19 minutes ago, mightypilot said:

The nvme to sata adapter that you say Unraid has detected is the one in the build right now.

That one appears to be working, but there's a problem with the connected disk:

 

Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: ATA-8: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B0, 01.03B01, max UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32), AA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-0 3B01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/466 GiB)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Preferred minimum I/O size 512 bytes
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: failed to read log page 10h (errno=-2)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x40000 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd 60/08:90:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 18 ncq dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:90:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: EH complete
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: failed to read log page 10h (errno=-2)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: NCQ disabled due to excessive errors
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x8 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd 60/08:18:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 3 ncq dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:18:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: EH complete
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ DMA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd c8/00:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 4 dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }

 

Try different cables, or a different disk.

[mightypilot]

19 hours ago, JorgeB said:

That one appears to be working, but there's a problem with the connected disk:

 

Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: ATA-8: WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B0, 01.03B01, max UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32), AA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-0 3B01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/466 GiB)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Preferred minimum I/O size 512 bytes
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: failed to read log page 10h (errno=-2)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x40000 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd 60/08:90:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 18 ncq dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:90:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: EH complete
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: failed to read log page 10h (errno=-2)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: NCQ disabled due to excessive errors
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x1 SAct 0x8 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd 60/08:18:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 3 ncq dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:18:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4: EH complete
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: irq_stat 0x40000000
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: failed command: READ DMA
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: cmd c8/00:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 4 dma 4096 in
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel:         res 51/04:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x1 (device error)
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 24 05:30:30 TowerTest kernel: ata4.00: error: { ABRT }

 

Try different cables, or a different disk.

Wow wow. I am humbled by my lack of figuring this one out. I spent several weeks with the new server setup out on my workbench poking around trying many things, buying multiple adapter cards, nothing seemed to work. I posted here as a last resort to come up with an idea as to the problem, and JorgeB you led me on the path to get me going. It was indeed a bad drive. It never crossed my mind to try a new HD. I added a second drive and it's also being recognized by the nvme to sata adapter card. After I get my data cables plugged back in I'm going to transfer the drives from my other Unraid server into this new case. Thank you for your time!