AOC-SASLP-MV8 3tb or not?


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There is a lot of misinformation about weather or not the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards will work with 3tb drives.  I even see that prostuff1 with greenleaf has been able to get them to work with Hitachi 4tb drives in this post.

 

However, I have a AOC-SASLP-MV8 with .21 firmware (.22 driver) and it does not work.  I have been reading conflicting reports that the 4.0.0.XXXX driver and/or firmware is needed, but those are for the SAS2LP, not the SASLP. 

 

Can someone please clarify:

 

1) Does the SASLP (not SAS2LP) work with 3tb drives?

2) If so, what specific firmware and driver is needed?

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Thank you for that confirmation.  Do you have any suggestions as to why I am not able to get them to work? 

 

I am currently testing them with an Asus P8Z68-M Pro motherboard and have them in the PCIe 2.0 x16 and x4 slot.  This is also currently under WHS 2011.  At boot up, the screen shows the two Marvell cards and how they are reset, etc.  Then it goes through the rest of the bios startup, but when WHS trys to launch, it loops back to the bios start up cycle and then ends in having me select to start in recovery mode.

 

After I posted, I read in the SATA controller card forum that "UncleDirtNap" was trying to get an IBM ServeRAID M1015 card to work on his Biostar TP45 HP motherboard, but he found out that the motherboard PCIe slots were reserved only for graphics cards.  I have never heard of PCIe slots being only for graphics cards, but could this be the problem I am having as well?

 

The instruction manual for my Asus board indicates: "This motherboard has two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots that support PCI Express 2.0 x 16 graphic cards complying with the PCI Express specifications."  While not specifically stating it is only for graphics cards, it sure seems like that is the case.  I called Asus technical support, but they had no idea.

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Just tried it with an older 75gb Raptor drive and it booted right up and recognized the drive in WHS. 

 

I then tried it with both the Raptor and the Seagate 3tb I was trying earlier by itself.  Booted up, but only the Raptor showed up as an available drive.

 

So, I have confirmed that the card works within my system, but it sure doesn't seem to work with 3tb drives- at least in WHS.  I have been placing the drives in a Norco SS-500 and I did notice the green drive light stayed on constantly with the 3tb drive, but only lit occasionally with the Raptor if that offers any insight as to why the 3tb doesn't work.

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For windows, you needed driver from supermicro to see 3TB drives on the MV8.

 

As far as I know it was never officially released. I had found a copy of it on the AVS forums (see link in thread i posted earlier) and it did "appear" to work for me in testing.

 

I recall someone saying it was not stable with mixed drive sizes in window (if you put a 3tb drive on it. use only 3TB drives). I can not confirm this.

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But the SASLP-MV8 will work fine in UNRAID with mixed drives correct? I mean I can use 2TB 3TB and 4TB with no problems? Also, I am using 1 SASLP-MV8 already, but I have all 2TB drives. There won't be a problem using another SASLP-MV8 with mixed drives on it as well....or will these cards (SASLP-MV8) not work with 2 of them attached to the same system with mixed drives. I know you can use 2 of them together but I am not sure if you can use 2 of them with mixed drives. Thanks for any info.

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Thank you everyone for your comments here that have allowed me to figure out all the misconceptions about the SASLP and 3tb drives!  Here is what I was able to determine:

 

Previously, I thought the 4.0.0.1200 driver was for the SAS2LP as it is not offered in the SuperMicro ftp download site for the SASLP.  This was reinforced by random threads in forums commenting that the "4.0.x" drivers were only for the SAS2LP (and the fact that Supermicro has 4.0.x drivers and firmware on their ftp site only for the SAS2).

 

After Johnm's last comment I went ahead and downloaded the 4.0.0.1200 driver linked in the AVS forums thread and used notepad to look at some of the files and saw that it is in fact for Marvell 64xx/63xx cards (the 4.0 drivers on the SuperMicro site show 94xx as it should be for the SAS2).

 

I went ahead and installed the 4.0.0.1200 driver and I can now boot up and see 3tb drives using the SASLP.  Why this driver is not on the Supermicro ftp site is beyond me so I emailed their support again and only got a response with the 4.0.0.1200 as an attachment with a note saying something to the effect of "here is the newest driver for SASLP."

 

As of right now, I have installed 3 x 3tb drives, and I also kept the Raptor 75gb in to make sure they all worked together- and so far they do.  I have not transferred any data as of yet, but I can see, access, and format the drives.

 

The drives are all in a Norco SS-500 and the only strange thing is the green activity LED lights stay constantly lit for the 3tb drives, whereas the 75gb does not.  All have the blue LED on.  Is this normal in your experience or should I be concerned that this is an indicator of potential stability problems?

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I'm glad to hear it is working for you..

 

 

as far as the drive lights on the norco 500, i believe the Green is "Power" and the blue is activity.

 

I have 3 seagate 3TB drives in my norco 4224. 2 i got a month ago work as they should.  1 I just got last week, the blue activity light and the green power are on 24x7. even when the drive is spundown and put to sleep.

 

i have 4 more of these drives from last week to unpack and put into my server... I hope they are not double lights also...

someone else mentioned this last week also. i'll know in a few days.

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I went ahead and removed the 75gb drive and put in another 3tb in the same tray to make sure it wasn't a faulty light or something.  Both lights are constantly on now with the 3tb.

 

____

Also wanted to clarify since I had some PM's ask me:

 

I am using the AOC-SASLP-MV8 with firmware 3.1.0.21 (which is for the SASLP and can be found on the Supermicro ftp driver website).

 

The driver is 4.0.0.1200 which is also for the SASLP, but it is not on the Supermicro driver site.  You can get it from emailing support, or through the AVS forum thread posted earlier. 

 

Currently, I am using the cards in WHS 2011 and it is my understanding from going through this debacle is that the 4.0.0.1200 driver is needed only for use in Windows so that 3tb or higher drives can be used.  For Unraid, you will most likely not have to concern yourself with this.  Hope that helps!

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