I brought home some drives from work and trying to pre clear them all...its only 3 more than what I currently have on but every time i plug the 3rd one in my screen stays at a black screen with blinkinc white cursor. it doesnt matter which combo of sata cable or hdd i use its just when 3 of them are plugged in. these drives are plugged into

 

IBM SERVERAID M1015 LSI SAS 9240-8I ADAPTER 6GB/S PCI-E 2.0 X8 ( 2 ) DUAL MINI SAS SFF8087 CONNECTION SAS / SATA RAID CONTROLLER CARD FOR IBM SYSTEMS X3400 M3 / X3500 M3 / X3550 M3 / X3650 M3 / X3950 X5 / X IDATAPLEX DX360 M3 - HALF HEIGH CARD WITH HALF HEIGHT / LOW PROFILE BRACKET NO CABLES

MANUFACTURER: IBM

PART NUMBER: 46M0861-LOW P

INTERFACE: PCI-E

INTERFACE SPEED: PCI-E 2.0 X8

TRANSFER RATE: 6/GBS

PORTS: ( 2 ) DUAL MINI SAS PORTS

COMPATIBILITY: IBM SYSTEMS X3400 M3 / X3500 M3 / X3550 M3 / X3650 M3 / X3950 X5 / X IDATAPLEX DX360 M3 SERVERS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: SERVERAID ADAPTER COMES WITH LOW PROFILE ( HALF HEIGHT ) BRACKET

 

with this http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10254&cs_id=1025406&p_id=8187&seq=1&format=2

 

dont know if that helps? any ideas? thanks

It could be that your flash drive is not being detected as the boot drive.  Try going into the BIOS and making sure that the flash drive is your priority boot device.

hey eroz thanks for response. I double checked that and it is first to boot. also whenever i unplug any one of the 3 hdd my server boots back up. its just when all 3 are plugged in and again doesnt matter which hdd...

It could be you are exceeding the capacity of your power supply (just a guess), or some other PS issue.

 

If you have another USB drive, you could format it with UnRAID and boot with just the extra drives (or just unplug one or two internal). With the new USB you are not going to have to worry about your array complaining of missing drives. You can also test other configurations (i.e. try the 3 drives on existing SATA connections).

 

If all the new drives are accessible you know the power supply is your issue.

 

Once you've tested you can reboot with your normal USB key.

thanks for response...so i just unplugged a single drive that has already been in my server and it booted so as long as have 12 drives and not 13 drives it will boot...will a lack of power cause what i described where i actually get power and it boots beyond the bios screen but it wont boot to unraid??...whats a good psu to have for lets say 15 drives? i have a corsair cx600 in there right now...these 3 drives are only in right now so i can preclear them for another system...normally i have 9 drives including parity although i do need to add a 10th drive soon...thanks

Something about this is tickling my memory, I seem to remember someone having a similar issue that was solved by changing a BIOS setting so that only part of the hard drives were detected at boot, and when unraid booted it still loaded the correct drivers to detect all the drives. I can't remember specifics, only that after the BIOS saw a certain number of drives, it refused to boot from a removable drive.

It could be you are exceeding the capacity of your power supply (just a guess), or some other PS issue.

 

If you have another USB drive, you could format it with UnRAID and boot with just the extra drives (or just unplug one or two internal). With the new USB you are not going to have to worry about your array complaining of missing drives. You can also test other configurations (i.e. try the 3 drives on existing SATA connections).

 

If all the new drives are accessible you know the power supply is your issue.

 

Once you've tested you can reboot with your normal USB key.

 

Im not saying that the psu is NOT the problem but i just used extreme outer vision psu calulator and it recommends 332 watts for my build. but again maybe it is the psu i just wanted to mention this just incase (= thanks again

 

 

Something about this is tickling my memory, I seem to remember someone having a similar issue that was solved by changing a BIOS setting so that only part of the hard drives were detected at boot, and when unraid booted it still loaded the correct drivers to detect all the drives. I can't remember specifics, only that after the BIOS saw a certain number of drives, it refused to boot from a removable drive.

 

interesting i was wondering if that was a possibility...any ideas what this might be called? I dont want to mess anything up...then again i guess i could always just reload default bios settings...

 

 

 

I tried a couple different settings and didnt make a difference...theres actually a lot of settings on this bios..here is one small section called "storage configuration"

 

Onboard SATA Controller

This item is for SATA3_1 to SATA3_6 ports. Use this item to enable or

disable the “Onboard SATA Controller” feature.

SATA Operation Mode

This item is for SATA3_1 to SATA3_6 ports. Use this item to adjust SATA

Operation Mode. The default value of this option is [iDE]. Configuration

options: [AHCI], [RAID] and [iDE].

SATA IDE Combined Mode

This item is for SATA3_5 and SATA3_6 ports. Use this item to enable or

disable SATA IDE combined mode. The default value is [Enabled].

Marvell SATA3 Controller

This item is for Marvell SATA3_7 and SATA3_8/eSATA ports. Use this item

to enable or disable the “Marvell SATA3 Controller” feature.

Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode

This item is for Marvell SATA3_7 and SATA3_8/eSATA ports. Use this item

to adjust Marvell SATA3 Operation Mode. The default value of this option is

[iDE]. Configuration options: [AHCI] and [iDE].

Onboard IDE/1394 Controller

Use this item to enable or disable the “Onboard IDE/1394 Controller” feature

 

thanks

Not sure that this will help but I ran into this issue once. I had a asus motherboard and the bios would not allow more than 13 drives and still be able to boot. Tried several combinations of sata cards and settings but it was not something that the cards could change. I was forced to make the mother board to a limited Unraid and was sold as such. See if your motherboard has newer bios but unless some one else is trying to use it for raid of some sort most standard users don't pass that many drives. You could try emailing the motherboards manufacture and see what they say?

Something about this is tickling my memory...

 

Me too.  Seems like about a year ago there was a similar discussion.  If I recall correctly, it turned out to be some issue with a 2nd motherboard controller.  Moving the drives to an add-in controller resolved it (I think).

 

... just read Thornwood's note -- this could also be the case.    If that's your issue, there's nothing you can do about it except replace the motherboard.

 

It's possible that it's a power issue, but VERY unlikely.  The symptoms would probably be notably different -- it would typically boot on a 2nd try (via Ctrl-Alt-Del), since the drives would already be spun up.  It definitely sounds like the last drive you add is causing the motherboard to no longer boot from the USB flash drive -- this could be (a) an issue like Thornwood noted, which I doubt you can work around;  or (b)  an issue whereby the BIOS won't support that many boot devices, so it removes the flash drive from the list -- you MAY be able to work around that by invoking the boot order menu at boot time and selecting the flash drive (if it's still listed).

 

 

 

hey guys thanks for your response...i had no choice but to start some preclears on some drives. im pressed for time. but as soon as thats done i will update bios and look into bios while i have all 13 drives plugged in and make sure the flash drive is listed...thanks for response ill post back!

i know this isnt part of this problem but maybe you can help me real quick without creating a new post. i just want to check on the status of the preclears. i did it using screen. i telnet back to my server and tried to check the status but its not working. now im at the point that it says this...

root@Whoshouse:/boot# preclear_disk.sh -l

====================================1.15

Disks not assigned to the unRAID array

root@Whoshouse:/boot# screen

root@Whoshouse:/boot# screen -r

There are several suitable screens on:

        23685.pts-0.Whoshouse  (Attached)

        22763.pts-0.Whoshouse  (Detached)

        19365.pts-0.Whoshouse  (Detached)

        1854.pts-0.Whoshouse    (Detached)

Type "screen [-d] -r [pid.]tty.host" to resume one of them.

root@Whoshouse:/boot#

If you started your pre-clears in a telnet session, and then ended that session, that also killed the pre-clears.    You need to log in via screen; THEN start the pre-clears ... and then you can end the screen session -- and later go back via screen to check status.  I suspect that's what happened here.

 

thanks i i did via telnet but i thought i used screen options via telnet i logged in and then cd /boot then screen

 

Im starting them over Im going to log in via telnet and using the screen options again...i hope it goes well...i didnt want to hijack my own thread lol ill post about the original topic once the pre clears are over

Your screen sessions look like they are ok.

 

In the telnet you quoted, you ran screen then did screen -r.  On a fresh telnet session type

 

screen -ls and it will list the screen session running, to connect to one type screen -r <session name> to reconnect.  Once you are done looking at it you can type CTRL-A d (That's Control-A then lowercase d) to detach and leave it running.  In the future you can give meaningful names to your session by strarting them with screen -S <sessionName>

thanks WizADSL i will keep this information close by however i already rebooted  but going forward ill try what you stated. i dont believe I saw that in the wiki...could be wrong also would the session name be something like this....  19956.pts-0.Tower ??

 

So back to my original problem. I updated the BIOS and it didnt work. I checked and my flash drive is still listed as the main boot and is recognized. I changed my settings to AHCI because I saw a notation while looking at preclear wiki that said if its ide then im not taking advantage of my sata capabilities  (not even sure which capabilities that is lol) but nontheless it still wont boot with the infamous 13th drive...a lot of tall sky scrapper type buildings will skip the 13th floor FYI!!

 

I wrote AsRock to see if they can tell me if there is a limitation on the board. Again this board has a lot of BIOS options but I just dont know most of them. So unless someone can remember exactly the settings or something else to do I guess i have to chalk this one up to being my mobo limitation...

On your boot issue, have your tried the "boot menu" (sometimes called "BBS menu")?  Usually there is a key you can press during POST to pop it up, you should be able to select the USB drive from that menu.  I know it wouldn't be a permanent solution but I'm curious if would work since it might confirm the 13 drive limit you are running to.

 

thanks WizADSL i will keep this information close by however i already rebooted  but going forward ill try what you stated. i dont believe I saw that in the wiki...could be wrong also would the session name be something like this....  19956.pts-0.Tower ??

 

Yes, the automatically assigned session names look like that.  Also, if you only have 1 screen session running you don't need to specify the session name to reconnect so screen -r would be all you need.

I think i tried booting to flash drive manually...i can try again when preclears are done...thanks for tip

 

Yes, the automatically assigned session names look like that.  Also, if you only have 1 screen session running you don't need to specify the session name to reconnect so screen -r would be all you need.

 

Im preclearing 2 drives at once is that considered 1 session?

I think i tried booting to flash drive manually...i can try again when preclears are done...thanks for tip

 

Yes, the automatically assigned session names look like that.  Also, if you only have 1 screen session running you don't need to specify the session name to reconnect so screen -r would be all you need.

 

Im preclearing 2 drives at once is that considered 1 session?

 

If you used screen for both then yes it is two.  To verify, if you type screen -ls you will get a list of sessions.  You probably already know this, but what screen does is basically create a virtual terminal when you start it, so as soon as you type screen you are in one and anything you do after that is inside that virtual terminal.  What's great about these virtual terminals is that they are not affected by the telnet (or ssh) session you came in on (so they keep running after your session ends)  plus you can have a bunch of them.  Both of these features make them ideal for long-running processes like a preclear.  While "inside" a screen session you use the "CTRL-A" commands to do things such as disconnect from the virtual terminal (CTRL-a d) (without ending it).  If you're "inside" a session and you don't need it anymore (like when the preclear is done) you would just type exit or CTRL-d to end the virtual terminal and return to your "original" session (wherever you started screen from).

sweet sounds good thanks for the info i appreciate it!

 

 

So at this point most of us are probably in agreement that its mobo limitation...ill mark as solved i suppose...thanks again

here is an update from AsRock. I didnt bother with a response back to them...

 

The max HDs  you can attach on this mainboard is 8 SATA HDs.  If you do use any PCIe Sata adapter. Please contact the support from PCIE sata adapter company.  As far as I can tell you there is no bios you will need to adjust.  Please found out if your PCIE sata adapter have boot rom.

Hey Wiz maybe you can help me out again so i lost connection to my telnet i pulled it back up and did what you said typed in "screen -ls" and it gave me the attached session name then i typed it in "screen -r 1999.pts-0.Whoshouse" without quotes of course and it says there is no screen to be resumed matching.........? any ideas thanks!

If there is only one session listed screen -r should reattach it. You only need to specify which session if there are more than one in the list. Also, I'm pretty sure tab-complete works, so you don't have to type the whole thing, just start typing screen -r 199 and hit the tab key.

ahhhhh haaaaaaaa very smart jonathanm!! thanks