Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 - 8 Sata PCI-E 4x non-raid controller card

[robinsj]

Think this will be fixed, cause man that sure fills up my syslog...

[JustinAiken]

These are supposed to come with a regular height bracket, aren't they?

[nAffie]

These are supposed to come with a regular height bracket, aren't they?

 

Yeah, it comes with a regular height and a slimsize bracket...

[jrwalte]

For my Norco 4220 server I bought a Foxconn ELA 775 motherboard and planned on adding Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 to the PCIex16 2 and 3 slots as I needed more HDs.

 

Well the time has come to install the first HD controller, but I'm not having any luck.

 

I've bought 2 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 so far and both have been duds. I wouldn't think this is the case, but does anything have to be set in BIOS to get them working or are they basically just plug and play?

 

I've tried the PCIex16 slot 2 and 3 on both controllers. I can't ever get the supermicro BIOS to appear on boot up and the hardware is not detected by Windows7.

 

Anyone have experience with this working? I'm wondering if buy.com just keeps selling me DoAs and I need to buy from somewhere else or if there is a problem with my MB.

 

Thanks

[Rajahal]

I've only used one (and it was with the Mobo in my sig), but it was basically plug and play.  Maybe the PCIe slot(s) on your mobo are bad? 

[jrwalte]

I'm pretty sure the slots are good, as I can successfully use a PCIex1 tuner in both x16 slots.

[Joe L.]

I'm pretty sure the slots are good, as I can successfully use a PCIex1 tuner in both x16 slots.

You realize you just said you can use a x1 card in a x16 slot, so you assume an x4 card will work? 

 

Perhaps it will... Perhaps it will not.  Your test was not conclusive.

 

Joe L.

[bcbgboy13]

For my Norco 4220 server I bought a Foxconn ELA 775 motherboard and planned on adding Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 to the PCIex16 2 and 3 slots as I needed more HDs.

Well the time has come to install the first HD controller, but I'm not having any luck.

I've bought 2 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 so far and both have been duds. I wouldn't think this is the case, but does anything have to be set in BIOS to get them working or are they basically just plug and play?

I've tried the PCIex16 slot 2 and 3 on both controllers. I can't ever get the supermicro BIOS to appear on boot up and the hardware is not detected by Windows7.

Anyone have experience with this working? I'm wondering if buy.com just keeps selling me DoAs and I need to buy from somewhere else or if there is a problem with my MB.

Thanks

 

I believe the controllers come with two different brackets and they are to be mounted on the opposite sides of the PCB (as I recall from installing mine). If you have changed the bracket and it is on the wrong side the controller won't be sitting properly in the slot - perhaps this is the problem with your controllers.

 

And why  Windows 7 - do you have some exotic configuration on your server?

[jrwalte]

That's why I'm posting and asking. The point of my previous post being is the slots are obviously working and not damaged, as a PCIex1 device works. The question now remains, does my MB support PCIex4 or x8 devices in the x16 slots. Technically, it should.

 

I did notice the large bracket didn't seem to fit so nicely on the same side as the short one...you think they'd provide instructions on changing if it does need to switch.

 

On the first card I received, I noticed what you did and placed the bracket on the other side of the PCB. For the second card, I put it on the same side as the small bracket. It fit in the slot with 'minimal' force (no more than it would take to place a RAM stick). I'll try moving the bracket to the other side again.

 

I'm using Win7 because the 'server' doubles as the HTPC for my bedroom. I have HDMI and IR running over CAt5e from the closet in the living room. Due to this, I'd rather not leave Win7, as it would require me to purchase and power a 3rd PC.

[Joe L.]

That's why I'm posting and asking. The point of my previous post being is the slots are obviously working and not damaged, as a PCIex1 device works. The question now remains, does my MB support PCIex4 or x8 devices in the x16 slots. Technically, it should.

 

I did notice the large bracket didn't seem to fit so nicely on the same side as the short one...you think they'd provide instructions on changing if it does need to switch.

 

On the first card I received, I noticed what you did and placed the bracket on the other side of the PCB. For the second card, I put it on the same side as the small bracket. It fit in the slot with 'minimal' force (no more than it would take to place a RAM stick). I'll try moving the bracket to the other side again.

 

I'm using Win7 because the 'server' doubles as the HTPC for my bedroom. I have HDMI and IR running over CAt5e from the closet in the living room. Due to this, I'd rather not leave Win7, as it would require me to purchase and power a 3rd PC.

Win7 may not include a driver...  I have no experience with it, or your disk controller card, but I'd try booting a free version of unRAID on that box and see if the card is seen.  at least you'll know it has the driver.  Just DO NOT ASSIGN ANY EXISTING DISK DRIVES... Don't want to erase your Win7 install.

 

If you see the existing disks in the drop-down list on the devices page, then the card is working.  (As I said, just do not assign any)

 

Joe L.

[jrwalte]

Thanks. I'll try booting from an Ubuntu Live CD.

 

Supermicro website doesn't mention anything about Win7 support, but it does say Vista. A lot of drivers that support vista work in Win7, but obviously not always. But even if a driver didn't exist, I would think the card would at least show under device manager as 'unknown'.

 

 

[BRiT]

The Ubunto Live CD may not have drivers for the card either. Try the unRAID basic version to be sure, as previously suggested.

[dogmanky]

I'm pretty sure the slots are good, as I can successfully use a PCIex1 tuner in both x16 slots.

 

 

I ordered 2 AOC-SASLP-MV8  when I built my server and one of them was bad.  What triggered my suspicion was that I had only a few drives connected to it yet ALL the lights came on the card and stayed on.  No blinking, no startup sequence, etc.. just a solid row of bright LED lights.

 

RMA'd the card and the next one was fine.

 

 

[cwr]

i'm going to pick up one of these cards

 

can someone tell me what sort of cables I need for the Norco 4020 case?

[Messiah Khan]

i'm going to pick up one of these cards

 

can someone tell me what sort of cables I need for the Norco 4020 case?

 

Forward SAS to SATA cables if you are using AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards.  Or do as I have done and retrofit the 4020 with SAS backplanes (http://www.ipcdirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=186), it makes wiring much easier and neater.  I have 2x AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards with 4 SAS to SAS cables and a Reverse SAS to SATA cable to connect the other 4 hardrives to the motherboard. 

[Rajahal]

This thread explains all:

 

SAS to SATA cables - forward or reverse?

 

The only other alternative is SAS-SAS cable if you use SAS backplanes.

[stoner]

I've found that HDIO_GET_IDENTITY error is an incompatibility between hdparm and the mv_sas driver. Sata PCI-E 4x non-raid controller card.

 

Can I check if you have a problem obtaining SMART status from drives connected to this card too?

[Chris Pollard]

I've found that HDIO_GET_IDENTITY error is an incompatibility between hdparm and the mv_sas driver. Sata PCI-E 4x non-raid controller card.

 

Can I check if you have a problem obtaining SMART status from drives connected to this card too?

smart works fine.

[fortytwo]

I just gave this card a try with the SuperMicro X7SPA-HF-O board.  I don't quite need it yet, but thought I would plug it in and plug one of the drives in to it to give it a go.  Unfortunately, the machine didn't even boot.  I wasn't able to get the console redirected over IPMI (have to get Java stuff working on a new machine), so I'll be giving that a try sometime soon.

 

In the meantime, is there a jumper or something that needs to be added for everyone to be happy?  Google isn't turning up much, but, since these seems to be a popular mobo + card combo, I thought someone might have some insight.  Thanks in advance.

[chanders]

I have run into a proble with resuming from s3 sleep when a drive is attached to the MV8. If all drives are attahed to mobo ports then sleep/resume works just fine but when one or more drives is attached to the MV8 the system will resume however the shares and web console do not start working again. The tlenet sesion from where I initiated the sleep comes back as does the system console. The log shows a lot of timeouts and the activity LED on the drives connected to the MV8 flash at about a 1Hz rate. I have attached a syslog from both a good suspend/resume and one that shows it failing.

 

Anyone sucessfully doing suspend/resume with drives connected to an MV8 on their system?

 

One more thing, WOL from a power off state works just fine with drives connect to the MV8.

[crazygambit]

I  bought this card because it was in the hardware compatibility guide as recommended budget set up, but when it's plugged to my MB (ECS AMD690GM-2) the USB won't boot up even though it works fine without it and the card itself seems to be working fine (it recognizes the HDDs attached).

 

Any tips on how to fix this? I kinda need to use the card.

[Rajahal]

I  bought this card because it was in the hardware compatibility guide as recommended budget set up, but when it's plugged to my MB (ECS AMD690GM-2) the USB won't boot up even though it works fine without it and the card itself seems to be working fine (it recognizes the HDDs attached).

 

Any tips on how to fix this? I kinda need to use the card.

 

When you add the new card, the computer sees the hard drives as new since they have new addresses (even though they are the same drives from before - and don't worry, your data is safe).  You probably just need to go back into the BIOS and set the USB drive as the primary boot device.  I suspect the motherboard is now trying to boot off of one of the 'new' hard drives.  You may also have to set your USB drive into 'HDD Emulation' mode (also in the BIOS), but that depends on your motherboard.

[crazygambit]

When you add the new card, the computer sees the hard drives as new since they have new addresses (even though they are the same drives from before - and don't worry, your data is safe).  You probably just need to go back into the BIOS and set the USB drive as the primary boot device.  I suspect the motherboard is now trying to boot off of one of the 'new' hard drives.  You may also have to set your USB drive into 'HDD Emulation' mode (also in the BIOS), but that depends on your motherboard.

 

I don't think that's it. I tried disconnecting the drives and hooking them up to the MB directly, while leaving the card in place and it didn't boot up. It was only after I removed it completely that it finally worked.

 

It's weird. The card boots up and then says something like press [something] to enter BIOS or [space] to continue. After that the screen goes blank and the system doesn't boot from USB no matter what I do. For the moment I'm running just 3 2TB HDDs and using the free version, but once those get filled I'm gonna want to put more drives in and I'm gonna need to get the card working.

[Rajahal]

Hmm.  Maybe you are one of the unlucky people who has a motherboard that will only accept a graphics card in the PCIe x16 slot?  You could contact ECS and ask if the SuperMicro card should work or not.

 

Also, have you tried all the USB emulation modes in your BIOS?  Try all of them - USB-HDD, USB-FDD, etc.

[dpc2]

I've seen reference to this card being plug and play, but thought I'd also seen a mention that you have to go into the card's BIOS and turn off something.  Am I dreaming?

 

If you do need to enter the BIOS, what's the key sequence?  The BIOS message gets flashed so quickly that I can't read it!