Setup:

Case: Norco RPC-4220

Motherboard: TYAN S5211G2NR Toledo i3210W

Hard Drives (3): Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB

 

SATA Card #1: Adaptec 2241000-R

SATA Card #2: Adaptec 2241000-R

SATA Card #3: SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8

 

 

I'm starting out initially with just these three drives and will add my seagate 750s later.  Anyways, I can't get the motherboard or the sata cards to see the drives when I'm using the SFF-8087 cord - it simply acts as if nothing is plugged in.  The blue lights are on the drives when they're plugged in (so they have power), the SFF-8087 cord (SAS -> 4 SATA ports) that I'm using I bought new today from Fry's.  Thinking that the cord may be bad (I saw a returned one on the shelf near it for cheaper, but the clips were broke so I bought the new one), I shut down my raid5 server and  pulled the 3Ware SFF-8087 cord out of there (which has been working fine for 2 years) and plugged in into the Norco case - still nothing.  I tried plugging just one drive in the port, then all 4 ports in (even though 1 is empty) and just the first 3 ports from the cord (again into the motherboard and the sata cards).  I also tried moving a drive to a different plane in the norco case (thinking perhaps the sas connector on that plane might be bad) and was just trying to get the computer to see that drive - again no luck. 

 

If I take the drive and plug it directly into (not using the SAS backplane) either the motherboard or the the SATA cards, it sees the drive just fine.  Therefore, the system can see drives, the cord is not the issue since I'm using two different ones (one brand new and one that is known to work in my other server), it appears to be getting power via molex since the blue led is on, so my only guess now is that the blackplace SAS port is bad?  But two of them?  My guess is even if I try all 4 I'll be getting the same result.

 

So I'm stumped and not sure what to do.  I've combed through my bios looking for an option somewhere, but have found nothing and can't imagine that there would be a setting; but again I've also tried the sata cards which have nothing to do w/my bios so....

 

At the moment I am kind of wishing for just a wiring mess of plugging each drive into it's each individual port (like on the old norco case) rather than dealing with the convenient wiring scheme which is causing me this trouble.

 

Oh I also unplugged Unraid from the usb port (why not) - no difference.

 

Nate

I had to look up much of what you mentioned, had never heard of several of them.  Turns out that an 'Adaptec 2241000-R' is an 'Adaptec 1430SA', which we are familiar with, and a 'SFF-8087' is a SAS to SATA cable.  The Tyan motherboard, the Adaptec cards, and the SuperMicro cards do not have SAS connectors, just SATA ports.  So I believe all you need is ordinary SATA cables (good quality ones).  (Forgive my unfamiliarity with SAS here if I have 'stumbled'.)

Thanks for looking stuff up, sorry you had to do that I tried to include as much info as possible so that wouldn't be necessary.  Sorry about not putting Adaptec 1430SA, I was just copy/pasting from new egg =)

 

The SAS port is on the Norco RPC-4220 Case (the old version of the case just had individual sata ports) and will either go to an SAS port on a card (or motherboard) or go to SATA ports on the card (or motherboard) - the difference is the cable that's needed.

 

Kind of off topic, but the only problem w/SAS -> SAS is it's expensive - although from a cabling standpoint extremely ideal since you could have 20 drives connected to your equipment with just 5 cords rather than 20.

 

Since you mentioned my equipment doesn't have an SAS port, just SATA, I'm using the SFF-8087 cable which is basically a SAS port (which is on the new model Norco Case that I have) to 4 individual SATA ports cable.

 

However, I'm now convinced that my Norco RPC-4220 case is bad, but before I do an RMA I'm going to do two more tests.  First I'm going to run the cord to a different motherboard to see if that sees the drives (I can't see how thing will work, but I really don't want to send this HUGE heavy box back) on that board and then I'm going to ... hmm I forget what my second test was going to be.  Well hopefully I'll remember it and if not I'll just send it back.

 

Oh I remember my other test now - I'm going to try a different brand/smaller size hard drive in there to see what happens.  If anybody has any other ideas on tests let me know!  I guess I have the weekend to tinker around w/this thing and I'll send it back Monday.  Not related to this, but I did a memory test last night did 4 passes on my 8gigs (4 sticks of 2gb) and no errors - so looks like everything is in tip top condition... except the case.

 

Nate