Hello everyone! I've done some googling and limetech forum reading the past couple hours and I cannot figure out what is going on. I am assuming some hardware incompatibility or cabling.. just missing it.

 

I had an existing array running in my previous tower and decided to make the migration to Norco.

Norco 4220

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SRL-F Server Motherboard LGA 2011 R3

Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3

Mini-SAS to 4x SATA Reverse Breakout Cable

Assorted 4, 6, 8tb WD Reds

500gb Evo SSD Cache

 

Got all of my components moved over to the norco case and UnRaid will boot up and get back to my old dashboard. I see my 11 drives all showing up as missing. None of my drives are showing up in the drive drop downs, unassigned, etc. Also they do not display in the bios. The one thing that does display is my cache drive, but that is just using a regular sata cable direct to mobo and is not on the sas backplane the norco has. I have tried multiple reverse breakout cables, each backplane, multiple drives, and multiple sata ports but nothing is getting detected. The fact I cannot see them in the bios means it isn't an unraid issue, but with the massive norco following here I am hoping someone knows what is going on!  I also have a PCI-E (4 port sata) card that doesnt detect anything either. I am thinking either the cable is wrong.. The one I got: http://a.co/dWC8i75 or some other factor I am not seeing. Any incompatibilities in my list that could be causing an issue?

 

Thanks!

Are the drives spinning up? Could be a power issue.

Are the drives spinning up? Could be a power issue.

Hard to hear if the drives are spinning or not with the louder norco fans. The blue lights on the front do come on in front of each drive though. I will try swapping out some cabling when I get to the server later to see if its an issue with the cable not providing enough power.

I am not sure if those are the right SAS->SATA cables!  The write up suggests they are for connecting a SATA motherboard to SAS devices.    Going the other way normally uses 8087 compatible cables.  Having the wrong cables would explain your symptoms.

That motherboard has individual SATA ports already broken out.

Sorry for the delay guys! I was on a trip and away from my poor server for way too long.

 

I was able to do more testing and I think ended up with some answers, but more questions. I hooked up the SAS backplane on the norco case to another mobo (X99 Extreme4) and I was able to see some of the hard drives display over there. Full testing revealed top SAS backplane doesnt show any drives, 2nd and 3rd SAS plane show 3 out of 4, and bottom 2 show all 4 drives. So with this new info from the thorough testing on all backplanes I plugged them back into the supermicro board, but nothing is showing in the BIOS there even from ones that worked on the X99 mobo. I noticed my bios revision 1.0c is older than the current one on the supermicro page of 2.0a. I have logged a ticket with supermicro for any input on if the newest revision has anything to assist with connecting drives via the SAS > SATA reverse breakout cable, but it seems like a very strange thing for them to not have in the bios already as this stuff has been around for awhile.

 

Anyone have new thoughts based on that scenario? I emailed norco, but I am also within neweggs holiday return window. When this happens does norco send replacement backplanes? or should I arrange an exchange for the whole case directly with newegg?

Got a not very helpful email from SuperMicro:

 

"Our LAB have not tested 3rd party Norco 4220 chassis or Reverse breakout cable C-SFF8087-4S.

Since Direct SATA to SATA connection to drives functions properly, issue lies with 3rd party items, not BIOS.

For compatible chassis, please refer to MB webpage."

 

I guess this model isn't compatible with SAS backplanes for whatever reason. Will be flipping it on ebay and picking up another X99 or similar mobo I guess.

Got a not very helpful email from SuperMicro:

 

"Our LAB have not tested 3rd party Norco 4220 chassis or Reverse breakout cable C-SFF8087-4S.

Since Direct SATA to SATA connection to drives functions properly, issue lies with 3rd party items, not BIOS.

For compatible chassis, please refer to MB webpage."

 

I guess this model isn't compatible with SAS backplanes for whatever reason. Will be flipping it on ebay and picking up another X99 or similar mobo I guess.

I'd recommend getting the replacement motherboard before letting go of the SM board, just to confirm the new board doesn't exhibit the exact same symptoms. It would suck to lose money on a perfectly good board if the new one doesn't solve the issue.

I'd recommend getting the replacement motherboard before letting go of the SM board, just to confirm the new board doesn't exhibit the exact same symptoms. It would suck to lose money on a perfectly good board if the new one doesn't solve the issue.

 

In my post up above that one I did test the backplane connected to another motherboard and it was detecting the drives in the bios. So definitely something with that SM model not cooperating with SAS backplane to SATA ports.

 

But yes, I am picking up another x99 extreme4 mobo from microcenter tonight and swapping it out just to confirm. Then going to replace the norco case with a new one from newegg since 3 out of 5 of the backplanes were having issues.