New to storage cards - AOC-SAS2LP

[bally12345]

Bought a supermicro refurb server from ebay. I honestly thought it would be plug and play really. But unraid will not detect disks and allow me to assign them.

 

Pretty sure it's down to the controller card but not sure. The AOC-SAS2LP is down on compatible list. During boot up it shows the disks are connected.

 

Went through the card configuration and cleared any config just incase but still not visible when in unraid.

 

Did post in general forum but seems this is more of a specific question.

 

Are any other steps required when using a controller card? Do I need to flash this and have it running in IT mode?

 

All my drives are no back safely in my trusty HP N40L and have some spare disks and a USB to help configure the Supermicro server now.

 

Any help would be great.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

 

[JorgeB]

Thought no longer a recommended controller it's plug and play, please post the diagnostics.

[bally12345]

Thought no longer a recommended controller it's plug and play, please post the diagnostics.

Original thread
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https://forums.unraid.net/topic/75085-new-machine-same-disks-and-new-config/&share_tid=75085&share_fid=18593&share_type=t

http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5bcd8cbf29d48/server-diagnostics-20181021-2306.zip

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[JorgeB]

SAS2LP is not being detected, try a different slot or try it on a different computer.

[bally12345]

SAS2LP is not being detected, try a different slot or try it on a different computer.

Will give it a go, when I turn the machine on everything seems to be working, even thought I saw the blue activity lights whilst in unraid.

Will post back shortly

Thanks for the reply @johnnie.black

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[bally12345]

Moved the card to another slot, made sure everything is seated correctly.

New test USB with unraid on.

New diagnostic attached, but still getting no drives showing. The controller card is working because it detects all the drives in the webBios and you can create raid array using the megaraid configuration wizard.

 

For some reason when its coming to unraid nothing available other than the flash drive.

tower-diagnostics-20181022-0503.zip

[JorgeB]

11 minutes ago, bally12345 said:

The controller card is working because it detects all the drives in the webBios and you can create raid array using the megaraid configuration wizard.

That bios if for an LSI, not a SAS2LP, still no SAS2LP detected, the LSI disks won't show up in Unraid since that's a RAID controller, not an HBA as recommended, for them to show up you need to create virtual disks, but still not recommended.

[JorgeB]

OK, I think I know what's going on, when people refer to a SAS2LP in the forum they usually mean the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 which is a Marvell based HBA controller, I believe you bough a AOC-SAS2LP-H8iR, which is a RAID LSI SAS2108 based controller, like mentioned RAID controllers are not recommended, you should have bought an LSI HBA instead, still if you create raid0 virtual disks they will show up, but there will be no SMART monitoring and possible issues if you need to replace the controller in the future as disks will be detected with a different identifier.

[JorgeB]

4 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

still if you create raid0 virtual disks they will show up,

Forget to mention you can only do this if the disks are empty, without any data.

[bally12345]

OK, I think I know what's going on, when people refer to a SAS2LP in the forum they usually mean the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 which is a Marvell based HBA controller, I believe you bough a AOC-SAS2LP-H8iR, which is a RAID LSI SAS2108 based controller, like mentioned RAID controllers are not recommended, you should have bought an LSI HBA instead, still if you create raid0 virtual disks they will show up, but there will be no SMART monitoring and possible issues if you need to replace the controller in the future as disks will be detected with a different identifier.

Oh man this is turning into a mess lol, the whole reason I bought a refurbished server was so it could just replace to 2 small machines I was using.

A replacement card will probably be nearly as much as I paid for the whole thing.

Will have a look on ebay and see if I can find anything half reasonable priced.

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[bally12345]

Forget to mention you can only do this if the disks are empty, without any data.

Lol worst day ever

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[bally12345]

This is what I have
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292778270479

So looks like you are right I have the wrong controller.

The correct ones ebay are selling for much higher than I was expecting.

@johnnie.black you don't know anyone selling one?

Thanks for the help BTW

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[bally12345]

Is there an alterantive cheaper card anyone could recommend?

 

Looks like I will probably be better looking for something like the LSI MegaRaid after reading this

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by bally12345

[JorgeB]

Get any LSI with a SAS2008/2308/3008 chipset in IT mode, e.g., 9201-8i, 9211-8i, 9207-8i, 9300-8i, etc and clones, like the Dell H200/H310 and IBM M1015, these latter ones need to be crossflashed.

[bally12345]

Would something like this just be a straight swap? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8x-port-SATA-PCI-E-SAS2008-HBA-expansion-LSI-SAS-9201-8i-9211-8i-IT-mode-819/263978430469?hash=item3d76573005:g:tBcAAOSwl1pbueYc:rk:2:pf:0

 

I noticed this current setup has battery back up unit. The reason I am so confused is I have a 12bay server which has 8 port card, how do you jsut connect some drives to the on board sata ports?

 

[JorgeB]

4 minutes ago, bally12345 said:

Would something like this just be a straight swap?

It should be, appears to be low profile only so check if that's a problem.

 

5 minutes ago, bally12345 said:

The reason I am so confused is I have a 12bay server which has 8 port card, how do you jsut connect some drives to the on board sata ports?

There's a builtin expander on the backplane.

[bally12345]

£70 is certainly better than the other options! Ordered, low profile is what I need as its 2u enclosure.

 

I may be able to sell the one im taking out.

 

Is the BBU specific to the Supermicro controller?

[JorgeB]

3 minutes ago, bally12345 said:

Is the BBU specific to the Supermicro controller?

It might work with other LSI RAID controllers, it won't work with HBAs.

[bally12345]

Hopefully delivery wont be too long, until then everything being packed away.

 

Also had parity drive fail and disable, luckily I had spare drive to replace and sync straight away.

[bally12345]

Good news! The new card detected all the drives straight away!

 

Currently going through clearing as I have added 2 extra disk to the array, once that complete I will add cache disk. Then figure out how to transfer all the appdata and docker image from another machine to this.

Edited October 24, 2018 by bally12345

[bally12345]

I am assuming the BBU will not connect to the LSI SAS 9201-8i, will leave it in until I figure out how to get power to it.

 

Also does anyone happen to know what the Mini SAS to Motherboard I/O Board & Cable GT434E002LF is used for? Its connected to the backplane but no idea what it actually does. Is it even needed?