Unraid Server Doesnt Boot

[Gooshpoo]

I'm very new, not only to servers but to Unraid as well. I have experience with regular everyday computer.
Up to the point where I have taken standard classes at my local college for A+ so im  not completely ignorant.
So a friend mine got into a home plex server and allowed me access to it. this is where it all began.

 

I decided than I also needed a server so i began to look. I found a super micro CSE-745 chassis that had a H8DGI-F motherboard in it.
This was equipped with a AMD 6272 16 Core 2.1GHz although the board supports 2 CPU's only one was installed.
With the 12gigs of 1066mhz ecc memory installed I began to experiment  with  different os and finally settled on Unraid.

Now wile i was figuring out what OS to use I upgraded the system with another AMD 6272 16 Core 2.1GHz and an additional 32gigs of ram. this ram ran at 1366mhz.

 

So my HW for unraid 6.8.3 was

 

AMD 6272 16 Core 2.1GHz X2
44gig of ecc ddr
a couple old HDDs laying around
2 old terabyte sata drive
2 old 128gig ssd sata drives
2 old 500g sata drives
An old USB 2.0 cruzer micro 4gib

 

Now wile I began playing with unraid by creating an array out of the drives and messing with docker. I also decided to order more upgrades for the server
These upgrades are as followed
2x HBA/IT pci sas controllers
8  3tb sas drives
10 128gig ssd drives             
128 gigs of Ram

 

So after building a new array and setting up my server I began to populate it with files. Setting up dockers and generally making it do what I want.
The server was running for 5 days I never did a reboot. Well I noticed that I used the wrong power cord for the server a 18guage wire instead of a 14 gauge wire.
I shut the server down to change the power cable.

After I did this the Server would not boot. It would go through normal server post load all the sas controllers.
But the normal blue screen that pops up to allow you to choose the gui mord or safe mode etc would not.
Now if I remove 1 single SSD drive the server will boot. I can then put the drive back into the hotswap bay and it works as normal.

What could cause this? How can I fix this without loosing my data ive accumulated over the past week. I am still on a trial version of Unraid
and planning to purchase once trial is over. but this problem is making me rethink my choices.
Please help me fix this issue
 

[trurl]

6 minutes ago, Gooshpoo said:

10 128gig ssd drives  

What do you have in mind for all those SSDs?

 

SSDs in the parity array cannot be trimmed, and whether or not all models will work with parity isn't entirely clear.

 

And your assortment of HDDs isn't really the way I would go about this either. It is better to have fewer larger disks than more smaller disks. Fewer disks requires less ports and other hardware, and each additional disk is an additional point of failure.

 

Since you are just playing around right now, simplify your setup with just a couple of the newer SSDs in the cache pool and leave out those other SSDs and those old small HDDs.

 

How full have you made all of those disks? If all the data will fit on the 8 3TB disks, then you could just go with that in the parity array and then use the Unassigned Devices plugin to copy the data from the other disks one at a time.

 

 

[trurl]

16 minutes ago, Gooshpoo said:

How can I fix this without loosing my data ive accumulated over the past week.

And if any of that data is important and irreplaceable, you need to have backups of it anyway.

[Gooshpoo]

The SSD are just there as a Cache and I actually only have 4 in the system right now because I have not got the other hotswap bay in. thats the only reason i have them is for Cache

The smaller drives have been removed sorry i should have clarified. right now i have 8x 3Tb sas drives and 4 128gig SSD. I was just trying to show what HW had changed. Like i said the server will boot if i remove any 1 of the ssd then put it back into the server once its started I can add it to the cache pool. If i don't do that it just sits on a black screen with a courser

[trurl]

Have you checked your BIOS to make sure it is trying to boot from the flash drive? Some BIOS will try to "help" you out when you add a disk by trying to boot from it or one of the other disks instead of the flash.

[Gooshpoo]

yeah its for sure trying to boot to the cruzer. i was doing some testing and it looks like removing any 1 drive ether the array drives or the cache drive will let the system boot into raid

[trurl]

Obviously a hardware issue but I don't know what to suggest. Are you sure the power is good and enough?

[Gooshpoo]

I also read somewhere about it could be the start up power requirements the server has a 920w platinum psu but a friend of mine has 2 1200w that fit this server hes going to give me. that should get rid of that being the possible problem.

[Gooshpoo]

So i put 2 1200w psu into the server and still the same problem. The black screen with the courser only started after i decided to change the origonal setup. I took out all the old drives and put the new drives in. I did create new array. I did not save any configs at the time. Then this started to happen. Removing any 1 drives allow the server to boot where i have the select with or without gui screen.

[JonathanM]

That symptom sounds like a BIOS limitation on the number of bootable devices. Make sure the HBA's aren't bootable.