36 Bay Server won't recognize HDDs and I have a Stale Configuration since I bought Unraid Pro!

[Jasown]

Hi Unraid Community!

 

TLDR: I finally bought Unraid Pro after a month of experimenting with my 36 Drive Bay Supermicro server, upon restart I can't get Unraid to see any of my HDDs and I have a Stale Configuration. I'm tech savy, but no where near an expert, please help!

 

Long story:

 

I'm tech savy enough to be able to take computers apart, add hard drives, and troubleshoot basic IT issues, but I'm no where near an expert. I was happy once Unraid was up and running with 20 TB of data backed up, but I might have flown too close to the sun,  tried to adding too much extra storage, and now I can't get anything to work. 

 

I first discovered Unraid because of a Linus Tech Tips video, and I've always wanted to build a NAS or Server to back up all my hard drives. I'm a professional camera man and I have 10 years of hard drives that I have kept backed up via duplicate Bare Hard Drives with a WeibeTech external Hard Drive enclosure box. Using duplicate bare hard drives is the cheapest way to back up the over 20 TB of data that I have, but as some of the hard drives are almost 10 years old at this point, I know it's only a matter of time before the HDDs die of old age on me. Corona virus has caused all of my filmmaking work to stop since March, so I thought why not finally experiment and build/ buy a server solution off ebay in my abundant freetime!

 

I ended up finding a 36 Hot swappable used SuperMicro server for relatively cheap on ebay, and with used SAS HDDs, I was able to get Unraid up and running for 20 TB of backed up data across 14 HDDs. Because of corona virus shipping delays, building the Server and getting it to work took the entire 30 days of Unraid's trial, so I went ahead and bought Unraid Pro knowing that I was going to add additional storage soon. Upon restart, I couldn't get Unraid to see most of my hard drives. 

 

I tried taking out all of the Hard Drives out of the server and starting Unraid again, then hotswapping the HDDs into the server while it was running, but still Unraid couldn't see the Hard Drives once I plugged them back in. I did mix up the placement of the HDDs in the server once I took all the HDDs out, so they are not in the original bay or slot, but I wouldn't think that would be a huge issue. This is when I first noticed that Unraid said that the Array had been stopped and my configuration was Stale.

 

I decided to open the top of the Server to see if anything got unplugged while I was shifting around hard drives, as the server is sitting under my desk. I found that I have a LSI raid controller plugged into one of the PCI slots with a mini sas to 4 sata multiple plug. I would assume that this Raid controller doesn't really do terribly much in a 36 drive bay server, because it only uses 1 x 4 SAS multi-plug cable. I would assume the hot swappable bays would have direct connections to the motherboard or a lot of cabling internally in the server and probably wouldn't become unplugged too easily as well. I'm decently familiar with the internals of a custom PC, but a 36 drive bay server is a little out  of my leagues, and I don't know how to get underneath the motherboard to check the connections of all 36 drives into the motherboard. 

 

I followed the Unraid wiki again to try to start a new Unraid trial on a new USB to see if I could get everything to work again, but that didn't allow me to see the drives either. I even tried creating a New Configuration while preserving my Cache, Parity Drives, and Storage Drives. I said F' it and tried to create a New Array and not preserve anything, but again nothing. 

 

I believed I backed up the Unraid USB about 2 weeks ago while everything was still working on my Custom PC, so I can upload that if it is helpful. 

 

And I know about the no UPS plugged in warning, but I had to plug in my keyboard and mouse to try and troubleshoot via Unraid GUI. For UPS, I currently have the Unraid plugged into 2 different UPS batteries with the USB UPS cable from one UPS plugged into the back of the server for one of them, because this server has 2 redundant power supplies on board. I have the Unraid USB stick plugged directly into the motherboard since I opened the server.

 

I have uploaded the Diagnostic Report below and the Hardware Profile for troubleshooting purposes too. And don't be afraid to Explain It Like I'm 5 because I don't really know what I'm doing

 

Questions:

 

1. Once each HDDs is added to the array in Unraid, does that HDD have to be in that specific slot or bay? Is each HDD in Unraid tied to a specific port on the server?

 

2. Do I need the HBA adapter in the server really? Only 1 of the mini-sas adapter cables was plugged into the port on the inside of the server, which should only connect to 4 HDDs. But I would think with a 36 bay server that all these HDDs must plug directly into the motherboard via the Hot Swappable Bays. How would I get under the motherboard in this kind of server to check the connections of all 36 hard drives into the motherboard?

 

3. I bought some Dell server Constellation Hard Drives that I couldn't get to mount when this all started, and I see that using Unraid I can actually change their Dell sector size via linux docker utility so that the drives will work in my server. That is the next problem to solve once I have everything set back up and working! But if anyone can link me to a clear tutorial on how to change these Dell SAS drives into regular 512 hard drives I would really appreciate it!

 

Hardware and HDDs I bought:

 

Server I bought: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Supermicro-4U-Freenas-ZFS-Unraid-Server-AMD-8-Cores-2-6ghz-16GB-36-Tray-RAIL-KIT/143579841379?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

Parity Hard Drives x 2: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HGST-4TB-7200RPM-HDN726040ALE614-0F26902-128MB-SATA-6-0Gb-s-3-5-Hard-Drive/114153508933?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

1TB Cache Pool Hard Drives x 4: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seagate-Constellation-ES-3-5-1TB-7200RPM-64MB-6Gbps-SAS-Hard-Drive-ST1000NM0001/192164256046?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

3TB Storage Hard Drives x 12: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3TB-7-2K-6Gbps-SAS-3-5-Hard-Drive-HUS723030ALS641-Hitachi-NetApp-P-N-52738-02/223953553094?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

2TB Storage Hard Drives x 4: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seagate-Constellation-ES-3-5-2TB-7200RPM-64MB-6Gbps-SAS-Hard-Drive-ST2000NM0001/401825943467?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

*Couldn't get Server to read these!* Dell Server 2TB Storage Hard Drives x 2: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Seagate-Constellation-ES-3-5-2TB-7200RPM-64MB-6Gbps-SAS-Hard-Drive-ST2000NM0001/224010554025?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

 

 

tower-diagnostics-20200612-1821.zip

Edited June 13, 2020 by Jasown
typos

[JorgeB]

No devices are being detected, this is a hardware issue, check the LSI BIOS, Unraid won't detect any disks until they are detected there.

 

5 hours ago, Jasown said:

I found that I have a LSI raid controller plugged into one of the PCI slots with a mini sas to 4 sata multiple plug. I would assume that this Raid controller doesn't really do terribly much in a 36 drive bay server, because it only uses 1 x 4 SAS multi-plug cable.

That's enough to connect all disks, assuming it has an expander backplane.

[Spyderturbo007]

I bought the same server about a week or so ago and had a different issue.  Mine wouldn't boot the the flash drive and I had to go into the LSI BIOS and change the settings for the card.  There is a section about control of the card with 3 options (if I remember correctly).  It's set to allow control of the card to the BIOS and the card.  I had to change that to card only for it to recognize my flash drive with more than 12 drives attached.

 

I'm not sure if it will help with your problem, but as johnnie.black said, that would be the first place to look.

 

On a side note, the fans plugged into the front expander backplane are not speed regulated based on the setting in the BIOS, so they will run much faster, and louder than they would if they were plugged into the motherboard.  I plugged them all into the motherboard and now they run a little slower.  

 

@johnnie.black it has 2 expander backplanes.  One for the front 24 drives and another jammed under the motherboard for the rear drives.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Spyderturbo007