Cannot find my SAS drives on H8DGU-F.

[bathyg]

Hi All,

I am building a freenas server and this is only my second time doing this (first time was successful). I ran into this weird problem that I cannot find my SAS drives after installing the system.

System: Supermicro H8DGU-F, dual opteron, 256gb ram, 1TB ssd connected on SATA 0.
Backplane: 2x Backplane:
*BPN-SAS2-846EL1 24-port 4U SAS2 6Gbps single-expander backplane
*BPN-SAS2-826EL1 12-port 2U SAS2 6Gbps single-expander backplane

I got a 9211 card and flashed it to IT mode, current FW revision: 20.00.07.00-IT
When boot starts, 9211 card can recognizing all the hard drives and I can see them from BIOS boot menu as [SAS:#0300 ID31 LUN]...

Initially, I cannot boot from USB drive, then I found that if I set "BOOT ORDER" on the 9211 (AVAGO TECH) to anything other than 0, then I can boot from USB.

When I boot from a freenas USB drive, I can only see the SSD drive. Then I installed freenas on the SSD, after rebooting, no SAS drive is recognized.

When I set the 9211 card, "BOOT ORDER" to 0, then I can boot from the hard drive installed on the 9211 card, however, I cannot boot from USB anymore, therefore no way for me to install the freenas.

I have also tried to connect the SSD drive directly to the 9211 card, so all hard drives are on that card. Then I set "BOOT ORDER" to 0. Now, the 9211 card can recognize both SSD and all the other hard drive, but still cannot boot from USB.

How can I install the system using USB drive? What is the reason that when boot from USB drive, SAS drives are not recognized?

Any help is highly appreciated!

 

[hervon]

As a work around, from another computer, install FreeNAS from the USB drive to the SSD. Put the SSD back in the Server on the 9211 card I guess. Should work.

 

[bathyg]

As a work around, from another computer, install FreeNAS from the USB drive to the SSD. Put the SSD back in the Server on the 9211 card I guess. Should work.

I have already tried that, and after reboot, still no luck with SAS.

Actually, I now discovered that when I set "BOOT SUPPORT" on 9211 to "BIOS and OS", when restart, it gives me a blank screen (all black with nothing) and I am wondering if that is some compatibility issue between 9211 card firmware and supermicro motherboard.

Anyone can help?