How to use SCU port on X9DRi-LN4F+?

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Fuganater

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I recently picked up a X9DRi-LN4F+ for my secondary system. I didn't realize that it has a SCU port (SFF-8087) on it. I figured this was a bonus so I hooked it up, made sure it was enabled in the BIOS and loaded FreeNAS but FreeNAS doesn't see the drives. I tried a few different things in the BIOS but still no soup. I went ahead and threw in a spare LSI 9211-8i and boom, all the drives where there.

SC846 with SAS2 backplane
X9DRi-LN4F+
2x E5-2670
128GB Hynix ECC RAM
8x 3TB WD Reds and SE

So my question is what am I doing wrong to be able to use the SCU port? I couldn't find anyting when searching the net and I gave up after about 2 hours of trying.
 

ethereal

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SCU (Storage Control Unit) Configuration Storage Controller Unit Select Enabled to enable PCH SCU storage devices. The options are Disabled and Enabled.


SCU Port 0~SCU Port 7: The AMI BIOS will automatically detect the onboard SCU devices and display the status of each SCU device as detected.

once scu is enabled in the bios the drives should be detected and diplayed there.
 
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I've got a similar issue. The SCU is turned on in the BIOS. I'm using 2.5" SSDs. They plug in just fine and the AHCI controller will recognize them, but there is no place to mount them besides in the RAID cage. I'd much rather RAID them than run cables to each drive. Any ideas why the BIOS tells me it doesn't recognize any drives?
 

Stux

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Are you using a reverse breakout cable instead of a breakout cable?
 
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Breakout cable? OK - I feel stupid because I'm lost and I feel like I should know what you are talking about. There is a ribbon cable from the motherboard to the raid cage. Drives are plugged into the RAID cage in the hot-swap bays. I'm thinking I'll need to wire each drive to the regular SATA ports, but like I said, I'd rather get the SCU to recognize them so I don't have to get a bunch of cables and ruin the hot-swap capability.
 

Stux

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Breakout cable? OK - I feel stupid because I'm lost and I feel like I should know what you are talking about. There is a ribbon cable from the motherboard to the raid cage. Drives are plugged into the RAID cage in the hot-swap bays. I'm thinking I'll need to wire each drive to the regular SATA ports, but like I said, I'd rather get the SCU to recognize them so I don't have to get a bunch of cables and ruin the hot-swap capability.

So the SCU is an SFF-8087 connector. SFF-8087 is just a dense plug with 4 SATA/SAS ports. You can connect that with an SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable to a backplane with an SFF-8087 connector. Or you can get a breakout cable and connect it directly to 4 drives.

But you can't connect a SATA port to a SAS port, but you can connect SAS to SATA.

Alternatively, some simple passive backplanes without expander capability can be directly connected to four SATA/SAS ports on a motherboard using a reverse-breakout cable, which looks exactly the same as a breakout cable, but works in the reverse direction. In essence, the breakout functionality is thus what the backplane does.

If you were trying to use a reverse breakout cable, instead of a breakout cable, you'd perhaps get the results you are seeing. But since you're trying to connect to the backplane, then that's not your problem.

The issue is I think that the SCU port is NOT a Mini SAS port (ie SAS over SFF-8087), but rather 4 SATA ports, and thus will not function with a real SAS backplane.

• SATA Ports
Six (6): Two (2) SATA 3.0, Four (4) SATA 2.0 Ports
Four (4) SATA 2.0 Ports from SCU (X9DRi-LN4F+)


Your LSI card has actual SAS ports, not SATA ports, which I assume is why it works.

If you use a breakout cable, then you could go directly from the SCU port to 4 drives.

I think :)

EDIT: I've become a little confused between the original poster, and you... so I'm not really sure what RAID cage you're talking about ;)
 
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OK, I don't have an LSI card, but the same motherboard as the original poster. It has 6 SATA ports plus the 4 ports on the SCU. The SCU is supposed to work with SAS drives, but that doesn't matter as I'm connecting SATA drives. They are 2.5" SSDs, so I wonder if it has an issue with the fact that the drives aren't drawing 12V? The SATA ports on the motherboard with the standard SATA connectors work, so the drives are good. I don't know of anything else that would cause the problem, but it's really getting annoying. I even did a BIOS update
 

Stux

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OK, I don't have an LSI card, but the same motherboard as the original poster. It has 6 SATA ports plus the 4 ports on the SCU. The SCU is supposed to work with SAS drives, but that doesn't matter as I'm connecting SATA drives. They are 2.5" SSDs, so I wonder if it has an issue with the fact that the drives aren't drawing 12V? The SATA ports on the motherboard with the standard SATA connectors work, so the drives are good. I don't know of anything else that would cause the problem, but it's really getting annoying. I even did a BIOS update

How are you connecting the drives?

X9DRi-LN4F+ has SATA on the SCU port
X9DR3-LN4F+ has SAS.

The OP has X9DRi-LN4F+
 
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I have the DRi board in the supermicro 2U case (room for 12 drives in the RAID and no other spot to stick drives anywhere). I thought they both supported either SAS or SATA, just not mixed, but the documentation from Supermicro is sketchy at best. Still not sure if the SCU supports RAID 5 or just 0,1,and 10. It makes no sense that the non-hot-swappable standard SATA controller would support RAID 5 and not the hot-swap RAID backplane. Its confusing.

As for connecting the drives, I just screwed them into the carriers and slid them in. Only the right side actually screws in, but the drives are weightless. I was going to rig up some way to attach the left side, but the connectors on the back of the drive actually slide into the connectors just fine. They don't go in as easily as a full sized drive since the carrier is only attached on one side so its not self aligning, but I slid them into the top row so I could verify they were all the way in the connector by taking the top off the case.

At this point, I may stick them in the "dummy" drives in the carriers and run regular SATA cables. This thing is supposed to be shipped to my brother soon and I have to finish setting it up! I had no idea it would be such a PITA! But I DEFINATELY appreciate your feedback!
 
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