Only 2 drives show up in Last 4 bays of 24-bay SuperMicro

[iHeartMacs]

Hi,
I'm having problems getting drives to show up.


My Hardware:
Server: Supermicro 4U X9DRI-F 2x Xeon E5-2650 v2 2.6ghz 8-Core 128gb 24-Bay JBOD with 124GB RAM ECC
Firmware on SuperMicro: 2.15
SAS CARD: LSI SAS 9210-8i *not sure if I'm flashed to IT mode I don't think I need to with the 9210 correct?
Drives: 12 x 6TB WD RED
FREENAS VERSION: 11.2

First I can't recall if I need to flash the 9210? From my google fu I don't think so.
When booting freenas my LSI card says "PRODUCT IDENTIFIER" SAS2008-IR "REVISION" 14.15.30.00

GOAL: To create a separate zPool for archival purpose using 3 x 8TB drives and to extend the existing pool with 6 more 6TB drives. This pool would have the drives selected to sleep when not in use. Also I bought 8TB drives instead of 6TB and can't return them so while I think I can extend the current Pool I'm not sure I'd want to go down that path.

ISSUE: Some bays of my server don't show drives. Out of 4 bays (bottom) only 2 drives show up. My setup is such that I have an SSD attached to the mainboard as my boot. All the other drives are off the backplane of course. When I put those same 4 drives into the second row from the top only 3 show up.

My configuration now has 12 drives spread out for more airflow. Placed in rows of 4 in the row 1(top) row 3 and row 6. (please excuse the dust)
I normally have the drive holders in but I took them out to show you the empty space. (see below)

The bottom 4 are filled with new drives. I was going to put in 3 but thought I should probably test the whole row since only 2 out of 3 are showing up. Oddly enough when I put 4 drives into Row 2 only 3 of the drives show up.

I understand this might be a hardware issue but I'm really hoping someone on this forum might be kind enough to help me start.

How would I go about testing each of the drive bay's?

Could I have a bad backplane?

Could this be firmware related either LSI or SuperMicro?

Let me know if I left out any info that is needed.

 

[Ericloewe]

That sounds like an expander backplane, right? Presumably with only a single cable being used, so let's assume the cable is good.

First step is to update the firmware on the backplane and on the HBA. For the former, check Supermicro's product page. For the latter, you'll want to take the opportunity to flash IT firmware instead of IR and you should end up with P20.0.00.7 or something along those lines.

 

[jgreco]

You desperately need to flash IT firmware on the HBA, make sure it's phase (version) 20.00.07.00, and you may be able to update the firmware since that sounds like an expander backplane.

There is no 6Gbps LSI HBA where you do not need to have firmware 20.00.07.00 - no exceptions. It may seem to "work" or *work* or WOR{kerblamexplodemidword}.

 

[jgreco]

@Ericloewe how dare you beat me to the punch! ;-)

 

[Chris Moore]

@Ericloewe how dare you beat me to the punch! ;-)

I am extra late to the party...

The bottom 4 are filled with new drives. I was going to put in 3 but thought I should probably test the whole row since only 2 out of 3 are showing up. Oddly enough when I put 4 drives into Row 2 only 3 of the drives show up.

If you look at the side of the backplane that faces the system board, you should see some model number information on it.

Might look kind of like this:



or, even better, this:



Could you share that model number info with us please?

 

[iHeartMacs]

Hello,

The backplane model is :

BPN-SAS2-846EL1

 

[iHeartMacs]

Gotta flash it ok. I think I got info that this Card would work without flashing but maybe I got my wires crossed. I will look into how to flash it. Is there any order I should go about this? Motherboard - then HBA or vice versa etc?

 

[iHeartMacs]

The backplane has two cables and what looks like room for one more.

Model BPN-SAS2-84EL1

 

[iHeartMacs]

@Ericloewe I'm going to upgrade the Backplane and HBA and see how that goes.

 

[iHeartMacs]

Man I can't find any info on how to update my backplane within freenas. Do I need a linux boot? @chrismoore

 

[iHeartMacs]

I was able to find the model number BPN-SAS2-846EL1 but I cannot find a how to on the update. I see something about a utility smc 1.5 lite but does that work on Freenas. Do I need a linux USB to boot or...? Thx for any help.

 

[iHeartMacs]

I was able to find the model number BPN-SAS2-846EL1 but I cannot find a how to on the update. I see something about a utility smc 1.5 lite but does that work on Freenas. Do I need a linux USB to boot or...? Thx for any help.

I think I figured it out. I need to use expandertools lite downloaded from here:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/ExpanderXtools_Lite/

Then choose Windows or Linux and the software does the FW download itself. Correct? Ok now I just gotta spin up a windows 7 install on this server Grrrrrrrrr.......ate! :(

 

[iHeartMacs]

You desperately need to flash IT firmware on the HBA, make sure it's phase (version) 20.00.07.00, and you may be able to update the firmware since that sounds like an expander backplane.

There is no 6Gbps LSI HBA where you do not need to have firmware 20.00.07.00 - no exceptions. It may seem to "work" or *work* or WOR{kerblamexplodemidword}.

Thank you for the advice! Can I do all of this from a Windows 7 VM inside the Freenas? Or do I need to run a new HD or boot USB for this?

 

[Chris Moore]

Can I do all of this from a Windows 7 VM inside the Freenas?

No. You can read the directions here:

Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9311 HBA and variants
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...shing-lsi-9211-9300-9311-hba-and-variants.54/

 

[iHeartMacs]

Hi Chris! Thank you so much. I actually found that thread that had the directions. But I'm so glad you posted it so that others following can get a leg up.
If you are new to this forum I can't tell you how much you will appreciate all of the dedicated and honorable moderators and members who get back to you as soon as they can. What a great forum and community!

 

[iHeartMacs]

So I flashed the firmware to IT mode. It shows up as 20.0.0... IT mode. But now instead of LSI on boot it says Avago utiliy? Also I can no longer add a boot device. It just keeps trying to boot from one of my HD's in my pool. Instead of my SSD connected directly to the board.

 

[jgreco]

Yes, LSI was bought by Broadcom was bought by Avago. The stubborn among us still call it LSI.

You need to go into your BIOS and tell it not to try to boot from the Avago.

 

[iHeartMacs]

So I flashed the firmware to IT mode. It shows up as 20.0.0... IT mode. But now instead of LSI on boot it says Avago utiliy? Also I can no longer add a boot device. It just keeps trying to boot from one of my HD's in my pool. Instead of my SSD connected directly to the board.

Answered my own question. I'm such a dummy. Only 24 HD's can be seen at a time. So I had to get rid of my SSD and use a USB Flash for Freenas Boot.

 

[jgreco]

If you're using Supermicro, you should be able to massage this through boot ordering and device elimination in the BIOS. It is not necessarily straightforward, though, I admit.

 

[iHeartMacs]

No. You can read the directions here:

Detailed newcomers' guide to crossflashing LSI 9211/9300/9311 HBA and variants
https://www.ixsystems.com/community...shing-lsi-9211-9300-9311-hba-and-variants.54/

OMG that was very confusing to a newb! Not for my lack of understanding but left out some key instructions. Like... make sure to take all of the files out of the folders and put them into your root directory or nothing works!!! LOL. Hours could have been saved with just that info. (maybe I missed it somewhere in that wiki of an instruction)

Where I failed is I just downloaded the zip from the google drive and just put everything (folders) and all into my MS-DOS bootable Flash drive. Like it said. That didn't work out so well. I found another thread on here that pretty much helped me. All I had to do was put the sas2flash.efi into a directory efi/boot/ (make the folders if you don't have it) and then change the name of the file "sas2flsh.efi" to boot64.efi Put my 2018it.bin and mptsas2.rom in the root directory. Now I just told my Motherboard bios to add a boot drive. Had to turn on UEFI instead of Legacy. Booted to it and viola. EFI shell where I can do the commands. I have all except one drive now out of 24 and a usb flash boot that shows up.

Don't know how to get it going?