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Problems with SAS Expander


cuco

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hello,

last week my new sas expander intel RES3FV288 (same as Adaptec 82885T) arrived. i want to use it with my lsi 9300-4i4e.

so i connected the internal sas8643 port of the lsi hba to the Expander. and used the external 8644 hba Connection to donnert toone of My enclosures.

i intend to use the other two 8644 Ports for an other enclosure with one drive connected at the Moment. so 9 drives were connected to the hba. 

 

so i connected everything and booted up the Server. all 9 drives showed up in the lsi boot Infos.

in Windows only five drives were found. the 4 who are directly connected to the external 8644 port on the hba and the one drive from the other external enclosure. the megaraid Manager finds all 9 drives.

so i disconnected the external enclosure with the one drive connected to the Expander. booted up again. lsi boot info showed 8 drives. Windows found 5. megaraid Manager found 8.

 

i tried several ports on the hba. connected the enclosures all to the expander. the most available drives Windows found were 5.

 

i dont know what to do. Firmware, drives and bios of the Controllers are up to date.i tried to figure out which ports i should use on the Expander to connect the hba. Intel ans Adaptec doesnt give any advice wich Port. the lsi 9300-8i is listen as compatible.

 

perhaps you Can give me any advice?

 

Tanks a lot.

 

have a Nice Weekend!

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...expanders have a firmware, too.

Did you check that with intel?

I had problems with my res2cv240 when using it with SATA drives...a firmware update from intel fixed it.

 

Edit:

- page 12 in this doc says, that port G is the wide port to connect to the HBA...try that first. -> http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/res3fv288/sb/res3fv288_ug.pdf

- are you powering the expander via the PCIe slot?...try another.

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Thank you for your help. I am just about to return the Expander! and sorry for My bad english and the misstakes. i am from Germany.

the lsi or avago Settings Tool, started with str+c on bootup, already Report that the Firmware is up to Date.

 

my first connection was with port g. and more cables connected to the external wide ports. do the external ports Support this enclosures?

i made a Image.

http://www.pic-upload.de/view-28220944/SERVER.jpg.html

i hope this helps.

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IMHO you won't see the expander FW during boot or BIOS entry, but I don't know about your model exactly...even when seated in the PCIe, it will just draw power from it.

The latest FW for your expander is here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24789/RAID-Expander-RES3FV288-RES3TV360-Firmware

 

What cables are you using and ...silly question maybe, but ... does your System provide enough power..the expander will draw 1.4A on 12V extra ....if your PSU is on an edge already, the thing may fail silently.

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i can see the firmware version of the controller in the lsi config tool, when i enter it with str+c. it is on b024. thats the latest version.

i used a molex and tried it in a pcie port. Power seems to be ok.

i am using the cables provided with the expander to connect to the hba. and from the expander to the enclosure i use this cables: https://direkt.jacob-computer.de/Kabel-und-Adapter/SAS-Kabel/Lenovo-4X90G88512-artnr-2240174.html

 

perhaps the external wide ports dont Support enclosures and only work on Backplanes?

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it should work with both component types, backplanes and enclosures...AFAIU an enclosure might offer GPIO via the sideband but IMHO that is not required in order to work.

 

The cables you use do look appropriate to me.

 

Since you state all drives are found during boot and listed in the controller bios, what about OS drivers?

Obviously, the expander does not need a driver on its own, but maybe another version might be better?

 

Since this is about usage with drivepool, each disk is self contained on its own (no stripes).

That means, you could test with booting a linux live ISO and see, if this will find your disks..I suggest the latest CentOS or Fedora, as these have a lot more support for professional/server equipment enabled in the LIve-ISOs.

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thank you very much! you helped me alot. i am not so into linux. perhaps you could provide me a source where i can download a legal iso image?

My Windows Drivers arge all up to Date. i will contact tue Support. i already worte at hardwareluxx. no answers so far.

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You may need to pass the drives through I had an adapter 24port raid card while the card could see the drives and I could see them in gui interface they were invisible to windows tbh it turned out to be a pain in the arse so I ended buying a highpoint hba and a 36 port expander works a charm I bet if you set the drives to raid or pass through windows will see them make sure there empty tho even passing them on my adapted destroyed any data that was on them

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Fedora and CentOS are both free.

Have a look here: https://getfedora.org/de_CH/workstation/download/ and here https://www.centos.org/download/  or try Ubuntu, here http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

 

I'd recmmend the workstation versions, as these will start up with a full GUI.

I think the disks will not get mounted automatically, so In order to see if the disks are there, you should be able to locate (or install - don't worry the live ISO will run in RAM only and not destroy your OS unless you choose to install it; adding packages/apps will also go into the ramdisk) an app called "disk-manager".

It is somewhere hidden in the system-admin/settings menu trees.

The Live-ISO will normally run under a full Admin User.

Be aware, that once the disks are mounted, you can access them fully, meaning you are able to access (and delete) stuff.

Also, in the disk-manager, you have full management rights...you are able to alter partitions and the like...you have been warned ;-)

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so i been a bit bussy this Weekend with this Expander!!!

but lately i found the document that confirms My Statement.

http://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/user_guides/adaptec_sas_expander_iug_10_2014.pdf

see page 18. the wide ports dont Support direct attaching of drives. you Need an other Expander to connect to.

 

I thank you very much for your Help!!!

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