Struggling with RES3CV360 Intel Expander

[Doug183]

I have a big drive chasis - 45 drives. SuperMico X9SCM-F MB, and the HBA controller card is an LSI 9305-24i in IT mode with the latest firmware. 5 ports are connected to 20 SATA drives and one port of the HBA is connected to Port H on the RES3CV360 . This expander is bit funky because the manual says it can only connect 28 drives to it. (Ports G&H are reserved for the HBA/RAID card - page 8.) Here is the manual. I can live with that. However I am struggling, and am only getting 26 drives connected. Port I ('eye') seems to be only passing 2 drives onward. I am connected to a 45 Drives backplane, but I have tested this a bunch and can get drives recognized on the same slots on the backplane by connecting the same cabe to a different pot on the RES3CV360. I also have spare parts and have tested different 12G cables AND even a spare RES3CV360 card. I get the same behavior. Anybody else have any experience with this expander and know either how to get it to work or its limitations?

Thanks

 

[sretalla]

This expander is bit funky because the manual says it can only connect 28 drives to it.

Could it be that the expander expects only drives, not backplanes to be connected?

I don't know enough to say anything definitive, but I note that the 45 drives site shows that their units ship with 3 9305 SAS HBAs installed. Have you lost 2 of them?