ASRock E3C224: a note of warning

[jyavenard]

And one more crap: the SMTP settings doesn't appear to support SSL authentication; so sending events by email is not possible in my case :(

Ggrrrrrrrr

 

[ser_rhaegar]

If you have a VM environment you can spool up a Linux VM, install Postfix and use it as a mail relay. It will support SSL authentication to your actual outgoing server and equipment on your network can use it without SSL authentication to get mail out. This is how I handle all of my internal mail.

 

[jyavenard]

that's what I've just done, or at least try to do... and set it up on the server running on that board.

But the aim usually is to be able to send email when the server is going faulty... not the best approach yet :)

It just doesn't work.

Whenever I attempt to send a test email, I get an error:
"There was a problem while sending test alerts. IPMI ERROR:21"

and at no time do I see any traffic hitting my mail server...

setting up email on the supermicro ipmi was a breeze in comparison

 

[acp]

I have the same board as well and notice some of the problems you are having. I have to look which memory I got, but it was Kingston. Ipmi is buggy and flaky for KVM. Turning the machine off and on had never been an issue for me. One fix I did discover is when the KVM whigs out is to turn the machine of at the power supply, though it dues defeat the purpose doing that. Using the KVM is only useful for bios. I have gotten the machine to boot off pxe and install a couple of test os using iscsi to my freenas box. The only remaining issue is how to get 4 Intel nic to be os facing, currently I only see 3. The fourth one does show in the PCI list but as 8086:1531 instead of 8086:1533. Have open a support case with as rock about it.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[jyavenard]

Issues for me so far (to summarise)

1. - SMB values for Vram and Vcpu are just wrong , and cause spurious amount of logs/events (this can be fixed using freeipmi and modifying the value, but won't survive a reboot of the IPMI module. Low-voltage RAM works, but will give you lot of events in the log
2. - IPMI web interface is slow to a crawl over https, unusable really
3. - KVM started from web interface over https doesn't work; screen stays blank.
4. - The motherboard stays powered even when off, that includes PCI slots, USB ports, various LEDs (like the LANs LED, power LED) stays on at all time. Make sure to remove power to the PSU before putting a PCI card as the manual states, otherwise like me you will blow up the card.
5. - Using FreeNAS or Ubuntu 12.04, issuing the reboot command turns of the machine, halt will halt the machine but not turn it off.
6. - In IPMI control: Power Off Server - Orderly Shutdown does nothing; only hard power off works.
7. - SMTP just doesn't work for me (including using a plain mail relay: no authentication, no ssl), as a result sending critical events by email doesn't work.
8. - When you restart the IPMI modules, all fans go full on, and you must reboot the PC fully to be able to make the fan back into smart mode
9. - If in IPMI you enable eth1, then disable eth0, save. Now re-enable eth0: it sets a null mac address: from that point on, the IPMI/BMC is unusable and you must use the ASRock reset bios utility
10. - In IPMI, when you change the IP address from DHCP to Fix, change the DHCP address on the DHCP server, change again the IPMI to DHCP, it doesn't refresh the assigned IP address, and it stays on the previously allocated one. It seems to cache things which is an absolute bugger. I had to power cycle the server (at the power point) to get the new IP address from the DHCP server
11. - If using the KVM, you turn off the machine, you can't start it back on as the option is greyed out and it doesn't detect the machine is off. You must kill the KVM, go back to the IPMI web interface and relaunch the KVM: only then will the Power On option be active again.
12. FRU information is completely blank other than the "Board Manufacturer" field set to ASRock. Good luck retrieving information such as lan mac address, bmc mac address : it's indicated nowhere.
13. The default BMC lan setting is to use the main ethernet port 1, not the dedicated BMC lan.
14. No user accessible PWM controllers, so you can't use tools like pwmconfig on linux to adjust fans speed (maybe there's a way, but so far I haven't found how to do it)
15. Chassis intrusion detection doesn't work properly. After each reboot it would state that an intrusion was detected, requiring to go in the BIOS settings to clear it, otherwise the board wouldn't boot. Had to disable the feature alltogether

The pluses over the Supermicro board:

1. the BIOS let you adjust the fans with much finer option.
2. It passes the POST much quicker.
3. ASRock tech support is far more responsive than SM one; after I posted my question on a user forum within a few minutes one ASRock agent sent me an email with a solution
4. It is *much* easier to mount a virtual disk. The Supermicro forces you to use a Windows share to mount the media. The ASRock let you simply mount it over the web page.

I'm sure most of those can be fixed with a firmware update, but at this stage, I regret getting this board. I would have paid less for the supermicro (though I would have had to purchase a PCIe card to replace my PCI one).
The SuperMicro ipmi interface is light years ahead in features and capabilities; adding that it's reliable and behaves in a consistent fashion

Will update this post as I find more issues

 

[jyavenard]

Well, ASRock has been extremely responsive and has already make a new BMC firmware fixing the voltage threshold. So at least, the hundreds of events in the log have stopped.. .

 

[cyberjock]

That's a plus!

I still find it very "amateur-ish" to make such a stupid mistake.

 

[acp]

The missing lan device has been resolved once asrock tech support sent an utility. Now I have 4 Intel nic cards at the os level.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Freddy500]

Well, ASRock has been extremely responsive and has already make a new BMC firmware fixing the voltage threshold. So at least, the hundreds of events in the log have stopped.. .

I still get these low vcore errors in the log on an Asrock e3c226d2i under windows 8.1 going idle using the newest BMC firmware (00.13.00) with a Xeon 1220v3 and 1,35v Kingston memory (KVR16LE11L/8). Havn't tried any other os's yet. I want to use it with Ubuntu server.

How did you contact Asrock? I've tried this method but havn't gotten any response from them yet.

 

[acp]

I used this link when contacting them and have gotten a response 2 out of the 3 times I used it. http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[joelmusicman]

Wow... Just had a pretty nasty scare with my 224d2i!

I was trying to update the firmware via IPMI, entered the update screen, but it timed out before I could even select the file to upload. So I went to the local console and the monitor never woke from power saving, and the IPMI interface was not showing up anywhere on the network. Finally, I pulled the power plug for a minute, and it finally worked again. The system still took longer than I would consider typical for the monitor to wake up and show the BIOS post screen...

 

[joelmusicman]

Update: I am still totally unable to access IPMI. IPMI and LAN ports are both plugged into the router, but IPMI is not accessible from the old ip address (192.168.1.37) nor visible on Router's devices page.

 

[Sir.Robin]

Humm... seems to me they need to mature a great deal. Never had a Supermicro board before my X10SL7 and although the IPMI graphics are cinda 80'ish... the functionality is working without a hitch. :)

 

[joelmusicman]

So I did some searching and found this thread on tweaktown that references the IPMI problem that I have. I'll post updates if I get it working...

 

[madik]

The board (c226 model) is reporting 1.7V vcore which is extremely high voltage with my Core i3. I already updated BMC and board firmware to newest and still getting 1.7V. Is anyone still having this issue? I will contact the asrock support but i will here first.

 

[Paranoiak]

The board (c226 model) is reporting 1.7V vcore which is extremely high voltage with my Core i3. I already updated BMC and board firmware to newest and still getting 1.7V. Is anyone still having this issue? I will contact the asrock support but i will here first.

I have the same issue... After searching I found this on a forum :

"I found this on Toms Hardware

Haswell has an integrated VRM (Intel calls it FIVR - Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator) and that VRM takes 1.8V as its input voltage which it internally converts down to the 0.9-1.2V required by the core and other voltages for other on-chip circuitry.

Basically, it means that the motherboard is monitoring an input of over 1.7V, but the CPU is actually using less."

My MB reports 1.74V, it seems to be normal BTW... :)

 

[cyberjock]

Technically the CPU is actually using less, and is variable based on loading, frequency, etc etc etc.

 

[Paranoiak]

• Lower Critical (LC):1.53 Volts

• Upper Critical (UC):2.07 Volts

From the IPMI of the MB, so no worries about 1.74V.

 

[grinderx]

Hello all! I 'm intersted in buying the E3C224-4L motherboard, but I am a bit confused with its SATA Hot Plug/Swap support. In the product's webpage it is mentioned that there is Hot Plug support only for the ports offered by the Marvell SATA controller, but what about the ones offered by the C224 chipset? I couldn't figure this out by reading the manual either (while this is pretty clear with the C226M WS). I would like to use this feature with a 2U chassis that has a Hot Plug backplane (Norco RPC-2304).

I am also a bit confused about the PCIe speeds achieved when multiple cards are installed (eg, two GPU cards).

I would appreciate any help with the above questions. Thank you!

 

[Ericloewe]

Hello all! I 'm intersted in buying the E3C224-4L motherboard, but I am a bit confused with its SATA Hot Plug/Swap support. In the product's webpage it is mentioned that there is Hot Plug support only for the ports offered by the Marvell SATA controller, but what about the ones offered by the C224 chipset? I couldn't figure this out by reading the manual either (while this is pretty clear with the C226M WS). I would like to use this feature with a 2U chassis that has a Hot Plug backplane (Norco RPC-2304).

I am also a bit confused about the PCIe speeds achieved when multiple cards are installed (eg, two GPU cards).

I would appreciate any help with the above questions. Thank you!

1. Avoid Marvell/JMicron/anything but Intel SATA controllers.
2. Why on earth do you want quad GbE controllers?

Do yourself a favor and get an X10SL7-F instead.

That said, the C22x chipsets support the entire AHCI spec, including hot-swap. If ASRock says it's not supported, ask them if it's just a minor documentation mistake.