BIOS post code A2 on Supermicro X9SCM-F mobo with LSI 9211-8i card, boots fine w/o card?

[mbrakes]

As this is my first forum post, I assume some kind of introduction is in order. This is my first TrueNAS build, but I have been an occasional forum lurker for about ten yeas or so, while acquiring the courage and knowledge to attempt a build.

I have no formal education in IT, and my previous experience is mostly limited to consumer hardware and PC/Hackintosh builds, so there's that. Please be gentle While planning my TrueNAS build I had this in mind, and did my best to follow forum advice with regards to hardware recommendations, to avoid getting in trouble. But as my build was planned in 2018, some of those recommendations may be outdated by now.

I think this would be a good opportunity to thank all forum participants for their invaluable contributions - in particular forum regulars jgreco, Ericloewe, Chris Moore, danb35, whose posts have proved particularly helpful!

So, after that introduction, back to my issue(s):

Show : See My freeNAS system

System details list

Upon first boot, I received the Supermicro BIOS post code A2 in the bottom right corner of the boot up screen with the big Supermicro logo.

According to official Supermicro FAQ "BIOS POST code A2 means that it can not detect a HDD with a valid partition structure and boot record". I found this strange, as I received this error no matter what drives were attached - or not. So I began to search for other possible causes.

According to the following forum post, there's an issue with the Supermicro X9 mobo's and year 2021, so I first believed this to be my problem, and commenced to update the MOBO BIOS to v. 2.3a as per this recommendation - by all accounts, the BIOS update went successfully:

Supermicro X9's and year 2021

Just a quick heads up for those of you running some of the Supermicro X9's and haven't tried going into the BIOS setup in several months... There's apparently a bug in the v2.3 BIOS that will prevent you from entering the BIOS setup if the hardware clock is past 12/31/2020 or some such. You get...

www.truenas.com

After this, I was able to get into the BIOS and change disk boot order so I could install TrueNAS to the SSD drive attached through SATA.

As I am planning to max out the Fractal Design R5 chassis I'm basing this build on with the max available of 10 drive bays with repurposed 3.5" drives, I have attached two drives through regular SATA, and planning to add the remaining 8 drives through a HBA card (please let me know if this is a bad idea, but I'm assuming it will be OK until told otherwise).

I initially had problems with the two SATA connected 3,5" drives as well - still got the A2 error code - but soon discovered that reformatting the drives from NTFS to ExFAT would fix the issue, and the machine now boots fine from TrueNAS on the SSD with the two reformatted 3,5" drives attached through SATA.

I then commenced to install the HBA card, so I could connect the remaining 8 3,5" drives through this card. (All the 3,5" drives are 5TB Toshiba x300 FWIW).

The LSI 9211-8i card I'm using has been purchased from "Art of Server", pre-flashed to IT-mode FW rev 20.00.07.00-IT. So I'm assuming the card itself should be fine, as it is purchased from a reputable dealer.

To rule out any issues caused by the remaining 8 drives being formatted as NTFS like the two first SATA connected drives, I then reformatted all the remaining drives connected to the LSI HBA card by using a USB adapter.

When that didn't help, I tried to disconnect the SAS connectors from the card, so only the card remains without anything else attached, in an attempt to isolate the problem, but this doesn't change anything. Quite the opposite - now I get the Supermicro boot screen twice, and the first time it is shown, I'm getting the BIOS post code B4. It is just flashing briefly, before the boot process continues (or restarts, not sure which it is), and I'm getting a second Supermicro logo boot screen, but now with the A2 error code.

None of those codes appear without the LSI card installed. Everything seems fine without the HBA card installed. I've attempted to install the card into one of the other PCI slots, but getting the same result.

At this point I'm ready to throw money at the problem by purchasing another HBA card, if that will solve my problem, but I assume I may just be missing some small but crucial detail due to some driver or firmware incompatibility? Or some other glaring mistake, as I'm admittedly a total noob at this.

Right now I'm running out of ideas, so any help and advice would be most appreciated - advance thanks!

 

[JohnDigital]

Everything boots fine and runs without the HBA? You might try to reflash the HBA. Alternatively I think your right, try a different HBA. I might have a few of these if you need one. PM me if interested. I might have lots of things you could use as I run very similar rigs as you. LMK

See if you can reproduce the issue with a few more of the Toshiba disks connected temporarily to the other SATA ports. When using disks for the first time in TN I also like to boot up a linux parted magic usb distro and mark the disks as "new", without it in front of me I cant remember the exact steps. This seems to get rid of any gremlins that cause this sort of black screens and hangs at boot etc..

Also out of curiosity is there a 3rd party video card in this machine?

 

[mbrakes]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply @John Digital, and apologies for my own late reply as other things demanded my attention.

Yes, everything boots fine without the HBA.

So that makes me assume that the mobo, ram etc. are in the clear, and that the issues have to do with the HBA, or some other incompatibility issues between the card and other hardware, drivers, bios, fw, or similar.

I already put another HBA card on order, as I live in a remote corner of the world with very long delivery times. So even with express delivery I'll have to wait for a few more days for it to arrive.

I've also found a couple more things on the forums to try out while searching for the new HBA card. I hope I will find some time tomorrow to try those things out.

Could you please give me a pointer or links regarding the "linux parted magic usb distro" you mentioned above? I'd like to give this a try as well, if you could please share some more info - advance thanks!

 

[mbrakes]

I finally had a bit more time to troubleshoot today, and think I solved the problem, so I'll follow up with my progress, just in case it can help someone else struggling with the same issue in the future:

I found a forum post indicating that not all the PCI slots on this mobo are created equal:

In short: the closest PCIe slot to the CPU is special and may not work with some -or any!- SAS/SATA Controllers for reasons not to do with the controllers.

I moved the HBA card from the topmost slot (slot 7) nearest the CPU to the second down (slot 6), and progressed to unplug both the SATA disks not connected through the HBA, so that just the boot SSD disk connected through SATA as well as the HBA card through slot 6 PCIe was connected - and the HBA card was connected w/o any SAS/SATA cables attached. Boot went seemingly fine. I then attached disks through the SAS/SATA cables to the HBA card, but still with just the boot SSD disk connected through SATA. Boot still went fine, and I can now access the web admin interface and proceed with my NAS setup. Whohoooo!

While troubleshooting and scouring the forums for info I seem to remember finding a post indicating that mixing drives through SATA and HBA interfaces is not recommended, but I forgot to bookmark it. But I think I'll just remove the two spinning drives I initially planned to add through SATA, as it seems like it is introducing more trouble and added risk than it is worth.

 

[Ericloewe]

Any idea what may be going on with the board? Is that one of the somewhat-dubious boards that do less-than-kosher sharing of the SMBus?

 

[mbrakes]

Any idea what may be going on with the board. Is that one of the somewhat-dubious boards that do less-than-kosher sharing of the SMBus?

Thanks @Ericloewe, this is above my paygrade, but I found this blog post highlighting some issues with this mobo, so you may be on to something:

Supermicro X9SCM-F Issues

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I can make it work for my intended purposes now - mainly reliable bit-rot-proof fast, shared storage. I plan to add a 10gbe NIC card next, so hopefully the issues of the built-in NIC on the mobo will not affect me (crossing fingers).

 

[Jailer]

While troubleshooting and scouring the forums for info I seem to remember finding a post indicating that mixing drives through SATA and HBA interfaces is not recommended,

That should work just fine as long as the HBA is flashed with the correct IT firmware.

 

[mbrakes]

Thanks a lot @Jailer ! Could you please elaborate what you mean with "the correct IT firmware"? Are you simply referring to IT mode (which my card is already flashed with), or something else?

If mixing drives through HBA and SATA interfaces is indeed kosher, then I'd really like to max out my chassis, so I made another attempt at the SATA drives. I've been suspecting that my repurposed drives are the reason behind the A2 error code, and that simply reformatting as exFAT might not be enough (even though it was enough for the HBA-attached drives).

After successfully connecting the HBA-attached drives, I proceeded to set them up in a raid-z2 vdev, then swapped one of those drives for one of the exFAT-formatted SATA drives, and voilá - the NAS booted up without the dreaded A2 error code

I'll do the same with the second SATA-drive, and hopefully be able to set up all ten disks in a raid-z2 vdev.

 

[Ericloewe]

Are you simply referring to IT mode (which my card is already flashed with), or something else?

Specifically, you need the latest version, which is something like P20.0.00.7. Or something like that, I can never get the zeros right.

 

[mbrakes]

Specifically, you need the latest version, which is something like P20.0.00.7. Or something like that, I can never get the zeros right.

Thanks a lot @Ericloewe , that looks right, off the top of my head I have the "P20-lots-of-zeroes-ending-with-7"-version, so I should be OK then