Heh. Welcome to trailblazing. Seems very odd that the 3008 won't drive an expander at all. Plain old $100 M1015 will run that expander fine. No point going nuts. I'd do some homework on the 3008 as well, but would expect supermicro to be correct. Kinda weird, but perhaps there is a different backplane or expander that is coming in the future? Interesting as I'm not sure where they expect you to use that board... maybe a TQ chassis?
-
Important Announcement for the TrueNAS Community.
The TrueNAS Community has now been moved. This forum has become READ-ONLY for historical purposes. Please feel free to join us on the new TrueNAS Community Forums
BUILD Building a server for FreeNas primary for Plex
- Thread starter AltecBX
- Start date
- Status
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
I called LSI north America. They won't talk to me since the chip is on the motherboard. They told me to contact SuperMicro.
I looked at the specification of the chip and it says it has a 8 port count but it supports up to 1000 devices, which means it should work with multiple daisy-chain backplanes, NO?
I looked at the specification of the chip and it says it has a 8 port count but it supports up to 1000 devices, which means it should work with multiple daisy-chain backplanes, NO?
Normally I'd say "yes". But that's a question for Supermicro. When you buy on-board you often buy into limitations and other problems.
It doesn't make sense to me that it can't drive a backplane at all. But there may well be sas3 / sas2 issues and 12Gbs issues that I haven't run into yet. I know I saw them announce a sas3 backplane/case combo but haven't had a chance to dig into it. I would have assumed we'd see backwards compatibility as sas has alwasy been good that way. It may crossflash nicely as well. But it's pretty cutting edge.
So either the tech was wrong. There is a different backplane/chassis available it will drive. Possibly there is something coming in the future that will work. I haven't had a chance to play with that gear yet... so it's spec sheets and speculation for me. I wouldn't hesitate to plug it in and see what's up. That cable exists for a reason.
So either the tech was wrong. There is a different backplane/chassis available it will drive. Possibly there is something coming in the future that will work. I haven't had a chance to play with that gear yet... so it's spec sheets and speculation for me. I wouldn't hesitate to plug it in and see what's up. That cable exists for a reason.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2014
- Messages
- 1,111
Straight from Supermicro manual:
Populating these DIMM modules with a pair of memory modules of the same
type and same size will result in interleaved memory, which will improve memory
performance. When installing memory modules, the DIMM slots should be populated in the following
order: DIMMA1, DIMMB1, DIMMC1, DIMMD1 then DIMMA2, DIMMB2, DIMMC2,
DIMMD2.
The instructions from the manual are inline with all the other builds I've done; where you populate all the blue (sub whatever color) dimm slots first.
The supermicro tech gave you instructions that are in direct conflict with their own published manual.
Last edited:
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
That's what I thought too from my experience with desktop PC. Nothing in this manual to say any of this (http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/C612/MNL-1577.pdf).Straight from Supermicro manual:
Populating these DIMM modules with a pair of memory modules of the same
type and same size will result in interleaved memory, which will improve memory
performance. When installing memory modules, the DIMM slots should be populated in the following
order: DIMMA1, DIMMB1, DIMMC1, DIMMD1 then DIMMA2, DIMMB2, DIMMC2,
DIMMD2.
The instructions from the manual are inline with all the other builds I've done; where you populate all the blue (sub whatever color) dimm slots first.
The supermicro tech gave you instructions that are in direct conflict with their own published manual.
That's why I called them to confirm. They told the only way to do Memory Interleaving is to put them in A1, A2, B1, and B2. Anywhere in the BIOS we can confirm this?
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
I did talk to Supermicro and they said "no".
That's what I thought too, so I went ahead and ordered the cable. It cost me $20. If it works then great, if not then it wasn't a big lost.
But if it does work, you think this will be a reliable setup for ZFS long-term?
Can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be reliable. It's top shelf gear. The only gotchas are dealing with the little things that don't have a huge user experience base. Part of it is the combination with that chassis. Also no big deal to throw an hba in it.
It won't be long and we'll have lots more data points. Hopefully you enjoy the experience of leading the pack. Cause if this isn't fun it will be a rough ride. I'm crazy enough to love it ;)
It won't be long and we'll have lots more data points. Hopefully you enjoy the experience of leading the pack. Cause if this isn't fun it will be a rough ride. I'm crazy enough to love it ;)
depasseg
FreeNAS Replicant
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2014
- Messages
- 2,874
I have the same motherboard coming in a supermicro chassis later this week. I'll let you know how the motherboard is connected to the backplane. And how the memory is installed. http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/5028/SSG-5028R-E1CR12L.cfm
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
You were right all along mjws00. He clearly said it wouldn't work period. I guess that proved him wrong. I won't get 12Gbs speed, but that's OK. My upgrade path will only grow from here.
I guess the LSI 3008 can handle up to the 1000 drives it mentioned on the LSI website. I clearly have 10 drives connected without a problem.
Yep that's' what I'm going to do over the weekend. Waiting to put 9.3 when it comes out on Monday. Can you point me to the link on those process. :)
Thanks
I got it here. http://download.freenas.org/nightlies/FreeNAS-9.3-BETA/201412060221/
I wouldn't rush to it if I were you. But it won't hurt while testing and playing.
I wouldn't rush to it if I were you. But it won't hurt while testing and playing.
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
I meant to burn in the hard drives. I want to stress test them over the weekend and play with FreeNAS until 9.3 comes out Monday. I will then go live sometime next week and start moving all data.
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-hard-drive-burn-in-testing.21451/ will get you more than enough burn-in to last till Monday. Don't forget to dedicate at least an overnight to Memtest86 if you haven't already.
That's interesting.
Supermicro sells some SuperStorage servers with LSI 3008 controllers and Expander Backplanes for up to 36 drives in 4U. Probably they meant that you should use a SAS 12Gbps expander backplane instead of the 6Gbps ones for the 3008 controller.
Examples:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/5028/SSG-5028R-E1CR12L.cfm and
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/5048/SSG-5048R-E1CR36L.cfm
Supermicro sells some SuperStorage servers with LSI 3008 controllers and Expander Backplanes for up to 36 drives in 4U. Probably they meant that you should use a SAS 12Gbps expander backplane instead of the 6Gbps ones for the 3008 controller.
Examples:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/5028/SSG-5028R-E1CR12L.cfm and
http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/4U/5048/SSG-5048R-E1CR36L.cfm
AltecBX
Patron
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2014
- Messages
- 285
Thanks DKarnov.
Not at all the case. He told the LSI 3008 wouldn't drive a Backplane PERIOD. He told me the LSI 3008 would support SAS up to 12Gbs but only using the cables that split out up to 8 drives (4 per channel). He told be that I have to get a separate SAS2 PCI-E controller if I wanted to drive my backplane with my current motherboard.
- Status
