BUILD Building a server for FreeNas primary for Plex

[Mlovelace]

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.

Was he the same support tech who said to install your memory into A1 A2 B1 B2?

 

[Mlovelace]

Question:
I just installed FreeNAS on my 16GB flash drive. Why I'm I only seeing 9 drives instead of the 10 drives I have connected?

On post did the LSI controller show 10 drives? You might try re-seating the drives, it could be one didn't make a full connection on the backplane

 

[AltecBX]

Was he the same support tech who said to install your memory into A1 A2 B1 B2?

Different call. Different tech.

On post did the LSI controller show 10 drives? You might try re-seating the drives, it could be one didn't make a full connection on the backplane

Yep. On post you can see all 10 drives. I attached the pic a few post back when I connected the cable.

 

[AltecBX]

I just rearranged the drives in the chassis and it still shows 9 drives. I also ran a 8) Reset to Factory defaults. When I saw the command screen I actually saw 11 drives (C:D:E:F:G:H:I:J:K:L:M). I'm guessing 10 HD and 1 Flash Drive? So what gives?

 

[Mlovelace]

I just rearranged the drives in the chassis and it still shows 9 drives. I also ran a 8) Reset to Factory defaults. When I saw the command screen I actually saw 11 drives (C:D:E:F:G:H:I:J:K:L:M). I'm guessing 10 HD and 1 Flash Drive? So what gives?

What's the firmware version for the LSI?

 

[AltecBX]

Here's what I'm talking about:

This is the Bios

These are screenshots of the settings & firmware in the Controller. You can see 10 drives.

This is on post. You can see the controller sees 10 drives connected.

FreeNAS booting up. It sees 11 drives.

Only 9 drives visible in FreeNAS

What the heck can be going on?

 

[Ericloewe]

Last one is the boot device, most likely.

 

[AltecBX]

Last one is the boot device, most likely.

What do you mean?

I have 10 (6TB HD) & 1 (USB Flash drive) for FreeNAS.

 

[Ericloewe]

What do you mean?

I have 10 (6TB HD) & 1 (USB Flash drive) for FreeNAS.

I meant that 11 drives is normal during boot, as no distinction has been made between the various devices (yet).

The last drive missing is weird. At this point, I wouldn't exclude an SAS 3 driver issue. Unfortunately, I do not know what the version of mpr is, so I can't recommend the suitable firmware.

 

[mjws00]

Post the output of 'dmesg' in code tags. You could also hit the debug button and post the file.

If I were troubleshooting I'd isolate the controller and backplane and validate proper function. For me that would be windows, Linux, or bsd. I'd also skip the beta until things were proven. Could be a gui glitch or something in the freenas driver, but could also be expander controller related. The bios showing the drives is great but only step one.

 

[Mlovelace]

Your SAS is in IR mode, shouldn't be a problem, but if there is an IT version from LSI that would be the first thing I'd do. Also, when you create your pool does it have the 10 disks?

 

[AltecBX]

I meant that 11 drives is normal during boot, as no distinction has been made between the various devices (yet).

The last drive missing is weird. At this point, I wouldn't exclude an SAS 3 driver issue. Unfortunately, I do not know what the version of mpr is, so I can't recommend the suitable firmware.

It's weird indeed but prior to going into FreeNAS GUI, I can see all the drives.

Post the output of 'dmesg' in code tags. You could also hit the debug button and post the file.

If I were troubleshooting I'd isolate the controller and backplane and validate proper function. For me that would be windows, Linux, or bsd. I'd also skip the beta until things were proven. Could be a gui glitch or something in the freenas driver, but could also be expander controller related. The bios showing the drives is great but only step one.

Can you please let me know how to do that? I'm using FreeNAS USB Image 9.2.1.9.
I'm going to try to boot off a linux distro from a LIVE USB stick. Im going to see if I can see the drives in those OS.

Your SAS is in IR mode, shouldn't be a problem, but if there is an IT version from LSI that would be the first thing I'd do. Also, when you create your pool does it have the 10 disks?

Is there a way for me to flash it to IT mode?
When I go create the pool with ZFS volume manager it shows 9 disk (43.65TB)

 

[Ericloewe]

Grab the Firmware from LSI's website. The procedure should be similar to the one for SAS2 controllers.

 

[depasseg]

Do you have a USB or other drive attached? I just got mine installed, and I see the drives connected to the 3008 in the LSI BIOS, but then I see my onboard SATA at boot/dmesg. The SAS (expander) drives appear as da0-da11 (I have 12 drives), USB is da12 and SATA appear as ada0-1.

What is the default IPMI user/pass for your MB? I tried admin/admin and it isn't working.

 

[depasseg]

duh - ADMIN/ADMIN works

 

[depasseg]

Grab the Firmware from LSI's website. The procedure should be similar to the one for SAS2 controllers.

I'm trying this:
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/3008/Firmware/

Following the posts here:
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31932.msg296320#msg296320

 

[depasseg]

Success updating the 3008 to IT mode. [edit: after I updated to phase 6 IT, I realized the driver is phase 5, so I downgraded.]


Steps:
0. Find the SAS ID (I found mine on a sticker on the motherboard (starts with SAS: 50003048) - write down the last nine characters.
1. Download the 3008_FW_PH5_070214.zip file and extract the IT folder to a USB drive
1.1 - ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/3008/Firmware/
2. Insert USB drive into server and power on
3. Press F11 to choose boot menu
4. Boot into EFI Shell
5. change to the USB device (type 'fs0: or type 'map' for a listing)
6. cd to IT/UEFI folder
7. run 'SMC3000T'
8. when prompted, enter the 9 characters from step 0. It's a quick timeout, and I finally tried lowercase hex which worked (the first couple attempts failed).

 

[AltecBX]

Thanks depasseg. I'm going to give that a crack now.

 

[AltecBX]

Do you have a USB or other drive attached? I just got mine installed, and I see the drives connected to the 3008 in the LSI BIOS, but then I see my onboard SATA at boot/dmesg. The SAS (expander) drives appear as da0-da11 (I have 12 drives), USB is da12 and SATA appear as ada0-1.

What is the default IPMI user/pass for your MB? I tried admin/admin and it isn't working.

How did you end up installing the memory sticks?
Also, that link to the firmware is down. I'v been trying for the last 20 min and nothing

 

[AltecBX]

Got it. This is the correct link if someone is looking: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/3008/Firmware/
The : was missing after ftp.