BUILD Hardware selection - 1st FreeNAS build

[pclausen]

Here's the $299 4k monitor:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8430969&csid=_61

Article from back when it was over $400 and still considdered a bargain.

http://techreport.com/blog/25929/you-can-snag-a-39-4k-display-for-404

 

[DataKeeper]

Thanks for the screen suggestions guys. The Seiki is a bit large as I actually had 3 screens.. Two of the 24" Dells and a 46" LED Samsung up on the wall. The Dells were used 99% of the time and the Samsung TV mainly for movie or TV viewing or some game play. However those U2515H @marbus90 mentioned look nice. :) I'll definitely take another look at those soon. This single screen is crap! I remember having 4 24" screens 2x2 at my office desk with another 2 beside me and it was bliss! As @Ericloewe stated you can't have enough. Oh and yes.. I'll likely swap out screens and control module from one to the other after I get a couple new ones.

Now.. I screwed up the FreeNAS box. I did an update yesterday and when booting it attempted to boot from a USB cruzer disk I had in for data instead of the Sata DOMs. Went into the BIOS and the BOOT option of "Hard Disk: Sata Drive" is no longer available and the Hard Disk choice is only one of the 4TB drives. I've reset the BIOS to factory defaults and still no luck. I made NO BIOS changes, the system had rebooted a few times properly and I know the FreeNAS update didn't do it.

Short of attempting to reload new firmware anyone have any suggestions or comment?

Here are the BIOS options now without any Sata choices..

 

[DataKeeper]

How about two of these? ;) I think the wife would smack me up side the head and then do it again for the second one lol!
Two Dell U3415W 32" Ultrasharp Curved each with a rez of 3440x1440. A Drool Worthy desktop setup for sure!

 

[Ericloewe]

First, start by disabling all those options you'll never use.

Then, chose hard drive in that menu. Finally, go to the hard drive priorities, where you can set the priorities inside the hard drive class. You should also disable the data drives there to reduce clutter.

 

[DataKeeper]

Yes.. originally I had removed everything but the "Hard Disk: Sata" choice.. which is no longer found.

OK so under the BOOT tab I went down the Fixed Boot Order Priorities and disabled everything.
Under Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities disabled everything as they were all the 4TB drives.. Legacy Boot Order #1-#16.
Under Network Drive BBS Priorities I disabled everything as well.
UEFI Application Boot Priorities I disabled the shell as well. Easy enough to hit F11 during boot if needed.

So.. back under the BOOT tab looking under Fixed Boot Order Priorities everything is disabled. Left this way a reboot simply reboots displays the initial Supermicro screen followed by the LSI/HBA screen then the initial screen again then it drops me back into the BIOS.

If I set Dual Boot Order #1 to "Hard Drive" it does the same since no drives are bootable. Again.. the BIOS is not giving me any choice to boot from Sata as it originally had.

Its weird as I've never seen a bios option disappear like this before.

 

[DataKeeper]

Here.. a short movie via iKVM Viewer recorded as a small .avi. Also a mp4 is available showing the bios options I have.
https://archive.org/download/biosnosata

 

[marbus90]

I'd rather do 3x 2560px as it would have 800px more horizontally. also you'll get 6x1280px slots if you snap windows to the edges instead of 4x 1720px.

 

[DataKeeper]

Ok so.. that was messed up.. Logged into IPMI, shutdown the system, under the Miscellaneous tab hit BIOS Resilience and hit Resile. Once done it rebooted and went into the BIOS to find that "Hard Disk: Sata SSD" had returned.. However! I also hit a Recovery tab which stated "Rom Image update denied - EFI_NOT_FOUND! ROM Image is not loaded." and system would halt on reboot with said message.

I did a quick Maintenance > Firmware Update with the latest SMT_X10_189.bin, waited for it to load, reboot and everything is fixed.

Shrug..

 

[pclausen]

Glad you got it fixed! That was indeed strange. I've never had a boot option disappear like that from the BIOS either. I'm still booting of USB on the exact same motherboard. So now I know what to do if I run into this issue in the future. :)

 

[DataKeeper]

OK so 17 new 4TB hard drives I've found only ONE bad drive so far. I've run a short, long and conveyance test on all drives and they passed. Last week I ran badblocks on the first 12 without any errors. Started a badblock test last night on /dev/da12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 and /dev/da12 is showing 458 errors from the cdl after 12 hours. Looking at smartctl I see 806 for Raw_Read_Error_Rate

Have an advanced replacement from Amazon coming now. Badblocks continues to run and hopefully over the next 60 hours no more errors pop up.

[root@FileServ] ~# smartctl -x /dev/da12
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p13 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Red
Device Model: WDC WD40Exxxxxxxxxx
Serial Number: WD-WCC4Exxxxxxx
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 20b2f8c09
Firmware Version: 82.00A82
User Capacity: 4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate: 5400 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Mon May 4 18:45:21 2015 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is: Unavailable
APM feature is: Unavailable
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is: Enabled
ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]
Wt Cache Reorder: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (52560) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 526) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x703d) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 193 192 051 - 806
3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 100 253 021 - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 5
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 200 200 140 - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate -OSR-K 100 253 000 - 0
9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 86
10 Spin_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 5
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 3
193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 72
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 126 121 000 - 26
196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 200 200 000 - 133
198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 253 000 - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate ---R-- 200 200 000 - 0
||||||_ K auto-keep
|||||__ C event count
||||___ R error rate
|||____ S speed/performance
||_____ O updated online
|______ P prefailure warning

General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
Address Access R/W Size Description
0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory
0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log
0x02 SL R/O 5 Comprehensive SMART error log
0x03 GPL R/O 6 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log
0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log
0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log
0x10 GPL R/O 1 NCQ Command Error log
0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters
0x21 GPL R/O 1 Write stream error log
0x22 GPL R/O 1 Read stream error log
0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log
0xa0-0xa7 GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log
0xa8-0xb7 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xbd GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xc0 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
0xc1 GPL VS 93 Device vendor specific log
0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status
0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer

SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (6 sectors)
Device Error Count: 461 (device log contains only the most recent 24 errors)
CR = Command Register
FEATR = Features Register
COUNT = Count (was: Sector Count) Register
LBA_48 = Upper bytes of LBA High/Mid/Low Registers ] ATA-8
LH = LBA High (was: Cylinder High) Register ] LBA
LM = LBA Mid (was: Cylinder Low) Register ] Register
LL = LBA Low (was: Sector Number) Register ]
DV = Device (was: Device/Head) Register
DC = Device Control Register
ER = Error register
ST = Status register
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 461 [4] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 83 hours (3 days + 11 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 60 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x679f0660 = 1738475104

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 60 40 00 2d+13:38:21.069 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 5e 40 00 2d+13:38:21.069 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 5c 40 00 2d+13:38:21.069 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 5a 40 00 2d+13:38:21.069 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 9f 06 58 40 00 2d+13:38:21.069 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 460 [3] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 18 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x676b7718 = 1735096088

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 18 40 00 2d+13:35:59.568 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 16 40 00 2d+13:35:59.568 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 14 40 00 2d+13:35:59.568 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 12 40 00 2d+13:35:59.568 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6b 77 10 40 00 2d+13:35:59.568 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 459 [2] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 60 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x676a5060 = 1735020640

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 60 40 00 2d+13:35:33.740 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 5e 40 00 2d+13:35:33.739 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 5c 40 00 2d+13:35:33.739 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 5a 40 00 2d+13:35:33.739 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 6a 50 58 40 00 2d+13:35:33.739 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 458 [1] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d4 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x6767f5d4 = 1734866388

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d4 40 00 2d+13:34:46.941 READ FPDMA QUEUED
2f 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 10 40 00 2d+13:34:46.937 READ LOG EXT
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d2 40 00 2d+13:34:43.533 READ FPDMA QUEUED
2f 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 10 40 00 2d+13:34:43.529 READ LOG EXT
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d0 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 457 [0] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d2 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x6767f5d2 = 1734866386

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d2 40 00 2d+13:34:43.533 READ FPDMA QUEUED
2f 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 10 40 00 2d+13:34:43.529 READ LOG EXT
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d0 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 ce 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 cc 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 456 [23] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d0 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x6767f5d0 = 1734866384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 d0 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 ce 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 cc 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 ca 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 f5 c8 40 00 2d+13:34:40.293 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 455 [22] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 2a 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x67675b2a = 1734826794

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 2a 40 00 2d+13:34:25.807 READ FPDMA QUEUED
2f 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 10 40 00 2d+13:34:25.803 READ LOG EXT
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 28 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 26 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 24 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 454 [21] occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 82 hours (3 days + 10 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER -- ST COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC
-- -- -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- --
40 -- 51 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 28 40 00 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x67675b28 = 1734826792

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FEATR COUNT LBA_48 LH LM LL DV DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- == -- == -- == == == -- -- -- -- -- --------------- --------------------
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 28 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 26 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 24 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 22 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 02 00 00 00 00 67 67 5b 20 40 00 2d+13:34:22.499 READ FPDMA QUEUED

SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 36 -
# 2 Extended offline Interrupted (host reset) 90% 11 -
# 3 Conveyance offline Completed without error 00% 11 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 10 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

SCT Status Version: 3
SCT Version (vendor specific): 258 (0x0102)
SCT Support Level: 1
Device State: Active (0)
Current Temperature: 26 Celsius
Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 20/29 Celsius
Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 18/29 Celsius
Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0

SCT Temperature History Version: 2
Temperature Sampling Period: 1 minute
Temperature Logging Interval: 1 minute
Min/Max recommended Temperature: 0/60 Celsius
Min/Max Temperature Limit: -41/85 Celsius
Temperature History Size (Index): 478 (398)

Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
399 2015-05-04 10:48 29 **********
... ..(245 skipped). .. **********
167 2015-05-04 14:54 29 **********
168 2015-05-04 14:55 28 *********
... ..(155 skipped). .. *********
324 2015-05-04 17:31 28 *********
325 2015-05-04 17:32 27 ********
... ..( 8 skipped). .. ********
334 2015-05-04 17:41 27 ********
335 2015-05-04 17:42 26 *******
... ..( 62 skipped). .. *******
398 2015-05-04 18:45 26 *******

SCT Error Recovery Control:
Read: 70 (7.0 seconds)
Write: 70 (7.0 seconds)

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04) not supported

SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
ID Size Value Description
0x0001 2 0 Command failed due to ICRC error
0x0002 2 0 R_ERR response for data FIS
0x0003 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
0x0004 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
0x0005 2 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS
0x0006 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
0x0007 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
0x0008 2 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
0x0009 2 2 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
0x000a 2 3 Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET
0x000b 2 0 CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
0x000f 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC
0x0012 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC
0x8000 4 235534 Vendor specific

 

[DataKeeper]

Come on! :(

So the damn bios boot option for Hard Disk: Sata SSD continues to disappear on me. Contacted Supermicro support who requested I update the bios to the latest 1.0b. So I do this and with a fresh bios installed the boot option is still missing. I shut the system down, unplugged it completely for a few minutes, started it and flashed the bios again. When finished, as instructed, I shut the system down. On restart I now get the following message "PEI -- System Enter Recovery Mode... 4F" and the system halts completely! Anyone have any info on this PEI message?

I'm able to access the IPMI interface but that's it at this point. I've emailed Supermicro back and hopefully heard back from them tomorrow.

If not I may contact Newegg and RMA a replacement as I'm not feeling comfortable with this board now at all.

 

[pclausen]

Sorry to hear you are still having this issue. I have the same board. Mine came with BIOS 1.0b already installed. Hopefully you will get it sorted out! I would not be comfortable with that board either right now.

 

[DataKeeper]

Yeah it sucks but well if its gonna happen.. it'll happen to me

Anyways.. I'm just doing a Dual Boot Block via the IPMI GUI Browser to see if I can restore the bios through the secondary boot block. Very cool feature if it works which it looks like it is.

 

[TXAG26]

The OOB bios update through the IPMI webpage is pretty slick. I just picked up a couple more of the OOB activation codes from CDW for around $20 each. Bios updates now literally take about 5 minutes, compared to how they previously had to be done. Those $20 licenses are the best money I've spent in a long time.

 

[DataKeeper]

@TXAG26 is that where you need to enter the Node Product Key under the Maintenance tab > BIOS Update? I was going to ask Supermicro about those but they suggested I try the Dual Boot Block feature before I could ask.


Ok so its one of those Good/Bad scenarios..

The Good: The Dual Boot Block restore worked and I've got access back to the system bios! :)
The Bad: I still have NO boot option for the Sata DOMs! :(

I see under the Boot tab an option to Add New Boot Option. This lets me Enter a name however it requires a path to the boot option.. ie a driver with .efi suffix. I've not figured out where to get this yet and Supermicro email support is 24/36 hours reply times. Hopefully by the weekend I can have this resolved.

Off Chance: Anyone here have any ideas on this filename.efi driver I need? Couldn't locate anything on the SM ftp site.



btw.. the Dual Boot Block feature is awesome! Appendix D in the X10SRL manual.
In brief:

1. Create a FAT32 FS on a USB Flash Drive
2. Rename the latest bios file (X10SRL5.417 in my case) to Super.ROM
3. Copy Super.ROM to the root of the USB Flash Drive
4. In IPMI click Miscellaneous tab > BIOS Resilience then click Resile button
   
5. This activates the Secondary Boot Block and shuts down the system
6. Click Remote Control tab > Console Redirection then click Launch Console. This opens the iKVM Browser
   
7. Click Virtual Media at top then Virtual Storage to open the Virtual Media Loader
   
8. Click Device1 at top then in the Logical Drive Type drop menu select the USB Flash Drive with Super.ROM on it
9. Click Plug In and then OK.
10. Back in the IPMI window click Remote Control tab > Power Control and click Power On Server followed by the Perform Action button.
11. The system should boot up and if the Super.ROM file is found system will POST and enter BIOS under the Recovery tab where you need to select "Proceed with flash update" and hit Enter.
12. BIOS recovery flash starts and programs the boot blocks and the main block.
13. If all went well it'll display a message saying the flash process completed and to hit Enter to finish where system will power cycle, deactivate the Dual Boot Block feature and post into a normal BIOS.

 

[TXAG26]

Yes, that is correct, the Node Product Key is the OOB (out of band) license (same thing).

Have you seen the weird bios note (at least on the X10SRH-CLN4F page)? This tells me folks have had some issues crop up flashing it the traditional way, so I'll gladly use the OOB feature for the next update.

Speaking of booting the SATA DOMs, it was my understanding these were wired in just like regular SATA ports. Do they not show up under the SATA port section in the bios? I'll look at my X10SRH-CLN4F bios more closely this evening, but it seemed to have all kinds of boot options in the boot tab. I know when I hit F11 during the splash screen to select boot device, it showed both of the 32GB & 64GB USB 3.0 flash drives that I had plugged in and also had Legacy and UEFI modes for each flash drive.

Have you tried manually clearing the bios with the jumper on the motherboard? I think these newer boards still have a jumper that manually clears it. Supermicro in the past has recommended manually clearing all of the bios settings whenever it is flashed. I'm not sure if that is still necessary with this new generation of motherboard though.

 

[DataKeeper]

Yes ok thanks for clearing that up figured that's what it was.

No such message listed for the X10SRL however I did use Win7 Ultimate with Rufus to create a FreeDOS FS on a Cruzer Fit flash drive for the initial attempts.. The second where it blew away the bios. Aside note there was no README, though it was stated, in the X10SRL 1.0b bios download.

Yes they are supposed to and yes they do both show up under the Sata section. I've even changed the assignment from hard disk to Sata SSD. Left the Spin Up option disabled but have set that to enabled to try without any change. You are also correct in that there are TONs of options under the Boot tab and "Hard Disk: Sata SSD" was originally there but has vanished. Every other boot option still remains.

Under Save & Exit tab there in the onetime override boot option which gives two options both "P4: Sata SSD" & "P5: Sata SSD". These are also available during post and hitting F11 for the boot menu. While ok for testing it does me no good and is not a boot option for when it's operational.

No but the jumper route was a thought however reading up on the Dual Block Block option which restored the bios it said this pretty much did that. For many with remote systems in data centers the jumper isn't an option and this got around that. Still, at this point I'll give it a try as it can't hurt to try.

 

[DataKeeper]

Yep. below 2 monitors I can't work. had 3 for a brief period of time - that was glorious... 5120x1200px in screen estate :)

I'm going to order a few U2515H soon. 25" 2560x1440, DP output, LED, IPS and ~300EUR each. Waiting for the bonus check. :p

Well I ordered 2 of these last Monday (along with a A1SRI-2758F board, 16GB ram and an Intel s3500 SSD - *which just died* for a pfSense system) and let me say they are very nice! :D Made me realize just how tired my old 2407 LCDs really were.

The good news is both work and look great! The bad news is my EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC only has a single DP port, a single HDMI port but of course 2 DVI ports, which the new screens don't have. (it never ends)

The HDMI is going to my 46" Samsung TV. I have the DP port going to one of the new screens which then daisy chains over to the second, which unfortunately simply clones them, with the DVI going to the old 2407 in between for now.

So.... instead of simply ordering a new GPU I'm going to replace my main desktop! :D Its a 6 year old Alienware Aurora R1 with a watercooled i7-920 and 24GB RAM. Ohh.. I just added the RAM a few months ago. The wife is now starting to get a tad bit bent out of shape since I told her I'm finally going to build a new desktop as well.. lol

Currently deciding if I want to go with the i7-4790K or step up to the i7-5820K and DDR4. Leaning towards the i7-4790K which would allow me to reuse the current ram to save a bit and likely an EVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 4GB GPU. Plus mainboard, case, fans, new KB/Mouse, etc. Choices.. and the wife at this point lol :D


As for the FreeNAS (FileServ) I'm 57 hours into the badblocks run on the replacement drive and 2 spares. I'll be very happy when this completes! Another 13 hours to go if the time remains consistent with the first 17 drives.

 

[marbus90]

I've ordered a P2416D for now - 23.8" IPS LED DP/HDMI/VGA, no DP output, but at 279EUR shipped that's a nice deal compared to the 320-340 for U2515H shipped from dealers who have them in stock.

If you're fine with a 32GB RAM limit, I'd go for an i5-4590 or 4690. It has 50% more performance overall, singlethreaded even ~80% more thanks to turboboost. GPU-wise I'd be fine with a GTX960 - another 50% gain and supports all displays natively. you could even add a 3rd U2515M and still use the HDMI for TV output.

The Socket 2011 monsters are more for the people who really need 6 cores, 64GB RAM and more than 16 PCIe lanes - with a single GPU, <32GB RAM etc 1150 is the better choice.

With which cables did the U2515M come?

 

[DataKeeper]

It came with power, USB & DP to miniDP. Since there is a DP Out on them as well you can daisy chain one to the next which is what I have now, mainly because I wanted to ensure they both worked. I have no use for cloned screens so the second one remains off now until I order a new system or at least the GPU.

Thanks for the hardware suggestions and I'll look into them.