Help! LSI 9201-16e: SATA disks not found

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esamett

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My NAS was running hot so I decided to move disks to another case. I got 4 (ordered 1) LSI SAS 9201-16e:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191710488126
One was DOA - Bios not found. I upgraded the other three from FW version 9.00 to 20.00.04.00 including the NVDATA 14.01.00.07 using DOS technique. The boards post normally AFAIK. I bought a lot of 6 SATA SFF-8088 fan cables:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/231713630606

It is my understanding that the LSI 9201 is compatible with SATA drives. My problem is that NONE of my SATA disks are found by the controller. I have tried two computers (my NAS and the old box I flashed the controllers with) all six cables and a total of 23 drives. I don't have a SAS drive or a different make of cable to test. I inserted the cables until they clicked as best as I could.

I am clearly doing something wrong or have bad hardware (defective cables x 6, bad adapters or bios x3.) Please help and advise!
 

esamett

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'are these "reverse breakout" cables?:

New lot of 6

New never used

SFF-8088 interface is mainly used on the MINI SAS 4X array card, MINI SAS cable for external use.
This section adapter cable supports 6Gbps x 4Lane four channels of data transmission, the transmission rate up to 12Gbps.
It is a substitute SCSI smaller, more flexible design of the serial connection system. SAS connector allows direct connection to the backplane device or via cable.
Specification:
Material:Plastic and Copper
Color:Black and Blue
Size:100 x 0.8cm/39.37 x 0.31"(L x Dia)
Weight:102g
Note:The line for the counter connection, SATA headers cannot receive the hard drive,should be plugged into the motherboard SATA port.

Package Include:
1 x 1M SAS 26 pin to SATA 7P Splitter Adapter Cable​
 

esamett

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Ericloewe

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Code:
+--------------------+          +--------------------+                               +--------------------+          +--------------------+
|                    |          |       SATA         |-------------+                 |                    |----------|      Drive         |
|   SAS controller   |          |       SATA         |-------------+                 |                    |----------|      Drive         |
|                    |XXXXXXXXXX|       SATA         |-------------+RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR|     SFF-8087       |----------|      Drive         |
+--------------------+          |       SATA         |-------------+                 |                    |----------|      Drive         |
                                +--------------------+                               +--------------------+          +--------------------+
                              
                              
                                R is a reverse breakout cable (4x SATA to SFF-8087)
                              
+--------------------+          +--------------------+                               +--------------------+          +--------------------+
|                    |          |                    |             +-----------------|       SATA         |----------|      Drive         |
|   SAS controller   |          |     SFF-8087       |             +-----------------|       SATA         |----------|      Drive         |
|                    |XXXXXXXXXX|                    |FFFFFFFFFFFFF+-----------------|       SATA         |----------|      Drive         |
+--------------------+          |                    |             +-----------------|       SATA         |----------|      Drive         |
                                +--------------------+                               +--------------------+          +--------------------+
                              
                                F is a forward breakout cable (SFF-8087 to 4x SATA)


ASCII art to the rescue!
 
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esamett

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Thank you for reply. Is there a way for a bear of little brain to distinguish between these two types of cable?
 

Ericloewe

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Thank you for reply. Is there a way for a bear of little brain to distinguish between these two types of cable?
From the outside and at a glance? Nope.

They need to be labeled. Otherwise, you're down to random guessing.
 

esamett

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Thank you Eric. Amazon cable finds drive.

Can anybody use four slightly used reverse breakout Sara 8088 cables?
 

Ericloewe

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I must have a bad case of Mondays!

I can follow the logic for a forward cable (at the bottom of the picture), but I have no idea what to make out of the top picture...
Well, the XXXXXXXXs represent whatever sits between the SAS controller and the ports themselves. For the reverse breakout cable, the SAS controller exposes its ports as four individual SATA ports (forget sideband management stuff for now). The reverse breakout cable then aggregates the four SATA ports into one SFF-8087 connector, from where the individual links are separated again and presented to the individual drives.
 

solarisguy

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Well, the XXXXXXXXs represent whatever sits between the SAS controller and the ports themselves. For the reverse breakout cable, the SAS controller exposes its ports as four individual SATA ports (forget sideband management stuff for now). The reverse breakout cable then aggregates the four SATA ports into one SFF-8087 connector, from where the individual links are separated again and presented to the individual drives.
Thank you!

It is all so magical. What would be a practical application of such scenario?

P.S. If it were not for the cabling inside my home PCs, I would believe that computer systems have only external cables :D
 

Ericloewe

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What would be a practical application of such scenario?
You have an LSI HBA on a PCI-e card and want to connect individual drives directly.
Or *cringe* you have one of those rackmount backplanes that expose individual SATA connectors.
 

mattbbpl

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You have an LSI HBA on a PCI-e card and want to connect individual drives directly.
Or *cringe* you have one of those rackmount backplanes that expose individual SATA connectors.
Hey now! That hits too close to home!

:*-(
(Sniff)
 

Ericloewe

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pclausen

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You mean like this?

846finally-1.jpg


That was from way back in the day running an Areca raid6 controller in my pre FreeNAS days.
 

Ericloewe

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Wow, individual SATA ports on both host and device side. What a mess...
 

Bidule0hm

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But the cable management is far from being bad... :D
 
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