Help with E3C224D4I-14S board (sas to sata) not recognizing hdds

[ctpfaff]

Hi

I have the follloging hardware setup:

* Case: Lian Li PC-Q26b
* Backplanes: 5 x Lian Li BP2Sata (One is preinstalled in the case)
* PSU: Seasonic G-550w (PCHG Edition: Redesigned and more silence)
* Board: E3C224D4I-14S
* CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 v3
* Cooler: EKL Alpenföhn Brocken Eco (bxhxt: 126x150x88)
* RAM: Crucial 32GB DDR3 (4x8GB) 1600 ECC UDIMM 240 pin
* HDD: 10 x 6 TB WD Red WD60EFRX
* Drive for OS: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 8GB (WIth latest Freenas, 9.10.2)
* Connectors: (2 x sata directly attached to the sata ports on board, 2 x mini sas2sata delock for the other 8 drives 4 on each port)

The problem is that all the drives which are connected via the mini-sas to sata cables are not shown in the bios and also
freenas cannot see them.

I was doing some search on the internet. First I updated the motherboard firmware to the latest version I found on the asrock download page (bios: 3.20, and bmc: 00.16.00). That did not help. I also checked if I plugged the cables into right ports on the motherboard. I am using port #15 (sas_4_7) and #21 (sas_0_3) with my delock cables which seems to be correct according to the mother board manual.
Finally I flashed the controller to IT mode (latest version PH20.00.07.00-IT from here: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/) following the the instructions here: (https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...g-asrock-e3c224d4i-14s-to-p16-lsi-2308.36890/). The update worked but it still does not detect the harddrives.

Nothing did help so far. Any help solving this is highly appreciated.

 

[Ericloewe]

Are you using the correct cable? You need forward breakout cables, not reverse breakout cables - they are not compatible.

 

[ctpfaff]

He

Thanks. Meanwhile I was asking myself the exact same question. I am using the breakout cables which ship with the motherboard. Could they be wrong? Maybe. I cannot tell from the cable itself if it is wrong or not (https://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/item/13/157/13-157-486/box.jpg). I just ordered some new cables from amazon to test it (https://www.amazon.de/Delock-mini-SAS-Kabel-36-polig-SATA/dp/B001HC4NDA)

 

[Ericloewe]

The board ships with SAS cables? That's very weird.

 

[Jailer]

The board ships with SAS cables? That's very weird.

According to the product description at newegg it does.

 

[Jailer]

Are you sure the controller is enabled? Is there a jumper setting to enable it or a setting in the BIOS to enable it?

 

[ctpfaff]

Well. The controller is switched on I guess. There is also an option in bios to boot from sas which is enabled. If it would be off I think I would not be able to start it's configuration utility with ctr+c during boot which works fine. There I can see the controller brand, firmware version, the sas topology and many other things. The topology overview there which should actually list all the drives tells me there is no drives. So I guess it is either the cables wrong or a part of the controller is damaged.

 

[ctpfaff]

Update:

I also tried now what has been suggested here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/42hv7e/supermicro_x10sl7f_not_seeing_my_new_6tb_disk/

Does not help either.

 

[ctpfaff]

Are you using the correct cable? You need forward breakout cables, not reverse breakout cables - they are not compatible.

Well it turned out you were right. I just put in the new cables I ordered and everything works as expected. Thank you. Maybe somebody just grabbed the wrong cables while packing my board. I am actually not surprised that this happens as one cannot distinguish reverse and forward cables easily.

 

[Stux]

Pretty NAS.

I investigated building exactly this NAS last year.

Be aware that the backplanes are not hotswap backplanes... unless they're now including the required capacitors on the boards. They didn't used to, but some pictures seem to indicate they might now.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well it turned out you were right. I just put in the new cables I ordered and everything works as expected. Thank you. Maybe somebody just grabbed the wrong cables while packing my board. I am actually not surprised that this happens as one cannot distinguish reverse and forward cables easily.

Wow, that is terrible QA by ASRock. Glad it's working now!

 

[Ericloewe]

Be aware that the backplanes are not hotswap backplanes... unless they're now including the required capacitors on the boards. They didn't used to, but some pictures seem to indicate they might now.

OP, if you post some pictures of the backplanes, we ca advise you with regard to this important detail.

 

[ctpfaff]

Cool. That would be great. I will post pics this evening.

 

[ctpfaff]

He. Here the pics from the backplane.



Thanks.

 

[Ericloewe]

The connectors are fine, but it seems to be missing the SMD caps on that side. Probably missing the electrolytics on the other side, too.

 

[ctpfaff]

OK. Thanks.

 

[Stux]

He. Here the pics from the backplane.



Thanks.

He. Here the pics from the backplane.



Thanks.

Need pictures of the other side :)

 

[ctpfaff]

Oh. I see. Well then I will post the back side as well soon.

 

[ctpfaff]

He

Here is the backside now. Thanks.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yup, the capacitors are missing. It's best not to use it for hot-swapping.