SOLVED IBM 46M0997 Problems

[TrevInCarlton]

Brought 2 of these expanders but 1 of them does not work and only does part of the self test. Brought another one which does the same. Tried in several PCIe sockets, same problem. Don't want to buy another until I can be sure that these boards are in fact faulty. Read online that many of these are locked to IBM servers, also about updating firmware but I can't find anything relating to this. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ericloewe]

You mention in another (deleted) post that you're having trouble posting something. What additional information did you want to post?

 

[TrevInCarlton]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I am having a lot of problems, I can't even edit my signature. Even if I just put my Supermicro X1155M I just get an error stating,
The following error occurred:
Your content can not be submitted. This is likely because your content is spam-like or contains inappropriate elements. Please change your content or try again later. If you still have problems, please contact an administrator..
My original post I created was a lot longer ending with my build but I got the same message. I have read the rules and can't see anything wrong with what I have written. I always try to solve my problems but I am stuck on the expander issue so needed to turn to this forum to try to get answers, don't want to waste time with silly questions, sorry.

 

[TrevInCarlton]

The IBM 46M0997 is a widely advertised expander so surly someone out there has some knowledge. It is looking more like these expanders are locked to IBM servers but there must be a way to unlock them if that is the case as I have one that works without problems. If not this one what other expanders are recommended for Freenas ???

 

[Ericloewe]

IBM 46M0997 is a widely advertised expander

Is it? I'd never heard of it. You might have some luck if you can post specs on the thing, like what SAS expander IC it uses.

 

[TrevInCarlton]

I was referring to widely mentioned on many forums which is why I chose it. The only other (cheap) expander I came across was the HP 487738-001 but there seemed to be issues with that card unless the firmware was updated and at the time did not want to go down that route but I may have to get a HP expander after all. As far as the onboard chip, no idea, cant find any documentation online whatsoever

 

[Johnnie Black]

The only other (cheap) expander I came across was the HP 487738-001 but there seemed to be issues with that card unless the firmware was updated

IIRC you'll need one with firmware 1.52 or newer to link @ SATA2 speeds with SATA2/3 drives, but most available for sale currently should be on a newer firmware than that, I bough mine more than a year ago and it came with v2.08, but of course there's a chance you could get one with an older firmware, unless the seller checks for you.

 

[TrevInCarlton]

Thanks Johnnie thats helpfull. Been looking on eBay, problem there is most of the cheap cards come from China so slim chance of finding a seller who would know is slim. Having said that, one seller is claiming the expander is NEW but I might have to risk it and deal with the software if it turns out to be old.

 

[Chris Moore]

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...ders-60-ibm-lsi-chip-intel-alternative.11365/

 

[TrevInCarlton]

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...ders-60-ibm-lsi-chip-intel-alternative.11365/

Hi, thanks Chris. I have looked at that post before but never followed it to the end. It is very useful after reading all of it. I have now diagnosed the 4 expander cards I have brought off eBay from China. 2 of them were supplied dead, one is fully working, and the 4th has old firmware. Not been able to check this but think it is almost certainly 510A. This version is useless with SATA drives as it does not recognise the drives on power up and the only way is to power down the drives only and then power back up. This is documented in IBM files. What the card needs is 634a FW, there is a windows package but it fails to work unless it sees an IBM server. So I am left needing the FW and a way of applying it to the expansion adaptor. May start a new post for this problem.

 

[Chris Moore]

May start a new post for this problem.

I am not sure it would help. You might find someone on the forum that has an IBM server that could flash the card for you. I have an IBM system that might work for the purpose, but it would likely be cost prohibitive to send the card to the US and then send it back to you. Good luck getting the firmware updated.

 

[Chris Moore]

I have now diagnosed the 4 expander cards I have brought off eBay from China. 2 of them were supplied dead

Receiving a dead component is a hazard of ordering through eBay. If it has not been too long since you ordered, you might want to open a claim with eBay. They will usually force the vendor to give you a refund.

 

[TrevInCarlton]

I am not sure it would help. You might find someone on the forum that has an IBM server that could flash the card for you. I have an IBM system that might work for the purpose, but it would likely be cost prohibitive to send the card to the US and then send it back to you. Good luck getting the firmware updated.

Thanks for the offer, yes having paid just £11.49 for each card it would cost more to send it to you than what it is worth. Anyway there has been much progress on the subject with a lot of help from the guy on servethehome. With his help I have managed to flash the expander with the IBM 634a fw and it has fixed the problems. A lot of these IBM expanders have version 510A and this version does not recognise SATA drives on start up. It's not until version 602a and beyond that IBM fixed the issue. Once again many thanks for your input.

 

[TrevInCarlton]

Receiving a dead component is a hazard of ordering through eBay. If it has not been too long since you ordered, you might want to open a claim with eBay. They will usually force the vendor to give you a refund.

Yes, the guy I dealt with is very clever. All of these sellers in China all state "returns accepted at buyers expense". However sending from the UK to China is not cheap. I have had a number of refunds for faulty, missing, or not receiving goods and have always managed to get a refund or some compensation, however this guy just accepted my return and eBay won't do anything until I have sent the item back. I am also required by eBay to use a tracked mail service so once again would cost more to send it back so I just wrote it off. If I do not provide proof that I have sent it back eBay will just close the case, at least it didn't cost the earth.

PS, I know this is a really dumb question but just how do I mark my post as SOLVED, I just can't see it !!!

 

[Chris Moore]

Great. Were you able to get all of them working by installing new firmware?

 

[TrevInCarlton]

Great. Were you able to get all of them working by installing new firmware?

No, 2 out of the 4 sort of power up, a couple of LEDs come on. I suspect that someone has tried to update the FW and screwed it up, it's by no means simple. One of the other 2 had 602A FW so that did work. It was confirmed prior to flashing that the remaining one had 510A. With this version my system really did not like it and neither did Freenas, drives would come and go and one array of 8x4tb drives made really bad unhealthy sounds from the drives. I was convinced that my 20+ tb of data was lost and that some of the drives had been damaged. When I finally got the system up and running the pool was there and intact. I ran a scrub, which fixed 355 checksum errors. I suppose this demonstrates how robust ZFS is.

 

[Chris Moore]

PS, I know this is a really dumb question but just how do I mark my post as SOLVED, I just can't see it !!!

If you look at the top of the page, there should be a drop-down menu marked "Thread Tools". Click that and select, "Edit Title". In front of the Title, there is a drop-down that says "No Prefix", if you click that it gives you the option to change to "Solved". Then just save the change

 

[TrevInCarlton]

If you look at the top of the page, there should be a drop-down menu marked "Thread Tools". Click that and select, "Edit Title". In front of the Title, there is a drop-down that says "No Prefix", if you click that it gives you the option to change to "Solved". Then just save the change

OK got it, I know now but not exactly easy to find being quite new to this site, Thanks