IBM M1015 No Drives in FreeNAS

[Douglas Thompson]

I have seen similar threads but nothing specific to a non-VM build. I purchased my IBM M1015 card, crossflashed it to IT-mode on a generic DELL system (Side note: The card was recognized in this system when erasing the firmware but had to be moved to a generic DELL system in order to write the firmware because of the "Failed to initialize PAL" problem). I then added it to my FreeNAS unit (specs below) and loaded FreeNAS for the first time (ever). I started with the "bleeding edge" 10.0 but re-installed 9.2.1.7 after encountering this problem. I installed the FreeNAS software to a Corsair 120GB SSD and have 3 Seagate 4TB Hybrid drives connected to the IBM M1015. The software installs fine but no drives are found on the M1015. I have switched PCI-E slots thinking that they may be spec'd differently (two blue ones for VGA and two black ones for other cards). Can anyone help me with this?

System Config:
ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe MB
AMD 9950 Phenom II Quad Core Processor
Corsair Dominator 8GB DDR2 RAM
Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD
VisionTek 5870X2 Graphics Card

 

[esamett]

I am a NOOB but am using a M1015, Asus mobo and AM3+ processor without problems. Have you successfully tried the board with a drive in another computer?

 

[mjws00]

Here is where I'd start: Can you see the drives while it posts? Can you enter the BIOS on the M1015 and see/manipulate the drives? Possibly your crossflash is messed up. I'd also try another known good drive (non hybrid). I'd throw a bootable usb or livecd in and see if the drives were available. As mentioned above, I'd throw the card in another box to test (as mentioned above). dmesg from a console should tell you what FN sees as it boots. Does it see the card, but not the drive, or no card at all? Moving slots as you tried is also smart.

You need to isolate your M1015 as you flashed it. How have you confirmed it is working correctly? Easy for things to go sideways with a firmware update.
You also need to determine whether the problem is hardware or OS related.
If it all works on a different OS... we can start going after FreeNAS issues. The M1015 is a great choice and should "just work.". Motherboard is a variable, but should at least recognize the drives... performance, reliability, non ECC can be dealt with later.

 

[cyberjock]

I'm not sure of your exact problem, but having a AMD motherboard (a non-server grade at that) means you may have all sorts of unexpected (and unseen) problems. AMD support on FreeBSD ranges from decent to unusable. This is why we don't recommend AMD at all. :(

Many boards don't support adding hardware SAS controllers and still others only let you install them on a specific port. Unfortunately you are kind of on your own on this one as the M1015 "just works" for everyone except you. :/

 

[gpsguy]

Which version of the firmware did you flash the card with? I believe you should be be using phase 16.


Sent from my phone

 

[Z300M]

I have seen similar threads but nothing specific to a non-VM build. I purchased my IBM M1015 card, crossflashed it to IT-mode on a generic DELL system (Side note: The card was recognized in this system when erasing the firmware but had to be moved to a generic DELL system in order to write the firmware because of the "Failed to initialize PAL" problem). I then added it to my FreeNAS unit (specs below) and loaded FreeNAS for the first time (ever). I started with the "bleeding edge" 10.0 but re-installed 9.2.1.7 after encountering this problem. I installed the FreeNAS software to a Corsair 120GB SSD and have 3 Seagate 4TB Hybrid drives connected to the IBM M1015. The software installs fine but no drives are found on the M1015. I have switched PCI-E slots thinking that they may be spec'd differently (two blue ones for VGA and two black ones for other cards). Can anyone help me with this?

System Config:
ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe MB
AMD 9950 Phenom II Quad Core Processor
Corsair Dominator 8GB DDR2 RAM
Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD
VisionTek 5870X2 Graphics Card

I have read that some motherboards will accept nothing but video cards in their x16 slots. I had an M1015 working OK in the x16 slot of my previous system (Asus AMD), but that may mean nothing for yours.

 

[Douglas Thompson]

Thank you all so far for your input. My plan of attack for tonight is to pull my card and put it in my older Dell system. Re-flash it and ensure it is the P16 version. This time I will include the OptionROM so that I may go into the menu on boot to verify the drives. Once all of that is done I will add one of the storage drives verify it in the OptionROM and try to boot to a LiveCD of FreeNAS. If I can get all of that verified, then I will put the card back in my ASUS/AMD system to see if I can view the drives.....

I will update the thread tomorrow with the results. Thanks again for the help.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

FWIW, I hit a wall with a dell server and the m1015. Seems Dell purposefully handicaps their boards to make them NOT work for anything other than it was intended. At least that was the case with a Dell T105. Turns out, dell only allows specific cards to be ran on their T105 and forced me to upgrade. There is a thread about it. My point is, you may want to make sure ASUS did not participate in such douchebaggery with your board.

 

[Ericloewe]

FWIW, I hit a wall with a dell server and the m1015. Seems Dell purposefully handicaps their boards to make them NOT work for anything other than it was intended. At least that was the case with a Dell T105. Turns out, dell only allows specific cards to be ran on their T105 and forced me to upgrade. There is a thread about it. My point is, you may want to make sure ASUS did not participate in such douchebaggery with your board.

Nah, if it's a motherboard limitation, it's an honest one. Few people run anything other than graphics cards on their PCI-e 16x and only a limited array of other stuff on the other slots, so it's not something typically validated on desktop boards.

Pre-built server vendors, on the other hand, enjoy milking their customers with such shady tactics as whitelists for usable cards.

 

[Starpulkka]

I lovely tell you that you must first buy better and more expensive stuff, when you have bought 400€ xeon and supermicro board with 32Gb ecc memory after then i would ask you did you actually bought right sas cable? and have you tested hdd's some other machine are drives actually working. also some asus boards needs that bios so card can only become alive and see drives.