LSI 9207-8i very long boot time

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angelus249

Dabbler
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Dec 19, 2014
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Hey folks,

that's my system.
  • Lian Li PC-D8000
  • Intel Xeon E3-1220 v5, 4x 3.00GHz, boxed (BX80662E31220V5)
  • Supermicro X11SSM-F retail (MBD-X11SSM-F-O)
  • 2x Samsung DIMM 16GB, DDR4-2133, CL15, ECC (M391A2K43BB1-CPB)
  • LSI SAS 9207-8i, PCIe 3.0 x8 (LSI00301)
  • 2x Samsung SSD 750 Evo 250GB, SATA (MZ-750250BW)
  • 6x Western Digital WD Red 8TB, 3.5", SATA 6Gb/s (WD80EFZX)
  • Corsair RMi Series RM1000i 1000W ATX 2.4 (CP-9020084-EU)
  • 2x SanDisk Ultra Fit V2 32GB, USB 3.0 (SDCZ43-032G-GAM46)
I assembled this new system and am having some ... well, an issue with my LSI 9207-8i controller. I'm using LSI SFF 8087-to-4xSATA breakout cables.

It all works, FreeNAS booting up eventually, HDDs and SSD being recognized correctly, it's just that it takes more than 3 minutes to boot, or respectively more than 3 minutes to finish identifying attached devices to the controller. This also applies when I want to go into the BIOS settings, since first the whole hardware identifcation process is being handled, it takes me like 5 minutes to change something and reboot. I went into the controller options (CTRL+C or CTRL+D.. one of that combinations), but there is no option whatsoever to cut it short. It just shows the attached disks and offers only little to configure since it's an HBA and no RAID controller. Also the manual or google doesn't give much information.

Firmware on the mainboard is up to date, revision 1.0b, the controller is running with Firmware Version 20. I read in the FreeNAS guide, that version 16 is recommneded (http://www.freenas.org/blog/a-complete-guide-to-freenas-hardware-design-part-ii-hardware-specifics/), but this thread is from February 2015 and since the controller was delivered with FW 20, I just leave it there at the moment.

So my main question:
Is that the usual behavior to take a few minutes? Is there a particular order to connect devices to the controller? As of now not all ports are populated. Or am I maybe missing some crucial BIOS settings to turn on/off?

I'd appreciate some input.

Cheers
 
Last edited:

BigDave

FreeNAS Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Messages
2,479
My first suggestion is to provide the version of FreeNAS
you are running, this may help. If you provided this, I've
not had sufficient caffine intake and missed it.
 

angelus249

Dabbler
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
41
Well, since I just built the system, I'm running the most current one ofc.
Build FreeNAS-9.10.1-U2 (f045a8b)

But this ain't no FreeNAS related issue, since the "trouble" so to speak starts pre-OS.
 

Dice

Wizard
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
1,410
Don't worry.

I've a 9201-16i and experience <significant reboot times> too. Even on my older X8 system the boot time is hideous, compared to any desktop system.
I say your experiences are within the realm of reason, though inconvenient.
Think of it as an incentive to not reboot your machine too often ;)
 

angelus249

Dabbler
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
41
Hmm, ye, I almost expected those kind of replies tbh.

I wasn't worried, just annoyed that a controller in the year 2016 would sit there for 3++ minutes just to tell me "oh ye, the same disks as always, nothing changed". o_O

Thanks for your input.
 

Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
Moderator
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Messages
20,176
You can:
  • Ensure that the BIOS version is the latest for the card
  • Get rid of the BIOS altogether
  • Try out the UEFI extension ROM, which might be faster.
  • If you're actually using the UEFI extension ROM, you can try getting rid of it and using just the BIOS one. Or just setup the motherboard to only load BIOS extension ROMs from PCI-e devices, not UEFI extensions.
 

angelus249

Dabbler
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
41
Thanks @Ericloewe, my answers inline.

  • Ensure that the BIOS version is the latest for the card
    • Done
  • Get rid of the BIOS altogether
    • I had it on DUAL(BIOS and UEFI), currently UEFI only. Will play around with that again after HDD burn it test is done.
  • Try out the UEFI extension ROM, which might be faster.
    • see above
  • If you're actually using the UEFI extension ROM, you can try getting rid of it and using just the BIOS one. Or just setup the motherboard to only load BIOS extension ROMs from PCI-e devices, not UEFI extensions.
    • will try
If only the HDD burn in wouldn't take like forever.... But on the bright side, found me a faulty 4TB drive ;) All the 8TB WD seem to be OK so far.
 
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