Multiple LSI 9211-8i (3 cards) not booting - FreeNAS crashes and shuts down server.

[gpapaiko]

Hi,

I have a strange problem.
I have a system with 3 HBA LSi 9211-8i cards - all flashed to IT mode V16 ( have tried V20 with no luck), and NO BIOS.
When FreeNAS boots it get to certain point checking USB ports and then just shuts down the server.
If I remove any one card - hence 2 cards in the system it boots up with no problems.
I can have all 3 cards in the server and boot to UFI with no problems.
I can replace any card with an adaptec 5805 and boots with no problem.
But I cannot have all 3 LSI cards in the system, it shuts down when it get to usb port check.

Now the reason I need three cards is the case is a NAS case with 24 drive bays.

Now I as looking at replacing the two cards with a SAS expander with some thing like this "HP PCI-e SAS 468405-002 487738-001 Expander Controller Card".
Or replacing on of the cards with a IBM M1115 - will need to be flashed to IT mode and V16.

I am looking at something like Intel RES2SV240 24 sas expander - does anyone know if this will work with the LSI in IT mode.

Please don't lecture me on using a Supermicro and ECC RAM as that is another case altogether.
FYI: I do have a supermicro X7DBE ( with 2 Xeons and 16GB ECC RAM) - and FreeNAS would not even install on a SSD - not any drive.

Has anyone come across this or any suggestions on how to fix it?

Is there a way to log the boot sequence to a file to see where it crashed, to view the last events of the crash?
Image of last screen before it shuts down, this was a video so quality might not be clear as the screen was scrolling quite fast.

Thanks
George

 

[Ericloewe]

(Moved from the Documentation forum to Hardware.)

It's a long story, but Corral is dead.

flashed to IT mode V16 ( have tried V20 with no luck),

FreeNAS needs P20.

Now, your problem. If you're using Corral, try 9.10.2 instead. If not, why did you post under Corral?

I do have a supermicro X7DBE ( with 2 Xeons and 16GB ECC RAM)

Is that the hardware you're using or some other server? It's old and the experience will not be very good, but it should work.

Or replacing on of the cards with a IBM M1115

If that works, I'll seriously consider giving up and becoming a hermit.

RES2SV240 24 sas expander - does anyone know if this will work with the LSI in IT mode.

Yes, IT mode has no bearing whatsoever on expanders.

Is there a way to log the boot sequence to a file to see where it crashed, to view the last events of the crash?

A serial console, basically. Not sure if your server can do Serial over LAN, but that would be the way.

 

[gpapaiko]

Hi Eric,

Thanks, I will be switching back to 9.10.2-U2 now that Corral is "dead".
I only went to Corral because I had a hardware failure that corrupted the OS drives due to a major power failure, and it gave me the change to play around with it - I did have a 9.10.2-u2 backup of the config file, and I was able to recover the data.

I will go back to 9.10.2.
Currently using a Gygabyt board and word with no issues.

I do have a supermicro board (X7DBE) - On the self at the moment, that I had issues installing both 9.10.2 and Corral, and have not been able to resolve.
When installing (on X7DBE), it completed but not able to boot, come up with a message stating that it cannot mount the boot partion.
Any ideas?
As I would like to move to the (X7DBE) hardware,

Thanks.
Geroge