SAS expander question...

[Plato]

Hi,

I have a running system with AsRock C2750D4i..

I'm currently running 9 disks in a raidz1 configuration.

My media pool is almost full and I want to expand and also want to move data to a little more secure ( 12 disks in a raidz2 ) pool.

I had a SAS card sitting ready ( LSI 9211-8i ),
I purchased a SAS expander ( HP SAS expander )
and a case ( http://www.teknobiyotik.com/dark-servernet-4u-5x-fanli-20x-3-5-hdd-hot-swap-server-kasa.html - page is in Turkish but you could get the picture )

So I had a MB sitting also ( AsRock 775Dual-VSTA ) from old days..

I'm using my NAS in SilverStone's DS380, 8 disks attached to the HDD racks, one dangling, 2 SSD drives are for jail.. So it's actually really cramped but it works without problem for nearly two years...

I put the LSI in the case and used an internal to internal cable + internal to external adapter to make it external.

Installed the mainboard ( just screwed in the case and attached power ). Put the expander to only PCI-E slot on it.

Installed all disks to bottom three rows and attached to expander via U2 to SFF-8087 cables. When I power up the expander case there are three leds lit on expander. I think three for every cable and one for the power.

Anyway, after that attached the external to external cable ( SFF-8088 to SF-8088 )...

Now I'm stumped. Because while FreeNAS shows the LSI card:
# dmesg

Code:

.
.
mps0: <Avago Technologies (LSI) SAS2008> port 0xd000-0xd0ff mem 0xdf7c0000-0xdf7c3fff,0xdf780000-0xdf7bffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
mps0: Firmware: 19.00.00.00, Driver: 21.01.00.00-fbsd
mps0: IOCCapabilities: 185c<ScsiTaskFull,DiagTrace,SnapBuf,EEDP,TransRetry,IR>
.
.

and also shows in mpsutil
# mpsutil show all

Code:

Adapter:
mps0 Adapter:
	   Board Name: SAS9211-8i
   Board Assembly: H3-25250-01D
		Chip Name: LSISAS2008
	Chip Revision: ALL
	BIOS Revision: 7.37.00.00
Firmware Revision: 19.00.00.00
  Integrated RAID: yes

PhyNum  CtlrHandle  DevHandle  Disabled  Speed   Min	Max	Device
0							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
1							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
2							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
3							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
4							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
5							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
6							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator
7							  N				 1.5	6.0	SAS Initiator

Devices:
B____T	SAS Address	  Handle  Parent	Device		Speed Enc  Slot  Wdt

Enclosures:
Slots	  Logical ID	 SEPHandle  EncHandle	Type
  08	500605b001bdd9c4			   0001	 Direct Attached SGPIO

Expanders:
NumPhys   SAS Address	 DevHandle   Parent  EncHandle  SAS Level

as you can see there are no disks nor expanders.. So if we are sure that the cables are working, what could be the problem?

 

[Johnnie Black]

So I had a MB sitting also ( AsRock 775Dual-VSTA ) from old days..

Does the board have a CPU installed? IIRC the HP Expander will only work in a board that actually posts, if it's just powered without a CPU the expander will turn on but it won't detect any disks, at least it's what I remember happening to me before I replaced it with an Intel expander that can be powered by a molex connector.

 

[Plato]

I do have a CPU and RAM to boot the motherboard if needed but as far as I know I don't think it's really necessary so I removed CPU, while keeping the RAM.

 

[Johnnie Black]

but as far as I know I don't think it's really necessary so I removed CPU

That's what I though as well, but for me it only worked after installing a CPU and having the board post.