SuperMicro X10SL7-F

[SirMaster]

Are both flashed to the same IT firmware?

I will find this out tonight. I believe my onboard is v16 but I do not know the version of the LSI 9211-8i I am borrowing.

Can the Chenbro expander have a firmware version that I could look at updating? I am pretty new to SAS and expanders in general.

I might try v19 on my onboard tonight. I'm using ZFS on Linux so I have v19 driver support no problem.

This is the best info i've been able to find on my messages:
http://serverfault.com/questions/407703/deciphering-continuing-mpt2sas-syslog-messages

 

[krikboh]

You're not using FreeNAS?

 

[SirMaster]

You're not using FreeNAS?

No, sorry. ZFS on Linux for me :)

But I figured this is a pretty general hardware discussion about the x10SL7-F so it shouldn't really matter hehe. I know of no other great discussion/info/help thread about this board so I came here.

 

[cyberjock]

Yeah. Sorry but that's not true at all. Linux drivers may behave differently than freebsd. So sorry but the knowledge doesn't just "convert over".

If it were a disk problem changing controllers wouldn't fix it. So I'm not convinced this is a disk problem.

Feels like the weird obscure undiagnosible random problems that chenbro had back when I read about them in 2008 and 2009.

 

[SirMaster]

Still wouldn't explain why the messages only happen on the onboard and not the card... What if I can confirm tonight that both are running the same v16 version.

I see no reason why I wouldn't get these same messages under BSD. I suppose I could import my array to FreeNAS to confirm.

If it were a disk problem changing the controller wouldn't affect it?

Sorry but that's completely false. I have had disks that work under one controller and not under another different controller countless times. Some disk's firmware plays nicer with some controllers than other controllers. I guess assuming you consider crappy/buggy disk firmware a disk problem which I would.

The disk might work fine with a less strict controller or one that has better exception handling. Or it could be a race condition with a specific controller's code. And then it might not work on a more strict controller for example.

 

[cyberjock]

Sure SirMaster, but I don't really call that a disk problem. That's more of a software (or firmware) problem between the SAS/SATA fabric.

*If* it's a command queue problem that's almost certainly a physical problem with the disk causing that kind of issue, which is what I was thinking of when I said it doesn't sound like a disk problem.

But whatever. I've tried to give the help I could. It's a "take it or leave it". :P

 

[SirMaster]

Thanks.

If you think a command queue issue is most likely disk related then I guess it's probably not a command queue issue since the disks work fine directly connected to the controller as well as when driven by that different controller discrete card i'm borrowing.

Though I still believe the mpt2sas error number I'm seeing is indicating that a bus reset is occurring due to what I though was some sort of timeout window expiring but that's only what I have loosely seen indicated from a few other discussions of these errors.

I plan to try a different firmware on my onboard sas and see where that goes.

 

[Pooh]

I am worried that the SAS chip gets very hot.
Have good airflow and stock cpu cooler but it gets so hot it hurts if i hold my finger on it for a few secs.
First time having a motherboard with ipmi and i must say i love it!
Flashing IT was simple and i was a bit scared of doing it so big thanks to jyavenard for the guide.

Well then... if you go for the xeon... you could always virtualize FreeNAS and pfSense on the same box ;)

You might regret saying that! ;)
Im going to play around with viritualization while i do the cpu burn in.

My knowledge of virtual machines is very limited.
Have googled a bit and i understand that i need a type 1 hypervisor.
BLABLABLA deleted alot of questions that i found answers for but still one remaining.
What drivers do i need to inject to get the nics to work in ESXi?
EDIT: https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI55-INTEL-IGB-525&productId=353
Found it

 

[jyavenard]

Code:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/

Just copy and paste that, the forum seems to mess with ftp links?

Anyway since you are using a 6 disk setup, did you think about using the Intel sata-ports?
I would save you a little more than 10W if (I dont know that) you could completely disable the SAS2308 controller.

Intel doesn't provide 6 sata3 ports.
While it's not going to make a difference performance wise? Why put an extra unnecessary bottleneck?

 

[Pooh]

Code:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/

Just copy and paste that, the forum seems to mess with ftp links?

Anyway since you are using a 6 disk setup, did you think about using the Intel sata-ports?
I would save you a little more than 10W if (I dont know that) you could completely disable the SAS2308 controller.

Oh sorry forgot to thank you for your help.
Well every person i have told about my nas has loved the idea and wanted in on it.
So 6 are mine and theres a few more inc from other ppl that want to use it.
The "curse" of being a sales person :)

Second reason is that i am strange :P i have mocked out the whole chassi with its max capacity of drives and done the cable for it so its plug and play.
currently fixing a extra drive cage so i can push it from 10 drives to 14 even though i know i will probably never use 14.

 

[indy]

Intel doesn't provide 6 sata3 ports.
While it's not going to make a difference performance wise? Why put an extra unnecessary bottleneck?

Saving a little bit of energy plus the sas-controller needs active cooling imo which you could forgo.
There should only be a very minor bottleneck in the sata2 connection and only with regard to the cache.

 

[SirMaster]

If anyone cares about that issue I brought up the other day about those mpt2sas messages when using my expander I finally found the issue.

1 of my disks was bad. I mean it appears to work fine, passes SMART tests and everything, but it was causing these SATA link resets.

I noticed that on my LSI this 1 drive was always only negotiating at 3G instead of 6G and when I removed that single drive from my SAS chain I no longer get those messages after hours and hours of stress testing.

My onboard LSI via reverse breakout to the Chenbro expander is working flawlessly now under heavy stress tests for hours and hours.

 

[DJ9]

It's not like anyone cares SirMaster, some of us do. It's just that we get distracted sometimes. (me) Glad you found your issue. :)

 

[SirMaster]

I'm just saying, I know it was somewhat off topic but I post my update in case someone is interested :)

 

[jeffreyj900]

I will be moving away from a Synology DS411+ to FreeNAS. I plan to stream 1080p content to multiple devices via Plex so I went with the Xeon E3. Based on all my research here, great site, I'm thinking of putting together this build. Still a couple of things to figure out. I really like the Supermicro case listed below. It specifies ATX or E-ATX; however, I've seen were it "might" support a micro ATX board. I put in an e-mail to Supermicro over the weekend and have not heard back. Anyone with experience with this or a similar Supermicro case and micro ATX motherboard? I'm planning on 8 3TB drives in RaidZ2. As much as I like the HGST 3TB 7200 rpm drives, the general consensus here seems to be to stick with the WD Red(s).

Motherboard - Supermicro MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX (micro ATX)
CPU - Xeon E3-1270 V3 (Combo deal with motherboard on Newegg)
Memory - Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B (16GB kit x 2)
Hard Drives - (8 x 3TB WD Red - LSI 2308 onboard controller flashed to IT mode)
Case - Supermicro CSE-745TQ-R920B (A beast I know, 8 x Hot Swap + 920w Redundant Power Supplies)
UPS - CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD
SATA DOM - Inno ???
CPU Cooler - ???

 

[Z300M]

I will be moving away from a Synology DS411+ to FreeNAS. I plan to stream 1080p content to multiple devices via Plex so I went with the Xeon E3. Based on all my research here, great site, I'm thinking of putting together this build. Still a couple of things to figure out. I really like the Supermicro case listed below. It specifies ATX or E-ATX; however, I've seen were it "might" support a micro ATX board. I put in an e-mail to Supermicro over the weekend and have not heard back. Anyone with experience with this or a similar Supermicro case and micro ATX motherboard? I'm planning on 8 3TB drives in RaidZ2. As much as I like the HGST 3TB 7200 rpm drives, the general consensus here seems to be to stick with the WD Red(s).

Motherboard - Supermicro MBD-X10SL7-F-O uATX (micro ATX)
CPU - Xeon E3-1270 V3 (Combo deal with motherboard on Newegg)
Memory - Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B (16GB kit x 2)
Hard Drives - (8 x 3TB WD Red - LSI 2308 onboard controller flashed to IT mode)
Case - Supermicro CSE-745TQ-R920B (A beast I know, 8 x Hot Swap + 920w Redundant Power Supplies)
UPS - CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD
SATA DOM - Inno ???
CPU Cooler - ???

I don't know how much you were expecting to pay for the 3TB WD Reds, but I just got an email from NewEgg notifying me of a special deal on the 4TB Reds: $159.99 with a promo code.

Are those Crucial memory modules the ones reported by other users to work well? I ask because AFAIK there are still no Crucial modules on Supermicro's approved list.

 

[jeffreyj900]

I don't know how much you were expecting to pay for the 3TB WD Reds, but I just got an email from NewEgg notifying me of a special deal on the 4TB Reds: $159.99 with a promo code.

Are those Crucial memory modules the ones reported by other users to work well? I ask because AFAIK there are still no Crucial modules on Supermicro's approved list.

Yes-the crucial part number I found in this thread. Would love a pm with the promo code. 3tb WD reds are $122 on amazon right now. Looking at your signature, I just may use that USB 3 socket instead of an SATA DOM. I read that I would need to make a bios change to USB2 so that it works with freenas.

Appreciate your feedback!

 

[Z300M]

Yes-the crucial part number I found in this thread. Would love a pm with the promo code. 3tb WD reds are $122 on amazon right now. Looking at your signature, I just may use that USB 3 socket instead of an SATA DOM. I read that I would need to make a bios change to USB2 so that it works with freenas.

Appreciate your feedback!

AFAIK, if you're not on NewEgg's email list and received the code yourself, sending you the one I received won't do you any good. I'm not saying that each recipient gets a unique promo code, but for a while now I've been having to enter my email address on the online order form to validate the code: they know to which email addresses codes were sent.

 

[jeffreyj900]

Got it, I shop there a lot and they have my e-mail, I'll check to see if I received it. Reality is that 8 3TB would be plenty.

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't know how much you were expecting to pay for the 3TB WD Reds, but I just got an email from NewEgg notifying me of a special deal on the 4TB Reds: $159.99 with a promo code.

Are those Crucial memory modules the ones reported by other users to work well? I ask because AFAIK there are still no Crucial modules on Supermicro's approved list.

The 8GB 1.35V 1600 modules recommended by Crucial for X10 motherboards are the exact same that Supermicro tested under the Micron brand.