Supermicro X9SRL-F Issues

[NasKar]

I'm have an issue with my server that has been running for yrs without issue. Recently I noticed that the system wasn't running and I logged on to the IPMI and saw that is was trying to boot from one of the data drives. When I hit F11 to select the boot drive everything works but I'm unable to get the BIOS ver 3.3 (latest) to remember the boot order and pick my SSD as the 1st boot device. My initial thought was something was wrong with the boot SSD so I decided to get another Kinston V300 120 Gig SSD to create a dual boot for redundancy which I've been meaning to do anyways. When I reboot from the IPMI the server reboots but I'm unable to get it to go into the setup menu or boot menu from a remote computer (like it's not reading the keystrokes). I instead have to go to the physical server to do it. The menu for del to enter setup and f11 to choose the boot device shows up 2 times and the f11 key has to be entered each time.

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the bios menu or if there is an issue.

My system:
True Nas Core FreeNAS 13.0-U4 running on
Supermicro CSE-836BE16-R920B 3U Server Chassis 2x 920W 16-Bay BPN-SAS2-836EL1
Motherboard SuperMicro x9srl-f
CPU Intel Xeon E5-2650 V2
Memory 4x M393B2G70QH0-YK0 Samsung 16GB PC3L-12800R DDR3-1600MHz ECC Registered Server Ram 64GB
2 vdevs of 8 x WD Red 12TB ZFS Raid Z2
HBA HP-H220-6Gbps-SAS-PCI-E-3-0-HBA-LSI-9207-8i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID
Heatsink Dynatron R27
SSD Boot Kinsgston 120 GB V300 x2

 

[pschatz100]

When you go into the motherboard bios, does the system allow you to set the boot order you want? More important, does it remember the setting from one powerdown reboot to the next? Are there any other strange issues, such as the system clock not working properly?

Some years ago, I had mysterious bios problems in an X9SCM-F motherboard and it was caused by a bad CMOS battery. These batteries last for a long time, but they don't last forever. I replaced the battery, cleared the CMOS, and then reset bios settings... not had a problem since.

Good luck.

 

[NasKar]

When you go into the motherboard bios, does the system allow you to set the boot order you want? More important, does it remember the setting from one powerdown reboot to the next? Are there any other strange issues, such as the system clock not working properly?

I changed the batter and reset the cmos. It now boots into Freenas from a shutdown. System clock was reset and I set the correct time which it remembers. Still can't get into the setup menu from the IPMI. After the boot is finish I can type the option # for the shell from the IPMI and it works. Del Key to enter setup after a reboot doesn't work.

 

[pschatz100]

So you cannot enter the motherboard bios to check settings? Maybe there is a hardware problem.

If it were me, I would remove the disks and hba to see if the motherboard posts and lets you enter bios settings. If it does, then there may be a problem with the hba or the disks. If the motherboard acts OK and the bios settings are correct for your configuration, then I would add back one of the TrueNAS boot drives and see what happens. If that works OK, then I would add back the HBA and see what happens.

The idea is to add back one item at a time to determine where the problem is.

Good luck.

 

[NasKar]

So you cannot enter the motherboard bios to check settings? Maybe there is a hardware problem.

If it were me, I would remove the disks and hba to see if the motherboard posts and lets you enter bios settings. If it does, then there may be a problem with the hba or the disks. If the motherboard acts OK and the bios settings are correct for your configuration, then I would add back one of the TrueNAS boot drives and see what happens. If that works OK, then I would add back the HBA and see what happens.

The idea is to add back one item at a time to determine where the problem is.

Good luck.

I’m able to enter the bios with the del key physically at the server but not thru the IPMI interface remotely. Not a huge problem.