SOLVED X11 build report.

[Dice]

Greetings!

I've built a X11 machine and wish to 'report back' on my experience of this new platform.
Specs:
X11SSL-F, i3-6100, 16GB RAM, 9201-16i, 7x 6TB WD Reds

Some minor issues presented themselves but were easily worked around as follows:
First of all, I did not get the machine to boot off a USB.
Neither the Ultimate Boot CD, nor the prepared USB stick with FreeNAS 9.3. I prepared both devices both through msdos prompt, following the usual guides to provide a bootable USB using DISKPART. That did not work. I then tried a standalone tool that was recommended by the UBCD FAQ. That did not work either.
I tried several settings, for example changing the BIOS boot order settings. There are numerous USBdrive-types, (from memory; floppy/hdd/cd/key + UEFI equivalents) none of which worked.

Solution: I ended up burning both images to separate CD's, and hooking up a leftover DVD burner to the server. That worked.

After 140hrs of burn in (~45hrs memtest, ~95hrs badblocks), FreeNAS is now installed and running great.

IPMI works as adviced, from what I can judge nothing really changed compared to what was discussed in Ericloewe's thread on IPMI tweaks. Fan settings were functional from the IPMI/java application on a windows machine where I can change the fansspeeds from "optimal" (running at lowest possible RPM = 700) to "standard" where fans run at 1200RPM, and "fullspeed" at around 3900rpm, this without powercycling the machine nor the IPMI circuit. Highly satisfactory.

To this point I've no other 'shenanigans' to report of. I'm super happy this far :)

I hope to assemble some pics of my DIY case if anyone is interested :) (should I post that in this thread or where else?)

Cheers /

 

[idimitro]

Hi, thanks for the information. Could you please share the brand and the model number of your memory? I am thinking for building similar server myself based around X11SSL-CF.
Thanks.

 

[religiouslyconfused]

People generally have had success with Samsung Memory on X11 boards, but you can also use Crucial ECC UDIMM's as well. M391A2K43BB1-CPB (Supermicro part no. MEM-DR416L-SL01-EU21) is the part number for the Samsung ECC UDIMM's that work on that board.

http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct16g4wfd8213
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct16g4wfd824a

These are also good choice as Crucial is now on the approved memory list for that Supermicro board as well and you can get it in either DDR4 2133 or DDR4 2400 ECC. Trick is to use ECC UDIMM not Registered ECC as 1151 only supports unbuffered ECC.

 

[Dice]

Could you please share the brand and the model number of your memory?

Happy my post did someone any good :) Every reply is encouraging.

I used these: Samsung 8GB DDR4 ECC 2133Mhz 1.2V UDIMM x8 DR M391A1G43DB0-CPB00

 

[idimitro]

Thanks for the reply. Have you played with ESXI? Have you tested if VT-d is working on this board with this process? I have been searching for the two days and I am getting conflicting information. Some sources state that C232 doesn't support VT-d and some that it does. The MB manual states it is supported though, so I should be on the safe side, I guess ...

 

[Dice]

No idea.


Cheers /

 

[lmbcdk]

Thanks for the reply. Have you played with ESXI? Have you tested if VT-d is working on this board with this process? I have been searching for the two days and I am getting conflicting information. Some sources state that C232 doesn't support VT-d and some that it does. The MB manual states it is supported though, so I should be on the safe side, I guess ...

I would be very interested to know this as well. I am planning a build with the X11SSL-CF mobo and wanting to VT-d passthrough with the LSI controller to a FreeNAS VM in ESXi.

 

[rcstevensonaz]

Thanks for the reply. Have you played with ESXI? Have you tested if VT-d is working on this board with this process? I have been searching for the two days and I am getting conflicting information. Some sources state that C232 doesn't support VT-d and some that it does. The MB manual states it is supported though, so I should be on the safe side, I guess ...

Bump... lots of conflicting info on web, can anyone confirm or deny?

That said, it looks like Intel ARK has been updated since I looked a few months ago and it shows vt-d as "Yes" for both chipsets now: http://ark.intel.com/compare/90594,90578

 

[Dice]

I've run ESXi 6.02 (IIRC) successfully with this setup, passing through card with no issues.
You'll need to pay attention to bios settings though. Can't recall exactly which, but the generic research for getting into virtualization will definitely point you to the critical one's.

 

[sleepless007]

Greetings!


Some minor issues presented themselves but were easily worked around as follows:
First of all, I did not get the machine to boot off a USB.
Neither the Ultimate Boot CD, nor the prepared USB stick with FreeNAS 9.3. I prepared both devices both through msdos prompt, following the usual guides to provide a bootable USB using DISKPART. That did not work. I then tried a standalone tool that was recommended by the UBCD FAQ. That did not work either.
I tried several settings, for example changing the BIOS boot order settings. There are numerous USBdrive-types, (from memory; floppy/hdd/cd/key + UEFI equivalents) none of which worked.

/

Hey there,

strange thing... , i' ve been assembling an X11 build (based on the X11-SSL-CF though) this weekend myself. I had zero problems booting from USB stick (after i got a hang of the UEFI-Legacy Dual Boot thingy). I deactivated all mechanical HDD and not needed Boot devices in Bios, and changed the Boot order to 1-SSD 2-USB-key 3-UEFI-Shell (rest deactivated).
I also used the UBCD and prepared it with the ubcd2usb command on a windows 7 machine. Every other thing (Freenas, FreeDOS etc.) i created bootable USB keys with Rufus on Win7. They all booted fine.
One thing i recognized: The first time the bios did not keep my settings (when pressing ESC an saving...), so the second time I went to the Bios TAB where the save and exit options are listed, and i first saved from there and then rebooted, worked from there on.

kind regards

 

[sleepless007]

Hi, thanks for the information. Could you please share the brand and the model number of your memory? I am thinking for building similar server myself based around X11SSL-CF.
Thanks.

I have the same Board, i used Samsung memory (Samsung M391A2K43BB1-CPB memory D4 2133 16GB Samsung ECC 1,2V) . evereything working fine.

cheers