X9QRi-F+ & SAS-846A + Seagate Barracuda = Discs not powering up

[Dirk Schroetter]

Hello folks,

I got a good deal on the following hardware:

SuperMicro X9QRi-F+
in a 24 slot chassis with the
SAS-846A
64 GB RAM

backplane. Before diving into the replacement of the backplane, the HBAs and SAS disks, I just wanted to take the system for a spin.

So I loaded the system up with just two Barracuda 2 TB SATA Gen 3 disks but for the life of me, they do not spin up.

The diodes for the backplane (D53 & D54) are green so they should indicate that +5 V and +12 V are good, the SFF-8087s are plugged into the SATA ports on the mainboard, the enclosure asserts the blue light on the bays where disks are inserted, and a quick boot of a FreeBSD memstick shows the presence of the SES device /dev/ses0.

All good ? Well not really ... The freaking disks will not spin up. No matter what bay or curse words are being used. Any pointers ?

Thanks

/Dirk

 

[kdragon75]

I assume there not showing up in the BIOS or in camcontrol devlist? Perhaps it's time to start probing with a voltmeter?

 

[Dirk Schroetter]

Your assumption is correct. No show in BIOS or camcontrol devlist. I guess that will mean a voltmeter. Even though the diodes on the backplane are solid green ...

 

[Chris Moore]

The documentation on Supermicro: https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/C606_602/MNL-1370.pdf
Shows two SAS controllers and there is a jumper to enable/disable.
Did you change anything from the way it was previously configured?
What SAS controller are you using?
The system may have previously been configured with a hardware RAID card and the SAS HBA might be disabled.
More details (possibly even photos) please.

 

[Dirk Schroetter]

Hello Chris,

thanks for your reply.

You had me worried there for a minute, but I have a different version of the MB: The one with the "cut out" at the lower left corner: https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/motherboard/C606_602/MNL-1324.pdf
While the documentation speaks of SAS ports, this version of the MB only has 6 SATA ports (
I-SATA 0/1 as SATA 3.0 I-SATA 2-5 as SATA 2.0) and no SAS jumpers on my board (no JPS1 jumper at the specified locations - the one close too the bottom right corner in the drawing does not exist on my board, the one close to the upper left corner is labeled JPSW1).

So the hard drives are wired via 2 x SFF-8087 to Bays 0-5.

Will try to get more info from the seller on how the box was used too.

Anything I should check while seller contemplates his responses ?

Thanks,

/Dirk