BURNT! IBM HS-1235E / 9211-8i 6g Conversion

[4n0th3r m3]

Hello linustechtips world!

 

My first post shows how naive a human playing with tech can be ; (  I'm quite a noob in Serverthingitech coming from Macintosh

 

Startingpoint is an IBM HS-1235E 12-Bay Storage Server (better Documented as SSR212MC2) / Goal was (maybe is still) Freenas iSCSI Target over 10Gbe

 

So at first everything was running well just to find out that my 4TB Drives will be recognized as 2TB due to SAS1. The System has an SAS Expander connecting the S5000PSL Motherboard (4xSAS/SATA -> SFF-8087-> 

PM8388 SXP 24×3G) Wouldn't mind the 3g but the 2TB limit makes it more or less unusable.

 

Long Story short as the Backplane presents 3x SFF-8484 with the Expander removed I bought:

Dell PERC H310 PCI-e SAS Controller 0HV52W / LSI 9211-8i (IT-mode)

2x SFF-8087 to SFF-8484

1x SFF-8484 to 4x SATA (was not involved yet)

 

Then I fired it up with the with the 9211-8i connected to the Lowest and middle SFF-8484 of the Backlane and then YEAH!! Freenas loaded the drives as 4TB and 6g.

After that I played around updating BIOS FRU BMC because of the Fans running crazy till this smell came up and the Powercord of the distributer

melted...

  OK I had to much running  over it - at least this 10 Fans wich sounded like they want to move the Server like a Hovercraft...

 

After some Repair and getting Power from a different Circuit I found this: 

I'm not sure but I think the burnt one was connected to the middle port of the Backplane and the HBA now has a fixed Cable! This is how I found it cause I wanted to rearrange...

 

I really thought the Backplane is a dumb thing So if someone could help me out understanding this??? Is there some strange Power coming from the Enclosure Controller to the former Expander ports?? Do I have to configure, solder, jumper or kick it out of the Window let that Hover fly??? 

 

I am limited with this:

 

 

[4n0th3r m3]

Ok once again... I hooked up the lowest SFF-8484 to the 9211-8i and its working fine with 4x4TB at 6g...

So do you think I can safely connect the other two 8484 to another 9211-8i or is it a bit more Complex when it was designed to work with a Sas Expander.

There is not much to find for the Backplane itself: Xyratex 92883-01

I really would appreciate any advice cause I don't want to waste too much time and money...

 

[elstevo2]

I've got one of these servers as well and was looking to increase my drive capacity.
Are you using a different SAS controller to connect to the backplane or have you bypassed the backplane board completely to get the higher capacity drives to register higher than 1tb?
just wondering if the backplane board is the limiting factor or if it's the controller embedded in the motherboard?

[leadeater]

On 10/15/2018 at 9:55 PM, 4n0th3r m3 said:

I really thought the Backplane is a dumb thing So if someone could help me out understanding this??? Is there some strange Power coming from the Enclosure Controller to the former Expander ports?? Do I have to configure, solder, jumper or kick it out of the Window let that Hover fly??? 

The SAS ports don't carry any high power and are used for data only, a short to ground would cause excessive current to flow and would melt the cable like that though. Check all your cables for defects and the ports on the SAS cards and backplane.

 

The melted cable doesn't look to be inserted in to the SAS port correctly either, though that may have moved/expanded due to the heat.

 

Without a short even with maximum drive configuration, 100% CPU load on both CPUs, all fans max etc that server wouldn't draw enough power to melt a plug and socket like that, definitely a short of some kind caused that.

[zumka]

Sorry for reviving this thread.

 

I have exactly the same server IBM HS-1235E. I can confirm that this backplane is melting the cables when PM8388 SAS Expander is replaced with 6G SAS expander. In my case, it was replaced with IBM 46m0997 ServeRAID Expansion Adapter.
The cables and sas connectors are getting extremely hot and eventually start melting.
Has anyone figured out this issue?