primergy rx2520 m1 Can't boot any OSs

[haegemonia76]

Hi LTT forum.
I recently bought a FUJITSU PRIMERGY RX2520 M1 (12 FRONT LFF Bay) to upgrade my existing NAS that currently run TRUENAS Scale 23 but with consumer hardware from an old PC I had lying around.
After my purchase I upgraded the server with a second CPU (XEON E5-2420 v2), 48GB of ECC REGISTERED RAM and 8 18TB Seagate Exos X18 Enterprise drives.
After that upgrade I tried to install TRUENAS on a dual SSD connected to my hot swappable bay at the front.
I can go through the whole process of installation and after the reboot needed, I can see in the BIOS my two boot entries TRUENAS-0 and TRUENAS-1 but none of them let me exit the bios.

My first though did goes to the RAID card installed by default, I switched the RAID card by 2 LSI 9300-8I in IT Mode with no success.

I tried other OS with no luck at the moment:
- Ubuntu server 16
- Ubuntu server 23
- Proxmox VE 8.1
- openSUSE 
- Windows 10
- Truenas SCALE 23.10.1.3

 

I'm at the limit of my knowledge right now.
Does anyone have any idea?

 

Video of the problem: 

 

[Bersella AI]

Since all the drive bays are connected to either of these HBA cards, it may be due to misconfiguration of the server, most likely configurations in BIOS of the HBA cards. You may check out manuals for them, enable their BIOSes, and turn on SAN Boot respectively.

Alternatively, you may remove boot SSDs from the drive bay, and connect them to on-board SATA ports (2 seen in these pictures). A USB thumb drive can also be used for booting & plugged into an on-board USB port.

[haegemonia76]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for the reply.
I don't understand what SAN boot will do for me because I don't want to install my OS on a remote storage machine, or I'm missing something.

I can't really connect any drive to the onboard SATA because i don't have any SATA power cable to connect them and a USB drive for a long term low maintenance appliance seems wrong to me.

I'll try to access the BIOSes of my 2 HBA to check if everything is ok.

[Bersella AI]

14 hours ago, haegemonia76 said:

I don't understand what SAN boot will do for me because I don't want to install my OS on a remote storage machine, or I'm missing something.

I searched for instructions, one of which said:

1. Launch the system BIOS, switch Boot Mode to Legacy.
2. Reboot, and when a POST screen about LSI HBA cards is shown, press Ctrl+H to manage these cards.
3. Choose either of 2 cards to manage.
4. Set up a virtual drive, consisting of those SSDs, to boot.

Try it out, and report any issues.

14 hours ago, haegemonia76 said:

I can't really connect any drive to the onboard SATA because i don't have any SATA power cable to connect them and a USB drive for a long term low maintenance appliance seems wrong to me.

It turns out that the system has only 3 power cables/slots, with 1 connected to the power supply, and 2 connected to the backplate of drive bays, per Fujitsu's official documentation. However, if your SSDs require only 5V of power, they can be fed by the on-board USB port using modded cables.

[haegemonia76]

I tested using the SATA port and it works, a shame it does not work through the backplate. 
I ordered 2 PCI-E to SATA card instead of modded cables, I'm not confident in myself to do it properly

Thanks for the help Bersella AI, Have a nice day !