SAS controller newbie

[FreelancerSystem]

So I finally got started running a small NAS just to get the hang of how one works. I have a little RAID enclosure and a repurposed small enterprise kiosk computer running it. I use TrueNAS Core, and it's working great. I decided to buy a couple of drives to expand the amount of storage by creating another pool, and in my infinite wisdom bought two SAS drives I can't return. So, after doing some digging I purchased LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA 9211-8I IT Mode P20 ZFS FreeNAS unRAID + 2*SFF-8087 SATA US from eBay. Then I bought Lot Mini SAS 36P SFF-8087 to 4 SFF-8482 Connectors With SATA Power Cable 3FT 1M and used the built in SATA power header on the motherboard to connect power to the two drives. I have the pcie card plugged in, it lights up with power, but when I plug everything into the drives and fire up the computer, I get nothing from the drives. No spin up, nothing. Is there something I'm missing to get these drives working? I bought HGST Ultrastar He8 HUH728080AL5200 8TB 3.5 7200 RPM 128MB SAS 12Gb/s hard drive x2

[da na]

Theoretically that should work. 

You should have a configuration ROM for that card that you can access before boot. Perhaps, though, the card wouldn't initialize if legacy option ROMs are not enabled in the BIOS? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Does the sata power have 3.3v? Try cutting/removing th 3v3 power as its often used for drive spindown on these drives.  The drives should spinup even with no data connection.

[da na]

23 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The drives should spinup even with no data connection.

SCSI protocol drives almost 100% of the time need a signal from the controller to spin up, unlike ATA. 

Although, the 3.3v power could definitely be the issue. 

[FreelancerSystem]

26 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Does the sata power have 3.3v? Try cutting/removing th 3v3 power as its often used for drive spindown on these drives.  The drives should spinup even with no data connection.

There is only 4 wires, no orange. So I'd say no to there being 3.3v on the SATA power

[da na]

2 minutes ago, FreelancerSystem said:

There is only 4 wires, no orange. So I'd say no to there being 3.3v on the SATA power

In that case I'd think the controller is not communicating with the disks for whatever reason; are you able to go into the controller's ROM (usually CTRL+C while the motherboard is running through POST) and see if perhaps ports are disabled or there is some other glaring issue?

[FreelancerSystem]

4 minutes ago, da na said:

In that case I'd think the controller is not communicating with the disks for whatever reason; are you able to go into the controller's ROM (usually CTRL+C while the motherboard is running through POST) and see if perhaps ports are disabled or there is some other glaring issue?

I tried hitting CTRL+C during POST and it doesn't stop the boot to TrueNAS. Since it's a Pci-e card, is there a way to use the shell in TrueNAS to locate it? It's an older style UEFI BIOS on this board since it's an enterprise itx unit, the options in BIOS are pretty dang limited

 

[FreelancerSystem]

9 minutes ago, da na said:

In that case I'd think the controller is not communicating with the disks for whatever reason; are you able to go into the controller's ROM (usually CTRL+C while the motherboard is running through POST) and see if perhaps ports are disabled or there is some other glaring issue?

If you want to see exactly what I card I got, here's the link
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155421555013

[da na]

4 minutes ago, FreelancerSystem said:

I tried hitting CTRL+C during POST and it doesn't stop the boot to TrueNAS. Since it's a Pci-e card, is there a way to use the shell in TrueNAS to locate it? It's an older style UEFI BIOS on this board since it's an enterprise itx unit, the options in BIOS are pretty dang limited

 

The system ROM for the LSI card does not integrate into the BIOS; it is its own separate utility that loads from the card. 

The shell in TrueNAS would not be able to configure firmware like booting into the card's configuration firmware would be able to. 

Is the "Press Ctrl+C" prompt even appearing for you?

 

And as far as I know, legacy OROMs need to be enabled in your system BIOS for the card's firmware to load properly.

There may also be other options regarding loading firmware from PCI/PCie cards in the system BIOS, make sure all of those are set to 'on'.

 

This Sun article has a nice walkthrough of the procedure and what you should see while booting.

Configuring LSI RAID for Any Operating System from the BIOS (oracle.com)

[FreelancerSystem]

6 minutes ago, da na said:

The system ROM for the LSI card does not integrate into the BIOS; it is its own separate utility that loads from the card. 

The shell in TrueNAS would not be able to configure firmware like booting into the card's configuration firmware would be able to. 

Is the "Press Ctrl+C" prompt even appearing for you?

 

And as far as I know, legacy OROMs need to be enabled in your system BIOS for the card's firmware to load properly.

There may also be other options regarding loading firmware from PCI/PCie cards in the system BIOS, make sure all of those are set to 'on'.

 

This Sun article has a nice walkthrough of the procedure and what you should see while booting.

Configuring LSI RAID for Any Operating System from the BIOS (oracle.com)

There is never a prompt like that, and nowhere in the BIOS can I enable any legacy boot options. So maybe I'm just SoL with this motherboard and would need to get something that supports legacy boot?

[da na]

4 minutes ago, FreelancerSystem said:

There is never a prompt like that, and nowhere in the BIOS can I enable any legacy boot options. So maybe I'm just SoL with this motherboard and would need to get something that supports legacy boot?

Oh, that's not good then! Card never gets a chance to initialize its firmware, it seems. And, since SCSI (including SAS) drives will only spin up after receiving a signal from the controller telling them to do so (which only happens after the controller's processor boots up), your disks show no signs of life. 

Really odd that the board would not be able to read firmware/OROMs from attached cards, though. 

 

Could be a chance that the card itself is defective, but you would need another computer with a PCIe slot and legacy ROM support to test that out.

[FreelancerSystem]

9 minutes ago, da na said:

Oh, that's not good then! Card never gets a chance to initialize its firmware, it seems. And, since SCSI (including SAS) drives will only spin up after receiving a signal from the controller to do so (which only happens after the controller's processor boots up), your disks show no signs of life. 

Really odd that the board would not be able to read firmware/OROMs from attached cards, though. 

 

Could be a chance that the card itself is defective, but you would need another computer with a PCIe slot and legacy ROM support to test that out.

Luckily, I have a slightly older version of the same style of PC that I set the PCi-e port to use legacy mode so we're gonna try that and see what happens

[FreelancerSystem]

1 hour ago, da na said:

Oh, that's not good then! Card never gets a chance to initialize its firmware, it seems. And, since SCSI (including SAS) drives will only spin up after receiving a signal from the controller telling them to do so (which only happens after the controller's processor boots up), your disks show no signs of life. 

Really odd that the board would not be able to read firmware/OROMs from attached cards, though. 

 

Could be a chance that the card itself is defective, but you would need another computer with a PCIe slot and legacy ROM support to test that out.

Update, tried the motherboard that has legacy boot options, and it booted into the controller setup with CTRL+C. So, with that in mind and knowing this PC doesn't have NVMe (so I can't just connect the TrueNAS drive to it and go) can I do a fresh install of TrueNAS and import the storage pool I had in the old machine (plug in the RAID enclosure to the new system) without losing data?

[da na]

6 hours ago, FreelancerSystem said:

Update, tried the motherboard that has legacy boot options, and it booted into the controller setup with CTRL+C. So, with that in mind and knowing this PC doesn't have NVMe (so I can't just connect the TrueNAS drive to it and go) can I do a fresh install of TrueNAS and import the storage pool I had in the old machine (plug in the RAID enclosure to the new system) without losing data?

You should be able to do that, but definitely back up your data first if possible just in case.

[FreelancerSystem]

13 hours ago, da na said:

You should be able to do that, but definitely back up your data first if possible just in case.

Was able to move the pool to the new install, and now I have the old pool and a mirrored 8TB Pool powered by the two SAS drives. Super appreciate your help!