Question INTEL SR2600UR Server

[Leon Rembowski]

I have a pair of these intel servers well the one is thin and the other is about 3" tall both use the same motherboard with 2 xeon cpu and each with 96gb memory. One has space for 8 x 2 1/2" drives and the tall one has space for 4 x 3 1/2" drives and one tape drive. And both seem to work ok but My problem which may be a stupid oversight is the OS and bios only see the first 2 drives the lights in the other drives don't flicker, they aren't recognised but they are plugged into the backplane. I'm new to servers and the intel documentation is scant but Do the drives need to be plugged in with sata cables? I thought since they are plugged into the backplane and that is connected by a large ATA size connector to the motherboard that cabling wouldn't be necessary. If anyone has experience with these servers I would be very grateful. The thin one has 6 drives connected and only the first 2 are seen and the thick one has 4 drives plus a tape drive and only the first 2 drives are seen. The tape drive powers and comes up with ready so its electronics seem ok. I am trying to use proxmox with these systems. Hoping to use zfs since proxmox is not supposed to like hardware raid. I have proxmox on my desktop with 6 mirrored drives so I know it works , just these servers are my problem children. THanks

 

[kanewolf]

I have a pair of these intel servers well the one is thin and the other is about 3" tall both use the same motherboard with 2 xeon cpu and each with 96gb memory. One has space for 8 x 2 1/2" drives and the tall one has space for 4 x 3 1/2" drives and one tape drive. And both seem to work ok but My problem which may be a stupid oversight is the OS and bios only see the first 2 drives the lights in the other drives don't flicker, they aren't recognised but they are plugged into the backplane. I'm new to servers and the intel documentation is scant but Do the drives need to be plugged in with sata cables? I thought since they are plugged into the backplane and that is connected by a large ATA size connector to the motherboard that cabling wouldn't be necessary. If anyone has experience with these servers I would be very grateful. The thin one has 6 drives connected and only the first 2 are seen and the thick one has 4 drives plus a tape drive and only the first 2 drives are seen. The tape drive powers and comes up with ready so its electronics seem ok. I am trying to use proxmox with these systems. Hoping to use zfs since proxmox is not supposed to like hardware raid. I have proxmox on my desktop with 6 mirrored drives so I know it works , just these servers are my problem children. THanks

There are probably ports on the backplane that aren't connected to anything. Look at section 6.4.1 in the manual -- https://www.intel.com/content/dam/s...er/s5520ur/sb/e45274011_sr2600ur_tps_r1_9.pdf

 

[Leon Rembowski]

There are probably ports on the backplane that aren't connected to anything. Look at section 6.4.1 in the manual -- https://www.intel.com/content/dam/s...er/s5520ur/sb/e45274011_sr2600ur_tps_r1_9.pdf

Thank you, you are probably right. I downloaded , saved , and am reading the document now.

 

[faalin]

Have you booted into the Raid card to see if it sees the drives are there? They might need to be initialized there first before showing up anywhere else.

 

[Misgar]

Hoping to use zfs since proxmox is not supposed to like hardware raid.

Which particular "flavour" of ZFS are you thinking of using? Check your OS carefully and see if it's compatible with the controller(s) in your server.

I use TrueNAS Core and it does not get on well with hardware RAID controllers. For optimal operation, you need an HBA running in IT mode (not IR mode). I flashed a couple of Dell H200 cards over to LSI firmware whilst still in IR mode, then flashed the LSI firmware over to IT mode.

the OS and bios only see the first 2 drives the lights in the other drives don't flicker, they aren't recognised but they are plugged into the backplane.

Stupid question, but is a physical controller installed for the unresponsive drives? Trace the backplane connections behind the "dead" drives and confirm they terminate in an HBA or RAID controller.

Some of my LSI SAS controllers have only 4 channels on a single SFF-8087 connector. Others have 8 channels on two SFF-8087 ports. If an SFF-8087 connector is unplugged, four of my drives disappear.

Are your hard disks SAS or SATA? The tape drive is probably SAS.

Can you check if the "dead" drives are spinning, i.e. receiving power.

You might have to cover pin 3 on the SATA power bus with Kapton tape to get the drives to spin up.
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-in-White-Label-Disks-/