[SOLVED] Raid Controller doesn't detect drives

[kds_by_dk]

Hi everyone,

i'm currently failing at building a Small Office Server for my friend.

The raid controller cant find any drives.

The controller has two mini-SAS HD SFF8643 connectors and I'm using a mini-SAS to 4x SATA adapter to connect the drives.

Steps i tried:

• 
  reboot
  connected the drives to the MB - they show up in MB BIOS
  connected other known good drives to the raid controller
  changed mini-SAS port on the controller
  used different SATA connectors from the mini-SAS to SATA adapter
  pulled the raid controller out, booted the system, and put it back.

System specs:

• 
  Intel Xeon E5-2620v4
  ASUS Z10PA-U8 Motherboard
  Intel RS3WC080 Raid Controller
  16 GB KIngston regECC
  2x Samsung SSD 860 Pro 1TB
  500W PSU

All the components are new.

As far as i can tell, all the components should be compatible with each other.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[laviniuc]

gonna sound silly but did you hook also power connectors to the sata drives?

try running them on the build in sata controller instead without the sas adapters

 

[kds_by_dk]

gonna sound silly but did you hook also power connectors to the sata drives?

try running them on the build in sata controller instead without the sas adapters

Yes, the drives are connected to power

When I connect the drives to the motherboard sata, they show up in the Bios. I don't have a spare Raid Controller or sas-sata cable, so i can't test them.
I never used a sas-to-sata adapter cable, and i'm wondering if all the components are compatible and should work together?

 

[laviniuc]

you have a builtin sata raid controller. the drives will be limited by the sata interface anyway, the sas controller wont make the raid array any faster anyway

i'd say plug them in sata ports, configure the builtin controller as raid and use that isntead of the sas option

 

[kds_by_dk]

you have a builtin sata raid controller. the drives will be limited by the sata interface anyway, the sas controller wont make the raid array any faster anyway

i'd say plug them in sata ports, configure the builtin controller as raid and use that isntead of the sas option

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that the board has a Raid Controller. The asus spec page mentions Windows only software raid, LSI® MegaRAID cards and Asus SAS controller, but no OnBoard Raid Controler.

And I plan on installing VM Ware ESXi on the server, which has no Software Raid support.

 

[kds_by_dk]

Let me correct my self here

In the Manual, starting at page 117, it's described how to create a RAID with the Onboard controller. I don't know why they call it a Software RAID ...

Thanks for the help.

 

[laviniuc]

you're right to wanna use the hardware one, it's "better" - but it's easy to test as sata with the onboard one...

 

[kds_by_dk]

you're right to wanna use the hardware one, it's "better" - but it's easy to test as sata with the onboard one...

The thing is, I can't get it to work with ESXi.
I changed the BIOS settings created a RAID1 Virtual Drive (also shows this during boot) but in the os I still have two separate disks.

I don't quite understand what LSI MegaRAID is. I can't find much documentation about it, and it's always described as software raid and that you have to install drivers in the OS, but whats the point then of having it on a chip on the motherboard?!

I might be able to get my hands on an other raid controller over the weekend, so i could do some more testing and trying.

FIY: As the Inter Controller is new, i also created a support ticket with intel, maybe they have an idea.

 

[laviniuc]

i read a bit on it, and yes, you're right, the onboard doesnt work with esxi
https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/125870/can-you-install-esxi-on-a-server-with-intel-sw-onboard-raid-1

shame... look here for a supported s-ata controller:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io that should work

the sas one doesn't play nice with sata drives apparently:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G2QX9I8Y5YIR/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00HXWRRBS