RAID controller plus onboard SATA ports

[fbbf52]

Hello,

I picked up a server with a Supermicro X8DTN+ motherboard and a LSI 8708EM2 raid controller. The server chassis has 12 drive bays but only 8 of which are connected to the raid controller via SAS cables.

That leaves 4 drive bays unusable by the raid card and an extra SAS connector on the backplane that all the drives connect to. This is fine, I don't need all 12 drives connected to the raid card. However, I still want to be able to use all 12 drive bays.

I tried connecting a SAS to SATA cable to the remaining SAS connector on the backplane and the four SATA endpoints to four SATA ports directly on the motherboard. This hasn't worked...I'm still only able to use drives connected to the raid card. The BIOS does not detect any additional drives connected directly to the motherboard's SATA ports.

Is this a limitation with not being able to load both the onboard SATA controller and the raid controller at the same time? I believe the BIOS is set to detect drives as IDE (not RAID or AHCI).

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

1| It seems like you installed your OS on the drives that are on the RAID Card. You may wan to install your OS on the native chipset(ICH10R) and then install your LSI Raid card and then add the 8 drives to mark up 12 bays on the server rack/chassis.
2| Can you please pass on your full system' specs inclusive of your OS?
3| In BIOS set the SATA controller to AHCI instead of RAID.

As an added measure, please make sure your BIOS is up to date.