Question Trouble with B550 Motherboard + SAS RAID

[gigabit1]

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a PCIe RAID Controller into a new GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Elite V2 motherboard that I recently bought, and I'm having the following issue:

What's expected?
- The BIOS of the PCIe RAID Controller itself must show up first before POST.

What happens in my case?
- It shows directly the BIOS splash screen and then directly boots into Motherboard BIOS after a minute, without any possibility to start the LSI MegaRAID utility.

When leaving the controller disconnected, it doesn't take so much time to boot into BIOS, so I think there's something going wrong between the card and the board BIOS. Also I tried this PCIe card in an older motherboard (Asus M4N68T-M) and it runs the RAID Controller ROM as expected, so I suspect that the newer motherboard isn't recognizing properly the RAID Controller for some reason. What could be going on here?

Thank you.

PS: As a side note, both the BIOS and the system recognize the controller card, but the card ROM doesn't start at boot; it just makes the boot process hang for a while.

--

Full specs:
Case: Inter-Tech 4U-4408
Motherboard: GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Elite V2
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 4.40GHz w/ integrated Radeon graphics
PSU: NOX Urano VX750
SAS/SATA Controller: IBM M5015 Megaraid 9260-8i
OS: TrueNAS Scale

How is being the card recognized in the system:

05:00.0 0104: 1000:0079 (rev 05)
        Subsystem: 1014:03b2
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 34, IOMMU group 10
        I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
        Memory at fc760000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Memory at fc700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Expansion ROM at fc740000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [68] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data
        Capabilities: [a8] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [c0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=15 Masked-
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [138] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: megaraid_sas
        Kernel modules: megaraid_sas

 

[Ralston18]

[Moderator Note: Moving post from Components to Storage. More applicable category.]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

What is the requirement or reason for installing the RAID controller?

Appears to be old software/hardware as I understand the posted image (3rd link).

 

[RealBeast]

I've found that Adaptec controllers of the same time period (specifically the 6805) work fine in Windows 10 but no longer boot prior to the OS, all changes are made in either the GUI or command line based Adaptec software post-boot. All you need is sufficiently up to date drivers, which Adaptec still provides. I would look for updated drivers and interface software.

 

[gigabit1]

[Moderator Note: Moving post from Components to Storage. More applicable category.]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

What is the requirement or reason for installing the RAID controller?

Appears to be old software/hardware as I understand the posted image (3rd link).

I've found that Adaptec controllers of the same time period (specifically the 6805) work fine in Windows 10 but no longer boot prior to the OS, all changes are made in either the GUI or command line based Adaptec software post-boot. All you need is sufficiently up to date drivers, which Adaptec still provides. I would look for updated drivers and interface software.

I just updated the original post with the full specifications of the computer. The goal here is to build a NAS with a RAID0 setup using up to 8 HDDs in a 4U case. The operating system that will be used is TrueNAS Scale, which is based on Debian.

I found out that the card manufacturer provides a software called MegaCLI where I think I can set up the RAID via command line in any operating system post-boot. The only problem is that this way can be very tedious for the person to whom this NAS will be built for.

 

[Ralston18]

Overall, unless there are special requirements involved then I would forego RAID of any sort.

You mention that the NAS is being built for someone else.

Is there any insight as to why that person wants, needs, or requires RAID?

Lots of misinformation out there about RAID. Plus there are often trade-offs involved when any RAID is being used.

What are those requirements? There may be other, simpler, and more manageable ways to add storage to that person's network environment.

Ask some questions, if necessary, and post the answers. You may be doing both yourself and the client a favor in the long run.

Add more information and there will likely be additional comments and suggestions.

 

[RealBeast]

I would never use RAID 0 on a storage array, the loss of a single drive results in the loss of all data.
But using TrueNAS Scale, I assume that you will be using ZFS raidz1 or z2 and that all you need is to use the controller as an HBA to handle the interface of the drives, no?

 

[gigabit1]

Overall, unless there are special requirements involved then I would forego RAID of any sort.

You mention that the NAS is being built for someone else.

Is there any insight as to why that person wants, needs, or requires RAID?

Lots of misinformation out there about RAID. Plus there are often trade-offs involved when any RAID is being used.

What are those requirements? There may be other, simpler, and more manageable ways to add storage to that person's network environment.

Ask some questions, if necessary, and post the answers. You may be doing both yourself and the client a favor in the long run.

Add more information and there will likely be additional comments and suggestions.

I would never use RAID 0 on a storage array, the loss of a single drive results in the loss of all data.
But using TrueNAS Scale, I assume that you will be using ZFS raidz1 or z2 and that all you need is to use the controller as an HBA to handle the interface of the drives, no?

Indeed, I was completely wrong with that adapter 🤦‍♂️. I finally opted (and convinced my client) to use instead a HBA SAS card instead in order to work with pools directly from TrueNAS.

The card I purchased for him is: LSI 9211-8I and works flawless for TrueNAS, just if anyone with the same situation arrives here.

The topic is solved for me.

 

[RealBeast]

Indeed, I was completely wrong with that adapter 🤦‍♂️. I finally opted (and convinced my client) to use instead a HBA SAS card instead in order to work with pools directly from TrueNAS.

The card I purchased for him is: LSI 9211-8I and works flawless for TrueNAS, just if anyone with the same situation arrives here.

The topic is solved for me.

Perfect!