topic Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J in Intel® Xeon® Processor and Server Products

SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 20:30:14 GMT

I've been looking for drivers, but all I can seem to find are packages with a massive list of possibilities as to which kind of controller I have. Device manager shows it's an Intel device with an ID of 1D69. I would normally check the PCI Database, but it seems their database is borked at the moment.

Given what I'm seeing on the motherboard I don't think there's a hardware raid on here, unless there's an integrated chip that I don't see. The drivers page for my board series seems to suggest this https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25942/SAS-Hardware-RAID-Driver-for-Windows-x86-x64-version-?product=61089 SAS Hardware RAID Driver for Windows* (x86 & x64 version) but I think this is more likely: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25935/Intel-Embedded-Server-RAID-Technology-2-ESRT2-RAID-driver-for-Windows-?product=61089 Download Intel® Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 (ESRT2) RAID driver for Windows* . In the BIOS there is mention of using ESRT2 or RSTe. I'm familiar with RSTe as the software (or hybrid) raid that's popular on most consumer motherboards but I'd never encountered ESRT2 before.

If I'm to use either of those packages to install drivers however, there's still the issue of determining what exact device I'm working with. Would anyone be able to help with that?

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 22:48:08 GMT

Hello,

RSTe and ESRT2 are software embedded RAID solutions which you can use to set up a RAID array without using any additional hardware. Further information can be found here page# 44

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/support/us/en/documents/motherboards/server/s2600cp/sb/g26942005_s2600cp_p4000cp_tps_rev19.pdf Technical Product Specification for Intel® Server Board S2600CP Family and Intel® Server System P4000CP Family

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 05:20:01 GMT

I've been looking through that manual since I got the board, but can only find very basic information regarding the two RAID options on the motherboard, which seems to be limited to which RAID modes are supported by which solution. The best I can find is that this is based on LSI Megaraid software. I've been unable to find drivers for this, but I am also curious if I should even be seeing that with RSTe selected instead.

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 16:59:53 GMT

Hello,

Our best recommendation is using the ESRT2 (LSI) embedded RAID controller since you can use the https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25945/RAID-Web-Console-2-Utility-for-Windows-?product=56333 Intel(R) RAID Web Console 2 to manage the RAID array, what operating system are you looking to install?

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:26:13 GMT

My reasoning behind RSTe over ESRT2 was that I don't have the upgrade key that would allow a RAID5 array.

I am running Windows Server 2012 R2, so worst case scenario if I can't figure out how to set up a RAID using the motherboard (the prompt for accessing RSTe via ctrl+i isn't showing up either) I could always do a software RAID5 from Windows disk management. I could also install UnRaid and set up parity and Server 2012 R2 as a guest as well.

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:47:19 GMT

Hi,

Understand your reasoning. The drivers for RSTe can be found here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25393/Intel-RSTe-AHCI-SCU-Software-RAID-driver-for-Windows-?product=66133 Intel® RSTe AHCI & SCU Software RAID driver for Windows*

The GUI console is included on the driver package.

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 18:01:32 GMT

Super, that's the one I needed. Thank you for finding that for me. So there's no interface during boot to create a volume, but rather I can use the CLI or this GUI to do it? I guess that makes sense given rebooting a server would be troublesome just to configure RAID.

Re: SAS Controller drivers for S2600CP2J

idata — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 18:15:43 GMT

Hello,

You can enter the RAID BIOS by pressing CRTL+I during POST. Make sure to disable quiet boot in the BIOS set up menu before and have the correct configuration for RSTe in the Mass storage controller properties.