Problems installing Adaptec 5805 on serverboard S5000PAL. Help needed.

[idata]

Hi all,

I am in real need of your expertise here. I have a brand new SR2500 chassis with a brandnew S5000PAL motherboard and six brandnew 146GB disks, 2 CPU's and lots of RAM. This unit boots up fine and I can see all connected devices in motherboard BIOS, and since it is brandnew I assusme everything is good.

My problem begins when installing and Adaptec 5805 RAID controller. I see it fine during boot, and I can enter the RAID controller BIOS too (Ctrl+A). In RAID controller BIOS I can however not see any disks, thus I can not create a bootable array.

I tried connecting the RAID controller in all 4 PCI ports, but it made no difference. I tried numerous settings in the motherboard BIOS too, but all to no avail.

I am kind of stuck here and would bery much appreciate it if someone would provide instructions or hints.

Thanks in advance!

/G

[idata]

Hi there,

Firstly, i need to know exactly which platform system do you have? which drives are you using? what is the firmware revision of the raid controller adapter?

The S5000PAL when using the rack chassis SR2500 comes in two different versions:

1. SR2500ALBRP which has a passive midplane (no raid)2. SR2500ALLXR which has an active midplane - either FALSASMP2 or FALSASMP.

Both the FALSASMP2 or FALSASMP can do hw raid(raid 0,1,5,50) if you have the activation key AND the memory minidimm.

Without HW RAID enabled, basic SW RAID 0, 1, & 10 (mirroring & striping) are supplied via LSI 8 port SAS controller.

Difference between FALSASMP2 and FALSASMP:

The FALSASMP2 uses different activation key and memory on the module.If hw raid enabled, you will be able to raid 6 & 60 as well.

Now if you have the SR2500ALBRP which does not do raid at all, there is only two adaptec raid controller card that has been validated and tested by Intel.

http://serverconfigurator.intel.com/configure-ap.aspx?id=MTQ1NyMxLDE0OTEjMg%3d%3d http://serverconfigurator.intel.com/configure-ap.aspx?id=MTQ1NyMxLDE0OTEjMg%3d%3d

Another thing to check is if your hard drives are on the tested list as well:

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-025416.htm http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-025416.htm

Note that the card Adaptec 5805 has been tested by Intel on the S5000PAL - not as a platform. But there is something else as well added in the notes:

Tested with ASR2500SAS1,D47868-002, MM:880280See page 27/38Website: http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/s5000pal_thol_rev_5_0.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/s5000pal_thol_rev_5_0.pdf

As a test, try to connect the card directly on the PCI Express slot of the motherboard, see if it makes any difference. Check if you are using the same cable kit ASR2500SAS1 as reference.

Check if there is any firmware update for the card which relates to this problem.Check the hard drive compatibility as well.

Another test to do is if you have another compatible raid controller card which is on tested list, try it and see if it makes any difference.

Connect the hard drives directly to the raid controller - dont use the backplane kit for now as a test.

Other than this, may be in your next post, i can think of some more ideas.

Other:

Memory for the FALSASMP/2:http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/s5000pal_thol_rev_5_0.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/s5000pal_thol_rev_5_0.pdf

Note: If there is any possibility to go for the SR2500ALLXR, it is best one. :-)

All the best,

Regards,

Aryan

[idata]

Hi Aryan,

Some answers to a few a your questions:

Seagate

*ST3146356SS Cheetah *15K.6 RPM*SAS-300*HD-SAS*147GB *SR2500 - 6th SAS / SATA drive kitIntel® Server Platform SR2500ALLXRS5000PALR / SR2500 LX 2U integrated platform,Includes: * Server Board S5000PALR* 2U chassis with hot swap redundant cooling* Backplane* Two risers* Active SAS Midplane

/Greg

[idata]

What Drive-Cage do you use?

I have had several problems with S5000PSL and ASR 5805 with the EXP4 and EXP6 drive cages.

Updating to the latest Firmware (2.12) solved these issues.

Is there a difference between Boot (pull power plug) and Restart?

Fulco

[idata]

Hi there,

Since you have the active midplane which can do raid, try to use this one and see if it works at least with the midplane.

Make sure to use the activation and dimm memory for the active midplane if you have them.

Remove the adaptec card and connect the drives to the midplane.

Press Ctrl + G to enter the raid bios and check if it sees the drives.

Note: I have checked the drives : they are on the http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/hdd_test_report_rev_23_0.pdf THOL

All the best,

Regards,

Aryan

[idata]

Hi all,

Thought it would be relevant to upload detailed pictures of the hardware.

/Greg

[idata]

Hi Fulco,

Drive-cage would be EXP6 since there are six disks, no?

Very interesting that you've had similar problems. Hmm... I should go and check for latest updates as you suggest. Just didn't think it would be necessary with brandnew hardware.

Small question; We do agree that the connector ports on the Adaptec 5805 must be connected to the SATA HD ports on the motherboard (right next to the PSU's), right? Together with the Adaptec 5805 I also recived these cables ACK-I-mSASx4-4SATAx1-SB-0.5m R (http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/cables/cables/sas/ http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/cables/cables/sas/).

/Greg

[idata]

I looked at your photo's: no this is not the EXP6 backplane I use.

AXX6DRV3GEXP is a 6 drive cage with build-in Expander.

See posting "Two years of trouble with S5000PSL" for more details.

I use a similar cable, this six-drive-cage uses only one SATA connector.

Fulco

[idata]

Hi Fulco,

No, you are right. It's neither of the two drive cage's you've mentioned. The server I have here is only a 2U (I should have checked).

Actually, the one SATA port on the backplane is for the 6th Disk kit. Strangely enough a special kit is needed when wanting to install 6 disks in this server. Only 5 slots are built-in.

/Greg

[idata]

Hi there,

Have you checked this as well?

Yes, indeed the rack system does not use the same backplane like the one in pedestal chassis. But still you should be able to update your current backplane to the http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&Inst=Yes&ProductID=2451&DwnldID=17698&strOSs=38&OSFullName=OSIndependent&lang=eng version 2.11

Hard Drives not detected with 6th SAS/SATA drive kit

The sixth hard drive kit (ASR2500SIXDRV) comes with a power cable and two SATA cables. Cabling for the sixth hard drive varies depending on which midplane you have in your system. There are specific power cable connections and SATA cables for active and passive midplanes.

See the web solution, Installing a Sixth Hard Drive, for detailed instructions to install the Sixth Hard Drive Kit product code ASR2500SIXDRV.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-025698.htm http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-025698.htm

Regards,

Aryan