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RAID Driver for Intel S3000AH motherboard Windows Server 2008 R2

idata
Employee
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Support for this motherboard has ended. This board had been purchased 02/01/2007. However, with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2, it's like breathing new life into a server that still has adequate speed. Currently I have an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor in the system with still room to grow.

Sadly, there is no W2K8 R2 driver for the Intel Embedded RAID, Intel® ICH7R I/O Controller.

Hey INTEL!!! Can you make a driver please??? I purchased your board with the consideration that I could later upgrade it keeping up with technology. Thanks in advance.

As for other readers, if you know of a 3rd party driver source, please point me in the right direction.

Superman808

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idata
Employee
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Intel announced the Intel® Server Board S3000AH product discontinuance September 2008. There are rarely any product driver or firmware updates made after a product discontinuance date. Windows* Server 2008 R2 launched on October 22, 2009.

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idata
Employee
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Well, that seems logical. However, Windows Server 2008, released on February 27, 2008 (Source)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/roadmap.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/roadmap.aspx

So, for 1/2 of a year, Intel couldn't take into consideration customers that may be sitting on a retail board warranted for 3 years? Something is wrong with that picture.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/cs-010807.htm http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/cs-010807.htm

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idata
Employee
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The Intel® Server Board S3000AH does not list Microsoft Windows* Server 2008 as a http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s3000ah/sb/CS-023194.htm supported operating system.

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idata
Employee
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Yes, I've read that and again, in support of the customer that purchases Intel product, how big a deal is it for the company to write a driver for a server motherboard? If you could update BIOS changes as late as June 12, 2009, why not simply work to include the driver too?

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/19157/eng/BIOSReleaseNotes0054.TXT http://downloadmirror.intel.com/19157/eng/BIOSReleaseNotes0054.TXT (Source)

Other mobo companies like Asus & Gigabyte go through the effort.

I've purchased hundreds of Intel motherboards, and this is a BIG dissapointment.

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idata
Employee
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BTW, a 3rd party RAID card was also considered, but ideally I would like to avoid that.

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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yeamey christmas,

EOL means the Server group no longer test new OSes & drivers for the products. It does not mean the drivers don't exist.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18265&lang=eng http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18265&lang=eng

==========================

 

Supported RAID Controllers

 

==========================

 

This download supports Intel(R) Embedded Server RAID Technology II RAID

 

products (Intel(R) RAID controller SASMF8I; Intel(R) RAID SAS controller

 

AXX4SASMOD; on server boards enabled for ICH9R SATA RAID, ICH10R

 

SATA RAID, S5000 (ESB2) SATA RAID, LSI1064e/1068 SAS RAID, 3420 PCH SATA RAID -

 

including 5000PAL,S5000XAL,S5000PSL,S5000XSL,S5000XVN,SC5400RA,S5000VSA,S5000VCL,S5300SF,

 

S5400SF,S5520HC,S5520HCT,S5500HCV,S5520SC,S5520UR,S5520URT,S5500BC,S5500WB,S5500WBV,

 

S3000AHX,S3000AH,S3000AHV,S3200SHX,S3200SHC,S3200SHL,S3200SHV,S3000SHC,X38MLST,

 

S3420GPX,S3420GPC,S3420GP,S3420GPV,S3420GPR,S7000FC4UR).

 

Please verify that this package has been tested with the RAID device you

 

have chosen to use by checking the drivers web page for your controller

 

at http://support.intel.com http://support.intel.com.

Let us know how it works as no one has ever tried or tested it on a AH

I would not advise trying it on a system currenty in use.

If you have not place the system into use yet and want to install and give it a try, good luck.

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idata
Employee
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@Doc_SilverCreek,

I was hoping somebody would say that!!

Although, this is what appears on the page of the link you provided. I'll give it a shot as I didn't try this driver package yet.

Supports Intel® RAID controller SASMF8I; server boards enabled for ICH9R SATA RAID, ICH10R SATA RAID, S5000 (ESB2) SATA RAID, LSI1064e/1068 SAS RAID - including S3200SH/S3210SH, X38ML, S5400SF, S7000FC4UR, S5000PAL / S5000XAL, S5000PSL / S5000XSL / SSR212MC2 / S5000XVN / SC5400RA, S5000VSA, S5000VCL / SR1530HCL, S5520WB12V / S5520WB / S5500WB, S5520HC / S5500HCV, S5520UR, S5520SC, and S3420GP.

I read somewhere that someone did an upgrade from W2K3 to W2K8 with the S3000AH board...so, I'm doing that now. Need a few more hours to finish. If that works, great! I'll then trash the OS, and install 2008 with the driver set you provided and will report back.

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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This is the list of boards the drivers were tested on.

My list came from the ESRT2_Windows_v.13.21.0614.2010_Readme.txt in the driver package which also includes the disclimer:

Please verify that this package has been tested with the RAID device you  

have chosen to use by checking the drivers web page for your controller

 

at http://support.intel.com http://support.intel.com.

Your S3000AH has not been tested with either these drivers or with W2008R2. Does not mean it won't work, Just means that Intel's has not tested it and if it does not work, your on your own.

I run a lot of older hardware with newer OS versions. Most of the time it works great, once in a while....... BSOD.

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idata
Employee
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Bah! This is the same driver set I download before.

But!! I run the install again. Because after hunting for hours and several more getting the OS to recognize, I may have goofed up someplace. So, will take a break and get a good night sleep.

At the moment, I'm finishing up the W2K3 install to apply the W2K8 upgrade.

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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Since your installing 2003 check in device manager, under the raid controller, details tab , and copy down the Device Instance ID.

That way we can check the driver package to make sure it has the correct keys for this system

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idata
Employee
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idata
Employee
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Under Device Manager W2K3

SCSI and RAID controllers

- Intel Embedded server RAID Technology

Driver files detail

- C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\MegaIDE.sys

Details Tab (Hardware ID)

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&SUBSYS_348d8086&REV_01

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&SUBSYS_348d8086

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_010400

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&CC_0104

Details (Compatible ID)

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&REV_01

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3

PCI\VEN_8086&CC_010400

PCI\VEN_8086&CC_0104

PCI\VEN_8086

PCI\CC_010400

PCI\CC_0104

Details (Matching Device ID)

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3&SUBSYS_348d8086

Here is the screen display when I install the RAID drivers for Windows Server 2008 R2:

http://www.ctrlaltdel-usa.net/superman/forum/yabb/attachments/IMG_9877_cropped.jpg http://www.ctrlaltdel-usa.net/superman/forum/yabb/attachments/IMG_9877_cropped.jpg

If I "Hide drivers that are not compatible with hardware on this computer", no driver is listed. There is a myriad of selections..."Which one?"

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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Hitting the basics first. In BIOS setup configured as below?

Onboard SATAController = enabled

SATA MODE = Enhanced

Config SATA RAID = enabled

SATA RAID OPROM = LSI

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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idata
Employee
2,176 Views

Oh no!! Fake RAID!!

I was saving that for my last option in an effort to not impact the CPU at all taking advantage of the LSI controller for the hardware RAID solution.

The other option was going with Windows mirroring as that is more pliable if the server board dies out, I can take the array to another machine and restore/rebuild the data.

Would using the Intel Matrix Storage limit me in repair solution, should the motherboard break, and I have to get an exact replacement to recover? Since the S3000AH is end of life, that would be hinder a potential resolve if there is server board failure.

Please advise Doc.

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idata
Employee
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However, since this machine is not mission critical and that I'm doing a brand new installation of Windows Server 2008, I'll proceed to confirm that the Intel Matrix Storage does work.

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idata
Employee
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Windows Server 2008 is installed and right now the Intel Matrix Storage Utility is building the RAID 1 volume.

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DSilv11
Valued Contributor III
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I checked with some of my sources. I think the LSI driver your looking for is version 4.4.0208.2008.

From what I can find it is the only Longhorn (2008) LSI ich7 driver

Its not posted on Intel's site and it would not be appropriate for me to suggest googling someone else site .

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idata
Employee
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Google? What's that?

Ok...will look for it...right now, in the process of getting alcoholic refreshments for Halloween. I'll return on Monday.

Thank you Doc!

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