Raid config for S2600CW2 Server Board with FUP8X25S3HSDK 8x2.5 Hot Swap Drive Cage Kit in P4304XXMFEN2

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I'm trying to install the S2600CW2 board in the P4304XXMFEN2 Server Chassis, using the 8x2.5 Hot Swap Drive Cage Kit FUP8x25S3HSDK, and the AXXCBL380HDHD mini-SAS cable(s).

Problem is the embedded Raid s/w ESRT2 and RSTe only see 4 drives of the for configuration purposes (i.e. I can configure to arrays of up to 4 drives each, but no more!).

Am I wiring it wrong? I have one of the AXXCBL380HDHD cables going from the board header SATA0-3 to the Hot Swap backplane connector Ports 0-3, and the other AXXCBL380HDHD cable going from the motherboard sSATA0-3 to the Hot Swap backplane connector Ports 4-7.

How can I combine all 8 drives into one array?

(By the way, the Server Configurator interactive Guide omits the requirement for the AXXCBL380HDHD cable)

Thanks. Any help would be appreciated.

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Does this board still use the (raid) activation keys? What kind of a Raid key (if any) do you have on the board?

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/rste/sb/CS-033541.htm http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/rste/sb/CS-033541.htm

If none that explains that only 4 drives are available (like on the S2600CP-series).

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tkhfi: Thanks for the reply, but I don't believe a key will fix my problem for this particular board. The Technical Product Spec for this S2600CW board (http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s2600cw/sb/s2600cw_tps_v1_12.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s2600cw/sb/s2600cw_tps_v1_12.pdf) does have a note that says "RAID configurations cannot span across the two embedded AHCI SATA controllers". Guess I didn't realize this when I got the board.

I'm just surprised that there are 2 distinct 4 port SATA controllers on this board (SATA 0-3, and sSATA 0-3), instead of one SATA 0-3 and one SATA 4-7 (as is on the SAS version of this board).

I believe I can connect 4 drives using the Hot Swap cage and then 2 additional drives using the 7-pin single-port SATA connectors labeled SATA-4, and SATA-5, but that's just an odd way of configuring and using an 8 drive hot swap drive cage.

Oh well... guess I can live with a 4 drive array; unless I want to put in an add-in RAID controller.

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Hello dkpruett,

Your affirmation is completely correct, according to the Technical Product Specification page # 41, RAID configurations cannot be combined between the two on-board AHCI SATA controllers. To achieve such configuration we strongly recommend getting a hardware RAID controller fully compatible with the board:

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s2600cw/sb/CS-034888.htm http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s2600cw/sb/CS-034888.htm

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Dan:

Thanks for confirming this.

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Then how about combining the 2 arrays using Windows storage spaces or LVM if using Linux? Just an afterthought.

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Hi,

To answer your question, the configuration could be achieved successfully using such applications but is not supported by Intel.