X9SRH-7TF (S2011, LSI 2308, Dual 10GbE ~$500)

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sotech

Member
Jul 13, 2011
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Australia
That's fantastic value, particularly with one of those two CPUs... workstation or server. Can't wait for local pricing.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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I really do wish Intel would get the Socket 2011 IBs - at least the single CPU versions. I'd build from this but for me the 130W heat profile is a deal killer. My next few builds needs to be quiet. The one I really want to see is the E5-1650 v2, which should come in as a 85-95w part.
 

Mike

Member
May 29, 2012
482
16
18
EU
I really do wish Intel would get the Socket 2011 IBs - at least the single CPU versions. I'd build from this but for me the 130W heat profile is a deal killer. My next few builds needs to be quiet. The one I really want to see is the E5-1650 v2, which should come in as a 85-95w part.


Arent those IB UP's arriving somewhere this time next year at it's earliest? I've been holding off on an E5 and can't wait anymore anyway so it won't matter, but it's good to know that in the future ya can atleast swap it.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Yea, we have also looked at the idea of doing an IB switch. I sent cactus my 24-port Cisco TopSpin 120 to go along with the $40 dual port IB cards. Now I have 4x 40gb IB cards sitting around in the event I ever get excited to try this again.
 

Eson

New Member
Oct 14, 2012
26
0
1
Anyone know if this board is actually supposed to support the E5-1620? Mine get stuck in post on error code B7. The board POSTs fine with a E5-2600-cpu so nothing wrong with the board. I have contacted Supermicro support, they dont seem to have made any BIOS-updates to this board.

I find it hard to believe that a brand new CPU is broken but its perhaps possible.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,140
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DE
Just got this board to build an all-in-one (with a Netgear XS-708 10 GBe switch)
Has anyone already reflashed the 2308 Controller from IR to IT mode?
(Success, problems etc)

I suppose it is the firmware from LSI 9217 -> IT mode = 9207
LSI SAS 9217-8i
 
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ant

New Member
Jul 16, 2013
21
5
3
Hi Eson,

Hope you have already solved this. I have this motherboard with a e5-1620 and it works and is supported. I believe engineering sample (ES) cpus might not work though. Is your cpu a proper e5-1620 or an ES version?

Anyway, I searched for error B7 and supermicro says this:

Super Micro Computer, Inc.. - FAQ Entry

"
...
At the system initialization it hang with a post code “B7â€.

I try to search AMI bios post code on your web site but I don’t find them.
Do you have a description list of AMI bios post code ?
Do you know what means the post code “B7†?
Answer
B7 is relate to Configuration Reset (reset of NVRAM settings). You can download AMI error code for X9 product in following link.

https://www.ami.com/support/doc/AMI_Aptio_4.x_Status_Codes_PUB.pdf
"

Not sure what you can do with that. Maybe reset the bios settings? Not sure the proper way to reset the bios settings off the top of my head but one way that works is to do this:
- power off the computer and unplug the power.
- remove the round battery from the motherboard and short out the battery contacts (connect the two battery contacts with a piece of metal) for a second or two.
- replace the battery and then you can plug the power in and start the computer.

Good luck.


Anyone know if this board is actually supposed to support the E5-1620? Mine get stuck in post on error code B7. The board POSTs fine with a E5-2600-cpu so nothing wrong with the board. I have contacted Supermicro support, they dont seem to have made any BIOS-updates to this board.

I find it hard to believe that a brand new CPU is broken but its perhaps possible.
 

ant

New Member
Jul 16, 2013
21
5
3
Hi Gea,

I have flashed the 2308 Controller to IT mode - supermicro assisted:

"Regarding your inquiry:
I am considering purchasing a X9SRH-7TF and I would like to know if it is possible to change the on board lsi 2308 sas controller to IT mode by flashing it in uefi shell using the method here: Super Micro Computer, Inc.. - FAQ Entry
Super Micro Computer, Inc.. - FAQ Entry

I can get IT mode firmware for 2308 from the lsi site, I just want to make sure this is possible with X9SRH-7TF
--

Yes, you can flash the firmware to IT mode. The firmware is available on our ftp:
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/


Regards,

FH
Technical Support
Supermicro"

I used the firmware from here: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/

I booted into the UEFI shell to do it and used the UEFI script. One thing to note, when the script asks for the 9 remaining digits, they mean the last 9 digits of the big code on the motherboard relating to sas.

I really hope you post your results of building an all-in-one with this motherboard. I am trying to do this and am having major issues.

So far I am just not able to pass through the LSI 2308 to a guest in a way that works. I can pass it though, but the guest crashes while it is booting or attempting to install.

The LSI 2308 works well when I do a bare metal install of various operating systems including solaris 11.1, smartos, various linuxes. I can install various hypervisors on the server (tried esxi 5.0u2, esxi 5.1u1, latest oracle vm (xen 4.1 based), centos 6.4 with xen (xen 4.2). With any of these hypervisors I can install solaris 11.1 as a guest (without passthrough) but when I enable passthrough of the 2308 and start the guest, it crashes during boot. If I try and install the guest with the 2308 already passed through - it fails to get past an early part of the install where it is detecting hardware. I have tried changing lots of bios settings and as you can see I have tried many different hypervisors. I have also tried other solaris based guests. No luck yet. I have asked supermicro for advice but have not heard anything in a week. Hope they are busy investigating. If I don't hear from supermicro soon I will try downgrading the 2308 firmware.

As a guess, I think this might be relating to the LSI 2308 controller supporting SR-IOV and maybe that is stopping normal pci passthrough from working? LSI lists the 2308 controller as supporting SR-IOV, but does not mention it with their 2308 based 9207-8i sas card. So not sure if SR-IOV is enabled on all 2308 based devices. I have not found any hypervisors that support SR-IOV with SAS controller - they only mention it for ethernet and it all seems very new.

Or maybe it is a bios issue.

Anyway - hope it works for you, and I hope I can get mine working.

Ant

Just got this board to build an all-in-one (with a Netgear XS-708 10 GBe switch)
Has anyone already reflashed the 2308 Controller from IR to IT mode?
(Success, problems etc)

I suppose it is the firmware from LSI 9217 -> IT mode = 9207
LSI SAS 9217-8i
 
Last edited:

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
nifty note: the hp dl360e with LSI2308 can be flashed legit to IT mode (just say you are using solaris)!!
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
3,140
1,182
113
DE
Today I found some time to build up an all-in-one based on a X9SRH-7TF
with 10 GbE and SAS 2308 in IT mode

CPU: Xeon 2620-2 GhZ 6core (optional 4 or 8core)
RAM: 32 GB ECC RAM (4 x 8GB, max 256 GB)


Step 1:
flash onboard LSI 2308 to IT mode
http://www.napp-it.org/doc/manuals/flash_x9srh-7tf_it.pdf

Step 2:
Bios setting.
- enable vt-d (advanced-chipset-nortbridge-I/O)

step 3:
Install ESXi 5.1 build 799733 onto a 50 GB SSD on Sata

step 4:
enable pass-through (ESXi vsphere: advanced settings) for 2308, reboot

step5:
upload OmniOS ISO to local datastore on the 50 GB SSD (use ESXi Filebrowser)

step6:
create a OmniSAN-VM (20 GB) with e1000 nic
add the LSI 2308 as a pci adapter
cd=bootup-iso, stable from may

boot and setup

step7:
setup network according to:
napp-it // webbased ZFS NAS/SAN appliance for OmniOS, OpenIndiana and Solaris

step8:
install napp-it via wget -O - www.napp-it.org/nappit | perl

step 9:
start napp-it via http://ip:81
- create a pool (raid-z2 from 6 x Sandisk extreme2 - 480 GB)
- create a filesystem /tank/vm
- share the filesystem via NFS

step 10:
connect the filesystem /tank/vm via ESXi (NFS)

step 11:
- upload a win8 iso to the NFS datastore
- create a new Win8 VM on the NFS datastore on OmniOS with DVD connected to Win8 iso
- setup Win 8
- Win8 ok


next steps,
- update ESXi to 5.1U1 build 1065491: ok
- update OmniOS to newest stable build b281e50: ok
- install vmware tools, setup vmxnet3 (http://napp-it.org/doc/ESXi-OmniOS_Installation_HOWTO_en.pdf): ok


No problems so far

my "desktop testbed"
 
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