BPN-SAS2-846EL1 - no devices detected?

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

BryceRocky

New Member
Oct 16, 2017
29
0
1
39
I'm assembling my SC846 with a SAS2846EL1 backplane. I flashed an h310 dell card to a LSI 2008, which is showing up fine in ESXi. However, there are no devices from the backplane detected even though I have a 500GB SATA drive plugged into port 1. I believe the backplane is getting power as all the bays drive lights flash red on boot. Is there any additional configuration necessary or should it be plug and play with the HBA to the backplane? Thanks!
 

WeekendWarrior

Active Member
Apr 2, 2015
357
146
43
56
Debugging these situations can be more about being methodical than about special knowledge. It seems like you've got several potential fault points: (1) card being flashed correctly; (2) card being functional; (3) card being recognized by OS; (4) working SAS cable from HBA to backplane; (5) SAS cable plugged into correct port on backplane; (6) SAS cable fully plugged into port; (7) backplane powered correctly; (8) backplane functional; and (9) drive functional.

Seems like (3) can be removed from the list based on your report. For (7), the 846s have six MOLEX power connectors that you can confirm are tightly connected but the drive lights coming on suggest that is probably OK.

You can also remove (1), (2) and (9) by plugging a breakout cable from the HBA to the drive and showing that your HBA can communicate with the drive. I would do that first so that you have a foundation upon which you can build for further testing.

The 846-SAS2-EL1 backplane has three SAS connectors - I don't recall their individual functions but that may be an issue here (5).

(6) On 826 boxes, I've had several experiences where the SAS cable seemed to be fully plugged into the backplane but in fact it was not so that led to some head scratching until I methodically walked through the list of issues above.

If you can report the results of these inquiries, we can try to debug further.
 

BryceRocky

New Member
Oct 16, 2017
29
0
1
39
Debugging these situations can be more about being methodical than about special knowledge. It seems like you've got several potential fault points: (1) card being flashed correctly; (2) card being functional; (3) card being recognized by OS; (4) working SAS cable from HBA to backplane; (5) SAS cable plugged into correct port on backplane; (6) SAS cable fully plugged into port; (7) backplane powered correctly; (8) backplane functional; and (9) drive functional.

Seems like (3) can be removed from the list based on your report. For (7), the 846s have six MOLEX power connectors that you can confirm are tightly connected but the drive lights coming on suggest that is probably OK.

You can also remove (1), (2) and (9) by plugging a breakout cable from the HBA to the drive and showing that your HBA can communicate with the drive. I would do that first so that you have a foundation upon which you can build for further testing.

The 846-SAS2-EL1 backplane has three SAS connectors - I don't recall their individual functions but that may be an issue here (5).

(6) On 826 boxes, I've had several experiences where the SAS cable seemed to be fully plugged into the backplane but in fact it was not so that led to some head scratching until I methodically walked through the list of issues above.

If you can report the results of these inquiries, we can try to debug further.
Thanks WeekendWarrior@! Picked up a breakout cable and went from there. Turns out probably a bad cable / seating. Replaced the mini SAS and all is well.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
4,241
1,546
113
34
Germany
(6) On 826 boxes, I've had several experiences where the SAS cable seemed to be fully plugged into the backplane but in fact it was not so that led to some head scratching until I methodically walked through the list of issues above.
+1 for that. I had this with a 836 A backplane where the sas multilane cable was not properly plugged in.