I managed to snag a great deal on some 6TB Seagate 7200RPM nearline SAS drives, however I am having a really hard time getting them to spin up or be found by my IBM M1015 adapters when using SFF-8087 to SFF-8482 SAS cables.
A friend of mine also has the same drives and cables (we got the cables in a grouped order/shipment) but he has a different adapter (also 2x SFF-8087 on it). It also isn't detecting or spinning up the drives.
I'm currently running cross-flashed with current 9211-8i firmware in IT mode.
IR and original firmware didn't help, same with enabling or removing the Option ROM. The SAS Topology menu showed no SAS drives, ever.
But get this. I tested to the point of sticking the drives in my Supermicro rack. And now I can detect the drives when they're sitting in it.
(Edit: Here is the rack: Supermicro | Products | Accessories | Mobile Rack | CSE-M35TQB
The rack supports SAS and SATA, and the back of the unit only has SATA connectors (so I guess it's all good; just a different protocol going over the same wires).
The cables in that part of the configuration are SFF-8087 to 4x SATA forward fan-out, with the SATA connections going into the rack.
The protocol is indeed SAS, and I believe the SAS drives aren't SATA compatible in the first place.
Here's one drive:
Device is a Hard disk
Enclosure # : 1
Slot # : 3
SAS Address : #######-#-####-####
State : Ready (RDY)
Size (in MB)/(in sectors) : 5723166/11721045167
Manufacturer : SEAGATE
Model Number : ST6000NM0034
Firmware Revision : E001
Serial No : ########
GUID : ################
Protocol : SAS
Drive Type : SAS_HDD
I suspect the cables at the moment, despite the fact that my SATA drives are running off them perfectly right now. Something up with one of the ports, maybe, or it's otherwise behaving quite incompatible.
I got them per this listing: StarTech.com SAS808782P50 50cm Internal Serial Attached SCSI Mini SAS Cable, SFF8087 to 4X SFF8482, Internal Mini SAS Cable (Red): Amazon.ca: Computers & Tablets
I honestly couldn't find any indications that there is such thing as reverse cables in this particular format, and the description looks like it's for Controller -> Drives. And it clearly works but for SATA.
So am I missing something with SAS enablement here? I can't for the life of me figure out why the adapter and/or OS (Linux/Ubuntu) can't see the SAS drives when directly connected.
I'm hoping maybe you cats have some suggestions or recommended cables if you think maybe the cables are garbage or wrong.
A friend of mine also has the same drives and cables (we got the cables in a grouped order/shipment) but he has a different adapter (also 2x SFF-8087 on it). It also isn't detecting or spinning up the drives.
I'm currently running cross-flashed with current 9211-8i firmware in IT mode.
IR and original firmware didn't help, same with enabling or removing the Option ROM. The SAS Topology menu showed no SAS drives, ever.
But get this. I tested to the point of sticking the drives in my Supermicro rack. And now I can detect the drives when they're sitting in it.
(Edit: Here is the rack: Supermicro | Products | Accessories | Mobile Rack | CSE-M35TQB
The rack supports SAS and SATA, and the back of the unit only has SATA connectors (so I guess it's all good; just a different protocol going over the same wires).
The cables in that part of the configuration are SFF-8087 to 4x SATA forward fan-out, with the SATA connections going into the rack.
The protocol is indeed SAS, and I believe the SAS drives aren't SATA compatible in the first place.
Here's one drive:
Device is a Hard disk
Enclosure # : 1
Slot # : 3
SAS Address : #######-#-####-####
State : Ready (RDY)
Size (in MB)/(in sectors) : 5723166/11721045167
Manufacturer : SEAGATE
Model Number : ST6000NM0034
Firmware Revision : E001
Serial No : ########
GUID : ################
Protocol : SAS
Drive Type : SAS_HDD
I suspect the cables at the moment, despite the fact that my SATA drives are running off them perfectly right now. Something up with one of the ports, maybe, or it's otherwise behaving quite incompatible.
I got them per this listing: StarTech.com SAS808782P50 50cm Internal Serial Attached SCSI Mini SAS Cable, SFF8087 to 4X SFF8482, Internal Mini SAS Cable (Red): Amazon.ca: Computers & Tablets
I honestly couldn't find any indications that there is such thing as reverse cables in this particular format, and the description looks like it's for Controller -> Drives. And it clearly works but for SATA.
So am I missing something with SAS enablement here? I can't for the life of me figure out why the adapter and/or OS (Linux/Ubuntu) can't see the SAS drives when directly connected.
I'm hoping maybe you cats have some suggestions or recommended cables if you think maybe the cables are garbage or wrong.