Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 - Rackmount DAS

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MountainDew

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Oct 19, 2015
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Running to my basement now.... hooking up the secondary PSUs in all 4 enclosures :)
I love coming to this forum and learning new things every time :D
I learned this by dumb luck. During some general troubleshooting, I plugged in both PSUs. Anyone that has this DAS knows that the fans stay at 100% until you use the fan utility to bring them down. After the DAS detected both PSUs, the fans spun down on their own. They will adjust fan speed as needed WITHOUT the need for the utility
 

Tim

Member
Nov 7, 2012
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It seems that this SA120 is a bit picky on the controller (or firmware on the controller).
It's essential to be able to control the fans without using dual PSU.

Confirmed working controllers in this thread:
- LSI SAS 9200e
- LSI SAS 9200-8e firmware 1007
- LSI SAS 9207-8e
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 1008
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 19 (firmware 20 does NOT work)
- LSI SAS 9280-8e
- LSI SAS 9286CV with new firmware

Some OEM controllers even with crossflashed (IT?) firmware causes problems.

Just a quick update on the the cables.
Seems like the new 9300-8e 12Gb/s uses new cables, SFF8644 instead of SFF8088.
So I'll have to use the 9207-8e for the SA120.

I'm considering the LSI SAS 9207-8e but no OEM version, just to be safe.
Any idea on where to get one as cheap as possible?
 
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iLya

Member
Jun 22, 2016
48
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It seems that this SA120 is a bit picky on the controller (or firmware on the controller).
It's essential to be able to control the fans without using dual PSU.

Confirmed working controllers in this thread:
- LSI SAS 9200e
- LSI SAS 9200-8e firmware 1007
- LSI SAS 9207-8e
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 1008
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 19 (firmware 20 does NOT work)
- LSI SAS 9280-8e
- LSI SAS 9286CV with new firmware

Some OEM controllers even with crossflashed (IT?) firmware causes problems.

Just a quick update on the the cables.
Seems like the new 9300-8e 12Gb/s uses new cables, SFF8644 instead of SFF8088.
So I'll have to use the 9207-8e for the SA120.

I'm considering the LSI SAS 9207-8e but no OEM version, just to be safe.
Any idea on where to get one as cheap as possible?
I am using LSI SAS 9207-8e with P20 firmware from the vendor and I can see all drives and all enclosure information and I can use the ThinkServer software without any problems with Windows 2016.
I do have to set the "Run As Administrator" option in the "Compatibility" tab for the software shortcut otherwise it doesn't work but once it starts I don't see any issues.
I did notice that periodically the drives get disconnected but I don't know if it is the firmware causing the issue or something else so I will try to flash it back to P19 and see if it starts working better but I have my doubts.

My biggest problem with this JBOD is the rear SSD cage because I am not able to get it to negotiate to the 6Gbps on my SATA SSD drives which is very important to me.
 

Tim

Member
Nov 7, 2012
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I am using LSI SAS 9207-8e with P20 firmware from the vendor and I can see all drives and all enclosure information and I can use the ThinkServer software without any problems with Windows 2016.
I do have to set the "Run As Administrator" option in the "Compatibility" tab for the software shortcut otherwise it doesn't work but once it starts I don't see any issues.
I did notice that periodically the drives get disconnected but I don't know if it is the firmware causing the issue or something else so I will try to flash it back to P19 and see if it starts working better but I have my doubts.

My biggest problem with this JBOD is the rear SSD cage because I am not able to get it to negotiate to the 6Gbps on my SATA SSD drives which is very important to me.
When you say "from the vendor", do you mean an OEM version from Lenovo or a pure LSI controller?
As far as I can tell, any OEM card with LSI firmware will fail in some way or another with the sa120.
At least that's the majority of the reports I've seen so far.

Another possibility is that you've got old firmware on the IOCC?
If not old, at least there's a possibility that it's different than those who got 6Gb/s working.

The third possibility is a faulty interposer.
Or if there ever was a 3Gb/s version you might have the old one instead of a newer 6Gb/s one?

Also, this review indicates that it works with a LSI 9300-8e controller.
Both with SAS SSD and SATA SSD.
No words on link speed but I guess they would've mentioned it if something was wrong.
Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 JBOD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

My best guess is that this problem is due to a firmware problem.
Or the use of an non-compatible OEM controller with wrong firmware.
 

svxs

New Member
Nov 5, 2014
3
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It seems that this SA120 is a bit picky on the controller (or firmware on the controller).
It's essential to be able to control the fans without using dual PSU.

Confirmed working controllers in this thread:
- LSI SAS 9200e
- LSI SAS 9200-8e firmware 1007
- LSI SAS 9207-8e
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 1008
- LSI SAS 9207-8e firmware 19 (firmware 20 does NOT work)
- LSI SAS 9280-8e
- LSI SAS 9286CV with new firmware

Some OEM controllers even with crossflashed (IT?) firmware causes problems.

Just a quick update on the the cables.
Seems like the new 9300-8e 12Gb/s uses new cables, SFF8644 instead of SFF8088.
So I'll have to use the 9207-8e for the SA120.

I'm considering the LSI SAS 9207-8e but no OEM version, just to be safe.
Any idea on where to get one as cheap as possible?
It's an old thread, but just wanted to post that the 9206-16e and 9205-8e (HP oem version of 9207-8e) cards, both on P20.07, work fine with the enclosure and the thinkserver utility.

All said and done, the fans on this enclosure set at 1 are still annoying as f*ck because of the sound profile, if it were just air whoosh it would be fine, but it's classy 40mm high speed high pitch jarring whine.

edit: well, it seems the thinkserver utility has some sort of vendetta against my other two DAS boxes with intel sas expanders. It wasn't a driver issue that was preventing it from showing up on the utility, the utility can't seem to find the sa120 when my other two boxes, each with an intel sas expander, are connected before the computer boots into windows. When the sa120 is connected by itself, or when I turn on the other boxes after windows boots up, it shows up fine. But this is a problem with the utility because the drives work fine whether the other boxes are connected or not, and i can't find startup parameters in the utility's manual to see if i can specify a sas address.
 
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GibsonLP

New Member
Feb 21, 2017
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Hello.
I am thinking about using this DAS for my home storage.
I wish to hook it to my Supermicro SYS-5018D-FN4T server. Server runs Ubuntu 16.04 with KVM for various VMs (Ubiquiti NVR, Ubiquiti Unifi controller, some other stuff). Never thought I'd need storage (had a different solution) but I am trying to use this server for my home storage solution as well (the beast is 99% idle).
Workload: mostly streaming videos, nothing too fancy. Never more than 100MB/s. Some write from the Ubiquity NVR (I guesstimate peaking @ 10MB/s (based on 6mbps max stream bandwidth per camera) once all cameras will be recording).
  1. I thought about running it with Supermicro AOC-S2308L-L8i which is on the board's compatibility list. I am not really familiar with the LSI terminology, Is 2308 == 9207/9217? I understand that they are based on this chip?
  2. Because this server has everything in the front: Any reason not to hook the storage directly to the internal SAS port (and carefully cut a small opening at the rear of the case), cable will be secured with some slack so there will be no mechanical pressure on the internal connectors even when pulled from outside the box.
  3. I plan on using either 6 or 8TB WD red pro drives (I'll start small with 4-5 drives and slowly add more and more drives), any known issues with these drives/capacity?
  4. For the NVR I might choose WD purple (I'll need just a pair in a mirror using a second array)
I would love to hear about any holes in my plan. I thought this storage would work well because all I need is a cheap way to hook a bunch of drives in a case that will fit my (60cm deep) home rack.

Thanks!
Gil.
 

gotd

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Feb 22, 2017
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I'm thinking about buying one of these. Seems like a good DAS.

I have a quick question... does anyone know what's the power draw (in watts) on these with 1 PSU and 2 PSU's without any drives?
 

Tim

Member
Nov 7, 2012
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does anyone know what's the power draw (in watts) on these with 1 PSU and 2 PSU's without any drives?
I've got an empty SA120, with 1PSU and 12 original drive cages inserted, but empty.
There's one controller and no SFF cages in the back.
Not connected to anything else than power stright from the wall.

My power consumption meter reads 235V @50Hz from the wall.
And the SA120 draws 0,124A and 25,7W idle and max 59,5W (during boot, the fans speeds up).

EDIT:
Connected to my Dell LSI 9300-8e, fan set to 1 (between 4440 and 6070 rpm).
0,106A and 25W idle, still no disks.
The SA120 has firmware 1007, I'm going to test 1008 tomorrow.
Hoping to get all the fans down to 4440 rpm.
My Android phone is reading 40dBa 1 meter away, but behind a closed door I can't really hear it.
 
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techtoys

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Feb 25, 2016
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The Lenovo utility has 7 levels of fan settings. The 80W was at 4.
With 1 PS I have 5 fans installed.
Level 1: ~ 6200 rpm 72W
Level 7: ~17000 rpm 96W

Power numbers taken from APC UPS with 12 x 2T Toshiba SAS drives connected - but idle I am guessing.
Patrick is right about the power draw by fans. It is often overlooked
I posted this to another thread in Oct. I have 1 PSU
I have 2 SA-120 if anyone has any questions.

The Toshiba drives installed are spec'ed to idle at 6W which appears high if the unit draws 25W with no drives.
 
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Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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Not sure how but from firmware 1007 to 1008 I'm down from 25 watt to 20 watt.
Still no drives, the fans are about the same rpms.

The fan rpm variation is a bit high I think, settings is 1 in the tool.
One fan is at 4440 rpm, two others at around 5900 rpm and the last two at around 6100 rpm.
This is with the 1008 firmware on the sa120.

Still, no air noise from the fans that bothers me, just the whine they emits.
Is it worth trying to replace the fans with Noctua nf-a4x10 fans?
I couldn't find a reference to the fan specs the sa120 uses.

One thing I've noticed, I have to manually force a reinstall of the HBA driver in windows 10 pro.
If not, the sas3ircu tool won't work and the Lenovo Thinkserver SA tool won't work either.
It's just a reinstall of the same driver, not sure what windows 10 pro is doing.
This is needed after every reboot, so for those that can't see the SA120 in the tool, might try to reinstall the HBA driver.
 

MountainDew

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Oct 19, 2015
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Not sure how but from firmware 1007 to 1008 I'm down from 25 watt to 20 watt.
Still no drives, the fans are about the same rpms.

The fan rpm variation is a bit high I think, settings is 1 in the tool.
One fan is at 4440 rpm, two others at around 5900 rpm and the last two at around 6100 rpm.
This is with the 1008 firmware on the sa120.

Still, no air noise from the fans that bothers me, just the whine they emits.
Is it worth trying to replace the fans with Noctua nf-a4x10 fans?
I couldn't find a reference to the fan specs the sa120 uses.

One thing I've noticed, I have to manually force a reinstall of the HBA driver in windows 10 pro.
If not, the sas3ircu tool won't work and the Lenovo Thinkserver SA tool won't work either.
It's just a reinstall of the same driver, not sure what windows 10 pro is doing.
This is needed after every reboot, so for those that can't see the SA120 in the tool, might try to reinstall the HBA driver.
I had to briefly troubleshoot an issue with Lenovo and I had the top panel removed. From there, I stopped as it wasn't going to be a simple task to disassemble the DAS. But you may be more mechanically adventurous than me... and I have a warranty so a tech came to resolve the issue.

I'm wondering if the variation is due to running one PSU.
 

Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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Why would I need to remove the top panel? The fan modules are (hot) swappable and easy to remove from the back of the unit.
But I agree, the top panel has way too many and different screws to be removed to access it easily.

Not sure if that's the reason as the 4440 rpm fan is in the psu.
The two fan below the psu is below 6000 rpm and the ones on the other side is at 6100 rpm.
I would think that if it was due to only one psu, that the furthest away fans would run slower.

Seems there's dual fans in series, that is 4 fans in total in each fan module.
Standard 4-pin fan connector, fan made by AVC.
But the plactic pins that keeps the fans in place seems to break if I try to remove them.
The ones on the outside I can pull out a bit, the ones on the inside is stuck.
This might be a one way assembly only.
 
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Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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I'm trying to get a picture of it, I can see the model number. It also has a P014 or PO14 (number zero or letter O) on the line below the model number.
AVC model DBTA0328B2U
Which stands for: Axial fan, Double fan, Generation A, 3cm, 28mm, Two Ball Bearing, 12v, Extra High Speed
On the fan it says 0.60A so not the same as the datasheet.
It operates in 5-13.2VDC, 0.42A, 5.04W, 18000 rpm, 0.558 m3/min, 19.75 CFM, 46.72 mmH2O, 1.839 IN H2O, 57 dB-A, 70 000 hours.
Source: (page 33)
http://www.avc-europe.eu/cms/upload/pdf/Fan_Catalogue.pdf

Given the dimensions I'm not sure what to replace it with if I'm going to try that.
The main problem is the plastic clips that holds the fans together right now, I don't want to break anything in case I can't replace it with a custom fan.
Anyone know how to handle these plastic clips without damaging them?
 

svxs

New Member
Nov 5, 2014
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I'm trying to get a picture of it, I can see the model number. It also has a P014 or PO14 (number zero or letter O) on the line below the model number.
AVC model DBTA0328B2U
Which stands for: Axial fan, Double fan, Generation A, 3cm, 28mm, Two Ball Bearing, 12v, Extra High Speed
On the fan it says 0.60A so not the same as the datasheet.
It operates in 5-13.2VDC, 0.42A, 5.04W, 18000 rpm, 0.558 m3/min, 19.75 CFM, 46.72 mmH2O, 1.839 IN H2O, 57 dB-A, 70 000 hours.
Source: (page 33)
http://www.avc-europe.eu/cms/upload/pdf/Fan_Catalogue.pdf

Given the dimensions I'm not sure what to replace it with if I'm going to try that.
The main problem is the plastic clips that holds the fans together right now, I don't want to break anything in case I can't replace it with a custom fan.
Anyone know how to handle these plastic clips without damaging them?
The plastic pins are just push pins, they are easy to remove. Use a small flathead screwdriver, then pull them from the outside, there's also a little plastic assembly where the pushpin inserts to on the other side. Just go gentle on them and you will be fine. The fans are only held at the outside, once the pins are removed, the fan can be taken out. Fan depth is irrelevant as long as they are 40mm fans.
The problem with replacing the fans is that you are gonna have to reorder the pins on its connectors. Lenovo uses non-standard pin positions on the little pcb where the fan connects to, so the 12v, rpm, ground and pwm wires are not in the same order as any other 40mm-200mm fan in the market. I havent tried plugging in a PWM with the pins reordered, but I tried with a reordered standard 3 pin and the enclosure threw a fault light on the fan. So it seems to need all 4 wires.
The fan on the psu however, is too complicated to replace, it seems to use a mini 4pin pwm and the connector is close to where the psu connects to the DAS. It would require opening the PSU, which could be dangerous.
 
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Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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Thanks for the info!

It seems I'm only able to pull them out 5mm before they come to a full stopp.
I'm afraid that if I pull harder they'll just snap off and break?
Have you done it with the fans on the SA120 so that you know this will be fine?

Also the fans are 38x38mm so I'll need to look around if any replacements are available.

Do you know what pinout they use for 12v, rpm, gnd and pwm?
It's colored red, black, blue and white.

There's only 1 (dual I guess) fan on the psu, I think I can live with that.
Removing the other 4 dual fans will lower the noise considerably.
 

MountainDew

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Oct 19, 2015
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This is needed after every reboot, so for those that can't see the SA120 in the tool, might try to reinstall the HBA driver.
Are you running the software as admin? If I remember right, you have to right click to run as admin. And if you don't want to manually set the fans, a second PSU will take care of that. That software loses its settings after power loss; another annoying feature.
 

Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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Are you running the software as admin? If I remember right, you have to right click to run as admin. And if you don't want to manually set the fans, a second PSU will take care of that. That software loses its settings after power loss; another annoying feature.
Doesn't matter if I'm running it as regular user or admin.
All it takes is a manual reinstall of the drivers in windows 10 pro for the 9300-8e HBA.
It's not just the Lenovo tool that doesn't work, the LSI tools doesn't find the 9300-8e without this driver reinstall procedure.

And it's not just to reinstall it either, I'll need to click "have disk" and force it, if not windows just tells me that the right driver already is installed. Windows 10 pro has a serious driver issue. This is a legit windows 10 pro too.

This was just a heads up for those that couldn't find the SA120 in the Lenovo utility, it might be this driver issue.

I'm aware that the second PSU will solve this too.
But why draw more power when a small software fix can get rid of the problem?

I'm not too concerned about this loss of memory of the fan speed settings. Nor the windows trouble.
As I'm going to use esxi controll the SA120 from Solaris or BSD.
There I can use sg_ses to controll the fans during boot so that I don't need to change the fan speed manually.
You could do this during boot in windows too since sg_ses is ported to windows.
For more info on this, refer to the post by AndrewX192 in this thread page 4, post 65:
Lenovo ThinkServer SA120 - Rackmount DAS

You don't need python, just get the right device (see source code line 26) and the right parameters, see line 40 and 71.
(this is the source for AndrewX192)
lenovo-sa120-fanspeed-utility/fancontrol.py at master · AndrewX192/lenovo-sa120-fanspeed-utility · GitHub
 

MountainDew

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Oct 19, 2015
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I'm aware that the second PSU will solve this too.
But why draw more power when a small software fix can get rid of the problem?
It'd be interesting to find out the power difference using 1 vs 2 PSU.
A shame you're having that trouble with your card.
 

svxs

New Member
Nov 5, 2014
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Thanks for the info!

It seems I'm only able to pull them out 5mm before they come to a full stopp.
I'm afraid that if I pull harder they'll just snap off and break?
Have you done it with the fans on the SA120 so that you know this will be fine?

Also the fans are 38x38mm so I'll need to look around if any replacements are available.

Do you know what pinout they use for 12v, rpm, gnd and pwm?
It's colored red, black, blue and white.

There's only 1 (dual I guess) fan on the psu, I think I can live with that.
Removing the other 4 dual fans will lower the noise considerably.
Yeah, just measured, the 38mm ruined my plans for any fan replacement, good god whyyyyyyyy. Guess i'll have to try a voltage reduction mod on the fan's 12v cable so it never goes above that, even though the consensus is to never voltage control a pwm fan. The sad thing is that the psu fan when set to 1 is at ~4k rpm, which is barely audible, but the other fans at 1 roam around ~6k+ and make the vein popping motor whine that cuts through the air whoosh noise of my computer and server, which are by no means "silent" and two das boxes with 12 drives each.

The pins come to a full stop because the tip is bulged, you just have to pull a tad bit harder. I'll upload a picture in a sec. When pushing them back in, make sure you push 100% straight or you may bend/break the pin.
The pinout using the stock cable colors is red=12v, black=ground, blue=pwm and white=rpm



 
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Tim

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Nov 7, 2012
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I guess the reason the PSU fan is at 4k rpm is due to a different fan.
Also doesn't need to pull out that much air from the front, just expel the heat from the CPU.

I understand the need for both air flow and pressure to cool the SA120 full of disks.
Flow is "easy" done without noise, but pressure not so much.
And I can't find alternatives at 38x38mm that will keep the disks cool without the noise.

Luckily I'm not dependant on better fans to use this unit as I've got a separate room for it.
And I can't hear it through the door when the fans are at 4k and 6k.
I guess adding 12 disks over time will add some to this, but not too much.

Thanks for the picture, video and cable pinout! (I guess I'll have to measure which pin/color Lenovo uses)

The fan operates at 12V but should be able to handle down to 5V.
Let me know if you get it to work.
It would require close monitoring so that there's enough flow and pressure to keep the disks cooled.
 
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