well let's dive right in.
installed the IBM M1015 on the top PCIe in the motherboard (Intel DZ77RE-75K - BIOS version is the latest- 0064).
the end result would be having 4-6 4TB drives (for now) working in RAID 10.
this is what i get when i start the machine:
LSI MegaRAID SAS-MFI BIOS
Version 4.31.00 (June 08 2012)
F/W initializing devices
FW Package 20.10.1-0119
at first i only had 2 drives so i started by configuring it through webBIOS for RAID 1 (starting easy).
I'm using X2 HGST 4TB 7200rpm.
OS is win 7 ultimate X64.
installed win 7 drivers, driver version in device manager says: 6.504.4.0 dated to 05/10/2012 from LSI Corp.
MSM version was 12.10.01.02
it seemed to be working since i saw the drive in Windows and was able to work with it, only i keep getting this message when opening MSM:
if it matters, i initialized the drive in Windows Disk Managmnent and not in MSM.
anyways, i got the 2 other drives and i wanted to try the whole 4 drives array in RAID 10. that's when it really got worse.
when i have the 4 drives connected i can't get pass the F/W initialization screen. when it finishes the percentage count it just freezes after the 'FW Package 20.10.1-0119' line and starts beeping like crazy, only reset or power down can get it out of it.
so i said, maybe i'll try to delete the former RAID 1 array to get everything to square one and start it all over again. so i disconnected the 2 new drives and was able to delete the former RAID 1 array in the Web BIOS- weirdly, i had no mouse when i got to Web BIOS and it is like this ever since...
it didn't help. when i tried connecting the new drives again the same thing happened, freeze and beeps.
so i figured, maybe there's something wrong with one of the new drives? so i pulled out no.4.
this time i got through the whole POST process (drive number 3 was identified as JBOD automatically) but in the end, instead of entering Web BIOS i got a black screen with a blinking cursor on the bottom left...
if i'm not trying to get into Web BIOS, it starts windows normally, as always i get the fatal error message as mentioned above.
i was able to convert this drive to GPT and make a simple volume out of it in Windows Disk Management with no problems, just as if it was connected to a SATA port on my Motherboard.
so, i tried doing the same with drive no.4. i disconnected drive no.3 (the recent JBOD drive) and connected no.4.
this time, instead of a blinking cursor on a black screen, i was able to get into Web BIOS!
but, when i pressed 'start' on the first Web BIOS screen to choose an adapter it got crazy. it freezes or parts of the screen disappears and practically, i had no other choice but to reset the system. one weird thing to mention is that sometimes i get the mouse working here again for a few seconds before it freezes...
again, like with drive no.3, when i didn't try to get into Web BIOS windows started normally and i was able to configure the drive to work as a separate drive.
of course when i tried hooking all 4 drives again i still get the freeze and the beeps...
so to conclude, so far we have 4 working drives, 2 of them can work in RAID, the 2 others can only work as JBOD since i can't even get into Web BIOS to configure them, but they can't all work together anyway. only drives 1,2,3 or 1,2,4.
so i tried disconnecting drives 1 and 2 while having 3 and 4 plugged in, maybe i'll find something...
well, the weirdest thing happened, i got this screen:
when i tried entering the configuration utility it froze on this screen:
and i got the same old beeps. damn...
then, i unplugged drive no.3 so i would only have drive 4 plugged in.
got the same screen saying all the disks from my previous configuration are gone, this time it did got me into Web BIOS though i had nothing to do there since i only had one drive connected as JBOD...
so i could get into windows and have that one drive working.
i tried the same thing with only drive no.3 connected but i couldn't get into Web BIOS this time, instead i got the black screen and the blinking cursor again!
when i didn't tried to get into Web BIOS i was able to get into windows normally (of course with the regular fatal error message...).
so i thought, maybe it's the SFF-8087 cable that is defected?
and to my surprise, when i tried connecting drive no.4 with the end of the SFF-8087 that was connected to drive no.3 (let's call it cable no.3) i got the same black screen and blinking cursor that i got with drive no.3!
to be sure i tried connecting cable no.4 to drive no.4 again to see if i can get into Web BIOS like before. i could, but i got this screen:
i don't know what to make of this...
tried connecting drives 3 and 4 with cables 1 and 2- got black screen and blinking cursor if attempted to enter Web BIOS (better than freeze and beeps i got with cables 3 and 4), if i didn't try to get into Web BIOS, then i got to windows normally.
tried connecting drives 1 and 2 with cables 3 and 4- got everything working like it was originally with drives 1 and 2 connected to cables 1 and 2.
so i have no idea if it's the cable. seems unlikely.
last thing i tried was to switch the SAS end of the cable to the second slot on the M1015.
when having all 4 drives connected i got the black screen and blinking cursor if attempted to enter Web BIOS (better than freeze and beeps i got with the other SAS slot), if i didn't try to get into Web BIOS i managed, for the first time, to get into windows and see all 4 drives! although not in the configuration i wanted since i couldn't get into Web BIOS.
and of course, i still get the fatal error message...
but! i was able to configure the whole array as i wanted through MSM!! HURRAY!
one drive group with 2 spans in it, 2 drives per span.
so, now i'm transferring data to the new array. question is, what the hell is wrong here? why doesn't it work as it should and how to fix it?
what's with that fatal error message i keep getting?
any help would be much appreciated since i'm afraid this whole thing could crumble on a moment notice...
thank you for taking the time to get through this ordeal
Eli
installed the IBM M1015 on the top PCIe in the motherboard (Intel DZ77RE-75K - BIOS version is the latest- 0064).
the end result would be having 4-6 4TB drives (for now) working in RAID 10.
this is what i get when i start the machine:
LSI MegaRAID SAS-MFI BIOS
Version 4.31.00 (June 08 2012)
F/W initializing devices
FW Package 20.10.1-0119
at first i only had 2 drives so i started by configuring it through webBIOS for RAID 1 (starting easy).
I'm using X2 HGST 4TB 7200rpm.
OS is win 7 ultimate X64.
installed win 7 drivers, driver version in device manager says: 6.504.4.0 dated to 05/10/2012 from LSI Corp.
MSM version was 12.10.01.02
it seemed to be working since i saw the drive in Windows and was able to work with it, only i keep getting this message when opening MSM:
if it matters, i initialized the drive in Windows Disk Managmnent and not in MSM.
anyways, i got the 2 other drives and i wanted to try the whole 4 drives array in RAID 10. that's when it really got worse.
when i have the 4 drives connected i can't get pass the F/W initialization screen. when it finishes the percentage count it just freezes after the 'FW Package 20.10.1-0119' line and starts beeping like crazy, only reset or power down can get it out of it.
so i said, maybe i'll try to delete the former RAID 1 array to get everything to square one and start it all over again. so i disconnected the 2 new drives and was able to delete the former RAID 1 array in the Web BIOS- weirdly, i had no mouse when i got to Web BIOS and it is like this ever since...
it didn't help. when i tried connecting the new drives again the same thing happened, freeze and beeps.
so i figured, maybe there's something wrong with one of the new drives? so i pulled out no.4.
this time i got through the whole POST process (drive number 3 was identified as JBOD automatically) but in the end, instead of entering Web BIOS i got a black screen with a blinking cursor on the bottom left...
if i'm not trying to get into Web BIOS, it starts windows normally, as always i get the fatal error message as mentioned above.
i was able to convert this drive to GPT and make a simple volume out of it in Windows Disk Management with no problems, just as if it was connected to a SATA port on my Motherboard.
so, i tried doing the same with drive no.4. i disconnected drive no.3 (the recent JBOD drive) and connected no.4.
this time, instead of a blinking cursor on a black screen, i was able to get into Web BIOS!
but, when i pressed 'start' on the first Web BIOS screen to choose an adapter it got crazy. it freezes or parts of the screen disappears and practically, i had no other choice but to reset the system. one weird thing to mention is that sometimes i get the mouse working here again for a few seconds before it freezes...
again, like with drive no.3, when i didn't try to get into Web BIOS windows started normally and i was able to configure the drive to work as a separate drive.
of course when i tried hooking all 4 drives again i still get the freeze and the beeps...
so to conclude, so far we have 4 working drives, 2 of them can work in RAID, the 2 others can only work as JBOD since i can't even get into Web BIOS to configure them, but they can't all work together anyway. only drives 1,2,3 or 1,2,4.
so i tried disconnecting drives 1 and 2 while having 3 and 4 plugged in, maybe i'll find something...
well, the weirdest thing happened, i got this screen:
when i tried entering the configuration utility it froze on this screen:
and i got the same old beeps. damn...
then, i unplugged drive no.3 so i would only have drive 4 plugged in.
got the same screen saying all the disks from my previous configuration are gone, this time it did got me into Web BIOS though i had nothing to do there since i only had one drive connected as JBOD...
so i could get into windows and have that one drive working.
i tried the same thing with only drive no.3 connected but i couldn't get into Web BIOS this time, instead i got the black screen and the blinking cursor again!
when i didn't tried to get into Web BIOS i was able to get into windows normally (of course with the regular fatal error message...).
so i thought, maybe it's the SFF-8087 cable that is defected?
and to my surprise, when i tried connecting drive no.4 with the end of the SFF-8087 that was connected to drive no.3 (let's call it cable no.3) i got the same black screen and blinking cursor that i got with drive no.3!
to be sure i tried connecting cable no.4 to drive no.4 again to see if i can get into Web BIOS like before. i could, but i got this screen:
i don't know what to make of this...
tried connecting drives 3 and 4 with cables 1 and 2- got black screen and blinking cursor if attempted to enter Web BIOS (better than freeze and beeps i got with cables 3 and 4), if i didn't try to get into Web BIOS, then i got to windows normally.
tried connecting drives 1 and 2 with cables 3 and 4- got everything working like it was originally with drives 1 and 2 connected to cables 1 and 2.
so i have no idea if it's the cable. seems unlikely.
last thing i tried was to switch the SAS end of the cable to the second slot on the M1015.
when having all 4 drives connected i got the black screen and blinking cursor if attempted to enter Web BIOS (better than freeze and beeps i got with the other SAS slot), if i didn't try to get into Web BIOS i managed, for the first time, to get into windows and see all 4 drives! although not in the configuration i wanted since i couldn't get into Web BIOS.
and of course, i still get the fatal error message...
but! i was able to configure the whole array as i wanted through MSM!! HURRAY!
one drive group with 2 spans in it, 2 drives per span.
so, now i'm transferring data to the new array. question is, what the hell is wrong here? why doesn't it work as it should and how to fix it?
what's with that fatal error message i keep getting?
any help would be much appreciated since i'm afraid this whole thing could crumble on a moment notice...
thank you for taking the time to get through this ordeal
Eli