LSI 9261 8i + BPN-SAS-846EL1 SAS Expander - Sata3 6Gbps Disks running at only 1.5Gbps

[BigChunk]

Hi all,

Recently I added some 4TB WD SATA3 6Gbps disks into my raid system. It works but only runs at 1.5Gbps. MegaRaid Storage Manager shows me that the "Drive Speed" is 6.0Gbps and the "Negotiated Link Speed" is 1.5Gbps.

Then I tried to put some HGST 2TB SATA3 disks into the system. They also ran at 1.5Gbps.

However, I have a bunch of 640G WD6401AALS disks (very old) running at 3Gbps for almost a decade.

Is there any configuration that I need to change? Or it's just that the link speed of new generation hard drives is limited by my backplane/HBA.

Thank you.

B.C.

 

[nabsltd]

The backplane is limited to 3Gbps, but you should be able to get that speed with all the new drives you list.

First, try plugging one of the new drives into a standard 6Gbps SATA motherboard port and see what connection speed you get. If it is still 1.5Gbps, then it's the drive. There could be jumpers or on-drive programmable settings that lower the max speed.

If you got full speed, connect the drive to the 9261-8i using a breakout cable. If you don't get full speed, it's either the drive or an issue with the HBA talking to the drive.

If you get the full speed, the next thing to do is remove all drives from the backplane but the one you are having problems with and see if that solves the problem. If it does, it's some sort of incompatibility between different drives on the same bus. If it does not, it's likely an issue with the drive and the backplane not working together.

Following these steps will get you to the root of the problem, and then a fix can be found.