MicroServer Gen10 Plus no drives detected when RAID uninstalled

[jybk]

Hi there,

Since I cant seem to register on HPE forums, I'm trying my luck here.

I've bought a second hand HPE Microserver gen10 Plus.
It came with an E208i -p SR Gen 10 RAID controller.

The plan is to run TrueNAS Core on it, so I took out the raid controller. I proceeded to re-connected the big plug from the RAID to the motherboard. Afther that the SATA controller and discs are not detected.

No RAID controller -> No Disc detected
RAID controller -> ALL Discs detected

Am I overlooking something? I've googled around but can't seem to find a reverse install guide for E208i.

All comments are welcome!

 

[bonox]

No RAID controller -> No Disc detected
RAID controller -> ALL Discs detected

traditionally, what you're looking for is an HBA not a RAID controller. For that to work, you need an HBA with a bootable bios/rom and the server needs to be set to use it.

At the risk of sounding facetious, this quoted bit sounds a bit like "if I plug my lamp into a power outlet, it turns on, but if I plug it into a bowl of custard, it doesn't. Why?"

What's the "big plug" from the RAID to the motherboard? A SAS cable?

According to the OEM, the E208 is the only controller. The "i" in E208i usually means Integrated (with the motherboard) and not removable, which is obviously not the case here, but seems essentially the same in terms of "it's the only one it naturally comes with, so if you can remove it you've got no disk controllers available"

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[bonox]

PS: in that server, the sata controller IS the RAID controller, although there might be a single secondary one for an optical drive that you could substitute a single sata ssd for. I'm really curious about what you've plugged what sounds like the backplane connector into.

edit: after some reading of this (https://www.servethehome.com/hpe-proliant-microserver-gen10-plus-review-this-is-super/2/) i might withdraw all the above if this thing really does direct link six sata ports onto the motherboard. In that case, i'd be searching the bios for whether the onboard stuff is turned off because of the SAS card the unit also has that you've removed.

Have you followed this?

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[jybk]

Thanks! In iLO under "System Information - Storage Information" it says:

"iLO did not detect the Agentless Management Service when this page was loaded. To view a full set of data on this page, ensure that AMS is installed and running. The SAS/SATA controller information is displayed only when AMS is ready on the server."

Does that mean that I have to install windows?

 

[jybk]

That AMS message was bogus.

It turns out Legacy Boot needed to be set in Provisioning. After that the SATA options became available and SATA could be enabled.

All's well now. I see disks now in TrueNAS.

Thanks a bunch!