Supermicro 4u 24 bay chassis with SAS2 expander

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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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Are you guys blocking up unused drive bays to increase airflow over the bays with HDDs?

I'm detecting a lot of airflow through the empty bays and barely any across the bays with HDDs. Thinking about stuffing some insulation foam to block up the unused bays for now.
ideally, you have to

When I bought 2U, 3U, and 4U.. all the HD caddy/tray has plastic buffer



if you do no have, you can block partially, with plasti board (corrugated plasti board)
, I did this for my first old SM 4U where the seller only gave empty HD caddy without plastic buffer
 
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eduncan911

The New James Dean
Jul 27, 2015
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eduncan911.com
SC846EL1
LSI 9211-8i IT mode

What Windows-based software are y'all using to manage the LSI Expander chip in the SC846 chassis? I recall reading where people are able to view the expander within some type of GUI?

What LSI software are y'all using to manage/monitor the LSI 92XX HBA cards? Specifically, non-RAID JBOD setups. For example, the LSI 9211-8i flashed to IT mode.

The MegaRAID software sounds like... overkill? But, is that what will show all of the LSI components? Or, is there something else?


Also...

I previously ran into issues using LSI's own drivers for the 9211-8i for firmware v14 from last year's setup: it wouldn't pass SMART info through to the OS.

I have now switched to a pure LSI 9211-8i in my new build (instead of the IBM M1015 flashed to 9211-8i), and am on firmware 20 IT-mode now.

Which driver is better? Windows-included LSI driver? Or, the latest LSI driver?

The reason I ask is I have to modify the LSI INF install file to allow for Disk Spin Down.
 

Dajinn

Active Member
Jun 2, 2015
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In my 846 chassis I have a 3ware card, the 9750-8i, it has enclosure management in the webGUI, which is completely different from MSM, it doesn't necessarily let me "view the expander" but it identifies all virtual ports and lets me send signals like identify and what not.
 

PnoT

Active Member
Mar 1, 2015
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Texas
The reason I ask is I have to modify the LSI INF install file to allow for Disk Spin Down.
Is this how you achieved the spin down?

Code:
The M1015 card as delivered does not allow hard drives connected to it to go into IDLE (ie: Standby). 

Information as to how to enable Idle Power Management has been gleaned from the following sources:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff561476(v=vs.85).aspx
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1457151/how-long-should-20tb-of-full-drives-take-to-initialize-flexraid-help-me-with-basic-math/30

The following has been written for Windows 7:

1. Stop the array and prevent it from autostarting by changing the Auto Start Array Option to FALSE
 
2. Reboot the server.
3. Create a restore point by:
        a. Clicking the Start Button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking properties.
        b. In the left pane, click System Protection.
        c. Clicking the System Protection tab and then clicking on Create. Type a description for the restore point and then click create.
        d. The restore point will then get created.
4. Uninstall the LSI storage adapter from device manager, by right clicking on it, and selecting uninstall.
5. In the Confirm Device uninstall box, ensure that the “Delete the Driver Software for this device” box is ticked and then click on OK.
6. Reboot the server.
7. Download the appropriate driver package from the LSI9211-8i from LSI.com. The version I downloaded was   
        LSImpt_SAS2_Windows_7_Windows_Server_2008_R2_P18.
8. Edit file lsi_sas2.inf and under [Shutdown_addreg] insert the EnableIdlePowerManagement line in the [Shtudown_addreg] section:
        HKR,"StorPort","EnableIdlePowerManagement",0x00010001,0x01
9. Bring up device Manager by:
        a. Clicking the Start Button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking properties.
        b. In the left pane, clicking Device Manager.
10. Right click on the LSI adapter and select properties
11. Click on the driver tab and Select Update Driver
12. Click on Browse my computer for driver software. IMPORTANT: DON’T select search for driver software as it seems to cause all sorts of problems with installing the driver.  You MUST select “Let me pick from a list of …..”.  Click have Disk and select the appropriate lsi_sas2.inf file.
13. Reboot the Server

NOTE: You can tell if the hard drives are going to sleep, by interrogating their S.M.A.R.T. data. If the start/stop counter is increasing and the power-on time is not increasing linearly then the devices are going to sleep. HD Sentinel also seems to accurately report the devices sleeping.
 

eduncan911

The New James Dean
Jul 27, 2015
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That is precisely what I did for my 2x IBM M1015s, that I have flashed to the LSI 9211-8i firmware. Yep.

And I can confirm it worked on the IBM 1015s, flashed to that 9211.

It was kind of a PITA as I had to disable driver signature for the entire OS via PowerShell command line to get the drivers installed. Those instructions you posted won't work as-is, you have to disable Driver Signature on at least 2012 or higher.

X58 platform, i7-950, 2x IBM M1015s, 12 HDDs (3 SSDs, misc fans)

System @ idle before INF change: 230W
System @ idle after INF change: 135W

Each 4TB Seagate NAS drive I have measured at 8W at idle when not spun down. And this confirms it (12 * 8W = 96W), which is the exact difference you see above. Everything measured at the wall with a Kill-a-Watt.

But... The "Version 14" windows drivers I installed (Windows Server 2012, non R2), disabled SMART access to my drives. That, I did NOT like. I use StableBit DrivePool and Scanner (SMART monitor) <- and this is the ONLY reason why I am still on Windows. I run Linux for everything else.

FYI, new system with HDDs spun down (under Linux) idles at 75W (E5-2690V3 ES, X10SRA, 64GB DDR4, 740W Platinum, SC846EL1 chassis w/fans under PWM controll). :) I have measured the Backplane taking up 12W and the LSI 9211-8i card taking 9W. I really REALLY thought about using the 10x SATA ports on my X10SRA motherboard to connect to the JBOD backplane (I have a non-SAS2 backplane), as that would drop my overall idle watts down to around 55W !!!

^- Note, everything above was measured at the wall with a Kill-a-Watt. The IPMI chassis watts from the PSU isn't accurate at low wattages.

But, the convenience of having more than 8 drives in my pool, 1x OS drive with no RAID and 1x scratch drive, really limited me.

Perhaps one day when we have 10TB HDDs, I will rebuild the system to less than 10 drives - and lower power consumption back down to 55W. :) One day...
 
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