I came across this FAQ: FAQ Entry | Online Support | Support - Super Micro Computer, Inc.
846A backplane: both SAS+SATA drives get a solid blue LED when present and flicker with activity
SAS2-826EL1 backplane: SAS drives get solid blue LED, SATA drives show no LED. both flicker with activity.
825TQ backplane: need to check
836TQ backplane: with SATA drives, no solid LED light, but flickers on activity. Still need to check with SAS drives.
SAS2-836EL1 backplane: with SATA drives, no solid LED light, but flickers on activity. With SAS drives, there's a solid blue LED when the drive spins up, and it flickers on activity.
826A backplane: need to check
216A backplane: I don't have any 2.5" SATA drives to try out, but my 2.5" SAS SSDs behave strangely. Currently, they don't have solid LED, but flicker with activity. however, when some of them had 520B sectors, they would light up solid blue, but were unusable by the HBA controller. Also, the LED behavior was different when using Adaptec 1000-8i HBA vs Dell H330 HBA.
I was mixing SATA and SAS drives on the 826EL1 backplane and for a moment thought my SATA drives were dead because they were the only ones not lit up. Gives me another reason to prefer the "A" backplanes...
I've asked this question in the past, so I thought I'd post the info here for others. I can confirm the following from direct experience:Question
When installing either SATA or SAS hard drive into BPN-SAS-826A and BPN-SAS-846A backplane, the green/blue (activity) LED will turn on solid. However, other Supermicro backplane would show, while installing SATA hard drive LED will turn off. Is BPN-SAS-826A and BPN-SAS-846A backplane defective?
Answer
BPN-SAS-826A and BPN-SAS-846A backplanes were designed base on customer request, which blue LEDs are always ON no matter SAS or SATA drives are used when we first release these two backplane. Later on, our upper management decided that blue LED should turn on solid when SAS hard drive is installed. Blue LED will be OFF if SATA hard drive install. This would be implemented on other backplanes.
846A backplane: both SAS+SATA drives get a solid blue LED when present and flicker with activity
SAS2-826EL1 backplane: SAS drives get solid blue LED, SATA drives show no LED. both flicker with activity.
825TQ backplane: need to check
836TQ backplane: with SATA drives, no solid LED light, but flickers on activity. Still need to check with SAS drives.
SAS2-836EL1 backplane: with SATA drives, no solid LED light, but flickers on activity. With SAS drives, there's a solid blue LED when the drive spins up, and it flickers on activity.
826A backplane: need to check
216A backplane: I don't have any 2.5" SATA drives to try out, but my 2.5" SAS SSDs behave strangely. Currently, they don't have solid LED, but flicker with activity. however, when some of them had 520B sectors, they would light up solid blue, but were unusable by the HBA controller. Also, the LED behavior was different when using Adaptec 1000-8i HBA vs Dell H330 HBA.
I was mixing SATA and SAS drives on the 826EL1 backplane and for a moment thought my SATA drives were dead because they were the only ones not lit up. Gives me another reason to prefer the "A" backplanes...
Last edited: