Supermicro X10DRH-C

[tjk]

Hey Folks,

Have this in a 2u 24x2.5" SMC chassis. It can see all the SAS hdd's in the bios, but it says it is limiting support to only the 1st 16 drives, and shows the other drives as blocked.

SMC says to contact them for more then 16 drive support, anyone know how to enable the on-board 3108 to support more hdd's?

Mobo - X10DRH-C | Motherboards | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Thanks!

 

[Bert]

I asked this question earlier as well. It seems like there is no way to do it as I got no responde. I guess we can overcome this limitation by putting a different firmware, like firmware from the SM or LSI cards with the same chip. The tooling and licensing may not allow that. I was also a little bit disappointed to see that onboard chip is crippled like this.

 

[tjk]

I asked this question earlier as well. It seems like there is no way to do it as I got no responde. I guess we can overcome this limitation by putting a different firmware, like firmware from the SM or LSI cards with the same chip. The tooling and licensing may not allow that. I was also a little bit disappointed to see that onboard chip is crippled like this.

Thanks Bert! Did you find a work-around for it? If I can't find a work-around I may swap with a std LSI model if I can.

Wonder why they gimped the 3108 like that? It says to contact them if you need > 16 drives, may try that too.

 

[Bert]

Thanks Bert! Did you find a work-around for it? If I can't find a work-around I may swap with a std LSI model if I can.

Wonder why they gimped the 3108 like that? It says to contact them if you need > 16 drives, may try that too.

I didn't try to find a work around. I simply added another SAS card.

The reason for the limitation is marketing I believe. In previous thread on this topic, someone mentioned that enabling such a powerful chip without any limitation may not make so much sense financially for LSI/supermicro.

I think reaching out Supermicro would be a good option. Let us know how it goes.

 

[tjk]

Thanks @Bert - I reached out to SMC to find out, if I hear back I'll post answers here.

Curious, what HBA/RAID cad did you swap into the system and have you had any issues with it so far?

 

[Marsh]

My latest favorite card $15 ASR-7805 , no need to flashing card to IT mode. only 6GB/s not 12
ADAPTEC ASR-7805 6Gbps SAS SATA PCI EXPRESS RAID CONTROLLER CARD | eBay

10 days ago, seller had Best Offer option, I got 8 cards at $12 each

 

[tjk]

Thanks! Doesn't look like the Truenas community likes that card. What OS are you running those with?

 

[Bert]

My latest favorite card $15 ASR-7805 , no need to flashing card to IT mode. only 6GB/s not 12
ADAPTEC ASR-7805 6Gbps SAS SATA PCI EXPRESS RAID CONTROLLER CARD | eBay

10 days ago, seller had Best Offer option, I got 8 cards at $12 each

Wow that's amazing price. Probably not going to repeat for a while as someone dumping big stash.

Thanks @Bert - I reached out to SMC to find out, if I hear back I'll post answers here.

Curious, what HBA/RAID cad did you swap into the system and have you had any issues with it so far?

I used Adaptec 71605, 4 port version of the card Marsh mentioned. Several years ago, I was able to buy these cards under $50, now they are kind of expensive. I was able to make the cabling work in CSE 847 with this card but cables were definitely pulled hard to fit there. I used these cards under debian and windows and they work perfectly fine.

These cards have an HBA mode so they should be able to work as pass through and AFAIK, all the smart information etc passes through the card but it is not a true IT mode. I am not sure if it is fully ZFS/TrueNAS compatible.

 

[Marsh]

Ubuntu and Debian OS, and Unraid

I brought the cards for the Supermicro 2U SAS3 expander storage sweet deal , it uses SFF-8643 cables.

Otherwise, I would use 2 cards for 16 ports if there is no expander.

 

[tjk]

So, I heard back from SMC:

For Motherboard X10DRH-C, the onboard RAID controller can only support up to 16 devices. To support more drives, please use Add on Card “AOC-S3108L-H8IR”, this card will allow your motherboard to support up to 240 devices.

I assume this replaced the on-board 3108 and I would add this card and move the SAS connectors onto the card.

Still amazed that the on-board/SOC 3108 is gimped to 16 HDD's.

Tom