Two PERC raid controllers - Supermicro won't boot

[bob_dvb]

Hi,

I have a Supermicro X11SCL-F motherboard with 32GB of 2666MHz UDIMM, Corsair 620W HX modular PSU. Mellanox CX341 10G network card.

In it I have a PERC 310, when I add a PERC 710 to the same system the boot hangs on SuperIO Initialising... Post Code 99.

If I remove the card the boot is slow but goes fine. Initially when I built the system I had to set the OPROM to EFI on the PCIe port configuration then the PERC 310 would boot, but having two PERC cards in the machine seems to cause issues.

I don't think I am power constrained, I think it's something I am missing on the PCIe configuration. The boot seems slower than other server motherboards I have owned, but I don't know. I am not ruling out an issue with the CPU or MoBo but given that the machine runs fine with one PERC I don't see the system being the source of my issues?

 

[reichbc]

Interesting that you're using the same board I am, except I can't get my LSI 9211-8i/IT to even be recognized. It boots off a USB stick or SATA, but that RAID card is nowhere to be found.

I think the issue might be with the number of PCI-e lanes you are eating up. The PERC cards are 8-lane cards but those bottom two slots are wired x4.

 

[bob_dvb]

Interesting that you're using the same board I am, except I can't get my LSI 9211-8i/IT to even be recognized. It boots off a USB stick or SATA, but that RAID card is nowhere to be found.

I think the issue might be with the number of PCI-e lanes you are eating up. The PERC cards are 8-lane cards but those bottom two slots are wired x4.

Try changing the PCIe lane Option ROM to EFI from Legacy BIOS and it should appear. Weirdly it showed up in lspci but said no firmware loaded, when I figured out the EFI setting it immediately popped up.

I have ordered an ASR 71605 16-port adapter from China (£50 vs £250 in the UK).

Weirdly the PERC 710 is in the 16x slot. And the 310 is in the outside slot which I think is 4x electrically. But the 310 works.

 

[reichbc]

That board has strange electrics. The slots are X16, x8, x8 but they're wired x8, x4, x4. Why not just match them physically.

That's why I think you might have a PCI-e lane issue.

Have you tried the H710 by itself?

 

[Whaaat]

I can't make Dell T7810 boot with both PERC H700 and H330 installed too. Weird, but no one in Dell seems considered multiple PERC in a single machine usable.

 

[bob_dvb]

I think I am going to be selling some controllers!
Hopefully the 71605 works, I've actually decided to order another one from the UK at a slightly higher cost to get it quicker because I want 16i as I need more ports.

I can make do with the 22 ports this will give me, but I would be curious to know if the 71605s can work in pairs.

 

[bob_dvb]

That board has strange electrics. The slots are X16, x8, x8 but they're wired x8, x4, x4. Why not just match them physically.

That's why I think you might have a PCI-e lane issue.

Have you tried the H710 by itself?

I've tried so many options now I might not have, but I think I have and I think it worked.

 

[bob_dvb]

Update: Replaced the PERC controllers with an ASR 71608 16i controller and it works great.

My RAID controllers are now for sale in the usual place here.