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Problem with adding JBOD-chassis and 2nd HP Expander

M

MrLie

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 5, 2010
Messages
80
Hi,

Got an issue when I tried to hook up my 2nd HP Expander, and my homeserver apparently cant see the expander or the drives connected.

List of hardware involved:

Server:
SuperMicro X8ST3-F
HP Expander (v2.08) connected to the onboard LSI 1068 SAS controller (in IT mode) on ports 0-3.
16 Hitachi 2TB
ZFSGuru (FreeBSD)

"JBOD-chassis":
Asus P5Q (with CPU/ram, but no harddrive connected)
HP Expander (v2.02)
20 Samsung F4 2TB


My server has been working without any problems for the past year, both in reguarding hardware and software.
I now want to add more disks to the server, by using my old server as a JBOD-chassis to give power to my 2nd HP Expander (v2.06).

My hopes were that this would work right out of the box, but no such luck.
Before I start making too much work for myself, I was hoping for some tips and advice here, or hopefully a solution :)

First thought that came to my mind were that the HP Expander couldnt get the correct powersetting from my Asus-board.
I remember from other posts that if one of the LEDs on the expander is blinking, then thats the sign that the expander is working in normal mode.
On both my expanders there is just 1 LED that is blinking, and its the same one on them both. I therefore assume that the expander is actually getting the power required from my Asus motherboard.

I've bought a bracket-adapter for SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 so that my JBOD-chassis were connected to SAS-ports 4-7.
I also connected my JBOD-chassis to the server by daisychaining the two HP Expanders, but it didnt make any difference.

One thing I did notice was when I (by mistake) disconnected the SFF-8088 cable from my server. My monitor connected to my server then got flooded with these messages:

Code: 
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12

and

Code: 
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16

I've googled the messages:

mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x12 means MPI_EVENT_SAS_PHY_LINK_STATUS
mpt0: mpt_cam_event: 0x16 means MPI_EVENT_SAS_DISCOVERY

Without being an expert I assume these two messages means I've got some kind of connection between the HP Expander in my JBOD-chassis and my SAS controller?

To rule out ZFSGuru/FreeBSD were the cause, I've booted the server with OpenIndiana LiveCD and it too failed to detect the drives connected in my JBOD-chassis.

All my SAS-cabeling is in working order, being confirmed on other controllers. My SFF-8088 cable have not been checked on another system, it was bought brand new.

Running my Asus motherboard without any disks attatched, making the boot hang with "Cant find any boot device"-message - can that be a cause of my problem?
I do have the "Orbit Micro board" that Odditory tested succesfully with the HP Expander, if it turns out that my Asus motherboard dont work with the HP Expander after all.

Any advice to what to do next?


Edit:
Just tried to use the Orbit Micro board to power the HP Expander, but there was no difference from using the Asus motherboard.
 
Last edited:
Finally got some time for some more testing, and to narrow things down I moved both expanders to the same server.

I've connected controller to both internal and external ports on the expanders, and there is no problems at all. I see all drives all the time.
I connected both expanders at the same time to my controller, and put half the disks on one expander and the other half on the other, and there was no issue. I could still see and use all the drives in that server.

However, if I try to daisychain the expanders from sff-8088 port to sff8088 port, only the disks on the expander connected to the controller are visible. This goes both ways, it doesnt matter which of the expanders that are connected to the controller.

Isnt it possible to daisychain the HP Expanders?
Could it be that my controller lack some sort of support for this?

Another question I cant answer is the fact that I couldnt see any drives that were connected in my 2nd chassis, when I used the Asus motherboard or the "Orbit Micro Board" to power the 2nd HP Expander. I would understand if the Asus-board didnt work with the expander, but I bought the Orbit Micro board since it was allready verified by Odditory that it would work.

Any idea of what could be the cause to all of this?
 
I have not had success cascading the hp expander to expander. The bracket-adapter you purchased, was it a cheap noname one off ebay or dealextreme, or a brand-name like a supermicro. I have seen the cheap 8087-8088 couplers fail often. Have you tried just a 8087-8088 cable running from the controller internally to the external chassis 8088 port?
 
The sff-8088 bracket was a cheap ebay deal shipped from China, however I used that bracked to test out the external port on both expanders, and it worked without a flaw on both expanders.
I have not bought/tried a 8087-8088 cable, but since I didnt have any problems using the bracked I hope I wont be needing to buy one either.

Did a quick search on daisy chaining the HP Expander, and Odditory writes he has no issue with doing so in this post here: http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1037731477&postcount=1760.
 
I know people who have had success and people who have not. I have not. What version of the expander do you have (hw rev and color)? What firmware is on each of the expanders, and on the controller? Regarding the cable, just because it worked controller to expander doesn't mean it will work expander to expander, or vice versa.
 
Both expanders are rev 0A and green pcb. They were bought from SynergyDustin.
The expander in my server has firmware 2.08, and the expander in my 2nd chassis has firmware 2.02.

Since my plans were to connect the 2nd expander directly to the controller (using a 8087-8088 bracket), I'm not concerned if daisy chaining the expanders work or not. I just mentioned it since that was the only configuration that didnt work, when I tried all different options to connect my controller to the expanders, when having both expanders on the same motherboard.

The way I look at it now, my issue is getting the expander to work with either my Asus motherboard, the Orbit Micro board or something else. Thought I cant understand the mpt_cam_event -messages I got, since I shouldnt have gotten those if not in fact there was some sort of connection between my 2nd expander and controller?

I've got some 3 feet forward breakout sas cable, so tomorrow after work I'll try to connect my new Samsungs directly from my server, on both expanders, by putting my two Norcos right next to eachother. If that work then I know for sure that my issue is giving the propper power/ground/whatever-signal to the expanders, since they both work when connected to my Supermicro motherboard.
 
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