Supermicro x9scm-f and Intel rs2wc080

[Origin_Unknown]

Hi all,

I've recently bought the following spec server for a build which has a few 'issues'

Supermicro x9scm-f
Intel rs2wc080
2 * 4 Gb Kingston Ram KVR13E9/4HC
5 * 2TB WD Red
Xcase 208 Pro ( http://www.xcase.co.uk/2u-rackmount-8-hotswap-drives-p/case-208-pro.htm)



When the raid card was installed in the supermicro x9scm we could create a raid 5 array and initialize the said array fine but after a reboot the array would instantly go into a background initialization. I destroyed the raid 5 array and set all the drives as JBOD to do some testing in windows server 2008.
When then testing the drives as jbod I would use crystaldisk benchmark to test the speeds of each drive, when the tests were running on multiple drives on the Intel raid controller they would fail with an I/O error, the same would occur when using ATTO benchmark. I did also notice that the machine was very sluggish with the card installed.

To further the testing I then removed the raid card and drives and moved them over to another supermicro workstation board (X8DAL-i) to try the same set of tests again, the results were identical. At this point I decided to do a firmware update on the raid card using the latest available on the intel website, again the results where the same. At this point I copied 8GB of data to one of the 5 drives and then attempted to copy data from that drive to the other 4 and it would fail with an I/O error pretty instantly.

The next step was to take the drives off the Intel raid controller and place them directly onto the onboard sata ports on my supermicro workstation board and attempt the same tests as above – the Crystaldisk and ATTO tests completed successfully, I have also run the western digital tools on the 5 drives and they all pass the short / extended tests without fault.

For the last stage of my testing I brought in a controller that I know works (IBM M1015 w/IT Firmware) and has the same chipset as the Intel one. All of the drives where configured for JBOD and again the crystal disk tests and ATTO tests where run without failure.

I've also had an RMA on the intel card but the same thing occurs, Am I looking at a compatibility issue between the motherboard and the card?



cheers

 

[drescherjm]

When the raid card was installed in the supermicro x9scm we could create a raid 5 array and initialize the said array fine but after a reboot the array would instantly go into a background initialization. I destroyed the raid 5 array and set all the drives as JBOD to do some testing in windows server 2008.

Did you wait 10 or so hours for the initialization to finish?

 

[mwroobel]

From what you say it sounds like the card has flaked out. As drescherjm said did you wait until the initialization actually finished before you did the reboot? If not, it would have continued after the restart. Can you post the log from the card?

 

[Origin_Unknown]

I did a fast initialization which completed OK - I've never needed to do a long init on any intel cards in the past.
It also has a bit of a moment when just using the drives in jbod mode. (i/o errors)
it also does it with a second card.