Supermicro X9SCM-F and VMWare thread info

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Pythagorus

Weaksauce
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Jan 14, 2012
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Since a lot of people are building rigs for home labs/white boxes with this motherboard, it would be interesting to have a thread with all the useful info and what works or what does not so that we can limit our search and playing around.

Supermicro X9SCM-F

Product site: Link
Manual: Link
BIOS:

IPMI FIRMWARE:

* Doesn't work with the following hardware:
HP Smart Array P410 raid controller

Unrecognized/not yet supported Intel 82579LM GIGABIT Ethernet controller. See: Link

USB Controller 2 is the internal and USB controller 1 is external (the ones on the rear I/O)

Miscellaneous information:
How to install VMWare from a USB Key: Link

Tips:
RAID Card not recognized? move it to the last PCIe slot and check if VMWare recognizes it.
How to update bios using IPMI (ISO file): http://blog.rackcorp.com/2012/07/bios-firmware-update-iso-for-supermicro-boards/
OR
http://crashmag.net/creating-a-bootable-firmware-bios-update-iso-for-your-supermicro-motherboard

Components:
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM Link - Now available.

Let me know about any hardware or things that could be useful for the owners of this motherboard.

Thanks to nerdalertdk for the idea.
 
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I'd like to pick up this board but a couple things are stopping me:
-I need to plug in an x16 physical video card, is there an easy way to replace the PCIE connector with one that is cutout at the back to allow x16 physical connections?
-Has anyone confirmed that IPMI will output the onboard video when a secondary video card is installed?
 
I also read on Newegg that there is some known issue with this board that you cannot put RAID cards in any but the innermost slot? Can anyone confirm? I've got an LSI 2008 and I definitely need to put it in one of the other slots if I also put a video card on the board.
 
hayclon: I can't answer the questions in your first post, but I do run a BR10i and a IBM ServeRAID M1015 in the two middle slots running ESXi with no problems.
 
dreamnid said:
hayclon: I can't answer the questions in your first post, but I do run a BR10i and a IBM ServeRAID M1015 in the two middle slots running ESXi with no problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks this is very helpful, unless someone else has been very intrepid I'm betting I'll have to sort out the first question myself.
 
I talked to Supermicro's tech support and they told me as soon as you insert an additional video card that you completely lose KVM functionality.. that seems really unfortunate and poorly designed :(
 
I just pulled my hair out trying to this board to work with three LSI adapters. Thank you for posting the old BIOS firmware, as that was the key to finally getting this to work!

Here are my details and what I learned:

Purchased January 2012
Supermicro X9SCM, specifically X9SCM-F-O
Extra NIC Intel EXPI9301CTBLK

Three RAID adapters tried, all 8x:
LSI 9240-8i - original intent
LSI 9260-8i
Dell Perc H200

Tried the original August 2011 ESXi 5, and the ESXi 5 Driver Rollup 1.

My board came with BIOS 1.1a. No matter what I tried, ESXi 5 would not recognize any of these three adapters. I tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.

I saw this thread and saw that another adapter would not work with recent BIOS, I downloaded your link from above and figured out how to make a DOS bootable image in order to downgrade the BIOS to version 1.0c

I used a USB flash key and followed this guide with the HP Flash Utility posted there:

website: seven forums dot com,
title: Windows 7 - MS-DOS Bootable Flash Drive - Create

I had to do this twice as I got an error the first time. After that I copied the old (and new BIOS just in case) to the drive.

Good idea to put the computer on a UPS while you flash, just in case. Remember to short the pad to clear BIOS params after flashing.

On the old BIOS, ESXi 5 froze on "Loading megaraid_sas" module.

Finally I got the 9260-8i to work, as I borrowed that from another machine. The 9260-8i is the most friendly to work with this setup. Dell Perc H200 uses the mpt2 module which is different and also got to work. I used ESXi 5 Driver rollup 1 from here on out.

9240-8i will work, and I found the exact setting in BIOS that makes it work or not.

The trick lies in the BIOS PCIe config screen, toggling PCI ROM Priority between "Legacy ROM" and "EFI Compatible ROM"

It takes awhile to load ESXi installer, so I did not test every config, but here is what I got to work:

9260-8i in the 1st (closest to CPU, called slot 7) 8x
Perc H200 in the 2nd 8x slot (6). Both ok and seen by installer and inside ESXi 5
To do this, you must have PCI ROM Priority set to EFI.

Also, 9240-8i and Perc H200

Finally, just the 9240-8i in the first slot.

In the end, the 9260 worked regardless of this setting, but the 9240 makes ESXi sensitive.

In order to use the WebOS, and be able to load and use it for the 9240, PCI ROM Priority must be set to "Legacy ROM". If not, it may load, but WebOS may not load or will freeze and not register your clicks. When done configing the RAID card, you must put BIOS back to "EFI" or else ESXi 5 freezes at loading the megaraid_sas module.

As far as other settings, especially the onboard SATA controller off, AHCI, RAID etc, changing settings makes zero difference. I have mine running AHCI and passthru.

Switching location of cards, including extra NIC, leaving them out etc made no difference.

Boot order made no difference. In the end I have CDROM, then the PCI RAID Lun. Boots fine.

It is possible other BIOS settings do matter on the PCIe screen: Latency is left at 64. I have Slot OPROM and the onboard NIC ROMS disabled for faster startup, keeping only the Option ROM for the RAID card I am using enabled. And boot graphics priority set to onboard.

VT-d was off initially, but it doesn't make a difference. I have it on now to passthru the onboard SATA controller. And initially on the newer 1.1a BIOS, the RAID adapters did show up in ESXi 5 as passthru devices, just not usable for ESXi for install or datastore.

I have used workstation but this is the first I have used ESXi 5. This is a backup host to a primary Dell 2100C. We will run Veeam to replicate to this 2nd host.

I will say that ESXi 5 is a major pain! No matter what the settings and BIOS version, XenServer 6, Ubuntu, and Windows 2008 R2 saw all three adapters and installed to them with no problem. I can see why people are staying with 4.1. I didn't have a 4.1 installer, and didn't want to downgrade our license.

Thank you for this thread! Let me know if anyone needs specifics.

LSI has excellent support by the way! I am impressed by the Seasonic power supply X650 Gold ($139). Amazing packaging and 5 year warranty. NZXT 410 Elite case ($89). NZXT also has great support; sent me a whole new front assembly for free when one of the front fans didn't turn on. This is the cleanest cabled case I have ever seen; wish I could keep it at home!

Andrew
 
I recently went with Option A with the X9SCL+ instead for the two supported Intel cards. Hopefully it works out :)
 
Just a heads up on the Kingston 8GB ECC Unbuffered modules...they are officially available...but way back ordered right now. We have a customer build at work right now that we just ordered those for but distributors are saying a few weeks at least to get the 8GB DIMM's.
 
Just joined up here - I'm looking to build an ESXi 5 whitebox and have pretty much decided on this board (the custom oem.tgz for the 2nd NIC isn't an issue for me). I'm planning an "all-in-one" box with a ZFS on the first VM. (OI + napp-it)

I see that the board has 4x SATA II 3.0 Gbps ports (black) and 2x SATA III 6.0 Gbps ports (white). I'm wondering is these are on separate controllers or if they are together? Basically I'm wondering if only the 4x SATA II 3.0 Gbps ports can be passed through via VT-d and the 2x SATA III 6.0 Gbps ports can be used as local datastore? (for the OI + napp-it VM) This would save my from having to buy a SAS controller to pass through.
 
Unfortunately, it will show up as a 6-port sata controller. I wish it was separate too.
 
I would not go with less than a Core i5. I think a reviewer on newegg said it worked fine. But be careful to check out if ECC RAM is supported; it may not be supported without a Xeon.

SuperMicro recommends a core i5 without video support.

Let us know what you find out.
 
Anyone know what a X9SCM-F-B is? A new revision? I see it popping up on e-tailers along with the X9SCM-F-O.

Edit: Nvm, B = bulk pack
 
Anyone know which USB controller corresponds to which physical USB ports? I want to passthrough the back ports to a VM, don't wanna take out the onboard header port hosting the hypervisor:

qX6ri.png
 
zeroARMY said:
Anyone know which USB controller corresponds to which physical USB ports? I want to passthrough the back ports to a VM, don't wanna take out the onboard header port hosting the hypervisor:

qX6ri.png
Click to expand...

Hehe was planing to submit that info, usb controller 2 is the internal and usb controller 1 is external(the ones on the rear I/O)

EDIT; I'm gonna double check when I get of work
 
Greetings,

I just built an X9SCM-F with ESXi 5.0 I'm having two problems:
1) The onboard LAN 1 connector keeps going up and down (multiple times per minute) these failures are visible in the vSphere Client event viewer.
2) I have two Intel E1G42ETBLK dual port gigabit NICs, one in slot 4 and one in slot 5. I can only get ESXi to recognize one of them. I have tried different BIOS settings with no change yet.

Do I need to re-install ESXi when I make PCI BIOS changes or just reboot it?
Has anyone experienced either of these issues before and have any suggestions?

Thank you for the assistance....
 
I have tried moving the cards around. Both cards will work in slot 4 (farthest slot from CPU) neither card will work in any other slot.
If I only have one card in (in slot 4) or if I have zero cards in, the onboard NIC1 works fine. If I have two cards in, or a card in any slot except 4, NIC1 does not work well.

SuperMicro said that it was most likely a problem with ESXi......?
 
I have a E1G42ETBLK in slot 3 it works grate, the onboard lan1 also works fine :/

which BIOS do the board have ?
 
The BIOS is 1.1a

My slots are only labeled 4, 5, 6, and 7. (4 starting farthest from CPU 7 being closest)

Which slot is 3?

Thank you for the response
 
Hmm try down grade to version R 1.0c(link is in the first post)

After i upgrade to version 1.1a my p410 controller stop working in ESXi

My slot config (From the top)

Slot1: Hp p410
Slot2: Free
Slot3: Intel ET network card
Slot4: HP SAS expander
 
I will try loading 1.0c when I get home this evening.

Your slot 1 (Hp p410) is that the slot on the edge (outside) of the board or the inner most slot?
 
BIOS 1.0c did the trick! Both cards are now seen by ESXi in slots 4 and 5.

Thanks for the help :)

Unfortunately one of my RAID 5 disks in my iSCSI array crashed, so I won't be able to build any VMs until I get a new drive...
 
I'm starting to think there is something wrong with BIOS 1.1a :/

/CC Supermicro (One could hope)
 
It sure looks that way!

When I called SuperMicro a few days ago they told me that it was most likely a problem with ESXi 5.0 :rolleyes:
 
Trying to configure the USB pass-through myself, i get a "Host does not support passthrough configuration"

Anybody had this before? How to get it fixed?

Seems people got the passthrough to work, so I'm wondering...

EDIT: Would have been nice to have VT-d enable in the bios...:p

EDIT 2: How do I get the Windows 2008 VM to see the USB controller? I've configured the USB controller #1 for passthrough and I've added the controller #1 to the VM and I have something plugged in of the USB ports in the rear I/O. Can't seem to detect the device. Any idea?

EDIT 3: Was configuring the DirectPath I/O.... idiot me :)
 
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I'm running v2 bios with EXSi 5 U1; seems to be working, but can't get the second NIC to work :( even with the community drivers on here.

Anyone else running v2? issues?
 
nerdalertdk said:
Do you have any raid controllers ?
Click to expand...

I have 2: an M1015 in the first slot (closest to the CPU) then an ARC-1200 in the next slot. (if I put the ARC-1200 first, the M1015 didn't work - or at least its BIOS didn't post).

The ARC-1200 after driver install in ESXi is used as a mirrored data store.
the M1015 I pass-through to a FreeNAS8 VM.

Then I have an Intel NIC in the 3rd slot.

So far stress tests are been stable; but I'm now worried about putting this machine into production after hearing "rumors" about BIOS v2 having issues with ESXi. I've not had time to read the hundreds of posts on various boards, so would love if someone else that has tried or is using v2 BIOS would chime in with issues they have had / summarize the situation?
 
I upgraded to BIOS V2.0a and it "seems" completely stable.

BIOS 1.01a had some "Reported" issues with ESXi and PCIe issues.
BIOS v2.0 has had "reports" of the NICs getting their ROM corrupted upgrading to 2.0
(Supermicro has a fix to re-flash the NICs)

A few quick notes on the 2.0a upgrade.
I had to re-enable Vt-d in the BIOS
I also had to set PCI-E slots OPROM to disabled for my build.

on my build:
Slot 7 M1015 with 4 Drive Freenas
Slot 6 M1015 W/Intel Expander 20 Drive unRAID
Slot 5 ARC-1220 8 Drive WIN2k
Slot 4 Empty
 
How can I get older BIOS image files for my x9scm motherboard?

I just upgraded to 2.0a and my FreeBSD VM for ZFS is not playing nicely (or at all) with a Intel/LSI 1068e SAS HBA via direct passthrough in ESXi.

I've emailed Supermicro tech support about this just now, but was wondering if I missed something obvious.

This x9scm is a nice board, just wish it didn't have these quirks with ESXi 5.0.

Thanks!
 
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