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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘SAS/SATA’ Category

Some links on SuperMicro X10 and “PEI–Could Not Find Recovery Image…”

Posted by jpluimers on 2023/02/06

An X10 machine here hardly needs reboots, but at one point it did, and got a dreaded message “PEI--Could Not Find Recovery Image...“, so I started Googling.

  1. [Wayback/Archive] “pei” “could not find recovery image” – Google Search returned only one Russian thread: [Wayback/Archive] Восстановление BIOS на Supermicro X10SRi.
  2. Hard to read, I dug further with [Wayback/Archive] “PEI–Could Not Find Recovery Image…” – Google Search and [Wayback/Archive] “pei could not find recovery image” – Google Search, which both went for inexact matches: bummer.

The good news is that few people bump into this problem. The bad news is that the ones that do, usually do not find a way to solve it. For example:

 

What helped in retrospect, was using IPMI (which still worked), re-flash the most recent BIOS, then powered down the machine and rebooted: it worked.

Not sure if I will be so lucky next time, but via [Wayback/Archive] supermicro “could not find recovery image” – Google Search , I found the the idea from [Wayback/Archive] X9SRL-F POSTs only via BIOS recovery process | ServeTheHome Forums that might help: solder a new BIOS Flash ship. Definitely not for the fainthearted: [Wayback/Archive] Bios Recovery via Chip Reprogramming Supermicro X10SLM+-LN4F | ServeTheHome Forums.

 

I got at the BIOS programming via IPMI idea via the second set of searches above, which got me at [Wayback/Archive] Supermicro BIOS recovery – SUPER.ROM – Server Fault (thanks anonymous [Wayback/Archive] user303507):

Get mainboards with a “-F” in the product name. Then you have IPMI and can even flash a faulty BIOS. It requires a key from Supermicro to activate this feature which is not for free

…

The 2nd flash area can also be fully impacted by a faulty flash process, therefore the trick with Ctrl+HOME does not work.

This worked because all my SuperMicro mainboards are of the “-F” type and I had the key.

If you don’t have the key it can be generated, for instance with the bash script I published in Supermicro Bios Update – YouTube.

You can find back most letters and numbers SuperMicro uses at [Wayback/Archive1/Archive2] Motherboards (Intel UP) | Product Naming Conventions | Super Micro Computer, Inc. which has a few tables like this:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Hardware, Mainboards, Power User, SAS/SATA, SuperMicro, X10SRH-CF | Leave a Comment »

Converting an existing XP machine to a VMware ESXi  Virtual Machine and having boot issues?

Posted by jpluimers on 2022/05/02

A while ago I wrote about Stop 0x0000007B after converting an existing XP machine to a Virtual Machine (ESXi, Hyper-V, or other).

After this, the machine still had boot issues (a grey or black screen after boot, unless booted via Grub from a rescue CD).

The solution in retrospect was simple, but I only figured out after the fact what the solution had done.

Of course this gave me a facepalm moment, as back in the days, this was exactly the warning I gave everyone when installing Windows XP on ESXi anyway: use a SCSI buslogic based virtual disk, not an IDE or SATA virtual disk.

The reason is that Windows XP does not like the IDE/SATA disk that VMware provides. Windows Vista and up are less of a problem.

This is indeed what my practical solution did:

  • VMware Converter 4.x creates a VM with an IDE/SATA disk (as it cannot talk to the more recent ESXi versions at all because of API changes)
  • VMware Converter 6.x creates a VM with a buslogic SCSI base disk (and it can create it directly on your ESXi rig, though it will use a directory in the root of your data store, even if you prefer it somewhere deeper in the directory tree)

References:

–jeroen

Posted in ESXi6, ESXi6.5, ESXi6.7, Hardware, Power User, SAS/SATA, SCSI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware Converter, VMware ESXi, Windows, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Connectors/cables for Serial Attached SCSI and SATA – Wikipedia

Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/10

Since I always get confused with SAS and SATA connectors, some tables from Wikipedia:

  • Serial Attached SCSI Connectors- Wikipedia
    Codename Other names Ext./int. Pins No of devices / lanes Comment Image
    SFF-8086 Internal mini-SAS, internal mSAS Internal 26 4 This is a less common implementation of SFF-8087 than the 36-circuit version. The fewer positions is enabled by it not supporting sidebands. SFF 8086.jpg
    SFF-8087 Internal mini-SAS, internal mSAS, internal iSAS, internal iPass Internal 36 4 Unshielded 36-circuit implementation of SFF-8086. Molex iPass reduced width internal 4× connector, 12 Gbit/s capability. SFF-8087 SMC.jpg
    SFF-8088 External mini-SAS, external mSAS, external iSAS, external iPass External 26 4 Shielded 26-circuit implementation of SFF-8086. Molex iPass reduced width external 4× connector, 12 Gbit/s capability. SFF 8088.jpg
    SFF-8470 InfiniBandCX4 connector, Molex LaneLink External 34 4 High-density external connector (also used as an internal connector). SFF 8470.jpg
    SFF-8482 Internal 29 2 lanes This form factor is designed for compatibility with SATA but can drive a SAS device. A SAS controller can control SATA drives, but a SATA controller cannot control SAS drives. SFF-8482 SAS Plug - Bokeh at f22.jpg
    SFF-8484 Internal 32 or 19 4 or 2 High-density internal connector, 2 and 4 lane versions are defined by the SFF standard. SFF-8484 straight connector.jpg
    SFF-8485 Defines SGPIO (extension of SFF 8484), a serial link protocol used usually for LED indicators.
    SFF-8613 (SFF-8643) Internal 36 4 or 8 with dual connector Mini-SAS HD (introduced with SAS 12 Gbit/s) SFF-8643 SMC.jpg
    SFF-8614 (SFF-8644) External 4 or 8 with dual connector Mini-SAS HD (introduced with SAS 12 Gbit/s) SFF-8644 cable.jpg
    Sideband connector Internal Often seen with 1× SFF-8643 or 1× SFF-8087 on the other end – internal fan-out for 4× SATA drives. Connects the controller to drives without backplane or to the (SATA) backplane and optionally, to the status LEDs. Sideband.jpg
    SFF-8680 Internal
    • 1
    • (2 ports)
    		 SAS 12 Gbit/s backplane connector
    SFF-8639 Internal 68
    • 1
    • (2 ports)
    • SAS 12 Gbit/s backplane connector;
    • revision of the SFF-8680.
    • Also known as “U.2”.[17]
    		 SFF-8639.jpg
    SFF-8638
    • Four 1x ports at up to 24 Gb/s each;
    • two 2x ports at up to 48 Gb/s each;
    • one 4x port at up to 96 Gb/s.
    SFF-8640
    • Four 1x ports at up to 24 Gb/s each;
    • two 2x ports at up to 48 Gb/s each;
    • one 4x port at up to 96 Gb/s.[18]
    SFF-8681
    • Two 1x ports at up to 24 Gb/s each;
    • one 2x ports at up to 48 Gb/s each.
  • Serial ATA: Cables, connectors, and ports – Wikipedia

    Data

    Standard connector, data segment[42]
    Pin # Mating Function
    1 1st Ground
    2 2nd A+ (transmit)
    3 2nd A− (transmit)
    4 1st Ground
    5 2nd B− (receive)
    6 2nd B+ (receive)
    7 1st Ground
     — Coding notch

     

    • A seven-pin SATA data cable (left-angled version of the connector)

    • SATA connector on a 3.5-inch hard drive, with data pins on the left and power pins on the right. The two different pin lengths ensure a specific mating order; the longer lengths are ground pins and make contact first.

    Power

    Standard

    Standard connector, power segment
    Pin # Mating Function
     — Coding notch
    1 3rd 3.3 V Power
    2 3rd
    3 2nd Enter/exit Power Disable (PWDIS) mode
    (3.3 V Power, Pre-charge prior to SATA 3.3)
    4 1st Ground
    5 2nd
    6 2nd
    7 2nd 5 V Power, Pre-charge
    8 3rd 5 V Power
    9 3rd
    10 2nd Ground
    11 3rd Staggered spinup/activity
    12 1st Ground
    13 2nd 12 V Power, Pre-charge
    14 3rd 12 V Power
    15 3rd

    A fifteen-pin SATA power connector (this particular connector is missing the orange 3.3 V wire)

    Slimline

    Slimline connector, power segment
    Pin # Mating Function
     — Coding notch
    1 3rd Device presence
    2 2nd 5 V Power
    3 2nd
    4 2nd Manufacturing diagnostic
    5 1st Ground
    6 1st

    • A six-pin slimline SATA power connector

    • The back of a SATA-based slimline optical drive

    Micro

    Micro connector, power segment
    Pin # Mating Function
    1 3rd 3.3 V Power
    2 2nd
    3 1st Ground
    4 1st
    5 2nd 5 V Power
    6 3rd
    7 3rd Reserved
     — Coding notch
    8 3rd Vendor specific
    9 2nd

    A 1.8-inch (46 mm) micro SATA hard drive with numbered data and power pins on the connector.

–jeroen

Posted in Hardware, Power User, SAS/SATA, SFF-8087 | Leave a Comment »

The Analysis of Drive Issues – unRAID

Posted by jpluimers on 2018/10/22

Interesting info for any RAID system: [WayBack] The Analysis of Drive Issues – unRAID

Start with Drive problems by keyword.

–jeroen

Posted in Hardware, Power User, SAS/SATA | Leave a Comment »

LSI sense codes

Posted by jpluimers on 2016/04/29

A while ago, I had RAID arrays suddenly drop out with unexpected sense codes.

I had a hard time tracking down what was wrong (it ended up being a faulty LSI Multi-lane Internal SFF-8087  to SATA/SAS Cable).

This caused all sorts of unexpected failures, hard to track down to any specific sense code.

As drives are bound to fail, and finding sense codes is a bit difficult, here are a few links that might help if I ever run into trouble again:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in LSI/3ware, Power User, RAID, SAS/SATA, SFF-8087 | Leave a Comment »

 
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