Cannot get the board to POST if this card is installed. I’ve got 2 of them and have tried different cables/currently trying to use the HBA 9211 8i (IT mode) with ICY DOCK 8 x 2.5 SAS/SATA HDD/SSD Moblie Rack Enclosure for 5.25" Bay (2 x Mini-SAS HD) | ToughArmor MB998IP-B. INSPUR 9211-8i 6Gbps HBA LSI FW:P20 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID+2* SFF-8087 SATA Is the card name model info. Using sata cables to sata ports the drives work fine, though windows server 22 sees them as individual drives rather than raid, but that’s fine for now. When I try using the same Icydock enclosure with the HBA card the LED lights on the motherboard are green showing power but it doesn’t start the 90sec count down to startup regardless of button presses etc. card is in the x8 slot. Tried similar with same icydock but different card. The 2nd card is same stock/order/vendor as the first. Same results.
Next I tried 1 x Delock [Hardware/Electronic] DeLOCK PCI Express x16 Card to 4 x
internal SFF-8654 4i NVMe - Bifurcation - Speicher-Controller - NVMe - PCIe
4,0 x16. The manufacturer website is, Delock Products 89030 Delock PCI Express x16 Card to 4 x internal SFF-8654 4i NVMe - Bifurcation
Anyway I ordered some 8654 to 4 sata cables and while they connect on both ends they don’t work. I assume this is because none of the drives are u.2 which seems a requirement for that board. However with the 9211 do I maybe need an expander board to get it working or any suggestions? I got 2 of them and for cable management and speeds it’d be nice for them to work. Open to any suggestions, thanks
Can you give some more details about what you’ve tried so far?
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Does the board boot with no cards installed? And with only one of the two cards installed (connected to no drives)?
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When you say doesn’t POST, what do you see on screen during boot? Does it reach the bios or the OS load screen?
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Have you tried manually setting the speed to PCIe 2.0 in the bios? ALso are you booting with CSM and/or CSM Option Rom enabled? These might be required to boot.
Yeah sure it’s simple and odd, that’s why I’m kind of confused about how to resolve it.
Can you give some more details about what you’ve tried so far?
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Does the board boot with no cards installed? And with only one of the two cards installed (connected to no drives)?
-it would power on green LED and a 2nd blinking green LED but no fans or anything else/more. When I removed all cards and drives except the 2 nvme drives on the motherboard it wasn’t until I disconnected the power switch cables and used a spare power button that it finally would boot again. Then went through the process you mentioned where I get it to load Windows server 22 DC edition with the 9211 card directly in the board (without extension cables or anything. Connected a 3.75TB sata cable to the motherboard. Then I added a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card for a trackpad I have. It booted no problem with a different dvi graphics card connected to my kvm switch. Repeated with the icydock drives connected sata cable that terminates in a 8654 end that plugs into the 9211 card. (I think it’s an 8654 end but may be different I’d have to check. It’s basically sata to 9211 card.) This is the best result I’ve gotten so far, in that I can boot into WS22 DC and even though it does not see any drives except the 2 onboard m.2 NVME drives and the 3.75 tb spinning disk. However it doesn’t allow the spinning disk to be used or configured as a storage space/physical storage. I may have to add it to a server first. Anyway it still doesn’t acknowledge the 9211 or Wi-Fi/BT except in a device error when I look at hardware ID and device info. Updated a few drivers and got the Wi-Fi/BT card to be accepted though still not functioning. Can’t locate the drivers for the 9211 card but will look further hoping that’s all it is now.
I still have yet to get the card functioning or seeing/recognizing the drives in the icydock. If I go sata to sata on icydock then they’d been accessible in the past. Not as a hardware RAID /Software RAID as hoped. Maybe something like MS storage spaces if I’m able to see them again via the 9211. Even without RAID configuration I just used them as storage for VM isos/dedicated VM spaces. 500gb x5 dc ssd. -
When you say doesn’t POST, what do you see on screen during boot? Does it reach the bios or the OS load screen? Neither of these before I disconnected everything and put in a different power button. Anyway thanks for suggestions and I’ll post back any changes that get it working. Google seems to show others have had issues with the 9211 card and I think maybe the icydock to the card might be a source of the issue. Idk just a guess.
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Have you tried manually setting the speed to PCIe 2.0 in the bios? ALso are you booting with CSM and/or CSM Option Rom enabled? These might be required to boot.
Note on #3: I enabled compatibility mode in bios when it was previously working but until this latest effort it wouldn’t even turn on or allow me to get into the bios
If the system is booting the first thing to do is to enter the Option ROM configuration tool for the card. If you have option roms enabled in the BIOS there should be a screen showing disk information while booting (separate to the BIOS). IIRC it’s Ctrl + S to enter the config mode of that, otherwise just look on screen and it will tell you.
For Windows driver support try searching for “MPT 2 SAS” driver. You may need the specific driver for the manufacturer of your card (LSI is just the chipset).
If you just want to troubleshoot the card, try booting a linux live cd. Then you can use the “lsblk” command to see what hard drives popup. (Systemrescuecd is an example live cd you can try). This includes the MPT 2 SAS driver so it should just work.
Covering bases but have you tried logging into the IPMI and checking what the virtual console outputs? May have some logs on if/how its not starting up
IPMI on any of my machines /they’re all capable of it but after not getting it working, for now I’ve had to configure them without using IPMI. I’ll have to follow the suggestions and try to find an Adaptec driver.
Normally I would not comment on this post given my limited experience and expertise in this area. However I own an LSI 9211 8i and I soon found it needed replacing as it simply will not work with much of the newer hardware on the market. It’s a good card and it served me well for nearly a decade BUT as soon as I started moving over to NVMe and newer hardware I began to have more problems with it. I upgraded to Mega Raid and haven’t had an issue since. Yes, there are ways of flashing the card to make it more adaptable and I believe it can be UNRAIDED (although I fail to see the real advantage to this. I prefer the IT mode.)
I suppose it really comes down to a matter of personal preference. I opted for the LSI 9267 8i which basically has the same physical architecture as the 9211 with less LEDs on the card but it works well with NVMe on board as well. I know what you mean about cable management and that is one of the reasons I chose this card. Anyway, the choice is yours. I wouldn’t be tossing that card any time soon but I’d keep it for older platforms. I’ve been noticing people have been returning to RAID more and more as these formats have already been tried and tested and are proving themselves more stable. I’m an advocate of RAID 10 but as I have already suggested it’s really all a matter of personal preference. I hope this helps.
edit The LSI 9267 works on this X570 board just fine.
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