I am currently running down the rabbit hole that are HBA’s (LSI SAS 9211-8i specifically, running the 20.00.07.00-IT FW). Using SFF-8087 to SATA mini SAS breakout cable (4 sata, 1 mini SAS) I’ve tried installing four (bought new) SATA 14TB WD HDD’s, as an upgrade to the 6 3TB drives (all running off of the MOBO (asrock z170 Gaming i7) SATA ports), with zero joy. The HBA bios shows up prior to the mobo, and upon accessing the HBA Bios config (Avago Technologies config util) the adapter reads as enabled, however the SAS topology fails to list any devices (disks?). The OS (TrueNAS-13.0-U5.3) detects the HBA via lspci in shell, however none of the four drives show from the TrueNAS dashboard.
I’ve checked both the data and power connectors, tried different PCIe slots, different mini sas ports on the card itself, a second cable (I got a 2-pack), all to no avail.
My next check will be to install the card in my desktop rig and see if there are any differences in circumstance.
Any suggestions, please offer them up!
Cheers;
Is it possible that the Power Disconnect pin on these 2020 WD HC530 14TB hdd’s could be causing the drives to not spin up?
Do they spin up if you connect one to the motherboard directly?
They do not. I will try a backup drive (smaller and older) on the HBA tonight when I get home. Will also attach the new drives to my desktop rig to see if they get detected on newer Mobo/cpu combo. Appreciate the tips! Still chugging along for a solution. Cheers
@opshlds , I had the same issue with a 8TB drive I bought some time ago, and a Molex-to-SATA adapter solved the issue to me.
Quick explanation: The SATA standard was updated some time ago to have a signal no Pin 3 of the power connector that takes the HDD to sleep mode. Normal PSUs have a 3.3V signal on this PIN, as it’s part of an older SATA standard.
If there’s no power on that pin, the HDD starts up normally. If it’s powered, the HDD is set to a constant sleep mode.
Longer explanation here.
Most excellent indeed! Yeah I watched a vid on the 3.3v pin (third pin in from the “L” notch) power disable SATA standard via Art of Server on YouTube and that is exactly what I am hoping I’m dealing with. Just ordered up a couple of the above mentioned Molex-To-Sata adapters, (backups and I always enjoy having extras on hand). Appreciate the suggestion and will be attempting this when the adapters arrive! Much obliged!
I can confirm that even my older backup drive intended as a spare does not get detected. My next troubleshooting method would be determining whether I was sent faulty SFF-8077 to SATA breakout cables (or perhaps I ended up with reverse cables?).
What would be the likelihood of two cables (I had bought a 2 pack) being faulty at purchase?
Is it possible to differentiate backwards and forwards SFF-8077 cables by sight?
In the meantime, I’ll be purchasing another set of Mini SAS sff-8077 to SATA forward cables.
Appreciate any and all ideas and suggestions. Thank you in advance
Sorry, didn’t read that you had already thought of forward vs reverse cables. That was my suggestion.
One other possibility (and this is a shot in the dark)… Did you plug the cable in correctly. I’ve plugged in SFF-8087 connectors upside-down before and didn’t even realize it. (Well until it didn’t work and I had to go troubleshooting it) It’s just one of those things.
I checked the mini-SAS connection and it appears to be inserted properly (the locking mechanism works). I then tried the each of the four drives in my desktop rig, none of which showed up in BIOS or Windows (ASUS Tuf Gaming x570-Plus, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D). Ordered new SFF-8087 to SATA Forward Breakouts, and molex-to-sata adapters. Will update when I’m able to progress down the troubleshooting rabbit-hole 
So, after lots of researching, asking questions here, and buying an $8 three pack of Molex to SATA power adapters, I have successfully gotten my drives recognized in AVANT BIOS via SAS Topology, Asrock Bios, and Truenas! SCORE!
So many thanks for the suggestions and talking this through with me, I couldn’t have done this with as much sanity intact without you!
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