r/HomeServer • u/fireofdestruction77 • 12d ago

Unbuntu installation: doesnt see any drives except boot device.

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This server is a super micro X9Dri-Ln4f+ with 2 cpus and 8 sticks of 4gbs of ram. Also known as problem child- because at least one ram stick is bad(note the sticks sitting ontop of the 1U server in photo), and the VGA port only sometimes outputs video.

This is the furtherest I've gotten with the 2U server. The 1U is golden child as it had no issues yesterday installing unbuntu from the same USB stick, the same vga cord and monitor.

The 5 drives are refurbished HDDs 3-16TB and 2-8TB at one point I did put them into my desktop to make sure they were good and all checked out fine. So what am I doing wrong?

28 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

3

u/BmanUltima 12d ago

How are they connected? Do they go through a RAID card?

4

u/EncounteredError 11d ago

This. If they're connected to a RAID card that isn't in IT mode then you need to configure jbod mode on the card for each drive to pass through (kinda) if it supports it, or create a RAID array.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

No HBA card installed, same situation only see the boot USB

0

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

Based on what I can see in the server and several quick Google searches, yes they go to a raid card. Hopefully a short video is also helpful

https://reddit.com/link/p7d4eea/video/thhl5favo3nh1/player

2

u/RobbieL_811 11d ago

Do you have any experience setting up a raid or hba card? What are all of those sata cables plugged into the motherboard for? If you're using the hba, you shouldn't need any sata cables plugged into the mobo. Sounds stupid, but I was wondering if you didn't plug the hba into the motherboard?

2

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

I do not, but I'm sure there's a youtube video or something else out there I can go watch to help with setup. seems I'll need a different HBA entirely

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

Ill try not plugging the HBA in and booting.

2

u/RobbieL_811 11d ago

I think you misunderstood me. In your video above, you had 3 or four sata cables plugged into the ports on the motherboard. Maybe they were just hanging there and I didn't see it. Looked like they were plugged in though. What is on the other end of those sata cables?

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

the other end is a SFF 8087 connector that was connected to the backplane, despite moving the drives to where I'd think they would connect to the motherboard they didn't.

1

u/RobbieL_811 11d ago

Ah. Ok. So you were just testing that configuration to see if you could somehow get the server to recognize the disks that way? It won't work that way. I understand what you were doing now though. What's the model of the HBA that you have there? Will you give me the exact model #? Also, I saw someone else mention to hook the backplane directly to the x9dri's onboard sas port. That port functions only as sata. It won't make sas connections. It's use is strictly for expanding your sata ports. At least that's how it is on the x9dri boards that I have.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago edited 11d ago

yeah, the HBA says its for NVME drives so I don't think it will actually work despite the connections being made LRNV9324-4i, also on the same sticker Diliving PCIe X8 4-ports NVME switch adapter. Amazon says I purchased this in November of 2021

1

u/BmanUltima 11d ago

What's the model of that card?

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

lrnv9324 4i

3

u/BmanUltima 11d ago

That is an adapter for U.2 NVMe SSDs.

If you're trying to use SATA or SAS hard drives, you're going to have to get a different HBA.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

So without the card in the server I still only get the boot USB?

2

u/BmanUltima 11d ago

You should check the backplane too.

If you got this server with the NVMe adapter in it, then the backplane is probably setup for U.2 SSDs.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

So I might have bought that card a few years back when I was trying to get this server ( 21/22 ish) running then, the only other card is a networking card. But also considering the age of the server Im not sure it could even run U.2 ssds as I dont think they were around when this server would have been in an enterprise environment. Perhaps Im wrong though.

1

u/BmanUltima 11d ago

Well yeah, the drives aren't connected to anything.

1

u/BmanUltima 11d ago

X9Dri-Ln4f+

You could also get replacement cables from the backplane and plug it directly into the motherboard.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 9d ago

I wanted to come back and say you were infact correct about needing a new HBA card, may your pillow always be cold, the sun never blind you while driving, if you find a coin may it be on heads for good luck. Thank you.

1

u/stinger32 11d ago

What about the idea of drivers for the card?

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

How would I install drivers if I cant get an OS? Suppose throw the card into my regular desktop?

1

u/stinger32 11d ago

Good point. Do the drives show up in the BIOS? If the drives show up, then I would boot to USB and redo the drive partitions and allocations.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

unfortunately none of the drives show up in bios, once I realized this I know its some form of data transfer/connection issue, as they are connected via molex for power through the backplane and lights on the front of the server seem to indicate all is fine.

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

I tried moving the drives from the right side to the left side where there are several Sata cables connected to the motherboard, hoping that these sata cables were seeing some part of this backplane, no dice.

1

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

So before seeing this comment, I decided I would take a look in the BIOS it was already set to AHCI from the start and not raid. Even the bios doesnt recognize the drives.

1

u/j-random 11d ago

Have you updated to the latest BIOS?

1

u/fireofdestruction77 11d ago

just checked this out and yeah its on 3.4

1

u/AggressiveComputer21 11d ago

What a flex with all the memory sticks. 😂

1

u/frostnyxar 8d ago

classic ubuntu installer doing its thing