Raid Question

[daniel1926]

Hi Guys,

My raid went down today and I can't figure out why. I recently purchased a Supermicro server which was crushing what I needed it to do. It has 12 x 2 TB HDDs, 1 x Intel 3700 800GB systems drive, 192GB of memory, Supermicro X9DRI-LN4F+ mother board and the 826BA-R920LPB case with backpanes etc. All of the front LEDs on the case for the HDDs are light and showing that everything is normal.

It has an LSI 9261-8i RAID card and the HDDs were set up in a raid 6 array. Everything was going swimmingly until I added a sound card (sandblaster Audigy Fx). While inside the case, I must have disturbed something because my array died on me. At this point, I have tried everything and every combination of cables that I have to try to isolate the problem. I have removed all cards other than the raid card etc to see if that would bring the card back to life. Nothing works.

Before I order a new card, are there any other tricks that I should try? Right now, I do not even see the option to load the web bios for the raid card during boot up.

 

[XavierMace]

is the card not recognized at all, or does the card not see the drives?

 

[tweakboy]

Spray some RAID on them.

 

[daniel1926]

is the card not recognized at all, or does the card not see the drives?

The card does not seem to be recognized at all.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Did you change the slot the raid card was in?
Does the server (either in bios or ipmi) 'see' the card as being there at all? (Even if it doesn't work.)

Honestly? Sounds like you zapped the card with static or something. Bummer.

Why would you need a sound card in a server?

 

[nanaki333]

Pop the card in another computer; hell, your personal desktop would be fine just to see if it's still recognized. Did you zap it with your finger while screwing around inside? I've actually personally done that and before diving in, always touch something metal. For some reason, my primary server room at work makes you build up a static charge just walking 10 feet!

If the card is dead, just get another LSI. You don't even have to get the exact same card, just the same brand. I've moved arrays between LSI and Areca cards all the time. The boot sector that the cards put in front of the drive are all the same in generations of the cards (I brought 2x1TB Spinpoint F1 drives onboard raid0 from a c2q all the way to my first 6 core i7 3960x before ditching it without touching the arrya0) . Hell, if you have an extra 12 port LSI card laying around, you can try putting that in the server and connecting the drives.

 

[daniel1926]

Thanks guys. I am going to go ahead and order another card from ebay. Fortunately, the used cards are selling for 80% off of retail.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Interesting question: "Why would you want a sound card on a server?"

I also have an Audigy card in my parts-locker, hoping to find some use for it . . . . some day. My server was built on an old ASUS 680i board with a proprietary slot for its bundled sound-card "riser." It's still sitting here on the desk, and I've really had no incentive to install it.