PAMurillo

asked on 12/12/2021

SuperMicro motherboard won't display RAID option during boot-up

Hi Everyone,

About 3 months ago I recently took a server with a SuperMicro motherboard off a network and put it into storage. It was running RAID 5. I replaced the drives with new Samsung EVO QVO drives and fired it back up expecting to see the RAID menu appear but it didn't.

>It is a Supermicro X9SRL-F ver 3.2
I made changes in the BIOS including:

-Advanced > SATA Configuration > AHCI (changed to RAID mode)

-Advanced > SCU Configuration > Storage Controller Unit > Enabled

-Advanced > SCU Configuration >SCU RAID Option ROM/UEFI Driver > Enabled

I have even removed the CMOS, waited about 30 min, put in a new CMOS battery with no change. Nothing appears in the start-up that allows me to enter the RAID controller.

If anyone has experience with these motherboards, please let me know what I am missing - strange that it had RAID setup previously, I made no changes other than the new hard drives and the RAID option does not appear.

RAIDNetworkingStorage

Last Comment

andyalder

8/22/2022 - Mon

PAMurillo

12/12/2021

ASKER

Here are some pics from the BIOS settings.

rindi

12/12/2021

It looks as if your System only uses a Fake-Raid controller anyway, so if you want to use RAID it makes far more sense to use your OS's integrated Software RAID, rather than your Fake-RAID controller's version of Software RAID. The OS version performs better, & is also safer as it runs on whatever hardware you want it to.

Besides that, make sure all the firmware on your Server is up-to-date.

David Johnson, CD

12/12/2021

the bios is not detecting ANY disks only your CDROM/DVDROM

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PAMurillo

12/12/2021

ASKER

@rindi
That wouldn't make sense. During the OS installation, you have to pick a hard drive to target the install.

@David Johnson
It detects the hard drives SATA slots 0-3. Here's a pic

rindi

12/12/2021

You can add the RAID after the installation, or even during it, depending on the OS. Linux Distro's like Debian allow you to create the RAID array during the Installation.

In Windoze you add disks to the array after installation via Disk-Management.

David Johnson, CD

12/12/2021

That's why they are not showing up in the BIOS it's using a 3rd party add on card. nothing in the bios RAID settings mean anything
look in your PCIe settings for option rom

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PAMurillo

12/12/2021

ASKER

@David Johnson
I'll try looking for a PCIe setting in the BIOS in about an hour and update.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

andyalder

12/12/2021

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PAMurillo

12/12/2021

ASKER

@andyalder
Thank you for your assistance. That worked! I found the RAID configuration menu exactly where you mentioned.
It says not the first time you've helped. I very much appreciate it!

andyalder

12/12/2021

Couple of things to add, consumer SSDs aren't good on RAID controllers unless you short-stroke them, I think Samsung have a utility that will let you set them to be say 850GiB rather than full size. That gives the SSD's controller more room for background garbage collection. You have to put them on a non-RAID port to use the utility. Reason for short-stroking is the controller does not use TRIM so needs more reserve space. Hopefully they are EVO rather than QVO but it applies to both.

Your photos are good but you could probably have done screen-shots. SuperMicro BMC normally has IPMI IP/KVM built in, great for remote BIOS config and remote power button.

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