Asrock x99 WS/E-10G build

[Scrat_]

For someone using an Asrock x99 WS/E-10G board, would you recommend UEFI or BIOS boot? It consistently stalls on reboot and initial start. I have twin USB SanDisk drives mounted in the back

 

[Ericloewe]

As an X99 WS owner, my advice is to get rid of the thing if you can.
Mine will literally not boot anything with the 2.x or 3.x firmware versions and ASRock support has not provided much in the way of useful advice. BIOS or UEFI, nothing boots. Not Windows 7, 8 or 10, not Ubuntu, not FreeBSD...

 

[Scrat_]

As an X99 WS owner, my advice is to get rid of the thing if you can.
Mine will literally not boot anything with the 2.x or 3.x firmware versions and ASRock support has not provided much in the way of useful advice. BIOS or UEFI, nothing boots. Not Windows 7, 8 or 10, not Ubuntu, not FreeBSD...

I'll have to take a look to see what firmware version is on there. I know that if I go into the UEFI settings, and tell it to force boot from either SanDisk, it will. Last thing that happened what that after the update, the network panel started giving me errors.

I'll have to try running Windows on it and see how it responds. The Gigabyte MZ30-AR0 has been looking like a very pretty option..

 

[Scrat_]

I just updated the BIOS to 3.6. Booting is still tedious, but it no longer hangs when trying to boot from my SanDisk keys in UEFI state.

Server guts for shits n giggles.

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[Ericloewe]

Hmm, you're using non-ECC RAM. ASRock support suggested something along those lines, even though my DIMMs were straight out of the QVL...

 

[Scrat_]

Figured I'd go the non-ECC route and see how it treated me. I'd love to build one based on Gigabyte's MZ30-AR0 Epyc board, but I dunno where FreeNAS sits with AMD.

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[Ericloewe]

People still report some stability issues on 11.1 with Ryzen.

 

[Scrat_]

Hmm.. good to know. Gives me time to learn and setup my existing baby before going full bore into another. I have a bit a learn, but I'm looking forward to the adventure!

On another note, I may have spoken too soon. I tried to do an update to 11.1-u4 and then there was a hiccup. Thankfully I downloaded the u4 ISO at the same time. *scratches chin*

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[Scrat_]

Something I've noticed.. I dunno if I did something, but my cables go from SATA to MiniSAS on a hotswap backplane. Would that stop FreeNAS from discovering my drives?

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[danb35]

my cables go from SATA to MiniSAS on a hotswap backplane. Would that stop FreeNAS from discovering my drives?

That depends. Are those true SATA ports, or are the SAS presented on a SATA port? If the former, it could cause problems.

 

[Scrat_]

That depends. Are those true SATA ports, or are the SAS presented on a SATA port? If the former, it could cause problems.

It's the former. SATA ports they are. If done right, some of them would be RAID ports.. but through BIOS or software - one or the other.

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[danb35]

SATA ports they are

I'm not sure, in that case, that a reverse breakout cable would work, and a forward breakout cable certainly wouldn't.

 

[Scrat_]

I'm not sure, in that case, that a reverse breakout cable would work, and a forward breakout cable certainly wouldn't.

I have a cable with separate SATA connectors at one end, mini-SAS at the other, with a backplate cable for SMART info from what I understand.

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[MrToddsFriends]

It's the former. SATA ports they are. If done right, some of them would be RAID ports.. but through BIOS or software - one or the other.

Maybe a mod could move this discussion from the "Hardware Recommendations Guide Discussion Thread" to a new "Scrat_'s Asrock x99 WS/E-10G build" thread. @Ericloewe?

 

[MrToddsFriends]

I have a cable with separate SATA connectors at one end, mini-SAS at the other, with a backplate cable for SMART info from what I understand.

Maybe you are talking about a sideband connector. Sorry, I never used such a cable, I'm just trying to avoid confusion. And no, a sideband connector is not related to SMART information AFAIK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI#Connectors

 

[Ericloewe]

Maybe a mod could move this discussion from the "Hardware Recommendations Guide Discussion Thread" to a new "Scrat_'s Asrock x99 WS/E-10G build" thread. @Ericloewe?

Yeah, I was on the fence. Which is to say, I was too lazy to come up with a title. That's 90% of the work when moving messages to a new thread. Thanks for making it easy. ;)

 

[Ericloewe]

All the SATA ports on that board are indeed SATA only (well, two or four of them share a connector for that obsolete PCIe form factor, the one with two SATA ports and a tumor). Two of them are from a Marvell controller (ewww). The Intels do fakeRAID, which thankfully doesn't even have a driver on FreeBSD (though apparently GEOM can use Intel fakeRAID disks for GEOM RAID - I've gotta try that monstrosity someday), which means you always get bare disks. The Marvells do some sort of RAID, either fake or really low-end HW RAID. In all cases, Intel and Marvell, disable all the RAID crap.

 

[Stux]

And your backplane... if it’s passive it should work fine, providing you use a reverse breakout not forward breakout Sata/sas cable.

The trick is the two types of breakout cables are visually the same :(

 

[Scrat_]

These are the cables I have. From Silverstone Tek.

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[Scrat_]

This seems to be needed. Drives don't seem to be acknowledged by the system (BIOS/UEFI), never mind FreeNAS.

https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD635R22714

The system boots reliably off my USB keys. I do get alerts when it wants to display network info. Bug in FreeNAS?

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