What makes a RAID card work (or fail) on a motherboard?

[Automata]

LSI MN: MegaRAID 8708EM2
Intel MN: SRCSASBB8I

I'm a bit irked as I just dropped over $600 on a new RAID controller and SAS expander to find that I can't get the RAID card to work. I can get the OS to see it no problem and I can flash it with ease. The system still boots when fired up, but it absolutely refuses to open the BIOS of the card. I've tried this in two different computers (Asus P5Q Pro and Asus M2N32-SLi). When I hit "ctrl+g" to entire the BIOS, it tells me that it will go to the BIOS when it is done loading. It then completely skips it and starts loading the OS. I realize that these are not "server motherboards", but why will this specific RAID controller not load the BIOS?

I would be inclined to believe it is an incompatibility issue if the following two comments were FALSE:

1. The server's motherboard (Asus M2N32-SLi) has been running 2 Dell Perc 5/i RAID cards for over 2 years, without issues.
2. I was able to get in the RAID BIOS once today and it worked flawlessly.

But, neither of them are false. I've tried multiple revisions of the RAID card's firmware, including ones from LSI and Intel. I contacted LSI directly not knowing that Intel handles this card and they said they couldn't help. I then contacted Intel and got the exact same canned answer as I thought I would.

After working on this for over 5 hours, I'm slightly ticked off (massive understatement). I would love to upgrade the hardware in the server, but I don't want to go with an Intel board. This is (*gasp*) not supported as well, who would have guessed? I'm not going to drop $800 on a new motherboard/processor/RAM to find that it isn't supported either. I'm also not going to be forced to use hardware because it works with this specific RAID controller.

What should I do? I'm not going to return the RAID card, because there is nothing "wrong" with it; it works fine. I could technically use the RAID controller, but I just can't use the BIOS configuration utility. This is turning into a huge chain of events that I just want to avoid.

Bottom line, I want to run a "bare metal" VM server (XenServer, etc). This will only recognize arrays with LUNs, which means I need a RAID card. I could run a regular OS and configure the RAID card through the webUI since that seems to be functioning OK. The saving grace is that the main server's OS will be installed to a SSD drive that is off the motherboard's controller, so I don't have to have the controller configured before I install the OS.

I'm leaning more towards the regular OS with a web-based configuration plan. I'm not sure what I'll run for VM's, though. Any input is appreciated and if you are able to actually fix the original issue of it not loading the BIOS, I will love you forever.

Here is the conversation that went down between them and me.

Spoiler

Chat Information: Please wait for a site operator to respond.

Chat Information: You are now chatting with 'Nathan'

Nathan: Hello. Thank you for using the Intel Customer Support chat service. We are glad to be of service. How can I help you today?

Nathan: Hi Corey.

Thideras: Hello Nathan, I have an Intel SRCSASBB8I RAID card (LSI 8078EM2) that I'm not able to get in the BIOS on.

Nathan: You are referring to the RAID BIOS console right?

Thideras: I've tried it on two different computer, does not work. When I hit "Ctrl+g" when it displays on the screen, it switches to "RAID BIOS will load..." and never does.

Thideras: That is correct

Thideras: I just updated it to the newest firmware that is available on your website, but that did not change the behavior.

Nathan: What motherboard have you tested it on?

Nathan: was it previously working?

Thideras: ASUS P5Q Pro (which it is currently running on) and another Asus board (the server, don't have the exact model number; but I can).

Thideras: Out of the 100 or so restarts I've done today, it did get into the RAID BIOS once, actually.

Thideras: Both computers have been working with *other* RAID cards in the past, if that matters.

Thideras: The server has been running two Dell Perc 5/i RAID cards until today.

Nathan: I see the problem we have here is that particular RAID controller has not been tested for the boards you mentioned.

Thideras: Replacing the entire server is not something I'm looking to do. If it hadn't worked the entire day, I'd be inclined to believe that it is an incompatibility. But the one time that it worked, it did flawlessly.

Thideras: I know you guys can't test every motherboard out there, but there isn't anything to try?

Nathan: There is not much to troubleshoot in this kind of scenario. Since one of the isolation procedures we do is remove any unvalidated hardware from the equation. have you tried using the other pci-e connectors on the board?

Thideras: On both systems, yes.

Nathan: I see then it is more likely a compatibility issue.

Thideras: What motherboards are we looking at that are certified for it?

Nathan: Please hold while I provide you the link.

Thideras: Or is there some feature the motherboard has that makes this work with it?

Nathan: http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/srcsasbb8i/sb/srcsasbb8i_thol_v100.pdf

Nathan: please refer to the link above for a list of validated server boards.

Thideras: I've been considering an Asus KGPE-D16 dual socket G34 server motherboard, but I'm not going to drop $800 to see if it works. I'd rather just get rid of the RAID controller.

Thideras: (Looking at the document now)

Nathan: Would there be anything else aside from this concern?

Thideras: Not really, I'll probably just end up returning this card. Has been nothing but a headache. I know that you can't really do anything about it, but I appreciate the time thus far.

Nathan: If you are satisfied with our support, please score items where applicable with a 4 or 5 in the online survey. We will value your feedback and we will use it to make our services better. Thank you!

Nathan: Bye.

What I find interesting is that link he sent me. It lists a x38 motherboard in the compatibility list. From my understanding, this is similar to my p45 chipset. What makes it different? I'm going to tinker with some settings tomorrow to see if I can get it to work.

 

[Psykoikonov]

If it did it once and won't do it again on either motherboard my thought would be there is something wrong with the card itself. Do you happen to have access to a motherboard that is on the qualified list?

 

[Automata]

If it did it once and won't do it again on either motherboard my thought would be there is something wrong with the card itself. Do you happen to have access to a motherboard that is on the qualified list?

I don't or I would have tried that. I don't think the card is faulty because everything else works on the card.

 

[Adragontattoo]

Possible that it has the same issue as the Perc5is do on some Intel boards? Maybe you need to cover a couple of the pins?

 

[Automata]

I thought of that last night, but forgot about it this morning. Trying now.

 

[Automata]

Same thing.

 

[Automata]

I can use the MegaCli utility from the server since I installed it, but it is the most asinine program ever created. It took me just under an hour to figure out how to add a RAID array.

[root@xenserver-thideras MegaCli]# ./MegaCli -cfgldadd -r6[252:0,252:1,252:2,252:4,252:5,252:6,252:7] WB RA Cached -strpsz64 -a0
                                     
Adapter 0: Created VD 0

Adapter 0: Configured the Adapter!!

Exit Code: 0x00
[root@xenserver-thideras MegaCli]#

It is building now, going to install an OS to see if I can control it better.

 

[madhatter256]

It could very well be a compatability issue. I've seen LSI make products that act up in non-server hardware. One time, a SCSI controller they used to make would kill itself if you tried to initialize a RAID 5 array on a certain Intel board, and we were selling that model board with the LSI at that time. Drove our techs nuts talking to LSI tech support. The company I used to work for stopped ordering any LSI product after that issue and stuck with adaptec.

 

[Automata]

Just figured out to get it to work and it was completely unintentional. I use an Asus board, which has the F8 button assigned to the boot window. I hit this during the startup process. When the card boots, I still use the Ctrl+G. I let it sit at the drive selection window for a few seconds, select a drive and just like magic, the RAID BIOS!

 

[Adragontattoo]

Awesome that you made it work.

 

[Automata]

Awesome that you made it work.

Yeah, it was odd because I did it once and had absolutely no idea how I did it. I got it to do it again while waiting for CentOS to burn to a disk and left the server at that drive selection screen. I popped in the disk, selected it and...RAID BIOS. I sat there for a minute trying to contemplate what I did, figured it was related to the drive selection screen and tried it again. And it worked!

Just happened to be pure dumb luck that figured it out.