One of the recent server upgrades called for the purchase of raid controller cards. I use software raid in Linux for its versatility and the L8i controllers can perform in hba (Host Bus Adapter) mode. These cards ship with Supermicro’s IT mode firmware which essentially lets all of the drives show up independently in linux.
Before I could see all that, I needed to get these cards into my case. Don’t be too upset when you first try to slide this card into your case and mobo (I have a Norco 4220 and Gigabyte EP45-UD3P) they will not fit at all. It appears as if the bracket is off on the Y axis by about a quarter inch, this is because these cards are UIO form factor.
Establishing my frame of reference
This can easily be resolved with some longer screws and nylon spacers. Be sure to use the original brackets as buying new brackets was really hard to figure out (If anyone knows the exact bracket for this then please let me know).
Using quarter inch nylon spacers for number ten machine screws (need to verify)
We used two spacers on each of the ‘posts’, it appeared that this resolved the issue as we got a good solid fit for both of the cards.
Which version of Ubuntu/Linux are you running with these cards? I recently built a Norco 4020 with the same two cards, and am having a pretty significant issue with them in Ubuntu 9.10 (I believe the issue is a compatibility issue with the cards in that release). I have two other servers running Ubuntu 7.10 with MDADM arrays on the motherboard SATA ports and am not having an issue. I’d appreciate it if you could hit me back when you have a minute.
One thing that you will have to watch out for is smartctl. I found a bug log for red hat saying that some LSI controllers (for sure the 1068) will get offlined by running smart checks.
I am running 9.10 server with these, using both of them to span a 12 drive array.
What kind of issues are you having?
[...] dat je niet een standaard kast hebt ? Nah, dat niet, maar geen heel groot probleem. Zie bijv. Fitting and AOC-USAS-L8i in a PCIe slot (UIO to PCIe) Init [...]
Great!
Is was inquiring about buying the LP version of this HBA knowing the bracket would not fit in a standard PCIe Slot.
Your solution with the spacers the looks much friendlier than removing the bracket and fixing the card it with some zip ties!
Do you know the screw size?
I took the unscrewed bracket to a home depot & none of the machine screws fit.
How about a zip tie going under the motherboard’s pcie connector & looping over top of the AOC?
I am not positive of the screw sizes, the length obviously has to be long enough for the grommets. I remember the screws having a very fine thread. I will be cleaning the server out at the end of the month, let me see if I can get the information to you then.