GEN8 ODD, AHCI and booting...

[snapper 38]

Hi,

 

As commonly known, in AHCI mode, its not possible to boot using the ODD SATA port.

My workaround was quite simple; I removed the SATA backplane and removed the HDD1 SATA connection. I then connected this via a SATA extension lead to a SSD in the space used by the ODD.

 

I then used a SATA cable to connect the ODD SATA port through the hole left by the backplane port into disk 1 caddy space and did the same with the SATA power via a molex splitter.

 

Downside is that it makes HDD1 not as easy to change as you need to remove all the drives to thread the cable back in the backplane hole, but it works. (you don't need to remove the case, just the front caddis)

 

The SSD is then effectively on SATA channel 1 and is the default boot drive and the OS can use SATA channels 2-4 and ODD channel for data drives.

 

Hope this tip helps others

Edited October 2, 2013 by snapper

[TheBiggerMan 16]

snapper,

 

You may find my post in another thread (http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5886-gen8-25-hdd-in-the-odd-bay-discussion/page-3#entry67539) helpful on this topic...  I provided instructions on how to setup a MicroSD or USB key installed internally that gets around the issue you described without changing any cable routing internally.  Note that these instructions only work for Windows OSes though...

 

- TheBiggerMan

[snapper 38]

Thanks TBM; I did see that thread but unfortunately it wont work for me as I run Linux...

 

I did toy with the idea of setting up a generic bootloader or GRUB on the microsd card that would boot any OS, but found it was quicker just to swap the cables over

[petey_jc 1]

Snapper & TheBiggerMan - 

 

Check out my post in the other thread:

 

http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6728-gen-8-boot-off-ssd/?p=76324

 

Instead of messing with any of the cabling or with booting through USB, you can just create 2 arrays (a 1 disk RAID 0 array with the SSD and whatever other RAID array you like with the other 3.5" drives) and set the boot drive in the RAID array options.  Works like a charm for any OS, not just Windows!

 

 

[Vance Fox 5]

Or read up on my thread. Gives you 3 sas to sata ports and allows you to have your boot ssd on port 1 6gbs.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

 

[TheBiggerMan 16]

Hi petey_jc,

 

Yes this is definitely a viable option if you don't plan on making your drives portable.  For me, as I went with DriveBender on WS2012R2 Essentials, it would have somewhat negated the benefit of the fact that drives are just plain ol' NTFS volumes in DriveBender making data recovery should the worst happen a (relative) breeze. 

 

In fact, unless drive portability is a concern, I would say that your method makes more sense - esp. as it means the fans are managed by iLO properly with the MicroServer in RAID mode...  Latest BIOS of course improves the situation for us AHCI-mode folks, but doesn't really fix the issue of iLO having no drive temp visibility!

 

- TheBiggerMan

[Notbugged 4]

On 10/3/2013 at 11:05 PM, TheBiggerMan said:

snapper,

 

You may find my post in another thread (http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5886-gen8-25-hdd-in-the-odd-bay-discussion/page-3#entry67539) helpful on this topic...  I provided instructions on how to setup a MicroSD or USB key installed internally that gets around the issue you described without changing any cable routing internally.  Note that these instructions only work for Windows OSes though...

 

- TheBiggerMan

Can't seem to find the post anymore bro? 

[TheBiggerMan 16]

26 minutes ago, Notbugged said:

Can't seem to find the post anymore bro? 

 Weird... seems to have moved...  you can now find it at:

 

[Notbugged 4]

Thx!