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Jim Black
Asked: 2013-03-19 18:46:08 +0800 CST

Will Intel RES2CV360 SAS Port Expander Work With Adaptec 6805 RAID Controller?

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Have both the expander and the RAID controller. Hooked everything together according to the docs on-line, but no drivers are seen. Can't tell if this is just a compatibility issue, or perhaps a bad expander. RAID controller is working fine when expander isn't attached.

raid

2 Answers

  1. Greetings from Adaptec by PMC!

    We do not test the Intel expander board you list so I cannot be certain it will work. Please make sure the controller BIOS is up to the latest release available. You should also verify with Intel the expander board is at the latest release. We have tested the LSI SASx36 chip in other hard drive enclosures so I would expect we could get it to work. Please open a case online at http://ask.adaptec.com to get further more specific assitance.

    Thank you, Adaptec by PMC Technical Support

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  2. Best Answer

    New expander arrived today, confirmed it is compatible. Had to flash the 6805 bios to version 5.2.0-19109. At this point the 6805 would stop after displaying:

    Firmware Version...

    So I performed a cold cycle of power (as in remove the power cord from the machine for about 30 seconds) to get a proper NVRAM reset. Upon reboot, all 8 of the old and the 12 new drives were seen. And even more important, ALL of my RAID sets were detected and came online normally - no degradations.

    Also confirmed that you can not boot from the expander when it is connected to the adapter with two patch cables. This isn't a problem for me as I wanted my booting SSDs directly attached to the adapter anyway. But may be an issue if your would like to use 8x channels to the expander.

    To get proper disk numbering, the expander 'Connector A' should be connected to the 'lower' port of the adapter - the adapter port closest to your motherboard, and your boot drives (limited to 4 of course) connected directly to the adapters upper port. Direct attached drives will be 00-03, expanded drives will be 04+ on 'Box00'.

    Anyway, very happy that the machine now can use 20+ total hard drives.

    Adaptec 6805 SAS/SATA Controller w/ 19109 BIOS
    Intel RES2CV360 SAS/SATA 36-port Expander Firmware 0d00 (from Adaptec Storage Man)
    Samsung SSD 840 Pro 500GB Firmware DXT06B0Q (x4), directly attached to Adaptec 6805
    Seagate ST3000DM001-9YN1 3TB Firmware 71F0DKT0 (x4), attached to expander.
    Seagate ST3000DM001-1CH1 3TB Firmware 71F1HYWV (x12), attached to expander.

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