Supermicro X7SPA L/H/HF ATOM serverboards (Level 1 Tested)


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Just a sanity check before I upgrade from unraid 4.7 to 5.0 in the coming weeks... these boards do support 4TB hard drives, right?

 

I've got quite the ugprade path in front of me:

1) Update unraid

2) Backup qty:2 1TB (full) storage drives to another computer

3) Remove qty:2 1TB drives from array

4) Attach 4TB drive and preclear

5) Replace 2TB parity with 4TB drive

6) Attach qty:2 4TB drives and preclear

7) Add qty:2 4TB storage drives to array

 

Final config will be 4tb parity, qty:2 4tb storage, qty:3 2tb storage

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Just a sanity check before I upgrade from unraid 4.7 to 5.0 in the coming weeks... these boards do support 4TB hard drives, right?

 

I've got quite the ugprade path in front of me:

1) Update unraid

2) Backup qty:2 1TB (full) storage drives to another computer

3) Remove qty:2 1TB drives from array

4) Attach 4TB drive and preclear

5) Replace 2TB parity with 4TB drive

6) Attach qty:2 4TB drives and preclear

7) Add qty:2 4TB storage drives to array

 

Final config will be 4tb parity, qty:2 4tb storage, qty:3 2tb storage

 

Yes, they support 4TB drives.

 

r.e. your "path" => you can do it in a "safer" way that will maintain parity ...

 

=>  Do a parity check to confirm all is well before you start.

=>  Update to v5

=>  Replace parity drive with a 4TB unit and wait for the rebuild to complete

=>  Replace a 1TB drive with a 4TB drive and wait for the rebuild to complete

=>  Replace the 2nd 1TB drive with a 4TB dive and wait for the rebuild to complete

 

 

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Does IPMI allow access the local terminal (using ALT+F1-F6 to open up to 6 terminals) when needed (i.e. for a preclear), then shut down the Win7 computer hosting the IPMI while the processes finish?

...Yes, it does...you can disconnect and reconnect any time.

 

Ford, Given that you have the iKVM working, care to share the steps needed to do so over here:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=27927.0

 

I would greatly appreciate it!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Is anyone using an add-in raid card with their board? Have issues getting it to boot?

 

I recently bought this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816104024

 

To hold a mSATA card for cache (all onboard SATA full already). However, upon starting my machine I get past POST and get to the initializing screen for the controller:

 

"Marvell 88SE991xx Initializing...."

 

It hangs at this screen for several minutes before continuing to boot into unRaid. I experience this behavior even if the add in SATA card is empty of any connected drives.

 

I updated my BIOS on the board to the latest on the Supermicro website, same behavior. I updated IPMI too, which broke the KVM console though the web interface (had to download Supermicro's standalone program...).

 

So all in all, spent some money, thing doesn't work and I'm lost and confused and frustrated!

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It sounds like that card is in either hybrid drive mode (trying to use the mSATA to supplement a non-existent drive attached to the SATA port;  or is trying to boot from the mSATA drive before "giving up" and passing control back to the main BIOS.

 

Check the card's BIOS to see what options are available.  I suspect you merely need to set it so it treats the mSATA and additional SATA port independently, and does not attempt to boot from its own drives.

 

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I was unable to get this working. I tried the PCIe card and mSATA SSD in another computer and could not get it working in the PCIex16 slot. I moved it to the PCIex1 slot and it booted right up. I then moved it back to the PCIex16 slot and it booted again. When I put it back in the unRaid server, no luck in the PCIex16 slot =/

 

Anyways, I couldn't find anything in the BIOS that seemed to make this work/not work so I went ahead and ordered another card... this is getting expensive!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124057

 

Hopefully this card is more compatible

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I notice on my X7SPE board when I check it using IPMI that "chassis intrusion" warning is on. I assume I need to short the chassis intrusion header pins (JL1) since the ones on my board are not. But I wanted to make sure it's as simple as that.

 

BTW, do you know if memory stick sizes need to match? Yesterday I tried adding a 2GB stick to my existing 4GB stick and got no video/boot.

 

Thanks!

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I assume I need to short the chassis intrusion header pins (JL1) since the ones on my board are not. But I wanted to make sure it's as simple as that.

 

Yes, it's as simple as that.  There are usually two ways to disable chassis intrusion alarms => simply putting a jumper on the header (i.e. shorting the pins);  or, in some cases, there's a BIOS setting for "case open status" (or something similar) and you can disable it in the BIOS.

 

 

BTW, do you know if memory stick sizes need to match? Yesterday I tried adding a 2GB stick to my existing 4GB stick and got no video/boot.

SODIMMs can be a lot more "picky" than desktop memory modules.    They generally should NOT require matching sizes, however, so you may simply have two incompatible modules.  On the other hand, that board is spec'd at a max of 4GB of RAM, so that may actually be all you can install  ... although I know for a fact that an X7SPA, which is also spec'd for 4GB max, works fine with 8GB [that's what's in mine  :) ]

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SODIMMs can be a lot more "picky" than desktop memory modules.    They generally should NOT require matching sizes, however, so you may simply have two incompatible modules.  On the other hand, that board is spec'd at a max of 4GB of RAM, so that may actually be all you can install  ... although I know for a fact that an X7SPA, which is also spec'd for 4GB max, works fine with 8GB [that's what's in mine  :) ]

Thanks garycase!

 

When I ordered the board I purchases the G.Skill module in my sig as well as a Crucial 2Gb (CT25664BF1339) module. For the G.Skill I tried to match the memory organization of the Crucial since it was sanctioned by SuperMicro. I was also hedging my bet in case the GSkill didn't work. It's really not a big deal; when I feel the need to expand memory I should be able to just install another G.Skill 4GB stick.

 

Since you are running 8GB in your server what memory modules are you using?  :D

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  • 5 months later...

Regarding the IPMI high pitch noise problem with X7SPA-HF with IPMI FW 2.66:

 

I found that the noise source is just a hardware problem with some cheaper PSUs that do not completely shut down the 12V and 3.3V supply lines during standby but hold them at <1V. Somehow these noisy and and unregulated voltages couple into the speaker.

 

For me the problem was solved by just loading the 3.3V line with a 100ohm resistor. It does not affect normal operation but effectively shorts circuits the high impedance standby voltage on this line.

Mounting the resistor can easily be done next to the ATX power connector where a pin header (labeled with JLPC80) delivers the required signals (+3V3, GND). These should be connected by 100ohms.

 

A photo of my solution is appended.

 

Regards

André

IMG_1032.JPG.fc0047b5e0e315504c11956413039899.JPG

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  • 2 months later...

Hi,

 

I want to build 2 Unraid Servers for my Dad to host his home movie collection (rapidly growing since he got himself a GoPro). Would you still recommend the Supermicro X7SPA-HF? I could get two of these very cheap on eBay. Otherwise I would have bought a AMD E-350 Board (new, same price). One of the Servers has to run 24x7, where as the other should only be used to back up / mirror the first one and as such should only be awoken by WoL at night until rsync is finished.

 

Since I'm not on-site having IPMI would be a definite plus in order to troubleshoot it if anything doesn't work - of course the AMD boards wouldn't have that, but they have an HDMI output and I could at least point my dad to it using his TV and read what's on screen.

 

Oh and I should probably that I don't really have experience with unRaid yet - I plan to install myself another unRaid server to replace my WHS though.

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The X7SPA's are superb boards for UnRAID.    They are very low-power (my 6-drive server idles at 19w when the drives are spun down) ... and even with all 6 drives spinning are still under 50w (e.g. during a parity check).

 

As long as you don't need to run CPU-intensive add-ons (e.g. Plex) they're an ideal board for a mini-ITX based server.

 

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Ok the two X7SPA-HF-D510 Boards and the rest of hardware should arrive by tomorrow. Should I go with Unraid 6 Beta or stick to Unraid 5?

 

Also I read that IPMI is using LAN 1 Port as well and then WoL is disabled. Is that correct? Is it not possible to use LAN 1 for normal traffic and LAN 2 dedicated to IPMI?

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  • 1 year later...

Hi, I am using this board right now but I found that if I enable the plugin-in to control the fan speed, what I get is that every so often IPMI throws error and the motherboard starts beeping. I solved this disabling the script and unloading the drivers for the temperature. Now, anybody has this problem? Is it possible to implement the plug-in in such a way that IPMI likes it? Thank you

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Hi, I am using this board right now but I found that if I enable the plugin-in to control the fan speed, what I get is that every so often IPMI throws error and the motherboard starts beeping. I solved this disabling the script and unloading the drivers for the temperature. Now, anybody has this problem? Is it possible to implement the plug-in in such a way that IPMI likes it? Thank you

 

Are you using the motherboard molex power header to power all the fans? I was running my fans off of that header (case had a low/med/high switch the fans all plugged in) and it overloaded the motherboard's power delivery sometimes and caused similar issues.

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