G A L A X Y ® A U R O U R A L S C O N F I G U R A T I O N A N D S Y S T E M I N T E G R A T I O N G U I D E
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Section 4 Troubleshooting Guide
card gets screwed up, it won’t blink. The 8 other LEDs show communication between the
drives and the card. If one doesn’t light, then chances are there is no communication on that
port. Rechecking cables first is always the best thing. One other note: These cards typically
use the LSI 1068e chip. This chip supports a maximum of about 192 devices. However the
switched backplanes from SuperMicro don’t have the same number of devices as the
backplane itself. Backplanes up to 16 drives have a SAS chip which takes the space of 28
devices. The 24-drive backplane has a SAS chip which takes the space of 64 devices, so
although the card supports 192 devices, using SuperMicro switched backplanes, it can’t
support more than (3) 24-drive backplanes or more than about (6) 16-drive backplanes. If you
need more, instead of an LSI 3081e, use a variant called an LSI 3801e – It looks exactly the
same, except instead of two 4-lane ports connecting to one channel, it has two 4-lane ports,
each on a separate channel.
The internal discreet SATA connectors and especially a sideband connector –are especially
delicate and prone to breakage. The actual card-edge connection portion of the multilane
connector typically isn’t a problem, what is, is the small metal spring button which secures the
cable to the shield of the connector it is plugged into. This button can and will move or shift.
When it’s all the way back, towards the cable, the position will prevent it from locking into the
shield – it must be all the way forward, and the two latches on it must lock to the shield in
order to be sure that the card-edge connector on the cable is securely mated properly. If this
latch becomes bent, it must be fixed – at all cost. If it can not be fixed, the cable has to be
replaced. If the cable is used with a broken latch, then it’s possible that not all of the drives
connected to the cable will come up.
4.13
SAS Host connectivity issues
This is more of a tip than for troubleshooting. The cable is not very easy to damage. The main
problem area is: “I can’t get the cable out.” At the front of the cable are two pairs of metal
hooks which hook onto the socket. If you pull on the cable really hard, and pull on the release
really hard, the cable might not come out – this is because you are trying too hard, and are
actually pulling the hooks against the socket harder than the release is trying to release them.
If this occurs, while holding the release on the cable, push the cable in (instead of out), and
you will hear the latches release, then pull the cable out.
4.14
Fibre HBA problems
Note that this card is especially delicate – not so much in terms of ESD, but in regards to the
physical components on the card. If the Fibre shields become damaged or distorted, it might
not be possible to properly insert SFPs into them. Also on the back are a series of very tall
surface-mount components (specifically some capacitors) – if these are broken off, specific
ports won’t work. These aside, single ports can fail, and multiple ports can fail. If all ports fail,
try swapping the card, otherwise check the software, then the cables, then the SFPs. These
small SFP is almost an entire computer in itself, with it’s own PIC processor, RAM, signal
noise filter, retimer, amplifier, laser diode, and optical detector. If any components in an SFP
fail, it is not serviceable, and should be replaced. You can observe the output of the laser
(carefully, but not too close). If there is no light, and the SFP is fully-inserted, either the device
it is plugged into is not providing power, or the SFP is bad.
