AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card
User’s Manual
Revison 1.0a
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Safety Guidelines ..........................................................1-1
1-1 ESD Safety Guidelines.....................................................................1-1
1-2 General Safety Guidelines...............................................................1-1
1-3 An Important Note to Users.............................................................1-1
Chapter 2 Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators...............2-1
2-1 Connectors.........................................................................................2-1
Internal SAS Connectors ........................................................................2-1
2-2 Jumpers..............................................................................................2-2
2-3 LED Indicators ...................................................................................2-2
Chapter 3 Installing Drivers and Firmware...........................3-1
3-1 Creating a Driver Floppy Disk .........................................................3-1
3-2 Adding the Driver into an Existing System....................................3-2
3-3 Installing the Driver into a New System.........................................3-2
3-4 Getting Firmware Downloads..........................................................3-4
3-5 Flashing Firmware.............................................................................3-4
Chapter 4 Troubleshooting.............................................................4-1
4-1 Troubleshooting Problems...............................................................4-1
4-2 Contacting Supermicro's Technical Support .................................4-2
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AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
Notes
iv
Introduction
About this Manual
This manual is written for system integrators, PC technicians and knowledgeable PC
users who intend to integrate Supermicro's Product Name 2 to their system. It provides
detailed information for the installation and use of the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card.
Overview
The Product Name 2 is a highly efficient, highly compatible and easy-to-use SAS/SATA
Controller that allows the user to connect to up to eight drives using Marvell's 88SE6480
Serial ATA/SAS Host Controller and a PCI-E x4 interface with high performance
features. With both SAS and SATA physical interface support at 1.5 and 3.0 Gbps, the
AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card is a high speed, high bandwidth Controller that can
integrate multiple high capacity drives to provide you with maximum storage space.
Product Features
The Product Name 2 offers the following features:
•
•
•
Low profile Form Factor (w/ the PCB size of 4.75" H x 2.5" W)
Marvell's 88SE6480 Serial ATA Host Controller supports 8 SAS/SATA ports
Two mini SAS connectors can connect to 8 internal SAS/SATA drives with iPass
cables
•
•
•
•
•
PCI-E x4
Flash BIOS Interface
Presence LED Indicator and Activity Indicator for each connected drive
JBOD (Simple Volume) support
Boots from a single drive.
Operating Systems Supported
The Product Name 2 supports the following Operating Systems (OS):
•
•
Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008
Linux: (-source code provided)--the driver disks currently available:
•
•
•
Redhat Enterprise Linux
Fedora Linux 9
SUSE Linux Enterprise
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AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
An Important Note to Users
All images and layouts shown in this user's guide are based upon the latest PCB
Revision available at the time of publishing. The card you have received may or may not
look exactly the same as the graphics shown in this manual.
Product Compliance Information
The Product Name 2 is compliant with the following safety standards/requirements:
•
•
USA
FCC 47 CFR, Part 15, subpart B
EN 55022
European Union
EN 55024
ii
:
Contacting Supermicro
Headquarters
Address:
Super Micro Computer, Inc.
980 Rock Ave.
San Jose, CA 95131 U.S.A.
+1 (408) 503-8000
Tel:
Fax:
Email:
+1 (408) 503-8008
[email protected] (General Information)
Web Site:
Europe
Address:
Super Micro Computer B.V.
Het Sterrenbeeld 28, 5215 ML
‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
+31 (0) 73-6400390
Tel:
Fax:
Email:
+31 (0) 73-6416525
[email protected] (General Information)
[email protected] (Customer Support)
9
Asia-Pacific
Address:
Super Micro Computer, Inc.
4F, No. 232-1, Liancheng Rd.
Chung-Ho 235, Taipei County
Taiwan, R.O.C.
Tel:
+886-(2) 8226-3990
Fax:
+886-(2) 8226-3991
Web Site:
Technical Support:
Email:
Tel:
+886-2-8228-1366, ext. 132 or 139
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AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
Notes
iv
Chapter 1
Safety Guidelines
To avoid personal injury and property damage, carefully follow all the safety steps listed
below when accessing your system or handling the components.
1-1 ESD Safety Guidelines
Electric Static Discharge (ESD) can damage electronic components. To prevent damage
to your system, it is important to handle it very carefully. The following measures are
generally sufficient to protect your equipment from ESD.
•
•
Use a grounded wrist strap designed to prevent static discharge.
Touch a grounded metal object before removing a component from the antistatic
bag.
•
Handle the add-on card by its edges only; do not touch its components, peripheral
chips, memory modules or gold contacts.
•
•
When handling chips or modules, avoid touching their pins.
Put the card and peripherals back into their antistatic bags when not in use.
1-2 General Safety Guidelines
•
•
•
Always disconnect power cables before installing or removing any components from
the computer.
Disconnect the power cable before installing or removing any cables from the
system.
Make sure that the add-on card is securely and properly installed on the
motherboard to prevent damage to the system due to power shortage.
1-3 An Important Note to Users
All images and layouts shown in this user's guide are based upon the latest PCB
Revision available at the time of publishing. The card you have received may or may not
look exactly the same as the graphics shown in this manual.
1-1
AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
Notes
1-2
Chapter 2
Connectors, Jumpers and Indicators
2-1 Connectors
Connectors are used to attach the add-on card to the system’s mainboard.
Figure 2-1. AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card Front Connectors and Jumpers
4
1
1
2
3
Table 2-1 lists the add-on card’s jumpers and connectors, as shown in Figure 2-1 above.
Table 2-1. Front Connectors and Pin Definitions
Number Description
1
2
3
4
Internal SAS Connectors
Marvell's Serial ATA Host Controller
PCI-E x4 Connector
Activity and Ready LEDs
Internal SAS Connectors
The Internal SAS ports (SFF-8087 connector) connect to the backplane allowing the
motherboard to access the hard drives. Each connector supports up to four hard drives
allowing the add-on card to support a maximum of eight. (SAS 0-3 and SAS 4-7).
2-1
AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
Use a single port SAS “ipass” cable (Supermicro order number CBL-0108L-02) to
connect each internal SAS port to up to four drives.
2-2 Jumpers
The AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card does not have any configurable jumpers.
2-3 LED Indicators
Figure 2-2 displays LED indicators on the add-on card. The Ready (RDY) LED (yellow)
turns on when a drive is present on the HBA port. An Active (ACT) LED (green) blinks to
show drive activity on that port.
NOTE: These LEDs are primarily used for debug purposes only.
2-2
Chapter 3
Installing Drivers and Firmware
This chapter covers installing Drivers and Firmware for the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on
card.
3-1 Creating a Driver Floppy Disk
A CD-ROM that contains the drivers for the Windows OS, Linux OS, and the Controller
BIOS is included in the shipping package. Please locate the CD-ROM before installing
the driver.
NOTE: This CDROM does not perform Auto-boot or auto-play.
For the Windows 32-bit Operating System:
•
Copy all files from the folder: \Windows_3_1_0_17\build\Windows\i386\Free into
a blank, formatted floppy disk.
For the Windows 64-bit Operating System:
•
Copy all files from the folder: \Windows_3_1_0_17\build\Windows\amd64\Free
into a blank, formatted floppy disk.
For the Linux Operating Systems:
For an existing system:
•
Use the source code from the folder: \Linux_3_1_0_7 to compile.
For a new system:
•
Use the tool rawwritewin.exe to write the driver images stored in the folder: \Dis-
kImag\linux to create a driver disk.
NOTE: The folder: \DiskImag\linux is included in Supermicro's CD ROM that
came with your shipment. However, the file rawwritewin.exe is not included.
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AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
3-2 Adding the Driver into an Existing System
Use the following procedures for adding a driver into an existing system.
NOTE: An existing system is a system that has an operating system already
installed and the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card driver is being installed as a
Secondary Controller.
For the Windows Operating System:
1. Install the controller and make sure that the BIOS screen is displayed.
2. Start the Windows OS. The Windows OS displays the FOUND NEW HARDWARE
WIZARD window and searches for the installer driver.
3. Insert the driver floppy disk that you've created into the floppy drive, select the
floppy drive as the source, and press the ENTER key.
4. Continue clicking NEXT until the driver is successfully installed.
5. Remove the driver disk from the floppy disk drive and restart the system to complete
the installation process.
For the Linux Operating System:
1. Insert the CD-ROM that contains the Linux OS driver into the CD drive.
2. At the # prompt, type: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdromand press ENTER to
mount the CD-ROM directory into the system directory.
3. At the # prompt, type: cd /mnt/cdrom/Linux_3_4_0and press ENTER to
change the directory to the CD-ROM directory.
4. Read the README.txt file and exit.
5. At the # prompt, type: cd /mnt/cdrom/Linux_3_4_0/Docs/and press ENTER.
6. Read the documents included carefully and follow the instructions given to create
the driver and install it into the system.
3-3 Installing the Driver into a New System
Use the following procedures for installing a driver into a new system.
NOTE: A new system is a system that has no operating system installed yet,
and the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card driver installation is a part of the OS
installation.
Make sure the boot hard drive is mounted on Slot #3 of the backplane in order
to boot from the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card.
3-2
Chapter 3: Installing Drivers and Firmware
For the Windows Operating System:
1. Install the controller and make sure that the BIOS screen displays as shown on the
previous page.
2. Insert the Windows Setup CD and boot from it.
3. When prompted at the bottom of the screen to install a third party driver, press the
F6 key.
NOTE: You have only 5-seconds to press F6. If you miss it, you will need to
restart the system and repeat this step again.
4. Insert the driver disk into the system, and wait until you are prompted to install a
driver. Press S to specify that the driver is included in an additional device (the
floppy disk), and press ENTER.
5. When the Marvell's driver disk – “Marvell 64xx/63xx SAS Controller...Driver” is
located, press ENTER.
6. Press ENTER again to continue with the Windows OS installation.
For the Red Hat Linux Operating System:
1. Insert the Linux Driver into your floppy disk drive and press ENTER. A Linux bootup
screen appears.
2. At the boot prompt, type: linux ddat the prompt and press ENTER.
The system starts initializing the driver. Follow the instructions when prompted to
complete the installation process.
For the SuSE Linux Operating System:
NOTE: The screen shot shown below was taken from a system based on the
SuSE Linux 9.2 Installation. Other SuSE systems may display screens that are
different from the ones included in the manual. However, the installation
procedures listed below apply to all SuSE Linux systems.
1. Extract the image driver from \DiskImag\Linux\x86_32 into a blank, formatted disk.
2. Boot up the system from SuSE Linux Installation CD-ROM.
3. On the screen that appears, highlight INSTALLATION from the list, press F6 to add the
Installation Driver and press ENTER.
4. Follow the instructions given at the prompt to complete the installation process.
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AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
3-4 Getting Firmware Downloads
Firmware for the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card can only be obtained through
contacting Supermicro Technical Support for instructions and assistance to obtain
firmware downloads.
3-5 Flashing Firmware
Follow the procedure below to flash firmware to the BIOS.
Flashing Firmware:
1. Boot the system to DOS.
2. Flash the BIOS using the mvf.exe file with the following command at the DOS
prompt (where *** represents the name of the bin file used):
a:\>mvf ***.bin
This automatically flashes the BIOS.
3. When the flashing is completed, reboot the system.
The new firmware is now flashed to your system’s BIOS.
3-4
Chapter 4
Troubleshooting
This chapter covers various troubleshooting problems for the AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on
card.
4-1 Troubleshooting Problems
Problem:
The AOC-SASLP-MV8 add-on card's BIOS does not show up in DOS.
Recommended Solutions:
•
Make sure that the system has enough expansion ROM to initialize the card.
Remove other add-in cards if possible.
•
•
Make sure that the card is properly and fully seated in its PCI slot.
Check if the motherboard's BIOS is updated. (You can download an updated BIOS
Problem:
I cannot see the card in the operating system.
Recommended Solutions:
•
Make sure that the card is shown in the BIOS. If the card is shown in the BIOS, a
screen shown below will display. If it is not shown in the BIOS, please find out the
root cause of the problem by following the steps listed above.
•
Make sure that the driver for the card is installed in the system. the controller.
Problem:
I cannot see the hard drives that are connected to the controller.
Recommended Solutions:
•
•
Make sure that there is power supply to the hard drives.
Check the SATA cable to make sure that there are no loose connections between
the card and the hard drives.
•
If the hard drives are connected through a SATA back panel, make sure that there is
power supply to the back panel, and there are no loose connections between the
back panel and the controller. Also make sure that the hard drives are properly
seated in the drive bay.
•
If possible, swap the drives around to determine if the drive connections or the
controller is bad.
Problem:
I cannot create software RAID in the operating system.
4-1
AOC-SASLP-MV8 Add-on Card User’s Manual
Recommended Solutions:
•
Make sure that the operating system supports software RAID. If not sure, please
check with the software company that produces the OS.
•
Make sure that more than one drives are seen by the OS.
4-2 Contacting Supermicro's Technical Support
If you still have problems after trying out all the recommended solutions, please contact
our Technical Support by phone at: (408) 503-8000 or visit our web site at:
4-2
Disclaimer
The products sold by Supermicro are not intended for and will not be used in life support
systems, medical equipment, nuclear facilities or systems, aircraft, aircraft devices,
aircraft/emergency communication devices or other critical systems whose failure to
perform be reasonably expected to result in significant injury or loss of life or
catastrophic property damage. Accordingly, Supermicro disclaims any and all liability,
and should buyer use or sell such products for use in such ultra-hazardous applications,
it does so entirely at its own risk. Furthermore, buyer agrees to fully indemnify, defend
and hold Supermicro harmless for and against any and all claims, demands, actions,
litigation, and proceedings of any kind arising out of or related to such ultra-hazardous
use or sale.
5-1
H8DMT/H8DMT-IBX/H8DMT-F/H8DMT-IBXF User’s Manual
Notes
5-2
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