cisco ucs c220 m3 LFF not finding drives (ssd)

[00u1ml9eykB3UmWQV5d7]

Hello, beginner here! I recently purchased a cisco ucs c220 m3 LFF. I'm trying to install proxmox on this server, but the installer fails to find a support hard disk. When I look in the bios, I dont see the ssd (Sata) I inserted either, but the green light for the bay is on. I can se the ssd wihtout any issues when i just plug it into my desktop. Thanks for any help!

[Kirk J]

Greetings.

So, really depends on what storage controller is connecting the drives.

If you are using the onboard/software raid,,, then you would need to make sure the virtual drive is created, and that your OS has a mega_SR driver present.

The BIOS/CIMC should have an option for the embedded controller for the software raid and ahci (jbod) mode.

See https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220/install/C220/raid.html#88713 

If you have one of the other SAS controllers, then your OS will need to have a megaraid driver present, and have a virtual drive (raid vol) created.  I'm not sure if any of the M3 era controllers supported dual raid/jbod mode for disks like the M4/M5/M6 controllers do.

Also, drives may not be recognized if they are not from the specsheet (https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c220m3-sff-specsheet.pdf) as the firmware in the controller (onboard or SAS model) may not correctly identify the drive and present it.

Kirk...

[00u1ml9eykB3UmWQV5d7]

So since mine is an LFF with onboard raid, are you saying that I can only use the 3 options listed for the hard drives listed in table 11 on page 29? https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c220m3-lff-specsheet.pdf

No other SSD or HDD will be recognized? 

Server Type	CISCO UCS C220 M3
Chassis	ONE RACK UNIT (1RU) CHASSIS
CPU	(2) INTEL XEON EIGHT CORE E5-2660 2.2GHz
Chipset	INTEL C600 SERIES CHIPSET
Memory	16GB DDR3 (UP TO 512GB OF RAM WITH 16 DIMM SLOTS)
Drive Bays	4x 3.5" LFF SAS/SATA/SSD DRIVE BAYS AVAILABLE
Raid Controller	EMBEDDED SATA RAID CONTROLLER(3 Gbs)
Power Supply(s)	DUAL POWER SUPPLIES
NIC	EMBEDDED DUAL PORT INTEL i350
Expansion slots	TWO PCIE SLOTS
Graphics	MATROX G200e GRAPHICS CONTROLLER

I cant install any OS right now because I can't even get my one ssd drive to show up in bios

[Kirk J]

The only 'supported' drives were the ones on the specsheet.

I would make sure your drives are 'sata', not SAS drives, and that the onboard controller 'raid' is disabled :

• Step 1 Boot the server and press F2 when prompted to enter the BIOS Setup utility.
• Step 2 Select the Advanced tab, then South Bridge.
• Step 3 Set Onboard SCU Storage Support to Disabled.
• Step 4 Press F10 to save your changes and exit the utility.

You may want to confirm you are running the latest firmware available for the M3 at https://software.cisco.com/download/home/284296253/type/283850974/release/3.0(4s)?i=!pp

You will want to probably use a bootable USB thumbdrive (via rufus or other usb bootmaker util) to boot the HUU ISO due to the CIMC flash dependencies on these older servers that would complicate ability to use the virtual KVM and virtual media method of upgrading.

Kirk...

[00u1ml9eykB3UmWQV5d7]

When I try to install the latest firmware that you linked with usb drive, I get the message "Error: Firmware copy has failed error code 906"

I am also getting a message saying "failure to communicate with cimc" when F8 to try to get to CIMC Config

[Kirk J]

Certain HUU versions had trouble with USB.  Recalling https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCup62091 

If the CIMC onboard controller has issues, you may have issues with the HUU process anyway.

You might want to experiment with a couple of lower versions of HUU ISO versions.

Kirk...

[00u1ml9eykB3UmWQV5d7]

Ok, well I managed to upgrade to the latest firmware. Still not picking up my drive...

[radensun]

The topic of this discussion has passed for 2 years ago, but there has been no resolution from CISCO UCS or from the CISCO community. What's wrong with UCS C-220 series when use open source software?

Some times ago I also made another topic regarding HDD SAS and Proxmox compatibility, but none of the solutions related to IO delay and high CPU load problems. ( See: https://community.cisco.com/t5/unified-computing-system-discussions/ucs-c-series-has-high-cpu-load-and-io-delay-issues-with-proxmox/td-p/4868457 ). I have made sure the SAS HDD that I am using is compatible and listed on the HCL (hardware compatibility list), but when I use AlmaLinux, Debian or Proxmox VE, I was experienced the same problem, even though I have upgraded the BIOS, CIMC, and even HDD firmware.