Purchased a UCSC-C240-M4SX, but PCIE drives do not show up on bios/CIM

[DartedWrt]

Hello everyone, I have tried to look for options to fix this problem and have followed some guides but none seem to work. I have a Cisco UCSC-C240-M4SX, and it was supposed to run TrueNAS. I configured raid with the 12g sas raid card for the front drives and those showed up on the install, but the two SAS HDD's I have inside my PCIE doesn't show up anywhere. Not in CIM nor in bios. Drives are confirmed working as I had them installed at the front first and they showed up and booted correctly.

[Steven Tardy]

The UCS C240 M4 internal drives connect to a different controller (PCH) with different cabling compared to the SAS RAID which controls the front facing drives:

• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C240M4/install/C240M4/raid.html#98288

Standalone I'm not sure how those internal drives are configured through CIMC, but I do have a C240 M4 in the lab with internal disks. The only difference is my lab server is UCS integrated (and used for Hyperflex, but that shouldn't matter).

Which TrueNAS are you using (scale or core)?
One is Linux and one is FreeBSD which may make a difference due to driver availability.
I can download and boot TrueNAS in my lab to determine if TrueNAS installer can "see" these internal disks.

[DartedWrt]

I am using truenas scale. I was hoping to use the internal drives as RAID1 for boot drive redundancy. Thanks!

[Steven Tardy]

If you press [F6] during boot to get to the boot section menu do you see the internal disk as a boot option?
On my lab C240 M4 the single internal 120GB Intel disk shows up at the bottom of the visible list as:

PCH SATA 1: Intel SSDSC2BB120G6K

Used file from TrueNAS: TrueNAS-SCALE-22.12.2.iso in my lab and see the internal 120GB Intel disk:
(The VMware volume on there is for Hyperflex.)

[ ] sda Intel SSDSC2BB120G6K VMFS_volume_mem -- 111.8 GiB

So the C240 M4 internal disk WILL work with TrueNAS (scale) if cabled/configured/etc.

If you do NOT see the internal disk in the [F6] menu, then check the CIMC configuration regarding:
Enabling the Embedded RAID Controller in the BIOS

• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C240M4/install/C240M4/raid.html#80418

Maybe PCH SATA Mode needs to be set to AHCI.

[DartedWrt]

Hey Steven, In the F6 menu on boot I see the following: 

This is my bios config:

I don't get what I may be doing wrong.

[Steven Tardy]

Everything seems correct.
The only other thing I can think of is cabling. I don't know offhand where this connects to the motherboard.

Don't often go into the office to physically go to the lab, but might go in to see where these are physically cabled in my server.
(Cisco docs on internal cabling is often lacking *frown*.)

Maybe this doc helps:

• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C240M4/install/C240M4/raid.html#Embedded_RAID

The required UCSC-IP-PCH-C240M4= kit includes the SATA interposer board and one Y-cable 
(mini-SAS HD to mini-SAS 36-pin x2).

Make the following connections:
1. Connect the PORT A cable connector to the PORT A connector on the interposer board.
2. Connect the PORT B cable connector to the PORT B connector on the interposer board.
3. Connect the single mini-SAS HD cable connector to the single connector on the backplane.

[DartedWrt]

Is the internal controller SATA only? Could it be that? My two drives are HP HDD SAS Drives.

[Steven Tardy]

 Didn't think of that, but now that you mention it. . . . that could explain it. (:
Try a SATA SSD.

[DartedWrt]

Don't have a SATA SSD nearby. I think it may be that though.. I may buy one sunday though.

[DartedWrt]

I have gotten it installed, decided to put the disks on the front instead. But now none of my other drives show up in truenas scale. They are in a RAID5 configuration and the boot drives are RAID1 (128GB). Would you point me to the direction on how to get these to show up?

[Steven Tardy]

TrueNAS probably want's "raw" / individual disks instead of RAID controller RAID'd virtual-drive.
There are two options for this:

1. Remove all of the VD's and change all of the drives to JBOD mode.
   CIMC (often) won't know a disk has failed in JBOD mode.
2. Make individual disk RAID 0 Virtual Drive to utilize the RAID card caching to make writing to disks faster.
   CIMC (usually) will know a disk has failed in RAID 0 mode.

What do you see in CIMC / Hamburger menu (top left) / Storage / RAID controller / Physical Drive Info?
What is the Status of the individual disks?

Disks on Cisco RAID cards have a non-obvious default to be in "Unconfigured Good" state where the OS/TrueNAS won't see the disks.

Found a M5 in the lab with a RAID controller and a disk in "Unconfigured Good" state.
Select the individual drives in "Unconfigured Good" to then [Set State as JBOD].
Disks in JBOD mode should be seen by the OS.

Alternatively, if you want to utilize the power of the RAID controller (cache) and create several RAID0 Virtual Drives.
From the [Controller Info] screen select [Create Virtual Drive from Unused Physical Disks] to create a VD from disks in "Unconfigured Good" state:

For non SSD HDD spinning disks when creating a RAID Virtual Drive I would do:

• One drive
• RAID Level: 0
• Write Policy: Write Back Good BBU
• Read Policy: Always Read Ahead