X Series RAID Card Stuck Boot

Posted on 28 January 2021

I was able to acquire a second hand IBM System x3650 M4 BD (5466). I wanted to replace the ServeRAID card with a “ServeRAID M1015 LSI 9220-8i 6GB SAS SATA IT Mode” card so I would have full access to the disks and not have to configure virtual Disk Pools.

After installing the card, everything looks fine as it was able to detect all the disks:

However, I came across a problem: the server would fail to boot and would get stuck on the “Connecting Boot Devices and Adaptors……..” screen

The Weirdness

If I removed all hard drives apart from 1 from the front hot swap bay the server boots fine. After the boot process, and the OS is running I can insert as many disks as a like and they are detected fine. However, Anymore that 1 disk installed at boot time causes the system to lock up.

The Fix

• Make sure the server is off
• Remove the RAID Card
• Boot the server
• Enter the F1 Setup menu

• Change the Boot mode to:

* System Boot Mode = Legacy
* Optimized Boot = Disabled
* Quite Boot = Disabled

• Make sure you remove “Hard Disk” from the Boot Order. In this case I am only booting from a memory stick

• Save and exit
• Shutdown the server
• Install the RAID Card
• Boot the server
• Wait for the RAID Card to initialize and then press “Control-C” to enter the RAID Card config menu
• Wait some more
• Select the Card

• Make sure the cards “Boot Support” mode is set to “DISABLED”

• Save and exit
• Allow the server to perform a clean boot
• Should work fine