Last week we received a new SuperMicro server to setup another 4 disk SATA raid using an Areca ARC-1110. We already had 2 of these boxes in production (however a little older model) so we tought it would work pretty nicely. It seems there are quite some differences between these 2 servers. Let me list them:

The SuperMicro 5014C-MT vs the 5013C-MT. The first difference is the change of processor socket. The new 5014C-MT uses the LGA775 socket, the other difference that is seen directly is the change to Broadcom NICS instead of the Intel they used to have. Well this should be no problem, only changing from e1000 to tg3 drivers in the Linux kernel for this box should suffice.

Well we installed the 5014C-MT exactly the same as the other 2 5013C-MT boxes we had and using the arcmsr module and tg3 module we could make the box work just fine. However we where now using the stock kernel which is 2.6.8 which seems a little old for us. So we decided to upgrade to the latest 2.6.11.$somewhat version and immediately update to areca driver 1.20.00.07. However here they mayhem begun, when running a kernel with a Areca driver >= 1.20.00.04 the box would not correctly recognize the disk array. Using a 1.20.00.02 driver would work just fine. So we are now running a 2.6.11.3 version with Areca 1.20.00.02.

The main question is that this problem is generated by the change of motherboard in the 501xC-MT series or that it has something to do with the Areca itself. Main differences we are seeing is the firmware version.

If anybody has an idea about this, please don't hesitate to contact me :)