Supermicro X7SPA L/H/HF ATOM serverboards (Level 1 Tested)


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I have ordered my X7SPA-HF yesterday and it will arrive in about 2 weeks (ordered in the US delivery to Middle East).

 

My planned build is:

Case: HEC (Compucase) 6T10 until I can buy the Lian-Li PC-Q08, which is not sold here yet.

Memory: 1GB / 2x 1GB Samsung 800MHz - Hope it works.

PSU: Corsair cx400w (has 6 Sata connectors !! and 80+)

HDDs: initial setup (will be expanded in future as needed) 2x new 2TB WD20EARS (1 for parity) + 1x existing 1TB WD10EADS.

USB stick: 1GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro Skin.

 

I am planning on starting with the free 3 drive license to learn and see if it suites me.

 

I am waiting to see and use the much talked about IPMI interface  :).

 

 

Welcome and keep us posted on how you get along.

The board might be picky with RAM, especially with 800MHz S0-DIMMs.

Do not forget to jumper your EARS drives (J7-J8) before you do anything else with them!

 

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new here, please delete if this is off topic.

planning to build a nas with a X7SPA-HF and 4 disks in raid 5.

don't know if anyone here use anything besides unraid.

Well, since this is an unRAID forum, you will be hard pressed to find anyone using traditional RAID configurations.

 

but I am confused with the raid on this board. it's it a h/w raid or I have to use s/w raid?

...

and from their official manual, raid is only supported in windows?

You have your answer right there.  If the RAID is only available within Windows, then it's software RAID.  Then again, so is unRAID.  :P

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Anyone observed CPU and SYS temps during usage?

 

The mobo appears to be a fanless design (I do not think a fan will fit on the CPU inside the 1U case

and it is a supermicro standard case for this board).

During some test over the last days, I found that CPU temps won't exceed 38 degrees celsius, while

SYS temps are up to 52 degrees easily....there is not much room (maybe 2-3 degrees) left until

the warning level.

CPU started at 15 deg. while SYS started at 36 deg after powerup.

This is shot after 45min uptime, see here what I mean:

screenshotipmiviewv2713.png

CPU started at 15 deg. while SYS started at 36 deg after powerup. This is shot after 45min uptime

The northbridge gets quite hot, but even when mounting a fan on it, the SYS temps are staying on hot level.

The whole case gets quite warm from underneath, right where the mobo is mounted.

 

..all sensor readings coming from the IPMI sensor interface, so I think they are accurate.

I know it all depends on ambient temps and such...what makes me nervous is

the big difference in the temps for CPU and SYS and that headroom level for both

is not equal.

I am actually worried to have it run 24x7 that way.

 

Here's my setup again:

Here's a PIC with the MoBo mounted into a SC503-200B 1U case:

p5220096.jpg

 

edit: inserted screenshot of IPMI sensor view

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Anyone observed CPU and SYS temps during usage?

[...]

This is shot after 45min uptime, see here what I mean:

screenshotipmiviewv2713.png

 

Hmm...when using the IPMI via WebBrowser, you can actually display the Thresholds along

with the sensor readings.

screenshot8e.png

 

The Thresholds shown there seem not to correspond with any of the red-lines from the sensor-view of the IPMI Viewer.

Would you consider a SYS NC-Threshold of 76 Degrees C as being set to an appropriate level?

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That has to be a function of the case being fanless.  My case has 120mm fans in front and in back, so I'm getting much lower readings: 13 C for the CPU / 35 C for the system.  However, that does correlate with your much higher overall system temp versus the CPU (+20).

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I'm using 2 x Kingston KTA-MB667/2G ... these are 667mhz 2gb sticks of "apple" certified memory

 

These surprisingly work fine

 

I have other various samsung, crutial, buffalo, hynix mem of varying sizes, 512/1gb/2gb and speeds 667 or 800 that would not make the board post.

 

seems the SPD controller chip is picky as hell

 

also the molex connector on the board is just for external devices.. fans/hdds/etc

 

What did you get with the wrong memory?

 

I am trying to use Samsung 800MHz memory and all I get is 1 short beep. Is this the same phenomenon you got?

I just want to be sure that it is not the motherboard that is a problem.

 

When I take out all the memory then I just get long beeps as should be and stated by the manual.

 

 

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Okay, I'm not at all familiar with IPMI, but this feature is THE reason I bought this board so I can operate my UnRAID media server in its AV rack remotely from my laptop if need be.

 

But I've tried under both Windows 7 32-bit and Windows XP SP3 32-bit (it definitely does NOT work with OS X and it keeps telling me to upgrade to the latest Java runtime but I already have), logging into IPMI via a web browser, but when I try to launch Console Redirection, nothing happens.  When I launch SOL, the Java applet runs, puts up a black "console" window and flashing cursor, but I can't do a darn thing with it; it doesn't respond to any keys nor mouse clicks (haven't tried messing with the baud rate, which is set at the highest).

 

The ONLY time it seemed to work for a little bit was when I had the Java applet running, I rebooted the server via the UnRAID web GUI, THEN the actual boot output started displaying in the console... until the UnRAID splash screen came up, that's when the remote console screen went blank and nothing else ever appeared again.  The End.

 

Every post I read here about KVM over IP on this mobo is nothing but frothing on the mouth in love with it.  Maybe I'm a dummy, but I think there maybe is more to this than what I could research (which I came up with diddly) :-(

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Okay, I'm not at all familiar with IPMI, but this feature is THE reason I bought this board so I can operate my UnRAID media server in its AV rack remotely from my laptop if need be.

 

But I've tried under both Windows 7 32-bit and Windows XP SP3 32-bit (it definitely does NOT work with OS X and it keeps telling me to upgrade to the latest Java runtime but I already have), logging into IPMI via a web browser, but when I try to launch Console Redirection, nothing happens.  When I launch SOL, the Java applet runs, puts up a black "console" window and flashing cursor, but I can't do a darn thing with it; it doesn't respond to any keys nor mouse clicks (haven't tried messing with the baud rate, which is set at the highest).

 

The ONLY time it seemed to work for a little bit was when I had the Java applet running, I rebooted the server via the UnRAID web GUI, THEN the actual boot output started displaying in the console... until the UnRAID splash screen came up, that's when the remote console screen went blank and nothing else ever appeared again.  The End.

 

Every post I read here about KVM over IP on this mobo is nothing but frothing on the mouth in love with it.  Maybe I'm a dummy, but I think there maybe is more to this than what I could research (which I came up with diddly) :-(

 

Try using SuperMicro application IPMIview downloadable here:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/IPMIView/Windows/

 

and the manual:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/CDR-SIMIPMI_1.13_for_SIM_IPMI/Manuals/IPMIView20.pdf

 

 

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You know, I posted in these forums because I had faith I would get an answer here (I shot off an e-mail to SM just before I posted here, and of course I get an immediate satisfaction here versus no response so far from SM).  I searched Supermicro's website to no avail.  I even typed in IPMI in their search window and nothing about getting started, what was needed nor where to go or download anything, including manuals.  There was a bunch of FAQ and customer questions listed, but nothing on getting started.  The mobo manual didn't mention anything about setting up IPMI (just a brief mention of it being included in the spec summary).

 

I'm grateful for the assist and I now have IPView up and running in my VMWare virtualization running on OS X!  After playing with it for a bit, it truly is a marvelous feature to have!

 

Thanks again!

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You know, I posted in these forums because I had faith I would get an answer here (I shot off an e-mail to SM just before I posted here, and of course I get an immediate satisfaction here versus no response so far from SM).  I searched Supermicro's website to no avail.  I even typed in IPMI in their search window and nothing about getting started, what was needed nor where to go or download anything, including manuals.  There was a bunch of FAQ and customer questions listed, but nothing on getting started.  The mobo manual didn't mention anything about setting up IPMI (just a brief mention of it being included in the spec summary).

 

I'm grateful for the assist and I now have IPView up and running in my VMWare virtualization running on OS X!  After playing with it for a bit, it truly is a marvelous feature to have!

 

Thanks again!

 

..glad you made it.

All info regarding IPMI resources is concentrated on the supermicro website here

I actually was having issues with a non-us keybord layout in the remote console.

SM support (for my part of the world, being delivered from netherlands) was fast and supportive for me...

 

BTW: check the IPMI firmware version...latest avail should be 1.34..my board came with 1.2x only two weeks ago.

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..glad you made it.

All info regarding IPMI resources is concentrated on the supermicro website here

 

Yea, I really am DUMB.  There it was sitting in my face on the left hand side when I clicked on IPMI resources. The page it brought me to looked more like a "white paper" that I really didn't bother scouring the entire page for the valuable links I was looking for.  I'm getting too old for this sh***tuff.

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I actually was having issues with a non-us keybord layout in the remote console.

SM support (for my part of the world, being delivered from netherlands) was fast and supportive for me...

 

BTW: check the IPMI firmware version...latest avail should be 1.34..my board came with 1.2x only two weeks ago.

 

My question now is: Has anyone gotten the JAVA version of IPView to work, specifically, the KVM Console?

 

I get an error "no iKVM32 in java.library.path"  From my research, it's telling me that the file iKVM32.so (UNIX) or iKVM32.dll (Windows) is not available in a library path.  I'm on OS X so I don't find an iKVM32.so file (there is an libiKVM32.so file), tho I do find a .dll file.

 

You can tell I'm a n00b to Java  ;D

 

EDIT: Speaking of updating FW, have you updated your BIOS?  Newest is 1.0c and I have 1.0b.  My BIOS tends to randomly not respond to keyboard on me when I'm accessing it so I'm thinking of updating it, however, I have no floppy, no CD drive.  The manual says it can be flashed from a bootable USB device (e.g. Flash Drive) but have you actually updated BIOS under UnRAID?

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My question now is: Has anyone gotten the JAVA version of IPView to work, specifically, the KVM Console?

 

I get an error "no iKVM32 in java.library.path"  From my research, it's telling me that the file iKVM32.so (UNIX) or iKVM32.dll (Windows) is not available in a library path.  I'm on OS X so I don't find an iKVM32.so file (there is an libiKVM32.so file), tho I do find a .dll file.

 

You can tell I'm a n00b to Java  ;D

 

I get the same blank screen with flashing cursor, and nothing when pressing the Console Redirection button.  :-\

 

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it's telling me that the file iKVM32.so (UNIX) or iKVM32.dll (Windows) is not available in a library path. 

 

I'm not sure, but maybe setting the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the location of the directory storing  iKVM32.so would work.

 

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/pathtowherelibraryistored.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

 

then run the IPMI Java application.

If it complained about a .jar file missing, that would be a Java class path.

This seems to be a shared library path.

 

*shrug* maybe it will help.

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My question now is: Has anyone gotten the JAVA version of IPView to work, specifically, the KVM Console?

 

I get an error "no iKVM32 in java.library.path"  From my research, it's telling me that the file iKVM32.so (UNIX) or iKVM32.dll (Windows) is not available in a library path.  I'm on OS X so I don't find an iKVM32.so file (there is an libiKVM32.so file), tho I do find a .dll file.

 

You can tell I'm a n00b to Java  ;D

 

If you downloaded the zip file of the JAVA Version

and unzipped it into a Directory (i.e. "IPMIViewer"),

everything is in there.

All you have to do is to start the application from there, pointing the JAVA search

path into that very directory.

There is a linux shell script, called "IPMIView20.sh" in there as well.

Open it, and you can see the command to issue in order to start the IPMIViewer.

Mine states a single command: "java -Djava.library.path=. -jar IPMIView20.jar"

That does the trick on my side.

 

BTW: When you will use the KVM Console from inside IPMI-Viewer or from inside

the Web-Browser, it will download a JavaWebStart-file. You will need to find out on how

to (auto-)start these files on your platform. For the Browser-version I had to download

a plugin for firefox in order to get it to work and asoftware package for my OS

when launched from IPMIViewer.

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EDIT: Speaking of updating FW, have you updated your BIOS?  Newest is 1.0c and I have 1.0b.  My BIOS tends to randomly not respond to keyboard on me when I'm accessing it so I'm thinking of updating it, however, I have no floppy, no CD drive.  The manual says it can be flashed from a bootable USB device (e.g. Flash Drive) but have you actually updated BIOS under UnRAID?

 

...once you have IPMIViewer up and running, and the KVM Concole you can

share resources with the unRAID box, like a real CD-drive, an ISO-file or a floppy image.

This will appear as a USB Drive in the Supermicro BIOS...normally, the board would

alter the boot sequence...I have found, however, that I must remove the unRAID flash,

because it would always win against the virtual USB CDROM, no matter what I do.

 

...I'll used this feature to boot a systemrescue CD ISO but havent'nt tried a BIOS update yet.

Will check for the changelog if it is worth a try, since my board is running fine headless.

...many thanks for the info.

 

EDIT: hmmm...no changelog?

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All you have to do is to start the application from there, pointing the JAVA search

path into that very directory.

 

Uh... how do I "point the JAVA search path"...?  I realize that I had to "point" or "set" some variable path but the "doing" has me stumped and Googling didn't really help me much as their was no clear-cut instrux on exactly step-by-step how to do this.

 

Mine states a single command: "java -Djava.library.path=. -jar IPMIView20.jar"

 

Yea, I saw the script and I tried running it too, but I get errors about QXPScriptingAdditions not available or found and I still get the error when trying to get the "KVM Console" to actually launch (I can run IPView.jar just fine).

 

BTW: When you will use the KVM Console from inside IPMI-Viewer or from inside

the Web-Browser, it will download a JavaWebStart-file. You will need to find out on how

to (auto-)start these files on your platform. For the Browser-version I had to download

a plugin for firefox in order to get it to work and asoftware package for my OS

when launched from IPMIViewer.

 

Are are you referring to logging onto the IPMI side of the board via web browser and launching either Console Redirection or SOL, which attempts to load a Java applet?  If so, the Console Redirection launch button does nothing (Windows XP/7 nor OS X) and for SOL the Launch button in OS X it tells me to "upgrade to the latest Java runtime environment" (which I have the latest) while on the Windows side it launches a black console with flashing cursor that doesn't respond to anything :-(

 

FYI, on the Windows side, I run the Windows-specific IPView application, not the Java-based one, and it works just fine.  But I natively run OS X and don't want to launch my Windows virtualization just to control my UnRAID box, which is why I'm trying to get the Java based version of IPView (specifically the KVM Console, iKVM.jar) to work.

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...once you have IPMIViewer up and running, and the KVM Concole you can

share resources with the unRAID box, like a real CD-drive, an ISO-file or a floppy image.

This will appear as a USB Drive in the Supermicro BIOS...normally, the board would

alter the boot sequence...I have found, however, that I must remove the unRAID flash,

because it would always win against the virtual USB CDROM, no matter what I do.

 

...I'll used this feature to boot a systemrescue CD ISO but havent'nt tried a BIOS update yet.

Will check for the changelog if it is worth a try, since my board is running fine headless.

...many thanks for the info.

 

EDIT: hmmm...no changelog?

 

I don't believe you have to use a "shared" resource to update the BIOS.  The Supermicro BIOS update suggests you load the ROM update file at the root level of the bootable Flash drive, then once booted, run the "ami.bat" file with the new BIOS file using the format (boot drive letter):\> ami (name of ROM file).rom and that should flash the BIOS.

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All you have to do is to start the application from there, pointing the JAVA search

path into that very directory.

 

Uh... how do I "point the JAVA search path"...?  I realize that I had to "point" or "set" some variable path but the "doing" has me stumped and Googling didn't really help me much as their was no clear-cut instrux on exactly step-by-step how to do this.

 

Mine states a single command: "java -Djava.library.path=. -jar IPMIView20.jar"

 

Yea, I saw the script and I tried running it too, but I get errors about QXPScriptingAdditions not available or found and I still get the error when trying to get the "KVM Console" to actually launch (I can run IPView.jar just fine).

I do not know much about OSX but I assume it is near to linux and not to Windoze.

The JAVA search paths are globally set in your OS...don't know how to do that under OSX, but if you are able to run

other java based apps fine, you should be OK.

The "-Djava.library.path" parameter would add the local dir to that path.

Did you try to run the command from a CLI, while having "cd"-ed into that directory where you unpacked the IPMIViewer package?

 

Are are you referring to logging onto the IPMI side of the board via web browser and launching either Console Redirection or SOL, which attempts to load a Java applet?  If so, the Console Redirection launch button does nothing (Windows XP/7 nor OS X) and for SOL the Launch button in OS X it tells me to "upgrade to the latest Java runtime environment" (which I have the latest) while on the Windows side it launches a black console with flashing cursor that doesn't respond to anything :-(

Yes, via browser...

Hmm...maybe a browser setting?

Are you able to run JAVA WebStart apps from within your browser?

You are supposed to download a jnlp file whenever you start a KVM session.

Mine looks like this:

<jnlp spec="1.0+" codebase="https://192.168.0.5/">

  <information>

    <title>ATEN Java iKVM Viewer</title>

    <vendor>ATEN</vendor>

    <description>Java Web Start Application</description>

  </information>

 

  <security>

  <all-permissions/>

  </security>

 

  <resources>

    <property name="jnlp.packEnabled" value="true"/>

    <property name="jnlp.versionEnabled" value="true"/>

    <j2se version="1.6.0+" initial-heap-size="32M" max-heap-size="40M"/>

    <jar href="iKVM.jar" download="eager" main="true" version="1.57.3.0x0"/>

  </resources>

 

  <resources os="Windows" arch="x86">

    <nativelib href="libwin_x86.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

  <resources os="Windows" arch="x86_64">

    <nativelib href="libwin_x86_64.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

  <resources os="Windows" arch="amd64">

    <nativelib href="libwin_x86_64.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

 

  <resources os="Linux" arch="i386">

    <nativelib href="liblinux_x86.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

  <resources os="Linux" arch="x86">

    <nativelib href="liblinux_x86.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

  <resources os="Linux" arch="x86_64">

    <nativelib href="liblinux_x86_64.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

  <resources os="Linux" arch="amd64">

    <nativelib href="liblinux_x86_64.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

 

  <resources os="Mac OS X" arch="x86_64">

    <nativelib href="libmac_x86_64.jar" download="eager" version="1.0.1"/>

  </resources>

 

  <application-desc main-class="tw.com.aten.ikvm.KVMMain">

    <argument>192.168.0.5</argument>

    <argument>djyazhkjtizmxorl</argument>

    <argument>djyazhkjtizmxorl</argument>

    <argument>5900</argument>

    <argument>2</argument>

    <argument>0</argument>

  </application-desc>

</jnlp>

 

FYI, on the Windows side, I run the Windows-specific IPView application, not the Java-based one, and it works just fine.  But I natively run OS X and don't want to launch my Windows virtualization just to control my UnRAID box, which is why I'm trying to get the Java based version of IPView (specifically the KVM Console, iKVM.jar) to work.

Yes, I understand. I started the same way. I am running a fedora 12 based machine for desktop.

I never tried to start the iKVM.jar directly...I used to jump off of the Browser-site or via IPMIViewer.

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I don't believe you have to use a "shared" resource to update the BIOS.  The Supermicro BIOS update suggests you load the ROM update file at the root level of the bootable Flash drive, then once booted, run the "ami.bat" file with the new BIOS file using the format (boot drive letter):\> ami (name of ROM file).rom and that should flash the BIOS.

 

Yes, you do not HAVE to...but what's the reason of having a headless system in that case?

I am also not going to mount a physical drive or prepare a flash in order to boot DOS...only as a last resort  ;D

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The "-Djava.library.path" parameter would add the local dir to that path.

Did you try to run the command from a CLI, while having "cd"-ed into that directory where you unpacked the IPMIViewer package?

 

Yea, I cd'd to point to the IPView folder itself, then ran the script file from my CLI (terminal in OS X).  That's when I got the OXPScriptingAdditions errors and no joy on getting KVM Console to launch still.

 

I am also not going to mount a physical drive or prepare a flash in order to boot DOS...only as a last resort

 

My sentiments EXACTLY!  Which is why I was inquiring if anyone did a BIOS update under the UnRAID OS  ;D

 

I only feel like I need to update my BIOS because of intermittent cases where it seems to not respond to keyboard input and eventually will beep after each keypress.  Hitting the reset button is my only recourse.  I don't go into BIOS that often now that I have all my drives installed (I would disable each new drive installed so that the BIOS would not attempt to boot off any of them and would only look at the flash drive).

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Yea, I cd'd to point to the IPView folder itself, then ran the script file from my CLI (terminal in OS X).  That's when I got the OXPScriptingAdditions errors and no joy on getting KVM Console to launch still.

 

Hmm, then I am out of my wisdom here...

I'd try to test my java install with some other apps.

Here on my side I am running a linux x64 OS with additional x32 layers...and not even Sun/Oracle JVM but IBM's J9 implementation of a JVM.

And it works like a charm.

So ..I don't think that IPMIViewer is to blame...might be a general problem with your JAVA installation.

 

I am also not going to mount a physical drive or prepare a flash in order to boot DOS...only as a last resort

 

My sentiments EXACTLY!  Which is why I was inquiring if anyone did a BIOS update under the UnRAID OS  ;D

 

OK...well, strictly spoken no-one ever will perform a BIOS update under the unRAID OS, because you will have

to shutdown unRAID and boot into MSDOS.  ;)

 

I only feel like I need to update my BIOS because of intermittent cases where it seems to not respond to keyboard input and eventually will beep after each keypress.  Hitting the reset button is my only recourse.  I don't go into BIOS that often now that I have all my drives installed (I would disable each new drive installed so that the BIOS would not attempt to boot off any of them and would only look at the flash drive).

Yes, I did the same thing basically...only I am running unRAID off of a SSD disk (on full slackware).

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