Intel Desktop Board Executive Series DQ67EP: PCI Serial Port Unrecognized

The reason we were digging into the Intel Download site as indicated in our earlier post was because the systems we are building have the following problem:

• Intel DQ67EP: PCI Serial Port
• Device Drivers not loaded.

After digging around to try and find the driver for the SOL component (device showing) we ended up calling the Intel Support hotline for Resellers.

After talking with the support technician for a few minutes, being put on hold for a few more, he came back and indicated that the current AMT/MEI driver was bad.

• Current Intel DQ67xx Series MEI Driver: 7.1.20.1119
• Previous Intel DQ67xx Series MEI Driver: 7.1.13.1088

We ended up installing the previous version of the driver, 7.1.13.1088, and voila:

• Intel(R) Active Management Technology – SOL (COM3)

So, for now make sure to avoid the current version of the driver!

Applies to:

• DQ67EP
• DQ67SW
• DQ67OW

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

iSCSI Target Update: Desktop Setup as “Server” Fail

Okay, so not long after yesterday’s post things started to go downhill big time.

The USB 3.0 ports and the docks started to break communication with each other randomly while the eSATA connections failed altogether.

So, it looks as though the desktop board setup will not work.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: A Tentative iSCSI Target Host System Setup
• MPECS Inc. Blog: Update on iSCSI Target via Desktop Hardware

StarTech Renesas USB 3.0 Card

We took the StarTech Renesas USB 3.0 card and installed it in one of our servers here in the shop. We configured the driver and connected two NexStar USB 3.0 docks to a NexStar USB 3.0 hub which was then connected to the USB 3.0 port.

We ran into the same funky behaviours with the NexStar SuperSpeed docks where we could not have more than two of them hooked in with live hard drives no matter what. before t The third drive connection would cycle in and out.

However, the two docks that have been connected to the StarTech card via USB 3.0 hub have been moving data non-stop since yesterday.

We have been moving the original iSCSI target VHDs from the drives we started with to a couple of large drives to consolidate the backups to two drive destinations.

The copy process runs at about 100MB/Second on average. We have moved Terabytes of data between the two docks without a hiccup as of yet.

Plus, we brought the iSCSI Software Target service online and hooked up our largest VHDs to their initiators to allow backups to run last night without a hitch.

StarTech USB 3.0 Drive Dock

As an alternative to the NexStar SuperSpeed docks we have ordered in one of these:

• StarTech 4 Bay eSATA USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5/3.5 HDD
  • P/N: SATDOCK4U3E

It will be interesting to see if the StarTech dock can plug directly into the USB 3.0 card and allow more than one drive to be connected without a USB 3.0 hub.

Conclusion

For now, it is looking like a real server will be needed as our dedicated iSCSI Software Target. :)

Does the HP ProLiant MicroServer count as a “real server”? Well, we will see.

The next step in this investigation is to drop a StarTech USB 3.0 card into one and run through these tests again. If things work out then we will have a very reasonably priced setup for our smaller clients.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Update on iSCSI Target via Desktop Hardware

A while back we published that we were testing a desktop board with Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard as a possible configuration to utilize the two eSATA and two USB 3.0 ports.

• MPECS Inc. Blog: A Tentative iSCSI Target Host System Setup

Here we are almost two weeks later with the setup providing backup targets for a number of different physical and virtual machines and things are moving along though not perfectly.

We had one NexStar USB 3.0 dock connected to a Vantec USB 3.0 hub which then connected to the USB 3.0 port on the motherboard and the other dock connected directly to a USB 3.0 port on the motherboard.

We set things up this way because there is some sort of conflict between the Vantec NexStar USB 3.0 hard drive dock and the USB 3.0 ports on the DQ67xx series Intel Desktop Boards (we have seen this with both DQ67SW and DQ67EP boards).

After our break this last weekend we came back to two of the four drives connected to the box being offline. We had moved things around prior to leaving to free up some space on the workbench however the connections were still online before we left.

The two drives that were offline were in one USB 3.0 dock and one eSATA dock. So, we could not pin the problem on either port set.

The eSATA drive turned out to be a cable that was not sitting quite right in the dock. Once the cable was pulled and re-seated at both ends the drive came online without a hitch.

The USB 3.0 drive however turned out to be the dock and the motherboard not playing nice anymore. We re-seated the cable with nothing happening. We power cycled the dock and sure enough the drive came online . . . and then it went offline, and then on, and then off, and so on.

Once we plugged the dock into the USB 3.0 hub that the other dock was already connected to the drive came online.

So, it is looking like while this setup may have been a good idea on paper the actual implementation is having poor results.

Now the kicker, we purchased a StarTech PEXUSB3S2 card (product site) as we had seen mention of the card being compatible with Windows Server 2008 RTM/R2.

The card arrived and we downloaded the driver:

It looks to be based on the same chip providing USB 3.0 connectivity on the Intel boards. :(

We will still plug the card in and run some tests with it on an actual server configuration. At least we can confirm that the NexStar USB 3.0 drive docks behave the same way when directly plugged into the card as far as the drive coming online and going offline in cycles.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

ShadowProtect Backup Via USB 3.0

This is pretty neat:

A standard 500GB Seagate 7200 SATA drive is plugged into one of the NexStar USB 3.0 docks to run a backup of the drive.

It is averaging about 90MB/Second for the job as of now. The job finished in a little over three minutes averaging 87.5MB/Second!

Compare that to the average 20MB/Second that same drive would have run on a USB 2.0 connection and we can see the time savings benefits right away for the refresh we did on this Data Mule system (previous blog post).

NOTE: We could not get the Vantec NexStar USB 3.0 dock (NST-D300S3) to work when it was plugged directly into the USB 3.0 port on the back of the Intel Desktop Board DQ67SW. We needed to plug a Vantec USB 3.0 Hub (UGT-MH430U3) into the motherboard’s port and then the NexStar into that before any drive would be picked up.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer