Latest revision as of 10:10, 22 May 2023

This is a page on the Areca ARC-4038-8 JBOD SAS Expander.

I picked up a couple of these at a good price recently and wanted to use them to relocate my workstation (OSX) ZFS array into my network closet. Using the 100M Active Optical SAS cables should work fine in my environment, I just need to run the cables.

I ran into an issue with the ARC-4038 enclosures not linking up. My host adapter is an ATTO ExpressSAS H1288 with two internal and two external ports. I can confirm the HBA uses the active cables without any issue. In trouble shooting I was unable to get the ARC enclosures to even link between themselves.

This lead me to read the docs more and their firmware release notes. I found no references to optical or active sas in the docs, but that it was supported in the datasheet. The release notes on the firmware had a note on the optical command being deleted as it should auto detect, but no actual info.

In desperation I tried a firmware update, but that didn't resolve it. What I did find was an undocumented command cable which showed cable management was off, cable on and then 'st', then 'reset' changed this and saved the config. Upon reset the link came up.

Serial Pinout

Areca for some stupid reason uses a non standard pinout, and the diagram isn't even standard rj-11 pin numbering.

The serial parameters are 115,200 bps 8N1. Default Password is '0000'.

I wire it to a RJ-45 punchdown as follows so that a cisco terminal RJ45 works. Everyone has at least one of these and it's the standard.

Areca ARC-4038 RJ-11 Pinout
RJ-11	Areca	Function	Color
1	6	Ground	Blue
2	4	Ground	w/Blue
3	3	TXD	w/Green
4	2	RXD	Green
5	1	RTS	NC
6	5	GRND	NC

RJ-45

RJ-45 Jack
Pin	Function	Color
1	NC
2	NC
3	TXD	w/Green
4	Ground	Blue
5	Ground	w/Blue
6	RXD	Green
7	NC
8	NC

Layout of External Connectors

PHYINFO:
PHY     SLOT   Location
00-03 =      = C0
04    = 0    = Upper 4 Top
05    = 1    = Upper 4 Mid-top
06    = 2    = Upper 4 Mid-lower
07    = 3    = Upper 4 Bottom
08    = 4    = Lower 4 Top
09    = 5    = Lower 4 Mid-Top
10    = 6    = Lower 4 Mid-Lower
11    = 7    = Lower 4 Bottom
12    = 24   = C4-1 
13    = 25   = C4-2
14    = 26   = C4-3 
15    = 27   = C4-4
16    = 23   = C3-2  
17    = 22   = C3-1 
18    = 21   = C3-3 
19    = 20   = C3-4 
20    = 19   = C2-2 
21    = 18   = C2-1
22    = 17   = C2-3
23    = 16   = C2-4
24    = 15   = C1-2 
25    = 14   = C1-1
26    = 13   = C1-3
27    = 12   = C1-4

 
PHY  DEV      CNG  PPPPPPT                   ROUTE ZONE CTRL CONN ELEM PHY  PHY FCPR
ID   TYPE NLR CNT  IIITTTA ATTACHED SAS ADDR TYPE  GRP  BUS  TYPE INDX LINK ID  BSAL

00   END  12G 0x07 111---- 50010860_0021F600   S   0x01 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 000 ----
01   END  12G 0x07 111---- 50010860_0021F600   S   0x01 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 001 ----
02   END  12G 0x07 111---- 50010860_0021F600   S   0x01 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 002 ----
03   END  12G 0x07 111---- 50010860_0021F600   S   0x01 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 003 ----

04        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x01 0x00 004 ----
05        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x02 0x00 005 ----
06        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x03 0x00 006 ----
07        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x04 0x00 007 ----
08        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x05 0x00 008 ----
09        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x06 0x00 009 ----
10        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x07 0x00 010 ----
11        0x0 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x08 0x00 011 ----
12        0x0 0x05 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x15 0x00 012 ----
13        0x0 0x05 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x16 0x00 013 ----
14        0x0 0x05 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x17 0x00 014 ----
15   END  12G 0x03 ---1--- 5000C500_A696B9C1   S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x18 0x00 015 ----
16        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x11 0x00 016 ----
17        0x1 0x05 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x12 0x00 017 ----
18        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x13 0x00 018 ----
19        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x14 0x00 019 ----
20        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0D 0x00 020 ----
21        0x1 0x05 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0E 0x00 021 ----
22        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0F 0x00 022 ----
23        0x1 0x01 -------                     T   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x10 0x00 023 ----
24        0x1 0x01 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x09 0x00 024 ----
25        0x1 0x05 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0A 0x00 025 ----
26        0x1 0x01 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0B 0x00 026 ----
27        0x1 0x01 -------                     S   0x01 0x04 0x22 0x0C 0x00 027 ----
SXP0 END  12G 0x01 --11--- 5001B4D5_1E11703D   D   0x01 0x04 0x2F 0x19 0x00 028
SXP1 END  12G 0x01 1----1- 5001B4D5_1E11703F   D   0x01 0x04 0x2F 0x1A 0x00 029
SXP2      0x0 0x00 -------                     D   0x01 0x04 0x00 0x00 0x00 030