Fireball3

I linked 2 posts. May be more though.

Yes, it is confusing because many different issues are discussed here. If you want to crossflash the M1015 to LSI IT firmware, the latest is P11. Because P20 apparently has some data corruption issues, it is recommended to stay with P19! The package linked for the M1015 is not up to date because nobody worked on it. It shouldn't be a problem to take the P19 (e.g. out of the H310 package) instead of the P16. EDIT: fixed, and linked

Avago = LSI (didn't notice until now) Dell has also quite up-to-date firmware since they still distribute the H310.

Oh, I see - didn't notice you want IR. In this case i wonder, why you don't stay with Dell's default IR software? In fact, flashing IR is not of interest with unRAID and thus hasn't been tested here. I can't tell if it should work or not. Make sure to use the sas2flsh that comes with the firmware! Maybe it works?

Why did you do this? AFAIK, the package holds all files to get you to LSI firmware P19. If you substitute something you will have to use the corresponding flash utility (sas2flsh). Btw. we found out, that you can stay with the DELL IT firmware and run unRAID. It is not really necessary to flash LSI firmware.

Any idea on my issue above? Thanks in advance! I have no experience with the IBM cards but maybe you simply try to flash the card with a known firmware and see if you still have issues? Search this thread for instructions specific to the M1015.

Is there a H320 or is this a typo? Before flashing the LSI (Pxx) firmware you have to flash the DELL IT firmware! Did you do this successfully?

Well, good to know it's that easy and works with unRAID. I will add that info to the firmware update post.

Did you have this problem from the beginning or did it appear lately? Did you do any updates of unRAID? Try to flash the P7 firmware. Use the sas2flsh.exe that comes with the P7 package. (download from LSI or use the one within the H310 package) Within the H310 package it is described how you dump a copy of the SBR of your OK card. But I fear there is something else going on with that thing. Guess nobody tried the DELL IT firmware with unRAID. Before the H310 was flashed the procedure for the M1015 was already established and the LSI firmware is known to work with unRAID. LSI firmware is probably more up to date - don't know if its an advantage though.

You need to install perl to detect. It was removed from stock unRAID. Search this thread for perl. OK, I see. I'm almost sure that I read that dynamix has perl included already. Although, knowing where I read it won't help. While perl is not necessary to run the temps plugin, I will avoid polluting my install. I will set up a trial USB, install perl, grab the info and insert that into the plugin. Should work or?

I installed the system temp plugin but the detect button is not detecting anything. What should I do? (Didn't reboot the server though - will that help?) Board is a Supermicro X7SBA

@ovel2clock Which guide are you following? In what "step" of the tutorial are you stuck? Maybe your card (without the LSI silkscreen) had a different revision? Can you be sure that this card is genuine?

Thank you for the summary Maglin. OK, apparently this is a requirement for FreeNAS. I don't know if this is recommended for unRAID also? Anyway, P19 is the last firmware known to be free of issues for the card. There is P20 also, which had some file corruption issues and also a later P20 bugfixed release. Version no: 20.00.04.00 Release date: 21-MAY-15 At the moment I don't see the benefit vs. extensive testing to make sure the corruption issue is gone. I have one more H310 lying around at home. Given I have some time, I will try to perform the UEFI-way to flash the card according to your input and taylor a UEFI package.

A changelog should come with the respective firmware. Download the package and check the text files. The last resort may be the LSI website.

I would modify the original thread and link to your post Maglin. Just add the files needed to your post and be a bit more precise. I've never used EFI shell, so I can't comment on your instructions. Are steps 1-4 doable under EFI shell also? How did you perform stops 6 and 7? With EFI shell also? Maybe highlight what is done in EFI and what in DOS. Where is the deviation from the original instruction (DOS). Why didn't you flash P19? Please add the answers to your upper post to have all the info in one post. Thanks for reporting your experience!

Don't use it like it is now, because I need to assign the specific drives to the group. When using another method than fill-up it easily happens that the data is spread on more disks. Then it is necessary to permanently adjust the drives in that group. If the "collection" is big enough, even fill-up won't save you. With cache-dirs working everything is fine but if cache-dirs can not be run (e.g. too many files) then share-based spinup would be the thing I want to use.

If I understand correctly, he is talking about an onboard controller! It will be quite a challenge to plug it into another board...

If you think of the platter of a hard disk, it stores the information by magnetizing the surface into different directions. That means it is not simply 1s and 0s with sharp edges in the signal. As with every physical measuring (reading), there it is a more or less good curve that has to be evaluated by the controller logic. If the signal read is of poor quality due to degradation of the surface or ambient magnetic influence or other factors, there might be a bad sector read. If this sector is "refreshed" via a new write cycle, it is probably readable again.

It's not enough, to just replace the firmware file. Use the corresponding sas2flsh that comes with P19. If you don't succeed with P19, try to flash to P11 first and in a second step go to P19. With respect to the "PAL error": http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=25891.msg306262#msg306262 You probably found already. If your board supports UEFI you can follow that instruction or try flashing on another mainboard.

Meanwhile there is firmware revision P19 available for those cards. P20 is not recommended due to several reported issues.

Very well, thanks for the write-up! The only drop of bitterness is that this chipset does not support big drives...

Run an extended SMART test.

Well, you're trying to run freenas... Can't tell if freenas has the drivers implemented for that chipset. From what I can see, unRAID should support the chipset. Prepare a thumbdrive with unRAID demo and try it that way. If it works, you have to check with the freenas guys for support. I don't know if you can flash the onboard controller. Usually you would have to modify a BIOS with appropriate IT drivers and then do the BIOS update. Sounds challenging...

Does unRAID see your drives in stock configuration? Is it really necessary to flash your board? Those instructions are mainly used on extension cards!

Thanks for the info! I will add the RAID500 to my ebay monitoring and see if I can grab a cheap one. Then I will report my cross-flash experience as well. Edit: After checking the usual sources, I don't expect to find a cheap card here. Please provide some more information on the card. Are both SAS ports fully functional? Is spindown working? Are temps shown in unraid?