LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes


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LUNS != Drives. Luns is their logical units for their RAID sets. The 2.72 BIOS does not support > 2.2TB drives considering the newer BIOS from LSI do not.

 

Unfortunately I do not have a > 2.2TB physical drive.

 

The BIOS in the first post is the one I've been running since here - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.msg104148#msg104148

 

Hope you're wrong.  I am going to try 2.74 and see.  BIOS is dated June 2011.  It should support 3T drives.

 

bjp999, I forgot you had a BR10i and 3TB drives, I sold my card to a friend of mine, were you able to test if the FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10 did not see all 3TB?

 

Your welcome JM2005. Glad it helped.

 

I will be adding the lastest firmware soon for all cards to the OP and maybe even a linux version to do right from unRAID.

 

 

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LSI SAS1068E

 

1) IBM BR10i

 

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS3081E chipset with the provided zip

 

FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10

Both IT/IR mode available

 

LSI 1068E Controller.zip - 3.79 MB

 

Linux Driver: MPTSAS - supports the LSI SAS1064, SAS1064A, SAS1064E, SAS1066, SAS1068, SAS1068E, and SAS1078 chipsets. (Thanks to "BRiT"s prior post)

unRAID Support: Added as of 5.0Beta6a

 

Drive Spin Down Support: YES (UPDATE: Added as of 5.0Beta7)

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Waiting for testers to confirm on this card (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

*** Note: Multiple controllers all post under one MPTSAS Bios, there are global setting that affect all controllers and individual settings per controller available ***

 

 

 

Did anyone try to install this LSI BIOS on a BR10i?  I cannot find where it says it supports 3T drives.  Did I miss it?

 

BUT ...

 

Look here on IBM's site:

 

According to THIS VERSION HISTORY, the BR10i version 2.72 (and newer) support large drives.

 

Enhancement

- Support 2TB LUNS and greater

 

Download here ...

 

http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5077837

 

My posted LSI FW/Bios is newer than what IBM has posted in that article:

•BIOS Version: 6.30.00.00

•Firmware Version: 1.30.10.00

 

bjp999, I forgot you had a BR10i and 3TB drives, I sold my card to a friend of mine, were you able to test if the FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10 did not see all 3TB?

 

I am not seeing anything newer available for the 1068E, still looking, what a mess they made of the site.

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First post, and I really hope someone can help me out. After reading kkm's post, and other's replies of the ability to flash the IBM ServeRAID M1015, I picked one up new from Ebay.  I connected the card to my Windows box, and installed the LSI 9240-8i driver, and can see my card in Windows, and any drives connected to it.

 

When I try to flash it though, Megacli or sas2flash both report that No LSI SAS adapters can be found?  So, I pulled the card out and put it in my Debian box, and it shows up in lspci.

root@fileserver:~/SAS2FLASH# lspci | grep LSI
01:00.0 RAID bus controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS 9240 (rev 03)

 

But, when I try to use sas2flash just to list available cards, I get similar behavior to Windows (I've tried sas2flash phase 5,9, and 10, they all produce similar results).

root@fileserver:~/SAS2FLASH# ./sas2flash -list
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 10.00.00.00 (2011.05.13) 
Copyright (c) 2008-2011 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved 

No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available!
ERROR: Command Not allowed without an adapter!
ERROR: Couldn't Create Command -list
Exiting Program.

 

or with Megacli

root@fileserver:~# megacli -AdpAllInfo -aAll
                                     

Exit Code: 0x00

 

Since, this is a new card, is there anything I need to do to make this work.  Both OS's have the card installed, and working, but the LSI tools can't seem to see the card.

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

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Since, this is a new card, is there anything I need to do to make this work.  Both OS's have the card installed, and working, but the LSI tools can't seem to see the card.

 

....since the OSes can see the controller and disks, I suspect there is a problem with the tools.

As for Windows and Debian: what version of the OS and is it 32 or 64Bit?

Maybe Win7?...try to run/start the tools in Admin-mode.

 

How did you install the tools under Debian? (since they only come as rpms...non standard to debian, not a 1,2,3 finish action)

Did you install the libs that come in a separate rpm inside the Tools-Archive (zip)?

 

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Good questions :) Windows and Debian are both 32 bit.  I didn't try running the tools in Windows as Admin, I'll try that tonight.

 

Under Debian, I grabbed the linux stand alone binary from LSI for all the versions.  It will run without installation in linux.  Megacli can be installed from this repository.

http://hwraid.le-vert.net/ubuntu

I could install the rpms, via alien, but my experience with LSI raid controller in the past has found installing via alien to be tricky, so the repo makes it easier on me.  It is an older version, but it still should at least see the card, I would think.

 

MegaCLI SAS RAID Management Tool  Ver 5.00.12 May 08, 2009

 

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Under Debian, I grabbed the linux stand alone binary from LSI for all the versions.  It will run without installation in linux.  Megacli can be installed from this repository.

http://hwraid.le-vert.net/ubuntu

I could install the rpms, via alien, but my experience with LSI raid controller in the past has found installing via alien to be tricky, so the repo makes it easier on me.  It is an older version, but it still should at least see the card, I would think.

 

...these are not from LSI...based on LSI code, but that repo is from a third party.

Here I am running v8.01.06 of MegaCli(64) from the LSI archives under Debian lenny-64 (proxmox-ve) just fine.

I installed the latest drivers (v5.30) as well.

As for installing the tools, just use rpm2cpio (installed with alien) to extract the tools and lib from the archives and move them to /opt

I Used "rpm2cpio <name>.rpm | cpio -idmv" on each archive.

 

 

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Thanks, I just installed megacli quickly for a test to see if it was the adapter.  If finally got it flashed to IT mode, by using this http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-usb-stick.htm to create my USB DOS stick.  I was trying to use FreeDOS before and it was not working.

 

After, I switched away from FreeDOS, KKM's directions worked fine.  Here's my new LSI card in Debian now :)

root@fileserver:~# lspci | grep LSI
01:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

 

Ford Perfect, I appreciate the directions to properly install megacli.  I'll be setting that up tonight.

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I was trying to use FreeDOS before and it was not working.

 

I tried FreeDOS, and quite a few others, on USB stick before I gave up and flashed my card under the standard unRAID Slackware.

 

After, I switched away from FreeDOS, KKM's directions worked fine.  Here's my new LSI card in Debian now :)

root@fileserver:~# lspci | grep LSI
01:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

 

Mine reports exactly the same - except that it's rev 02.  I wonder what the difference is.

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New updated from LSI were posted for most cards (P10), no update for the SAS 1068E chipset. Add a new package for SAS2004 chipset as a few people PM'ed requests on these as well.

 

I have update the OP (please re-read) and posted the new firmware packages.

I added an additional step to each, so please "After you expand the zip file, please read the file "__ReadMeFirst.txt" before doing anything!". Sorry guys no Linux package version, the LSI site is a mess and I am still learning (not enought to pull it off, if even possible. Bring you card to work and use your bosses PC  ;D, go to your neighbors home and hijake there PC  ::), do what you need to, to flash your card. Booting up a windows OS will take the longest in the update process.)

 

I would recommend updating your card(s) with this latest update.

 

BIOS P10 (7.19.00.00) Notes:

SCG Engineering Release Notice

 

GCA Release Version 7.19.00.00 - SAS2BIOS_PH10 (SCGCQ00195755)

(SCGCQ00195755) - GCA Release Version 7.19.00.00 - SAS2BIOS_PH10

Change Summary ( Defects=15 Enhancements=6)

SCGCQ00183922 (DFCT) - View Volume screen needs more than one ESC key press to exit screen if user has entered Manage HS screen at least once.

SCGCQ00184126 (DFCT) - CU selection to choose a tape to put into $DR (Disaster Recovery) does not set $DR mode.

SCGCQ00186462 (DFCT) - SAS2BIOS: Adapter Properties screen shows Package Version Field

SCGCQ00187617 (DFCT) - BIOS will attempt to scan for devices if adapter is not in LSI mode

SCGCQ00187715 (DFCT) - Verify command in BIOS CU continues for a drive that is pulled out.

SCGCQ00188722 (DFCT) - BIOS: Config page error is seen when changing enclosures in Controller BIOS.

SCGCQ00189197 (DFCT) - Server appears to hang during "Initializing..."!

SCGCQ00189775 (DFCT) - SAS2BIOS/CU is not checking valid bit in fixed format sense data

SCGCQ00193110 (DFCT) - BIOS hangs or asserts NMI and reboots while parsing the SMBIOS entries of some servers

SCGCQ00193121 (DFCT) - Tape Device is displayed as a missing row in Create volume screen of Bios CU.

SCGCQ00193310 (DFCT) - BIOS CU "Format" and "Verify" fails with some HDDs

SCGCQ00174000 (CSET) - SHEX fix not supported for all B0 Mustang/TBolt parts

SCGCQ00188149 (CSET) - Windows 2008 fails to install to disk attached hybrid EFI/legacy system

SCGCQ00188702 (CSET) - SAS2 HBA is not releasing allocated memory when done with it.

SCGCQ00192605 (CSET) - Missing SATA drive of a SATA Volume is displayed as 'Missing drive' under SAS volume and vice versa.

SCGCQ00174966 (ENHREQ) - Provide Manufacturing page 240 information to HBA FW through config page write

SCGCQ00175682 (CSET) - SAS2BIOS - Add Phy Number to Device Properties screen of SAS2BIOS Configuration Utility

SCGCQ00176889 (ENHREQ) - SAS2BIOS: Add full descriptor support for Request Sense data (>2 TB support)

SCGCQ00187157 (ENHREQ) - Additional adapter support for IO Space Write Errata (TBolt/Mustang B0)

SCGCQ00187419 (ENHREQ) - SAS2BIOS - Supply additional PCI information for IOC Page 1

SCGCQ00183688 (CSET) - Remove Warhawk references from baseline BIOS

]

 

 

FIRMWARE P10 (10.00.00200) Notes:

SCG Engineering Release Notice

 

Phase10 Point Release Version 10.00.02.00 - SAS2FW_Phase10 (SCGCQ00202418)

Change Summary ( Defects=1)

SCGCQ00200602 (DFCT) - Fault 0x100 prevents code from running at SOD

 

Phase10 Point Release Version 10.00.01.00 - SAS2FW_Phase10 (SCGCQ00201729)

Change Summary ( Defects=2)

SCGCQ00192977 (CSET) - SMPs are issued by FW in target only mode during discovery.

SCGCQ00201234 (CSET) - SATA commands take too long when unit attention set or SATA init is needed

 

Phase10 GCA Release Version 10.00.00.00 - SAS2FW_Phase10 (SCGCQ00198003)

Defects=0, Enhancements=0 (Version Change Only)

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Sorry guys no Linux package version, the LSI site is a mess and I am still learning (not enought to pull it off, if even possible.

 

Sorry!  I'll have a go at loading P10 firmware in a little while, then put together an archive with all the Linux versions of sas2flash that I can find.

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Sorry guys no Linux package version, the LSI site is a mess and I am still learning (not enought to pull it off, if even possible.

 

Sorry!  I'll have a go at loading P10 firmware in a little while, then put together an archive with all the Linux versions of sas2flash that I can find.

 

Hummm, interesting as I am learning more and more each day, I re-read your post on page 3 here and I have all the Linux sas flashs, seems I would be able to make these packages after all, I will whip up shell scripts to do the same steps as i am doing for the windows packages, one would just have to un zip the contents in a temp dir on the flash and invoke each shell script. Should have it done by tomorrow.

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Hummm, interesting as I am learning more and more each day, I re-read your post on page 3 here and I have all the Linux sas flashs, seems I would be able to make these packages after all, I will whip up shell scripts to do the same steps as i am doing for the windows packages, one would just have to un zip the contents in a temp dir on the flash and invoke each shell script. Should have it done by tomorrow.

 

Indeed - it is a very simple process.  Since the one thing we all have in common here is that we run slackware systems, promoting the use of the Linux versions will make life very much more simple ... no need to move cards, no need to build DOS boot usbs etc!

 

The one thing I would advise - although I have flashed my card with the array still up and running, any access to a drive connected to the card during the flash will result in errors and possible data corruption.  Much better to ensure that the array is stopped before flashing.

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I am not too crazy about the fileswap provider I found to hold these zip files so if someone could recommend another service I will move them.

 

If you have no success in finding an alternative, I could consider putting them up on my host - I have some spare capacity.  Do you know how much space do they take up, and how much traffic is generated?

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...OK, I am getting a little bit confused about IT / IR FWs and their applicability to different models, SAS 2008 in my case.  :o

 

1) In the OP I see, that there is an IT and IR FW supllied for the LSI 2008 cards, here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg121130#msg121130

  These cards are handled with the sas2flash utility for BOTH FW files. ???

  I've been under the assumption - given the controller is based on the same SAS2008 chipset(s) - that

  a card with IT-FW (which makes it a simple HBA) is handled by sas2flash and a card

  with IR-FW (wich makes it a RAID controller, AKA LSI MEGARAID), is handled by megacli utility.

 

  What will the IR-FW do to the card upon flash? Will it then report as a MegaRAID controller?

 

2) Furthermore...

  I actually applied user kkm's instructions to flash my IBM M1015 (rebranded LSI MegaRAID) into IT mode.

  It is now a 9210-8i model and upon bootup there is no sign of "big blue" anymore.

  The M1015, even when flashed with LSI IR-FW, would still prompt upon boot as IBM ServeRAID M1015

  controller (so parts of IBM's BIOS remained). As said, this is now all gone

  The 9210-8i is a card with 9211-8i chipset and with the physical layout of the 9240-8i RAID Controller, I think.

 

  What can I expect as a result, when I flash the "former M1015, now 9210-8i-IT" with the IR-FW for the 9211-8i?

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...OK, I am getting a little bit confused about IT / IR FWs and their applicability to different models, SAS 2008 in my case.  :o

1) In the OP I see, that there is an IT and IR FW supllied for the LSI 2008 cards, here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg121130#msg121130

   These cards are handled with the sas2flash utility for BOTH FW files. ???

   I've been under the assumption - given the controller is based on the same SAS2008 chipset(s) - that

   a card with IT-FW (which makes it a simple HBA) is handled by sas2flash and a card

   with IR-FW (wich makes it a RAID controller, AKA LSI MEGARAID), is handled by megacli utility.

 

   What will the IR-FW do to the card upon flash? Will it then report as a MegaRAID controller?

the sas2flash is a utility coded by LSI that can talk to a LSI SAS card (certain models, for other cards there is a sasflash) this is how you can read what FW/BIOS your card already has, backup it FW/BIOS to files, and with the correct commandline you can point it to FW/BIOs files to upgrade/downgrade/restore your card. I included the sas2flash reference files in the packages so anyone can see everything available via the utility. Many of the cards have a IT and IR Firmware, you can only run one at a time. Some of the cards I already listed by default are raid cards, an example is the LSI SAS9201-16i is not a raid card, just a simple HBA, so ONLY IT firmware is available for it. I explained why it is recommend to flash to IT mode on cards that are by default in IR mode. Lastly, i included both modes in the package, should anyone want to revet back to IR mode for other purposes. The goal for these cards under unRAID is to flash to IT mode and there have been fixes for greater than 2.2TB support as well as bug fixes. Flashing to IR mode will not make your card a mega raid card that is a line of card LSI makes with more advanced riad capabilities. What you can do it seems from PeterB's post is you can overwrite the MEGA  firmware and bios to a standard IT/IR mode (yes IR is raid , but does not have as much options as there mega line).

 

2) Furthermore...

   I actually applied user kkm's instructions to flash my IBM M1015 (rebranded LSI MegaRAID) into IT mode.

   It is now a 9210-8i model and upon bootup there is no sign of "big blue" anymore.

 

It is not a 9210-8i model now, it has been flash to IT mode with the SAS2008 chipset firmware, it worked because the chipset is a LSI sas2008 chipset. If you ever wanted to bring it back to a mega card, you would need to use the mega package I have posted. As you can see from the post mega is not supported under unRAID. But you can wipe the mega fw/bios and put down the sas2008 IT mode fw/bios on it, there by no longer a mega card.

   The M1015, even when flashed with LSI IR-FW, would still prompt upon boot as IBM ServeRAID M1015

   controller (so parts of IBM's BIOS remained). As said, this is now all gone

   The 9210-8i is a card with 9211-8i chipset and with the physical layout of the 9240-8i RAID Controller, I think.

Hoping you now understand to answer the first part of you question now, so I dont repeat. But so you are clear it is not a 9210-8i is a card with 9211-8i chipset, it is a mega card (M1015) with a sas2008 chipset, flashed with the sas2008 IT mode firmware/BIOS now.

 

   What can I expect as a result, when I flash the "former M1015, now 9210-8i-IT" with the IR-FW for the 9211-8i?

 

If you flash your M1015 which now has the sas2008 IT mode firmware to the sas2008 IR mode firmware it will be a simple raid card, not as advanced as it could be when it was flashed with the mega firmware.

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What you can do it seems from PeterB's post is you can overwrite the MEGA  firmware and bios to a standard IT/IR mode (yes IR is raid , but does not have as much options as there mega line).

 

Ooops, did I say, or imply, that?

 

I believe that my Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i started life as a simple IR mode device, operating with the mpt2sas driver.  I reflashed it to IT mode.

 

 

Anyway, I have now flashed it with the P10 firmware which you uploaded, and everything seems to be fine.

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What you can do it seems from PeterB's post is you can overwrite the MEGA  firmware and bios to a standard IT/IR mode (yes IR is raid , but does not have as much options as there mega line).

 

 

Ooops, did I say, or imply, that?

 

I believe that my Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i started life as a simple IR mode device, operating with the mpt2sas driver.  I reflashed it to IT mode.

 

 

Anyway, I have now flashed it with the P10 firmware which you uploaded, and everything seems to be fine.

 

Nope, SORRY I got my posts wrong, it was KKM's, and thats why i thought they were Linux steps and thats why I did not want to create linux packages, then I re-read your post agan PeterB and saw it was doable.

 

KKM's steps are a bit wild and seems he renamed the BIN file (2108.bin ???) so without knowing the source of that file, I dont want to touch it (i did not alter any of the LSI files, I just made simple batch files to follow with a readme file and dropped pdf's for easy reading for all, as its all over the place on lsi's site and download).

 

My understanding from KKM's post is that you are clearing/wiping the bios complete off of the M1015, then reprograming the nvram to the sas2008 firmware and bios, then since you wiped the bios originally you need to put back the sas address of the card (at the very least) Not my cup off tea.

 

My suggestion is sell the card to someone looking for a great RAID controller and buy a less expensive LSI card which you can switch between IT/IR modes. I can understand if you somehow got one for free or for a very cheap price, then you can try KKM's instructions at your own risk.

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madburg,

 

many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

This actually clarified most of it.

I originally did not know that there are three levels of software with the cards, IT, "IR-light" and IR.

At the same time hardware layouts confused me more.

- As it looks, the 9210 is by origin an IR-light version, with same hardware - chipset and layout - as

  the megaraid 9240 which in turn carries the full IR FW (megaraid).

- The M1015 is a rebranded 9240 (IR megaraid FW, although somewhat crippled, no Raid 5 compared to LSI FW).

- The 9211 is a pure HBA (IT FW) but its FW can be applied to the 9210 as well, downgrading the 9210.

Maybe some day, someone should compile a compatibility matrix for cross-, down- or up-flashing controllers based on the same chipset. :D

 

I have been fully aware why IT mode is the goal for vanilla unRAID users.

At the same time I can think of some uses (i.e. running unRAID virtualized) where an IR mode controller on the host could deliver some benefit.

Yes, I know that I did put my M1015 at risk following kkm's instructions.

It was just for scratching that itch, not for looking desperately after a HBA for unRAID use.

 

Many thanks again and keep up the good work!

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Posted first linux version: LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20)Linux.zip on the OP.

 

Need someone to help me out, need some bash code that checks state of Array (stopped/started), I would like to add that code into each (stage) script to verify the array is not running, exit if found running. Or a pointer to a script that pulls that info already (a unMenu script, etc...) that I could look at as a reference, to speed things up. I will finish the rest of the packages and up and this QA one after I have this code, so no one has an accident.

 

NOTE: Currently it does not check if the unRAID array is started, it WILL reset the card during the flash and you WILL have data corruption and/or unRAID crash, so PLEASE stop your array first.

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Posted first linux version: LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20)Linux.zip on the OP.

 

Need someone to help me out, need some bash code that checks state of Array (stopped/started), I would like to add that code into each (stage) script to verify the array is not running, exit if found running. Or a pointer to a script that pulls that info already (a unMenu script, etc...) that I could look at as a reference, to speed things up. I will finish the rest of the packages and up and this QA one after I have this code, so no one has an accident.

 

NOTE: Currently it does not check if the unRAID array is started, it WILL reset the card during the flash and you WILL have data corruption and/or unRAID crash, so PLEASE stop your array first.

 

You can determine the state of the array with this command ...

 

/root/mdcmd status|strings|grep "mdState"

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