LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes


Recommended Posts

I don't do anything special.  I've never seen the message.  What I do is follow BetaQuasi's instructions here (he has the same motherboard btw).  https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=26774.0

 

I download his boot file (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezeqcbu2tlfub6a/M1015_X9SCM_BOOT_P17.zip), unzip, add it all to the root directory of my bootable usb, then I go to the Avago website and download the latest 9211-8i P20 firmware, add it to the usb drive replacing the older firmware that's on the usb.  I don't flash a bios on any of my cards, only firmware.

Link to comment

Is there a difference in flashing the LSI2911-8i IT-Firmware (2118it) vs. original DELL IT-Firmware (6GBPSAS.FW) to PERC H310. Sorry for all the questions, but I am not sure as to what the difference.

 

Sorry but I can't answer your question.  Maybe someone else can help answer since I've never flashed a Dell Perc 310. I would try using Fireballs H310 instructions here http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg259006#msg259006 and try using the bottom pcie slot.

Link to comment

So, on the 56X58D the sasflsh.exe completed without an error. How do I know if this worked?

 

 

sas2flsh -list

and

sas2flsh -o -listall

 

You can try both of these commands.

 

OK. It showed  up. I used the Dell 6gbpsas and that' what is reported as the vendor/product ID. It does not say anywhere that it is an (IT). Guess the next step is to try it in a box.

 

Thank you!

Link to comment

So, on the 56X58D the sasflsh.exe completed without an error. How do I know if this worked?

 

 

sas2flsh -list

and

sas2flsh -o -listall

 

You can try both of these commands.

 

OK. It showed  up. I used the Dell 6gbpsas and that' what is reported as the vendor/product ID. It does not say anywhere that it is an (IT). Guess the next step is to try it in a box.

 

Thank you!

 

If you boot into unraid with it installed you should be able to go to tools->system log.  Then scroll down and look for LSISAS2008.  It should list wether it's in IT mode or not.

 

Link to comment

So, on the 56X58D the sasflsh.exe completed without an error. How do I know if this worked?

 

 

sas2flsh -list

and

sas2flsh -o -listall

 

You can try both of these commands.

 

OK. It showed  up. I used the Dell 6gbpsas and that' what is reported as the vendor/product ID. It does not say anywhere that it is an (IT). Guess the next step is to try it in a box.

 

Thank you!

 

If you boot into unraid with it installed you should be able to go to tools->system log.  Then scroll down and look for LSISAS2008.  It should list wether it's in IT mode or not.

 

OK. I'll try that either tonight or tomorrow and follow up.

Link to comment

Is there a difference in flashing the LSI2911-8i IT-Firmware (2118it) vs. original DELL IT-Firmware (6GBPSAS.FW) to PERC H310. Sorry for all the questions, but I am not sure as to what the difference.

Crossflashing the H310 is not as straightforward as with genuine LSI products.

It is mandatory to flash the DELL IT firmware or you will not be able to flash the LSI firmware.

 

In my post, I have linked to opentoe's finding.

He says, the DELL IT firmware is also working with unRAID.

I remember having read something about a different queue depth in the DELL firmware.

Can't say if it is affecting performance in unRAID though.

 

If unRAID shows your drives, the flashing has worked.

As I explained in the how-to, if you flash the BIOS, the card will report duing POST and then you

will probably see the operating mode it is in. Unfortunately there is no other benefit but it will increase

boot time so I decided to skip the BIOS.

Link to comment

Is there a difference in flashing the LSI2911-8i IT-Firmware (2118it) vs. original DELL IT-Firmware (6GBPSAS.FW) to PERC H310. Sorry for all the questions, but I am not sure as to what the difference.

Crossflashing the H310 is not as straightforward as with genuine LSI products.

It is mandatory to flash the DELL IT firmware or you will not be able to flash the LSI firmware.

 

In my post, I have linked to opentoe's finding.

He says, the DELL IT firmware is also working with unRAID.

I remember having read something about a different queue depth in the DELL firmware.

Can't say if it is affecting performance in unRAID though.

 

If unRAID shows your drives, the flashing has worked.

As I explained in the how-to, if you flash the BIOS, the card will report duing POST and then you

will probably see the operating mode it is in. Unfortunately there is no other benefit but it will increase

boot time so I decided to skip the BIOS.

 

Opentoe talks about the depth queue being different. He then recommends using the LSI firmware. Is that the consensus? Flash first with Dell and then with the LSI firmware? I am not concerned with BIOS, as I do not want to add to the boot up times.

Link to comment

Opentoe talks about the depth queue being different. He then recommends using the LSI firmware. Is that the consensus? Flash first with Dell and then with the LSI firmware? I am not concerned with BIOS, as I do not want to add to the boot up times.

 

I tried both and could not find any performance difference with Unraid, still ended up using the LSI firmware just in case.

Link to comment

I haven't seen any comparisons what is best: DELL or LSI.

 

All other rebranded cards (Intel, IBM) were flashed with the LSI firmware because there

is no IT firmware from those vendors. The H310 procedure is derived from the IBM crossflash.

It doesn't add much more effort to flash the LSI firmware.

LSI firmware is proven in use by most of us but I'm sure the DELL software will do also.

Link to comment

Just installed an LSI 9211-8i and didn't have a problem flashing it to IT mode, but not receiving any temp data and it says bad missing sense data on the console output. My setup is a dell t610, with the LSI9211-8i connected to a 8 drive sas back plane. Anyone had same experience?

 

EDIT: After pulling one of the sas drives out and installing a sata drive, the ability to spin down and view temps is available. Does unraid not properly support SAS drives or are these abilities not available for SAS drives?

Link to comment

I'm quite confused. I'v got a LSI 9211-8i card and I'm trying to prepare it so I can install it in my unRAID box. I've downloaded 9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip and UEFI_BSD_P20.zip. Do I just need to update BIOS and flash it to IT mode with the firmware, and make sure boot support is disabled in the BIOS and I should be ready to go?

 

Thank you.

 

Edit: OK I think I'm good I'm following the instructions from here. File names appear to be the same but I'm using the P20 (20.00.04) version.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34081.0

 

Edit 2: OK I'm set.

 

IMG_5142.jpg.a8f13ac237617b157c089d96591d15ee.jpg

Link to comment

Opentoe talks about the depth queue being different. He then recommends using the LSI firmware. Is that the consensus? Flash first with Dell and then with the LSI firmware? I am not concerned with BIOS, as I do not want to add to the boot up times.

 

I tried both and could not find any performance difference with Unraid, still ended up using the LSI firmware just in case.

 

I initially went for the Dell firmware since it was official and supported by Dell and didn't want to deal with any cross-flashing.

I never did any performance comparisons. I use two Dell cards. Flashed both with the Dell IT firmware from Dell's website and ran the system for a few weeks. Then I read LSI's firmware has a much more higher queue depth. Out of curiosity I flashed the same cards to the LSI firmware and was going to do some quick performance tests but never got around to doing them. The only perspective I have is using the system for a few weeks with the Dell IT firmware then switching to the LSI. I did not notice any difference in performance under regular use. So, to be on safe side I just left the cards with the LSI firmware installed. I did update my original post with this information, but that was months ago. Just to be on the safe side whoever is just starting out and needs to flash a card I would go with the LSI firmware. I'm using the latest LSI firmware from the Avagotech's website. P20.00.04.00. Released 09/22/2014.

 

Maybe one day I'll do some performance comparisons between the two firmware's but it would be at the very bottom of my list.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

i

The method to flash a H310 was posted in this thread by Fireball3.  And the commands to use are coded in the ".bat" files in the archive earlier in this thread.  I've done 4 H310's so far myself it works great. I use Fireball3's method and flash from USB dos boot.  Here is his post http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg259006#msg259006

 

Why is everyone doing the extra steps on the H310 cards? These are the only commands I used and both cards I flashed are working just fine in my unraid server now.

 

megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin    (wipes the card so to recognize as an LSI)

MegaRec -cleanflash 0

reboot

sas2flsh -o -f 6GBSAS.FW

 

After that you are done. You don't need the BIOS boot, unless you have to boot into the card for some reason. Also, I never had to reprogram the cards address. I guess you don't need to do that since I used the Dell 6GBSAS firmware. Seems from looking at the batch files if you use the LSI firmware you need to re-program the SAS address. Why not with the Dell IT firmware, have no idea. I used the utility RUFUS to make a bootable USB stick and flashed each card by itself in the PCIE slot.

 

EDIT/UPDATE: I did want to mention that I have read the Dell firmware only supports a queue depth of 25. The LSI firmware supports a queue depth of 600. I have tried both variations of the firmware and saw no increase/decrease in performance. Does this apply to IT passthru which unraid uses? I don't know. I guess to be safe, use the LSI firmware.

 

Waht FW are preferred for H310 card  ,not sure where to DL it from ? anyone have a link to all necessary software?

Link to comment

Hello,

 

I do have an old Fujitsu D2107 HBA with 1068(B0) Chip, PCI-X, which is running IR Firmware.

I'd like to flash it to IT mode, but no mater which which version of sasflash and B0 Firmware I use (from the Avagotech website, e.g. for the SAS3080XR) , I always run into the following Error:

 

Firmware Download Boot Required to get Flash Size

ERROR: Cannot flash a 2MB Firmware image on a 1MB Flash!

 

I'm booting from a Freedos USB stick and do use the -o option to be able to override the vendor and IR/IT check.

Flashing a new Bios (6.36.00.00) is possible with no issues.

 

Current Firmware is 1.18.42.0 IR which I found to be the most recent available from the Fujitsu website, unfortunately there is no IT firmware there.

 

I read a lot on this Forum and other fora, and the common hint for a solution is to use the DOS version of sasflash, which did not work for me.

 

Any hints what else I could try/what I might be doing wrong?

Alternatively, where I could find an old IT Firmware that I will be able to flash onto that adapter?

 

Link to comment

 

3) DELL Perc H310 Flashed successfully to LSI9211-8i IT (P19)

 

If you experience troubles or something is not clear, don't hesitate to ask for help.

Why is everyone doing the extra steps on the H310 cards? These are the only commands I used and both cards I flashed are working just fine in my unraid server now.

 

megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin    (wipes the card so to recognize as an LSI)

MegaRec -cleanflash 0

reboot

sas2flsh -o -f 6GBSAS.FW

 

So before flashing my H310 card next week is this what I need to do to use this in unraid?

 

I have Download

SAS-Non-RAID_Firmware_8VGC6_WN32_07.03.05.00_A09.EXE

from

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=8VGC6

 

Created a bootable_usb_stick and add contents from

LSI-9211-8i.zip

 

Then booting the USB and follow these 3 steps?

megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
MegaRec -cleanflash 0 
reboot
sas2flsh -o -f 6GBSAS.FW

Link to comment

That will flash the H310 with Dell's IT firmware, which does work. I eventually re-flashed them using the LSI P20 firmware because of talk about queue depth. Dell's IT firmware supposedly uses a much lower queue depth, like 25 and LSI uses 600. What this does to performance, I did not notice so I left my H310's with the LSI. Maybe if I had an all SSD system there would have been performance differences but with an all mechanical system I didn't see any difference at all.

 

I used a bootable USB stick using the utility rufus. Then I copied the Dell's IT firmware and multiple versions of the LSI IT firmware onto the USB stick. This gave me the ability to try different versions of the sas2flsh utility if it didn't work. I remember having to use an older version of sas2flsh when it came up with a manufacturer error. The older sas2flsh utility let me bypass and continue the flash while the newer one just errored out and exited.

 

I also did all this on a different computer and was not my unraid box. It is a basic two year old Dell machine that had a couple PCI-E slots available.

Link to comment

Thanks for the explanation , then I will try to find the LSI firmware instead. I think i only find /saw 19? Do you have a link to the LSI 20 FW that you use? The only machine I have is my I unraid box that have  uefi bios, don't know if flashing would work on that? Remember that I have issues when flashing my br10 card. Maybe I can use some friends old dos bios computer instead.

Link to comment

Thanks for the explanation , then I will try to find the LSI firmware instead. I think i only find /saw 19? Do you have a link to the LSI 20 FW that you use? The only machine I have is my I unraid box that have  uefi bios, don't know if flashing would work on that? Remember that I have issues when flashing my br10 card. Maybe I can use some friends old dos bios computer instead.

 

Don't necessarily need uefi bios.  I flashed my H310 using circa 2007 Gigabyte AMD board.  There are different tools for use with uefi bios and those for not.

 

I used this site to prepare the USB drive (using rufus).  The link to LSI/Avago downloads to get the P20 (20.00.04.00) firmware (6Gb/s SAS Host Bus Adapter -> SAS 9211-8i -> BIOS).  I then used Fireball3's tool package to do the actual flashing.  I followed all six steps which flashes up to P16, then I modified the last step in 5 by dumping in the sas2flsh tool and IT firmware from the 20.00.04.00 LSI/Avago package and running the last 5th step again to flash to P20 IT then finished with step six.  This is to go LSI firmware vs. Dell.

 

I added the BIOS to mine out of curiosity to see if I can get staggered spin up in IT mode, but can't so plan to remove the BIOS.  Seems to be IR feature.  Waiting for my breakout cables as well as a compact 40x40mm copper heatsink/fan to replace the stock heatsink.  These cards are made for servers with massive airflow.  I got a nice surprise taking the card out after flashing..that heatsink was bloody hot.

Link to comment

Tanks for all info!

 

Still I'm thinking to use these steps below, but not sure if the 6GBSAS.FW is in the link to the BIOS/FW. I'm still little confused the way you did it ;-)

 

I'm going to use an older PC that I will use for this flashing, If I follow what you did can you set up a step by step how you did the flashing ? :-)

 

Thanks

 

megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
MegaRec -cleanflash 0 
reboot
sas2flsh -o -f 6GBSAS.FW

Link to comment

Hey peter,

I presume you went through the readme that comes with the "H310 toolset"?

Would you mind sharing your concerns, so we can improve those instructions?

 

I know how you feel! I also read countless posts and had several unanswered questions.

I decided to adapt those instructions and have all necessary files in one place after

successfully flashing my 310's.

All you need should be in that zip! If it is not, let me know what is unclear!

 

Link to comment

Hey peter,

I presume you went through the readme that comes with the "H310 toolset"?

Would you mind sharing your concerns, so we can improve those instructions?

 

I know how you feel! I also read countless posts and had several unanswered questions.

I decided to adapt those instructions and have all necessary files in one place after

successfully flashing my 310's.

All you need should be in that zip! If it is not, let me know what is unclear!

 

Thanks, I will take a closer look and read it very slow :-) This is for P19?

 

I let you know later ....

 

Thanks

Peter

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.