LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes


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It seems there is no IT mode firmware for the USAS2-L8i

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=I

 

So what you're trying to say is that you're going to cross-flash the controller with another firmware!?

Well, it's your decision to try it and find out what happens.  ;)

Please come back and report your findings!

Technically I  don't think I'm actually cross flashing.  According to the manual:

http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/AOC-USAS2-L8i_L8e_L8iMR.pdf

 

To change modes you must flash firmware (which,  obviously we know)

 

So supermicro themselves suggest flashing the IT firmware from my previous post.  At least that's how I read it.  I would like confirmation though. 

 

And back to my original question,  any reason to not use supermicro's firmware?

 

What I also find odd is this card has IT at the end  of the product identifier (which is sas2008-IT),  on the adapter name (smc2008-IT) and at the end of the firmware.  All read from boot up a the cards bios.  Which kind of makes you think it is already on IT but it was in a sealed bag (no box) and it is labeled as L8i.

 

Any way to confirm which mode it's in? Unfortunately I couldn't get past the card during boot,  it would read the card and drives but then hang.  Same machine flashed a H310 no problem (with help your your guide and files,  thanks for that).  But I'm going to try the card in my main server,  and try it there.

 

Sent using Tapatalk

 

 

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I see your point.

Previously I visited the site and was only able to see IR firmwares for download - didn't study the manual.

I wonder why they don't link the IT firmware also?

 

Why don't you mail Supermicro and ask them?

It's probably the best, reliable source you can get intel from!

You may also ask, why the machine won't boot with their card equipped.

Maybe you have to use the taping mod?

 

Coming back to your initial question:

Definitely, YES, if you have specific firmware that suits your needs, given from manufacturer side, take it.

Especially when there is no 1:1 clone where you could "cross-flash".

This card doesn't look like a H310 or M1015!

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Yeah I found it weird they mention IT mode but then abruptly stop talking about it. 

 

That's a good point,  actually never thought to email them.  Sometimes the most obvious things you forget.

 

I did try the taping mod actually.  No change.  Worst part is if I can't get past that I won't be able to flash it.  This was just a spare PC I used to flash the H310 (in the pcie x16 slot).  So I'll try on my server board and see what happens there tonight.

 

The reason I was going to cross flash it with (I'm not actual sure which files,  probably just the lsi 2008 P7 then update to P20) lsi firmware is PeterB had a couple posts in this thread where he said he used the files here and was successful on cross flashing.  But there wasn't much detail.  So it looks like it can be cross flashed to Lsi2008 IT.  It is  a 2008 chip after all but the board does look much different then the H310 and M1015.

EDIT:

Contacted supermicro support.

Hi,

I would like to run my AOC-USAS2-L8i in IT mode. It looks like your manual states that to change the L8i to IT mode it needs to be flashed with "PH20.0.4-IT.zip" located here:

ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2008/IR_IT/Firmware/IT/PH20.0.4-IT.zip

Is that correct?

Thank you

Hi,

Yes, that is correct.

Thank you

DL

 

Hopefully I can get it to boot in my server , then I can flash and update here.

EDIT 2:

 

Put the card in my server running a supermicro MB, booted up no problem. Flashed following the supermicro instructions using the above IT firmware from supermicro. Extremely easy flash and booted into unraid and completed a parity check. All good.

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Thanks for sharing your experience!

I will update the wiki accordingly.

 

It would have also been interesting to know, if the card was delivered in IT mode as you mentioned:

What I also find odd is this card has IT at the end  of the product identifier (which is sas2008-IT),  on the adapter name (smc2008-IT) and at the end of the firmware.  All read from boot up a the cards bios.  Which kind of makes you think it is already on IT but it was in a sealed bag (no box) and it is labeled as L8i.

 

Edit:

Well, found this passage in the manual:

To change RAID modes from the AOC-USAS2-L8i/L8e add-on card’s default IT Mode,

you need to flash your system’s BIOS with a Firmware download and install drivers for

the RAID mode to your operating system.

 

So, in a way it makes sense if they don't link the IT-mode firmware.

 

Edit2

Further down in the manual it says:

IT Mode (Initiator and Target Mode): This is the default mode for the AOC-USAS2-L8e add-on card.

 

and then it says:

The AOC-USAS2-L8iR uses a different type of firmware than the AOC-USAS2-L8i (IR mode) and

AOC-USAS2-L8e (IT mode) cards, so it can support up to 16 drives and is SAS-2/PCI-E Gen-2 compatible.

 

???

Lets sum up:

AOC-USAS2-L8i:

delivered with IR-mode (although card reports with -IT in BIOS, suggesting it is in IT mode already); one can download IR-mode firmware on the cards website

 

AOC-USAS2-L8e:

delivered with IT-mode; one can download IT-mode firmware on the cards website

 

I wonder if it's really beneficial to have such a complex, expressionless naming scheme.

Even if you browse the cards website you can't see the info at a glance - really a shame imho!

Everybody knows the AOC-SASLP-MV8 and the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8, but nobody noticed this card

although it's out since 2010.

I stand corrected, there are a few entries in the forums, but you have to search for them.

At least it's in the wiki now.

There is probably more Supermicro hardware we could use but we don't know it's existing...

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Thanks for sharing your experience!

I will update the wiki accordingly.

 

It would have also been interesting to know, if the card was delivered in IT mode as you mentioned:

What I also find odd is this card has IT at the end  of the product identifier (which is sas2008-IT),  on the adapter name (smc2008-IT) and at the end of the firmware.  All read from boot up a the cards bios.  Which kind of makes you think it is already on IT but it was in a sealed bag (no box) and it is labeled as L8i.

 

Edit:

Well, found this passage in the manual:

To change RAID modes from the AOC-USAS2-L8i/L8e add-on card’s default IT Mode,

you need to flash your system’s BIOS with a Firmware download and install drivers for

the RAID mode to your operating system.

 

So, in a way it makes sense if they don't link the IT-mode firmware.

 

Edit2

Further down in the manual it says:

IT Mode (Initiator and Target Mode): This is the default mode for the AOC-USAS2-L8e add-on card.

 

and then it says:

The AOC-USAS2-L8iR uses a different type of firmware than the AOC-USAS2-L8i (IR mode) and

AOC-USAS2-L8e (IT mode) cards, so it can support up to 16 drives and is SAS-2/PCI-E Gen-2 compatible.

 

???

Lets sum up:

AOC-USAS2-L8i:

delivered with IR-mode (although card reports with -IT in BIOS, suggesting it is in IT mode already); one can download IR-mode firmware on the cards website

 

AOC-USAS2-L8e:

delivered with IT-mode; one can download IT-mode firmware on the cards website

 

I wonder if it's really beneficial to have such a complex, expressionless naming scheme.

Even if you browse the cards website you can't see the info at a glance - really a shame imho!

Everybody knows the AOC-SASLP-MV8 and the AOC-SAS2LP-MV8, but nobody noticed this card

although it's out since 2010.

I stand corrected, there are a few entries in the forums, but you have to search for them.

At least it's in the wiki now.

There is probably more Supermicro hardware we could use but we don't know it's existing...

 

Quick reply on my phone so I don't forget.  Yes that is exactly what I found and understood the same way you did.  I knew the L8e was IT and L8i was IR.  My model number was L8i but had lots of references to IT in the firmware and bios (have screenshots).  Not knowing how to confirm IT mode and assuming the model and the manual was correct I just figured I would flash the IT mode. 

 

One very big caveat with this card.  It's a supermicro proprietary card, called UIO.  Only thing making it proprietary though it the components are mounted on the opposite side of the board.  So physically fitment in the slot might be an issue.  And you'll have to make your own pci bracket.  There is info about that on the net/Google. 

 

I actually have that UIO slot in my supermicro board so I had no issues using it.  I also bought a H310 because the supermicro card doesn't fit into some of the other slots on the board.  It's also a tall board compared to the other commonly used cards

 

Sent using Tapatalk

 

 

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One very big caveat with this card.  It's a supermicro proprietary card, called UIO.  Only thing making it proprietary though it the components are mounted on the opposite side of the board.  So physically fitment in the slot might be an issue.  And you'll have to make your own pci bracket.  There is info about that on the net/Google. 

 

I actually have that UIO slot in my supermicro board so I had no issues using it.  I also bought a H310 because the supermicro card doesn't fit into some of the other slots on the board.  It's also a tall board compared to the other commonly used cards

 

This is very important to know! Thanks for the heads up!

Hardware tweaks to fit into standard enclosure.

 

I just notice "Only iMR mode available. "

What is iMR ? new hybrid IR ?

It seems that only the Integrated MegaRaid Mode (iMR) will enable RAID5 software raid.

The Integrated RAID Mode (IR) is RAID1 and RAID1E only.

But as already mentioned, the manual is not very clear.

 

Quick suggestion is to add xgrep.com dos executable to the toolset and use that against Adapters.txt to display the Address line for the lsi cards.

xgrep.com is dead!?

I would take that into consideration when updating next time.

Can you provide the executable and the regexp? I'm not good at that at all.  :(

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I hope these dl links work: http://www.freedos.org/software/?prog=xgrep points off to http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/file/xgrep/ of which you want the executable so that's http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/files/util/file/xgrep/xgrp103x.zip

 

 

Basic command to find the SAS Address from the text file it generated earlier (haven't parsed it out to only be the address value):

xgrep.com Address ADAPTERS.TXT

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Hi Fireball3,

 

Extraordinary analysis and continued support of SAS Raid Cards!  My congrats and appreciation.  As a "old-time®" newbie to a larger UnRaid Server, I would appreciate your suggestions for the "best" least expensive card to acquire. 

 

I bought a LSI SAS3081E-R but didn't realize its 2.2TB limitation (grr), but it was really cheap, so...  ???

 

My new UnRaid Server is a Lenovo TS440 with both Cages (8 3.5" drives) but the Main Cage supported on the MB uses all of the SATA ports thus requiring another SAS/SATA card.  I was also able to purchase a PCIe4-SATA Card for my 2 SSD Cache drives that work very well.  That leaves me with a PCIe x1 or a PCIe x16 and a regular PCI card slot unless I use an 8 port SAS/SATA card and change my Cache Drives to the MB.

 

My alternative might be a SAS-SATA expander card if that is a better option.  But at the moment, just looking for the easiest and least expensive direction.

 

Regards and thanks again for your excellent work!

 

Dave

 

Anyone - what is the easiest SAS-SATA Board with innate IT capability?  Or what is the ultimate re-flash goal (SAS 9240-8i) or ???

 

Thanks

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Is the freedos executable running under MSDOS environment?

At the moment the package contains system files for MSDOS.

 

Freedos environment is what Rufus installs for a dos-bootable disk.

 

Info on Freedos: http://www.freedos.org/

 

FreeDOS is a complete, free, DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software, or develop embedded systems. Any program that works on MS-DOS should also run on FreeDOS.

It doesn’t cost anything to download and run FreeDOS. Even better, you can view and edit our source code. All FreeDOS programs are distributed under the GNU General Public License or a similar open source software license.

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Hi Dave,

I'm happy if I can contribute to this nice community.

 

I would appreciate your suggestions for the "best" least expensive card to acquire. 

I bought a LSI SAS3081E-R but didn't realize its 2.2TB limitation (grr), but it was really cheap, so...  ???

Lenovo TS440 with both Cages (8 3.5" drives) but the

Main Cage supported on the MB uses all of the SATA ports thus requiring another SAS/SATA card.

I'm not sure how many drives/slots you have actually!

What is the main cage? I see a pic of the TS440 having those 2x4 in caddies and 2x5.25" slots.

On board you have 4 S-ATA ports?

Are the SSD's taking up 2 of those caddies?

Then you are in need of just another 2 S-ATA ports?

Possible solution, see next question.

 

I was also able to purchase a PCIe4-SATA Card for my 2 SSD Cache drives that work very well. 

You can hook up the SSD's on the LSI SAS3081E-R since they are <2.2TB capacity.

Use the PCIe4 card for hard disks instead.

 

My alternative might be a SAS-SATA expander card if that is a better option.  But at the moment, just looking for the easiest and least expensive direction.

Assuming you add another 3in2 backplane into those 5,25" slots you end up with 11 drives.

An expander solution is not cheap and you still need a SAS controller first - thus no option.

An 8-port add-on controller together with the mainboard slots will suffice to connect all of your drives.

9240-8i based controllers (H310, M1015) can be bought for 30-40$

 

Anyone - what is the easiest SAS-SATA Board with innate IT capability?  Or what is the ultimate re-flash goal (SAS 9240-8i) or ???

Do you plan to replace the board or what is this question related to?

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Hi Dave,

I'm happy if I can contribute to this nice community.

 

I would appreciate your suggestions for the "best" least expensive card to acquire. 

I bought a LSI SAS3081E-R but didn't realize its 2.2TB limitation (grr), but it was really cheap, so...  ???

Lenovo TS440 with both Cages (8 3.5" drives) but the

Main Cage supported on the MB uses all of the SATA ports thus requiring another SAS/SATA card.

I'm not sure how many drives/slots you have actually!

What is the main cage? I see a pic of the TS440 having those 2x4 in caddies and 2x5.25" slots.

On board you have 4 S-ATA ports?

Are the SSD's taking up 2 of those caddies?

Then you are in need of just another 2 S-ATA ports?

Possible solution, see next question.

 

I was also able to purchase a PCIe4-SATA Card for my 2 SSD Cache drives that work very well. 

You can hook up the SSD's on the LSI SAS3081E-R since they are <2.2TB capacity.

Use the PCIe4 card for hard disks instead.

 

My alternative might be a SAS-SATA expander card if that is a better option.  But at the moment, just looking for the easiest and least expensive direction.

Assuming you add another 3in2 backplane into those 5,25" slots you end up with 11 drives.

An expander solution is not cheap and you still need a SAS controller first - thus no option.

An 8-port add-on controller together with the mainboard slots will suffice to connect all of your drives.

9240-8i based controllers (H310, M1015) can be bought for 30-40$

 

Anyone - what is the easiest SAS-SATA Board with innate IT capability?  Or what is the ultimate re-flash goal (SAS 9240-8i) or ???

Do you plan to replace the board or what is this question related to?

 

Hi Fireball3,

 

Sorry I missed your reply earlier.  I currently have the original Cage (4 Sata x 3.5" Drives) including my Parity Drive.  The original Cage runs SATA to Sas from the MB (4 of the 5 SATA connectors.  I added another Cage (4 Sata x 3.5 Drives) but do not have any additional SATA connectors available.  I purchased a 4 port SATA PCIe x4 card to run my 2 Cache Drives.

 

All I need is a SAS-SATA cable like the original one that runs the main cage to power my 2nd cage but it would only run 2 drives of the 4, though that might be a bit tricky.  I suppose you are correct the in that I could use the LSI SAS3081E-R for the Cache drives, though I could not find an easy way to flash that card so it would be recognized by UnRaid.

 

Too bad I can't find a 6-8 port PCIe x4 card cheap.  The MB does have an older PCI card that might be usable and a PCIe x1 but since my 4 Port SATA card takes the PCIe x4 slot I'm left with the PCIe x16 (primarily graphics) so ???

 

If I can find a "cheap" LSI 9240 - 8i then it could replace the PCIe x4 SATA Card and I could  run the Cache off the MB.

 

I had no intention of replacing the TS440 MB, poor ? just trying to find a SAS-SATA card that would already be set for IT (JBOD) mode.

 

Suggestions?

 

Dave

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I'm still not sure if I correctly understood your build..

 

The original Cage runs SATA to Sas from the MB (4 of the 5 SATA connectors.

So you need a S-ATA to SAS cable to connect the cages? (this is called a reverse break-out-cable)

 

All I need is a SAS-SATA cable like the original one that runs the main cage to power my 2nd cage but it would only run 2 drives of the 4, though that might be a bit tricky.

I'm confused!

 

I suppose you are correct the in that I could use the LSI SAS3081E-R for the Cache drives, though I could not find an easy way to flash that card so it would be recognized by UnRaid.

According to this post you should be able to use this files to flash your controller to IT-mode.

Keep in mind, that this controller does not support drives >2.2TB!

 

Too bad I can't find a 6-8 port PCIe x4 card cheap.

9240-8i based controllers (Dell H310, Dell H200, IBM M1015) can be bought for 30-40$ on ebay.

Define "cheap".

 

I had no intention of replacing the TS440 MB, poor ? just trying to find a SAS-SATA card that would already be set for IT (JBOD) mode.

Then I must have misunderstood your question:

Anyone - what is the easiest SAS-SATA Board with innate IT capability?
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Help!

 

I'm stumbling through all this, trying to avoid buying anything unless I have to.  I have an HP P400, LSISAS1078 and a Dell Perc 5/i, LSISAS1068.  I am unable to do anything with the HP, but I have gotten the Dell to answer step 1 with megacli.exe.  While megacli sees the adapter, megarec does not.  If possible, I prefer to use stuff I already have instead of buying controllers.  Any ideas?

 

Thanks!!!

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Hi Fireball3,

 

Thanks for the response and suggestions.  Sorry if there is more confusion. 

 

I guess that is what I need a Reverse breakout cable Sata>SAS (the TS440 came that way). 

 

I just found a 2 port PCIe x1 card for the Cache SSD's.  If that works, I will try your suggested Reverse Sata>SAS breakout cable to run the other Cage with my current 4 port SATA card.  At this time, I don't expect to run more than 8 HDs, though that is always subject to change.  As they get bigger  6 or 7 + parity(s) should be sufficient ???

 

If this doesn't work I'll revert to the LSI SAS3081E-R or an LSI 9240-8i or equivalent.

 

Again many thanks for your recommendations  and fantastic response w/regard to my questions.

 

Dave

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Hi Everyone!

 

I was looking for OS to my homeserver (been using Windows as a main workhorse), but also looked for good, reasonable price nas solution to home and if it has virtualization / apps that would be just good bonus... but to the little question.

 

I got couple days ago MegaRAID SAS 9361-4i (SAS3108) from my friend switching to cloud backups, can I utilize this controller how easily or should I start looking for better choises?

 

Do you have currently well working cards which I can buy from amazon?

 

Thank you for advance!

 

Sincerely Mika

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Hi Mika,

welcome to the forums!

 

While the MegaRAID SAS 9361-4i is a nice card to have for RAID purposes, for unRAID it is not

suitable. You could probably pass through each drive with some configuration effort, but in case of

trouble you won't be happy with it.

We have a couple of controllers confirmed working in our wiki.

 

At the moment, the most cost efficient adapters are the SAS2008 based, rebranded LSI cards

namely IBM 1015 and 1115, DELL Perc H310 and H200. They require some cross-flashing but that

is not so difficult and worth the effort. Check the bay, they usually go for 20-50€.

Of course you can also buy ready2go HBAs from LSI or Supermicro but I found they are quite expensive

in the EU.

 

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Hi Mika,

welcome to the forums!

 

While the MegaRAID SAS 9361-4i is a nice card to have for RAID purposes, for unRAID it is not

suitable. You could probably pass through each drive with some configuration effort, but in case of

trouble you won't be happy with it.

We have a couple of controllers confirmed working in our wiki.

 

At the moment, the most cost efficient adapters are the SAS2008 based, rebranded LSI cards

namely IBM 1015 and 1115, DELL Perc H310 and H200. They require some cross-flashing but that

is not so difficult and worth the effort. Check the bay, they usually go for 20-50€.

Of course you can also buy ready2go HBAs from LSI or Supermicro but I found they are quite expensive

in the EU.

Hi Fireball3,

Which would be easier to flash to IT for Unraid 6, between H310 vs M1015? I have a few old mobos that are all non-UEFI to carry out the flashing. Its going to be my first purchase of a SAS card to replace an old Syba PCIe 1x card.

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Hi Fireball3,

Which would be easier to flash to IT for Unraid 6, between H310 vs M1015? I have a few old mobos that are all non-UEFI to carry out the flashing. Its going to be my first purchase of a SAS card to replace an old Syba PCIe 1x card.

There is no significant difference.

The H310 procedure is derived from the M1015.

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Registered primarily to say thanks for the great work on the toolset.

But also to tell you that there is a problem with the toolset (specifically the H310 toolset):

 

The HP USB Boot Utility does not really work on Windows 10 64. It didn't want to format my 8GB USB stick and I did not stick around to troubleshoot.

Fellow crossflashers: don't use it, but RUFUS with FreeDOS.

 

The toolset will work with FreeDOS, if you

- Create FreeDOS USB stick with RUFUS

- download Freedos FLOPPY (http://www.freedos.org/download/download/FD12FLOPPY.zip)

- Extract and go to FLOPPY\FDSETUP\BIN, copy himemx.exe to the USB stick

- Edit config.sys on the USB stick, add DEVICE=himemx.exe

 

Successfully crossdressed, err, croshlashed my H310 today. ;-)

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