LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

[tkenn1s]

On 8/21/2013 at 5:59 AM, Fireball3 said:

After successfully bricking the Fujitsu D2607 by downflashing it 

I'm proud to be able to contribute to this thread and hereby report:

 

LSI MegaRAID with SAS2008 chipsets

 

3) DELL Perc H310 as well as H200 Flashed successfully to LSI9211-8i IT (P20)

 

Update on 17.04.2017, v4 <--- this is the latest, use this one!

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Corrections for EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

 

Thanks for the instructions on flashing the H310. Worked like a champ. However, there was one small glitch. At least for me, the changes to config.sys in the toolset prevented MegaRec from working [I got a "not enough extended memory" error when running it]. I went back to the stock  rufus config.sys and MegaRec worked perfectly.

 

 

 

 

[tkenn1s]

On 9/8/2015 at 4:40 PM, Maglin said:

 

Been a little while so I'm going to try and outline this a little clearer.  You only need to download one more file to make this all work using the EFI shell for steps 5-7.  So I downloaded "Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19.zip" and "EFI_Installer_P5.zip" from here.

 

For steps 1-4 you can use MegaRec on every PC I've tried it on and so I used the .bat files from the toolset to accomplish those.  I also put all these files on a bootable DOS USBstick.  Unzip the toolset into it's own folder and the SAS2FLASH zip into it's own folder.  Copy the P5_sas2flash.efi from the P5 folder and paste it into the folder:

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P7

And copy the P16_sas2flash.efi to folders:

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_DELL_IT

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P16

 

Reboot into dos that is on your USB stick. Navigate to \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI using "cd" command.  Also to view contents you can use "dir /w" to see what you need to type.

 

1. Run 1.bat

2. Run 2.bat

3. Run 3.bat

4. Reboot

5. Boot into EFI shell.  type "FSx" [enter] x= the drive letter of your USB drive.  For me it was FS0.  Now you can use "ls" to list the contents of your usb stick and "cd" to change directory.  Also once you type about 3 characters you can auto fill with [Tab] which makes things like navigating long directory names easier.  Go to the \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_DELL_IT folder. Now run the following command:

P16_sas2flash -o -f 6gbpsas.fw

  "I used a X10SLL which has the EFI shell in the BIOS image.  If you don't you should be able to use EFI shell v1.  I've added them to the zip I'm uploaded just in case.  You have to use google on how to use EFI shell on a puter that requires the EFI files to be on the root of the drive."

6. reboot back into EFI shell and go to the folder \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P7 and run the following command:

P5_sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin

You will be asked to confirm the flash and just choose Yes and it will flash from the dell IR FW to the LSI IT FW.

7. Now reboot again into EFI shell and go to \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P16 and run the following command:

P16_sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom (you can omit the "-b mptsas2.rom" if you don't want the boot BIOS.  I recommend you install the BIOS as you can see your drives at boot to ensure your card is working properly)

8. Now enter: P16_sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx where "500605bxxxxxxxxx" is the SAS address that you got in step 1.

9. Enjoy your new flashed LSI 2008 card.

 

I've done this exact process on 3 different cards now.  Even the M1015 just without installing the 6gbpsas.fw first.  I'm not using UnRaid as I like FreeNAS and it is currently on P16 firmware so that is why I stopped there.  If you want to install P19 then go to the LSI site that I linked above and download the Installer_P19_for_UEFI and use that sas2flash.efi file to flash the P19 FW.  You don't want to use the wrong installer for your FW as it can do some strange things.  I only used the P5 installer to be able to  accept the cross flashing of IT FW over IR firmware.

 

I uploaded to my dropbox.

P5_sas2flash.zip

 

 

Thanks for the write up Maglin. Followed your instructions and everything flashed perfectly on two Perc H310's . Was back up-and-running in only a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

[Fireball3]

On Samstag, 9. Dezember 2017 at 8:02 PM, tkenn1s said:

Thanks for the instructions on flashing the H310. Worked like a champ. However, there was one small glitch. At least for me, the changes to config.sys in the toolset prevented MegaRec from working [I got a "not enough extended memory" error when running it]. I went back to the stock  rufus config.sys and MegaRec worked perfectly.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

Can you post the content of the your (stock) config.sys?

v4 config.sys looks like this

DEVICE=c:\fdos\himemx.exe
DOS=HIGH,UMB
BUFFERS=25

I wonder what rufus does to get more xms.

[stinger303]

Hello,

I just purchased a Dell SAS 9217-8i GTP9G PCI Express x8 6Gbps 8-port SAS/SATA RAID Card.

Can anyone point to the correct firmware I need to flash this into IT Mode.

I've tried to read up on it and I'm still not sure what firmware I need.

The help is always appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

[tazire]

Im in the middle of trying to flash my 9240-8i at present and i am having a nightmare trying to get into the efi shell.... its literally impossible....

 

using an old enough motherboard i guess.... ASUS z87-k. No matter what i do it will tell me i cant load into the efi shell due to secure boot issues... I have this turned off but still get the issue. 

 

I also have a gigabyte H97 board but I dont see the efi shell option anywhere. I have tried a few different versions of efi shell to try get it to work and nothing... 

 

Anyone got through this or know of another way to flash??

[Fireball3]

Do you have your boot stick prepared with EFI files?
Usually on the last BIOS page (the save and exit page) you can select to override boot. There you can select your boot stick in EFI mode.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Fireball3

[tazire]

This could be my issue but I set up my usb drive as a boot device using rufus. I have shellx64.efi then placed on the drive. It doesnt seem to appear in the override boot section on the gigabyte modo. 

 

On the asus one I just cant get past the secure boot at all... I have it set to other os and states the secure boot is disabled but i still get the secure boot issue. 

 

You could be right that I havent got the usb set up right. But on the other hand I have been able to boot into the freedos thats loaded onto it. and i can see all the files using the dir command etc... 

[Fireball3]

Is your BIOS up-to-date?

Edited December 17, 2017 by Fireball3

[tazire]

21 minutes ago, Fireball3 said:

49 minutes ago, tazire said:

This could be my issue but I set up my usb drive as a boot device using rufus. I have shellx64.efi then placed on the drive. It doesnt seem to appear in the override boot section on the gigabyte modo. 
 
On the asus one I just cant get past the secure boot at all... I have it set to other os and states the secure boot is disabled but i still get the secure boot issue. 
 
You could be right that I havent got the usb set up right. But on the other hand I have been able to boot into the freedos thats loaded onto it. and i can see all the files using the dir command etc... 

Is your BIOS up-to-date?

 

It 100% is on the z87-k I even updated it after trying to load into the shell a few times. but its an old board and the latest bios is still old... 

 

The gigabyte board though doesnt appear to have a boot to efi shell on it. but it does have an override boot as you suggested earlier but i havent ever seen it populated. Its a cheap enough board... h97m-d3h or something i think. I havent updated that bios yet. not that it makes an awful lot of difference for the flash but the gigabyte board is the mobo on my server. 

 

I may just make the usb again... keep it as simple as i can with no other files other than the efi shell until i actually manage to get into the efi... I have followed a number of different how to's on this at this stage though.

[Fireball3]

The H97 should be UEFI, but I cant check right now. The toolset used for the Dell H310 has the necessary files for an EFI boot. Cant post a link as I'm on my mobile only.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Fireball3

[tazire]

6 hours ago, Fireball3 said:

13 hours ago, tazire said:

 
It 100% is on the z87-k I even updated it after trying to load into the shell a few times. but its an old board and the latest bios is still old... 
 
The gigabyte board though doesnt appear to have a boot to efi shell on it. but it does have an override boot as you suggested earlier but i havent ever seen it populated. Its a cheap enough board... h97m-d3h or something i think. I havent updated that bios yet. not that it makes an awful lot of difference for the flash but the gigabyte board is the mobo on my server. 
 
I may just make the usb again... keep it as simple as i can with no other files other than the efi shell until i actually manage to get into the efi... I have followed a number of different how to's on this at this stage though.

The H97 should be UEFI, but I cant check right now. The toolset used for the Dell H310 has the necessary files for an EFI boot. Cant post a link as I'm on my mobile only.

 

Thanks very much for this. The toolset had everything i needed. I didnt do it exactly as the read me said as I already had certain parts of the process completed in dos but its all up and running again.

 

Just one last question... and i think i already know the answer to this one... I have an intel sas expander card.... it connects to a full pci e slot from what i can see... but im told this is just for power draw.. not a hope of this ever working in a pci slot im guessing??? Im fairly sure im gonna need a new mobo to accommodate it. 

[Fireball3]

1 hour ago, tazire said:

Just one last question... and i think i already know the answer to this one... I have an intel sas expander card.... it connects to a full pci e slot from what i can see... but im told this is just for power draw.. not a hope of this ever working in a pci slot im guessing??? Im fairly sure im gonna need a new mobo to accommodate it. 

Not sure if I fully understand your problem.

The expander needs the PCIe slot for power. It won't work standalone - that's right.

But you can connect it to your newly flashed HBA.

I've seen a pic around here of an expander not plugged into the PCIe slot.

Possibly powered by another source. Check the manual for details maybe.

 

Edit:

I found the pic.

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by Fireball3

[tazire]

2 hours ago, Fireball3 said:

Not sure if I fully understand your problem.

The expander needs the PCIe slot for power. It won't work standalone - that's right.

But you can connect it to your newly flashed HBA.

I've seen a pic around here of an expander not plugged into the PCIe slot.

Possibly powered by another source. Check the manual for details maybe.

 

Edit:

I found the pic.

 

 

Thats exactly what I have. I didnt realise this card didnt need to be connected what so ever. I had read that it needed to be connected for power reasons! obviously not. Thats spot on. Ill get on connecting this up tomorrow now. 

 

Thanks again.

[Fireball3]

On Samstag, 16. Dezember 2017 at 5:53 AM, stinger303 said:

I just purchased a Dell SAS 9217-8i GTP9G PCI Express x8 6Gbps 8-port SAS/SATA RAID Card.

Can anyone point to the correct firmware I need to flash this into IT Mode.

I've tried to read up on it and I'm still not sure what firmware I need.

Hi @stinger303,

did you solve your issue?

Is your card in RAID mode?

The Dell website is a pain to search for, but on the Broadcom (LSI) site you can find the card.

https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9217-8i#downloads

 

You can give that a try, although I'm not sure if there is a vendor check that could stop you from flashing.

I will compare the content of that file, because it seems like the same firmware as used for the H200/H310 cards.

If that's the case, chances are good that you can do it with the tools we have already.

 

Edit:

Looks like the files are not identical. A crossflash with the 9211 IT firmware is risky!

The card uses another chip, so it is highly possible to brick it when trying the old firmware.

Unfortunately, I'm also not able to find a Dell taylored firmware for IT mode.

The most reasonable step would be to open a ticket with the Dell support and try to get the IT firmware

for the card or at least a confirmation that there is none.

But before doing so, give the LSI firmware a chance. Maybe there is no vendor check!?

Edited December 18, 2017 by Fireball3

[nthu9280]

Hi [mention=55630]stinger303[/mention],
did you solve your issue?
Is your card in RAID mode?
The Dell website is a pain to search for, but on the Broadcom (LSI) site you can find the card.
https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9217-8i#downloads
 
You can give that a try, although I'm not sure if there is a vendor check that could stop you from flashing.
I will compare the content of that file, because it seems like the same firmware as used for the H200/H310 cards.
If that's the case, chances are good that you can do it with the tools we have already.
 
Edit:
Looks like the files are not identical. A crossflash with the 9211 IT firmware is risky!
The card uses another chip, so it is highly possible to brick it when trying the old firmware.
Unfortunately, I'm also not able to find a Dell taylored firmware for IT mode.
The most reasonable step would be to open a ticket with the Dell support and try to get the IT firmware
for the card or at least a confirmation that there is none.
But before doing so, give the LSI firmware a chance. Maybe there is no vendor check!?

It's based on sas2308 chip. IIRC, 9217 is OEM version of 9207 and that firmware should work if Broadcom doesn't have stock FW updates for 9217. But like you said I also don't know if Dell has any customizations to prevent cross flashing

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[stinger303]

It's based on sas2308 chip. IIRC, 9217 is OEM version of 9207 and that firmware should work if Broadcom doesn't have stock FW updates for 9217. But like you said I also don't know if Dell has any customizations to prevent cross flashing

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply.

I'll email Dell to see if they have any stock firmware for the 9217 and or ask if flashing the 9207 FW will work with the 9217.

I'll update if and when I get an answer Dell.

Thanks

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

[stinger303]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll email Dell to see if they have any stock firmware for the 9217 and or ask if flashing the 9207 FW will work with the 9217.

I'll update if and when I get an answer Dell.

Thanks

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

Well I never got a response from Dell so I went ahead and used the steps from
https://digitalcardboard.com/blog/2014/07/09/flashing-it-firmware-to-the-lsi-sas-9211-8i-hba-2014-efi-recipe/

I went ahead and used the 9207-8i IT firmware that Fireball3 posted and it looks like it worked. I didn't get any errors.

After I flashed everything it's still showing it a 9217-8i but it's in IT Mode and not IR mode.

I still need to put it in my server to verify everything boots up and works, which I'll do shortly but it's looking promising.

Just want to give a big thanks to everyone in these forums for all the help you give everyone.

Thanks
Chris

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk

[JMX247]

Im using a HP Z800 with an integrated LSI SAS1068E, Im trying to setup the z800 to connect to an HP LTO7 tape drive using the SAS ports from the motherboard and need to know if the LSI 1068E needs to be flashed and placed into IT mode for it to see the LTO7 tape drive or do I keep it in IR mode and update the firmware for the 1068E to see the tape drive.

[sreknob]

Just came to say a big thanks to @Fireball3 and the community!

Just flashed two H310s and the scripts made it super ridiculously easy.

I did have to cover pins B5-B6 to get the system to boot but everything went smoothly.

[TyantA]

On 8/21/2013 at 8:59 AM, Fireball3 said:

After successfully bricking the Fujitsu D2607 by downflashing it 

I'm proud to be able to contribute to this thread and hereby report:

 

LSI MegaRAID with SAS2008 chipsets

 

3) DELL Perc H310 as well as H200 Flashed successfully to LSI9211-8i IT (P20)

 

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: YES (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

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

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

Update on 17.04.2017, v4 <--- this is the latest, use this one!

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Corrections for EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?py9c1w5u56xytw2

MD5: t.b.d.

 

 

HUGE thanks to @Fireball3 for this. Flashing my H200 couldn't have been easier. The only thing I noticed was that the step labels had V3 in the upper right while I'm pretty sure I grabbed the V4 version. Cosmetic detail  

[gert]

On 9/9/2015 at 1:40 AM, Maglin said:

 

Been a little while so I'm going to try and outline this a little clearer.  You only need to download one more file to make this all work using the EFI shell for steps 5-7.  So I downloaded "Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19.zip" and "EFI_Installer_P5.zip" from here.

 

For steps 1-4 you can use MegaRec on every PC I've tried it on and so I used the .bat files from the toolset to accomplish those.  I also put all these files on a bootable DOS USBstick.  Unzip the toolset into it's own folder and the SAS2FLASH zip into it's own folder.  Copy the P5_sas2flash.efi from the P5 folder and paste it into the folder:

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P7

And copy the P16_sas2flash.efi to folders:

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_DELL_IT

\Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P16

 

Reboot into dos that is on your USB stick. Navigate to \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI using "cd" command.  Also to view contents you can use "dir /w" to see what you need to type.

 

1. Run 1.bat

2. Run 2.bat

3. Run 3.bat

4. Reboot

5. Boot into EFI shell.  type "FSx" [enter] x= the drive letter of your USB drive.  For me it was FS0.  Now you can use "ls" to list the contents of your usb stick and "cd" to change directory.  Also once you type about 3 characters you can auto fill with [Tab] which makes things like navigating long directory names easier.  Go to the \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_DELL_IT folder. Now run the following command:

P16_sas2flash -o -f 6gbpsas.fw

  "I used a X10SLL which has the EFI shell in the BIOS image.  If you don't you should be able to use EFI shell v1.  I've added them to the zip I'm uploaded just in case.  You have to use google on how to use EFI shell on a puter that requires the EFI files to be on the root of the drive."

6. reboot back into EFI shell and go to the folder \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P7 and run the following command:

P5_sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin

You will be asked to confirm the flash and just choose Yes and it will flash from the dell IR FW to the LSI IT FW.

7. Now reboot again into EFI shell and go to \Toolset_PercH310 to LSI9211_P19\H310_to_LSI\5_LSI_P16 and run the following command:

P16_sas2flash -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom (you can omit the "-b mptsas2.rom" if you don't want the boot BIOS.  I recommend you install the BIOS as you can see your drives at boot to ensure your card is working properly)

8. Now enter: P16_sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx where "500605bxxxxxxxxx" is the SAS address that you got in step 1.

9. Enjoy your new flashed LSI 2008 card.

 

I've done this exact process on 3 different cards now.  Even the M1015 just without installing the 6gbpsas.fw first.  I'm not using UnRaid as I like FreeNAS and it is currently on P16 firmware so that is why I stopped there.  If you want to install P19 then go to the LSI site that I linked above and download the Installer_P19_for_UEFI and use that sas2flash.efi file to flash the P19 FW.  You don't want to use the wrong installer for your FW as it can do some strange things.  I only used the P5 installer to be able to  accept the cross flashing of IT FW over IR firmware.

 

I uploaded to my dropbox.

P5_sas2flash.zip

Thanks for this, just used this post as a reference but using the new modified package

 

Here is a modified version of the text you wrote that fit what i ended up doing

 

Use Rufus to create a Freedos USB drive (both supporting BIOS and UEFI, extract the content of H310H200.zip to it and boot into dos

 

1. Run 1.bat

2. Run 2.bat (Can be skipped, it resulted in errors and no backups for me)

3. Run 3.bat

4. Reboot

5. Boot into EFI shell.  type "FSx" [enter] x= the drive letter of your USB drive.  For me it was FS0.  Now you can use "ls" to list the contents of your usb stick and "cd" to change directory.  Also once you type about 3 characters you can auto fill with [Tab] which makes things like navigating long directory names easier.  Go to \5_DELL_IT folder. Now run the following command:

sas2flash.efi -o -f 6gbpsas.fw

 6. reboot back into EFI shell and go to the folder \5_LSI_P7 and run the following command:

sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin

You will be asked to confirm the flash and just choose Yes and it will flash from the dell IR FW to the LSI IT FW.

7. Now reboot again into EFI shell and go to \5_LSI_P20 and run the following command:

sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin

8. Now enter: sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx where "500605bxxxxxxxxx" is the SAS address that you got in step 1. (Look for the SAS address in ADAPTERS.TXT on the USB drive)

9. Enjoy your new flashed LSI 2008 card.

 

[SSD]

Hey - hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

 

I have an IBM M1015 controller that I crossflashed a very long time ago - when this tread was young. 

 

I have no idea what process i followed, but it worked.

 

When I boot the server says:

 

LSI Corporation MPT SAS2 BIOS

MPT2BIOS-7.19.00.00 (2011.05.16)

Copyright 2000-2011 LSI Corporation

 

It will sit there for at least 2-3 minutes - probably longer than that. Eventually it will boot and works fine. But I am setting up a new server and boots are common. I've lived with it for years, and one lengthy boot in a great while is not an issue, but I am doing several a day trying to resolve some issues and am going nuts. 

 

Is there an easy flash process that I could perform to update the firmware on this card and avoid the lengthy delay in the boot process?

 

Help greatly appreciated!

[JorgeB]

3 hours ago, SSD said:

Is there an easy flash process that I could perform to update the firmware on this card and avoid the lengthy delay in the boot process?

Do you need the bios? Removing the bios is the best way to get a quick boot, bios is only needed when you need to boot from an HBA attached device.

[SSD]

1 hour ago, johnnie.black said:

Do you need the bios? Removing the bios is the best way to get a quick boot, bios is only needed when you need to boot from an HBA attached device.

 

I deactivated the BIOS. It still sits there forever on boot.

[uldise]

5 hours ago, SSD said:

 

I deactivated the BIOS. It still sits there forever on boot.

i think, you need to reflash it without a bios..