LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

[Johnm]

Quick question guys, has anyone run a preclear on the m1015 in IT mode or did I miss a setting somewhere?

 

I just tried to run it on 4 different 3TB drives on two dif controllers on 5beta12a.

 

Pre-Clear unRAID Disk /dev/sdb
################################################################## 1.9

msmartctl may not be able to run on /dev/sdb with the -d ata option.
however this should not affect the clearing of a disk.
smartctl exit status = 2
smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Smartctl: Device Read Identity Failed (not an ATA/ATAPI device)

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.$
Do you wish to continue?
(Answer Yes to continue. Capital 'Y', lower case 'es'): 

 

I moved the drives to my MV8 and it started the preclears just fine. I have no problem with this.. assuming the m1015 is working correctly.

 

Keep in mind I have 2 M1015's and 1MV8 passed though to unraid in ESX. not that it "should" matter..

 

I just wanted to make sure I am on the correct path...

[Ford Prefect]

[...]

1) LSI SAS9211-8i

 

2) SuperMicro X8SI6-F with onboard SAS2008 controller

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS2008 chipset with the provided zip.

 

FW: 10.00.02.00 / BIOS: 7.19.00.00 / 15-JUN-11 (LSI P10)

Both IT/IR mode available.

 

LSI SAS2008 Controllers(P10).zip - 2.59 MB (Windows)

After you expand the zip file, please read the file "__ReadMeFirst.txt" before doing anything!

LSI SAS2008 Controllers(P10)Linux.zip - 3.43 MB (unRAID)

 

Linux Driver: MPT2SAS - supports the LSI SAS2004, SAS2008, SAS2108, SAS2116, SAS2208, and SAS2308 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: YES (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

*** Note: Multiple controllers all post under one MPT2SAS Bios, there are global setting that affect all controllers and individual settings per controller available ***

 

*** Note: If combined with any other MPT2SAS Controller/s (ex. (1) LSI SAS2116 and (1) LSI SAS2008 they post under one MPT2SAS BIOs ***

 

...a P11 Firmware&BIOS package is available from LSI since 8 weeks now, here: http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_6G_P11/9211_8i_Package_P11_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip

Any experience or insights from the experts around?

[cherub_I]

Ok, here is long-awaited, short HOW-TO... reflash  IBM m1015, LSI 9240-8i, Intel RS2WC080 (SAS2008 SATAIII) controllers to IT-mode!!!

 

...

 

HELP!   

 

----

EDIT

>> SOLVED

I tried from a different motherboard and everything went fine with that one. I still find it weird that on the first motherboard flashing did not fail entirely but went up to 70% and failed then.

----

 

I just bought a brand new M1015 and tried flashing it according to the instructions and I am stuck :-(((

 

1. Megarec -readsbr 0 backup.sbr >> OK, no errors

2. megarec -writesbr 0 empty.bin >> OK, no errors

3. megarec -cleanflash 0

>> starts erasing, then stops at 70%:

 Completed: 70% Flash Erase Error

Flash Chip Erasing Error

Error in downloading image.
Error code = 64
Failed to flash the image. Please retry recovery.

 

4. Power cycle your system (yes, no boot-time bios screen appear, this is normal)

>> I did this in spite of the error and at boot I get something that looks promising to me:

RAID Adapter
Firmware Failed Validation!!!
Adapter needs to be reflashed.
Press Any Key to Continue

 

5. sas2flsh -o -f 2108it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

Now this doesn't work at all :-(.

I initially tried with the P11 version from the LSI site (latest FW) but the FW included in the origional archive gives me the exact same problem.

Btw: when using the latest FW, I only need to take the updated FW-file, not also the Bootrom-file, right?

...
Advaced Mode Set
Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)
Executing Operation: Flash Firmware Image
  Firmware Image has a Valid Checksum.
  Firmware Image compatible with Controller.
  Valid NVDATA Image found.
  NVDATA Device ID and Chip Revision match verified.
  Valid Initialization Image verified.
  Valid BootLoader Image verified.
  Chip is in RESET state. Attempting Host Boot...

takes about a minute here, then goes on:

  ERROR: Firmware Host Boot Failed !
Due to errir remaining commands will not be executed.
Unable to Process Commands.
Exiting SAS2Flash

 

 

I didn't try to flash back to the original firmware, as this is not the direction I want to take. Also I don't know whether I want to find out just now that I might have bricked a brandnew controller :-(

 

I really hope someone can help me out! I have also added this to an existing thread about my hardware-setup over at hardforums (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037942388).

I postet here too because I am anxious to find out what to do now.

 

 

EDIT

I noticed my card is reported to be a "B2" model - SAS2008(B2) - is this of any meaning?

And btw. I used the sas2flsh.exe from the original package which is v9 - I could give v11 a try but not now - it's too late here.

 

And @madbug: thanks anyway for the good howto and your instructions! I believe whatever is going wrong with my card is nothing that could have been foreseen - I haven't found any mentions of the errors I get with Google.

[nia]

Just tried to do the reflash using kkm's method. Step 1-4 went fine on Supermicro X9SCM-F.

 

At step 5 (the actual reflash), I got the dreaded PAL error on the following two systems:

 

Supermicro X9SCM-F

AsRock P45R2000

 

My A8N-SLI Premium unfortunately does not even power the card at all. LED stays off and flash util does not detect card.

 

So I'm out of systems with PCI-E, and out of luck...  :'(

[Zeron]

[...]

1) LSI SAS9211-8i

 

2) SuperMicro X8SI6-F with onboard SAS2008 controller

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS2008 chipset with the provided zip.

 

FW: 10.00.02.00 / BIOS: 7.19.00.00 / 15-JUN-11 (LSI P10)

Both IT/IR mode available.

 

LSI SAS2008 Controllers(P10).zip - 2.59 MB (Windows)

After you expand the zip file, please read the file "__ReadMeFirst.txt" before doing anything!

LSI SAS2008 Controllers(P10)Linux.zip - 3.43 MB (unRAID)

 

Linux Driver: MPT2SAS - supports the LSI SAS2004, SAS2008, SAS2108, SAS2116, SAS2208, and SAS2308 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: YES (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

*** Note: Multiple controllers all post under one MPT2SAS Bios, there are global setting that affect all controllers and individual settings per controller available ***

 

*** Note: If combined with any other MPT2SAS Controller/s (ex. (1) LSI SAS2116 and (1) LSI SAS2008 they post under one MPT2SAS BIOs ***

 

...a P11 Firmware&BIOS package is available from LSI since 8 weeks now, here: http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_6G_P11/9211_8i_Package_P11_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip

Any experience or insights from the experts around?

 

I updated my IBM M1015 to P11 and have been running a preclear on a WD20EARX under Beta-6a.  

 

On the previous firmware I would get the following errors:

sd 0:0:8:0: attempting task abort! scmd(ffff8802ede2fc80)
sd 0:0:8:0: [sdg] CDB: cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 2c 05 cf 90 00 00 30 00
scsi target0:0:8: handle(0x000f), sas_address(0x4433221103000000), phy(3)
scsi target0:0:8: enclosure_logical_id(0x500605b001d0ab00), slot(3)

 

12 hours in and have not seen one yet.

 

Beta-12a segfaulted on boot with P11, but I never did try beta-12a with the previous firmware version.

 

I put together this file for upgrading for a DOS boot:

http://unraid.zeron.ca/other/upgrade-M1015-P11.zip

[Johnm]

I just reflashed 2x M1015's

I flashed both with madburg's bat files and upgraded one to P11 with zeron's bat

 

I used an Asus AT3ION-I HTPC motherboard i had laying around.

 

smooth as silk.

[PeterB]

I updated my IBM M1015 to P11 and have been running a preclear on a WD20EARX under Beta-6a.  

 

On the previous firmware I would get the following errors:

sd 0:0:8:0: attempting task abort! scmd(ffff8802ede2fc80)
sd 0:0:8:0: [sdg] CDB: cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 2c 05 cf 90 00 00 30 00
scsi target0:0:8: handle(0x000f), sas_address(0x4433221103000000), phy(3)
scsi target0:0:8: enclosure_logical_id(0x500605b001d0ab00), slot(3)

 

... and I thought that I was the only person experiencing those errors!

 

My Supermicro AOC-USAS2-8Li started exhibiting the same problems when I added the iStarUSA cages into my build - parity checks would fail (although rebuilds were okay) with this error, and preclears would fail within seconds of being started.

 

12 hours in and have not seen one yet.

 

I have just updated to the Phase 11 firmware, and first a single, then two simultaneous, preclears appear to be running without a problem.

 

Beta-12a segfaulted on boot with P11, but I never did try beta-12a with the previous firmware version.

 

I never had any segfault problems with 12a, but reverted back to beta 11 because of nfs errors in 12.

[PeterB]

I have just updated to the Phase 11 firmware, and first a single, then two simultaneous, preclears appear to be running without a problem.

 

Hmmm ... it appears that I spoke too soon.  After 17 hours, when the second drive was on its Post-Read, I'm starting to get:

Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: attempting task abort! scmd(f5a8d540)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: [sdh] CDB: cdb[0]=0x85: 85 06 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 e5 00 (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: scsi target0:0:1: handle(0x000a), sas_address(0x4433221101000000), phy(1) (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: scsi target0:0:1: enclosure_logical_id(0x50030480041f4c00), slot(2) (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: task abort: SUCCESS scmd(f5a8d540)

 

Previously, I would see these messages within seconds of starting the Pre-clear.

 

However, this is on a suspect drive, with a transfer rate falling to less than 7MB/s.  I've already discussed this drive in the past.  SMART shows nothing untoward - the only symptoms I see are this dreadfully slow transfer rate at around 70-80% through the Pre-clear reads and, I guess, these strange error messages in the log.

 

To RMA the drive (a WD10EADS), I would have to send it internationally from Philippines to Singapore.

[madburg]

Quick question guys, has anyone run a preclear on the m1015 in IT mode or did I miss a setting somewhere?

 

I just tried to run it on 4 different 3TB drives on two dif controllers on 5beta12a.

 

Pre-Clear unRAID Disk /dev/sdb
################################################################## 1.9

msmartctl may not be able to run on /dev/sdb with the -d ata option.
however this should not affect the clearing of a disk.
smartctl exit status = 2
smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Smartctl: Device Read Identity Failed (not an ATA/ATAPI device)

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.$
Do you wish to continue?
(Answer Yes to continue. Capital 'Y', lower case 'es'): 

 

I moved the drives to my MV8 and it started the preclears just fine. I have no problem with this.. assuming the m1015 is working correctly.

 

Keep in mind I have 2 M1015's and 1MV8 passed though to unraid in ESX. not that it "should" matter..

 

I just wanted to make sure I am on the correct path...

 

Sorry guys, have been offline for sometime. Johnm, from your screenshot above you are on an old version of preclear, highly recommend you get the latest when dealing with 3tb drives.

 

Now someone made a comment P11 has been out 8 weeks. First off, the date LSI stamps is not the same as when they actually make it available. I heavily tested P10 on MANY controllers, I have not had a chance to read up on P11 to know if there are any benefit to us on unRAID or bug fixes that count, again because we are in IT mode. As soon as I get a moment I will look at P11 (thanks for the heads up, as I bitched to LSI why there is no mailing list I could join to get such announcements). #2, I see Tom cut out beta 13, does who rushed in paid a price, sure beta testers are always needed, but just shows newer is not always better.

 

I have not had issues with chipsets, but I always do this off two machines a SM board or a Dell pro workstation. Both are Intel, and the community has posted what boards it fails with (pal errors) so I would go by that, cant help there. I flash an enormous amount of cards for friends, etc. if you have the right board it's 1,2,3 and your done (not the steps, seconds   ). I preclear many drives (3tb included) P10 is solid.

 

Someone posted after a failed bios clear, they cant even get the card parsed via 1.bat, that card is gone...

Most of you are picking up used cards from unknown sources (I don't mean the seller, but we're the card came from and how it was handled, defects from the factory, etc). So a small number will be flat out damage cards, keep that in mind. PAL errors are not a sign of a damaged card.

 

I personally am running my cards currently on P10 virtualized unRaid beta 12a at this time. Food for thought, when Tom posts a new beta, I now wait for speeding_ant to bless SF is good or needs updating  and Z publishes the latest VMTools  

 

Not to happy these days with how the stability is unfolding, but we'll see what happens. I cross my fingers as this is an excellent concept for lower tier storage. And has the most amazing, cool and talented forum members. But I'm not selling my enterprise HP server/arrays anytime soon.

[madburg]

I have just updated to the Phase 11 firmware, and first a single, then two simultaneous, preclears appear to be running without a problem.

 

Hmmm ... it appears that I spoke too soon.  After 17 hours, when the second drive was on its Post-Read, I'm starting to get:

Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: attempting task abort! scmd(f5a8d540)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: [sdh] CDB: cdb[0]=0x85: 85 06 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 e5 00 (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: scsi target0:0:1: handle(0x000a), sas_address(0x4433221101000000), phy(1) (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: scsi target0:0:1: enclosure_logical_id(0x50030480041f4c00), slot(2) (Drive related)
Oct 30 10:09:21 Tower kernel: sd 0:0:1:0: task abort: SUCCESS scmd(f5a8d540)

 

Previously, I would see these messages within seconds of starting the Pre-clear.

 

However, this is on a suspect drive, with a transfer rate falling to less than 7MB/s.  I've already discussed this drive in the past.  SMART shows nothing untoward - the only symptoms I see are this dreadfully slow transfer rate at around 70-80% through the Pre-clear reads and, I guess, these strange error messages in the log.

 

To RMA the drive (a WD10EADS), I would have to send it internationally from Philippines to Singapore.

 

What version of unRAID were you running and preclear version against this drive at time of failure?

[dave_m]

Successfully flashed a Br10i with the provided batch files.  I had the same issues running it from unraid as sacretagent did here, but the dos option worked.  Now to test it out running one of the 5.0 betas, 12a looks like the better option as 13 seems to have problems with the LSI controllers.

 

 

Edit: Running sasflash -listall from a different linux distribution (system rescue cd) did work though.

[PeterB]

I preclear many drives (3tb included) P10 is solid.

 

With respect, just because you don't experience a problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.  My Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8i was solid on P10 ... until I added iStarUSA 5in3 cages.

 

When the USAS2 was connected directly to the drives everything was fine.  When the USAS2 was connected to drives installed in the cages, preclear would start logging messages within seconds.

 

There is no problem with drives in cages connected to motherboard ports.

 

P11 firmware appears to have fixed the problem with the USAS2/iStarUSA combination.

[savestheday]

Johnm,

Did P11 help you with your B13 issues?

[nia]

I did eventually succeed with flashing, and it was with P11. As can be seen in the beta13 thread, there are issues with spindown and this controller - also with P11. Allegedly it is related to the kernel...  

[Johnm]

Johnm,

Did P11 help you with your B13 issues?

 

No, but i did have some drives on each controller. the P11 drives redballed AFTER i downgraded. (but still froze up)

 

I did eventually succeed with flashing, and it was with P11. As can be seen in the beta13 thread, there are issues with spindown and this controller - also with P11. Allegedly it is related to the kernel... 

True, but some Bios versions might not be effected by kernel bugs.

 

 

 

of course other LSI users could verify the issue. i just don't think you want to put your production box on the line just yet.

LSI users are still a pretty small percentage of unraid users. it is only recently that there has been a real rush of USAS, m1015 and BR10i users.

 

On the bright side, it looks like the MV8 issues might be fixed.. (I still have those for backup.)

 

[dave_m]

As far as the "Failed to initialize PAL" errors go, it may be worth trying both the dos and linux versions on the same motherboard.  I was able to flash yesterday with the dos (1.28) version, but today it gave me a "Failed to initialize PAL" error, while the linux version (1.24) still worked.

[madburg]

As far as the "Failed to initialize PAL" errors go, it may be worth trying both the dos and linux versions on the same motherboard.

 

+1

[madburg]

I did eventually succeed with flashing, and it was with P11. As can be seen in the beta13 thread, there are issues with spindown and this controller - also with P11. Allegedly it is related to the kernel...  

 

Sorry, but no idea what exact card you are referring to. If you can post that info it would be helpful. Thanks.

[madburg]

True, but some Bios versions might not be effected by kernel bugs. I just don't think you want to put your production box on the line just yet.

 

+1 I am still testing till this day, not that I have had anytime in at least a month but starting back again.

 

I will read up on the P11 FW and see if anything has changed, and look up on the 3081-R (BR10i's) as well and will share my thoughts. If its worth it I will post secondary downloads keeping the P10 up as well.

 

To add as an example I run a 9211-8i and SAS9201-16i on one board and the 9211 was up to P10 while there was nothing avaible for the 9211 (just what came RTM FW) this was NOT a good match. Then LSI posted P11 for most of the 9200 series and that was night and day for the combination to be on the same FW.

 

PeterB, glad to hear that P11 resolved your issue with that backplane. I am telling anyone to stay clear of P11 just not enought testing has been conducted with it nor a qoute "look they said it fixes x, y, z", so at the moment personally P10 is a safer bet, again I have not even read the release notes/change log yet.

 

[madburg]

Plenty of reading, see attachments.

Looks like plenty, for bios dual card fix, for firmware SATA fixes.

FW is smaller in size, interesting... but Bios is larger.

 

It wont be tonight but I am going to get this done for all soon.

 

Yeap, there is a P21 for the 3081E cards (br10's) not much there it seems (few fix's nothing about 3TB support), but they did consolidate to 1 FW to support 1.5G/s, 3G/s & 6G/s SATA HDD (were before it was 2 FW's). So thats nice add as well.

BIOS_Release_Notes_P11.txt

Firmware_Release_Notes_P11.txt

[PeterB]

PeterB, glad to hear that P11 resolved your issue with that backplane. I am telling anyone to stay clear of P11 just not enought testing has been conducted with it nor a qoute "look they said it fixes x, y, z", so at the moment personally P10 is a safer bet, again I have not even read the release notes/change log yet.

 

 

Zeron is also reporting that P11 has resolved the same issue for him.  I'm guessing that he also uses a drive cage (almost certainly not the same model as I use, since I believe that I am the first to use it with unRAID).  I'm still not sure whether drive cages are simply a wire extension to the sata cable, or whether the cage includes intelligence which intercepts and modifies the SCSI messages.

 

My original belief was that addition of the cages alters the signal timings in some subtle way and that it was this timing difference which provoked the errors.

[nia]

I did eventually succeed with flashing, and it was with P11. As can be seen in the beta13 thread, there are issues with spindown and this controller - also with P11. Allegedly it is related to the kernel...  

 

Sorry, but no idea what exact card you are referring to. If you can post that info it would be helpful. Thanks.

Sorry - I realised the actual card model is only mentioned in my Pleiades build not in my reflash post above  

 

Card to be flashed:

IBM M1015

 

Method:

DOS boot disk. P11 firmware. Zerons batch file.

 

Successful on:

HP Workstation XW9300 - chipset nForce Professional

 

PAL error on:

Supermicro X9SCM-F

AsRock P45R2000

 

Not recognised on (did not do a huge investigation here, maybe it can be under certain conditions):

A8N-SLI Premium

[smux]

As far as the "Failed to initialize PAL" errors go, it may be worth trying both the dos and linux versions on the same motherboard.  I was able to flash yesterday with the dos (1.28) version, but today it gave me a "Failed to initialize PAL" error, while the linux version (1.24) still worked.

 

Hi waskooo,

 

i'm facing the PAL Error on my new Intel DQ67SQB3 under dos. Can u pls explain me how to flash (Step 5t) under Linux? Which distro did u use?

 

Can someone recommend an alternate to the Intel DQ67SQB3 where the flash process will work?

 

thx a lot

[PeterB]

Can u pls explain me how to flash (Step 5t) under Linux? Which distro did u use?

 

Errr ... you can do it with the unRAID slackware distribution.

 

Simply cd to a directory where you have placed the files (on your flash drive?) and use a command similar to:

  sas2flash11 -o -f 2118it-11.bin -b mptsas2-11.rom

 

Note that I make a habit of changing all the file names so that I know which release they belong to.  You may find it necessary to use an older version of sas2flash, depending on which card you have, and what firmware is currently loaded.

[smux]

Thx for the advice. I will try this in the evening.

 

Card to be flashed: IBM M1015 (without firmware, after step 3;).