Should I flash a recently acquired LSI SAS 9211-8I? (SOLVED)

[Ruthalas]

Per recommendations and the hardware chart on the wiki, I have purchased a LSI SAS 9211-8I expansion card.

 

Is this one of the devices that ought to be flashed to the 'IT' version for best use?

There seems to be conflicting information on whether or not flashing it is the best approach.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Ruthalas
Added solved tag to title

[sentein]

I recently flashed this same card to IT with the latest Firmware which i believe is up to 20. Thus far i have not had any issue with it. I am currently running 6.4.0 on that particular server. I have been unable to update it past 6.4.0 due to some PFsense networking issues i have not been able to rectify just yet.

[TUMS]

If in doubt you can always install the card. Boot up unraid and look in the logs.  If it says IR mode it still needs to be flashed.

[Ruthalas]

Thanks for the information!

 

What are the downsides to running in IR mode? I assume it lacks some feature-set or capability?

[Ambrotos]

I have several 9211-based LSI cards (some Dell Perc H310s, and some IBM m1015). I've used them with every (stable/released) version since the v5 days and haven't had any problems. I've also used a few of these cards prior to getting into unRAID, when I was using more of a JBOD-based solution and the SAS controllers were operating in IR-mode.

 

Based on my experience:

• If you receive the SAS controller and it's currently in IT mode, I wouldn't bother flashing it, even if it isn't the latest and greatest v20.00.07. The only real change I notice after update an older P19 IT firmware to a newer one is that the boot ROM says "Avago" on boot instead of "LSI"
• If you receive the controller and it's currently in IR mode, then I would definitely recommend flashing it to the latest IT firmware.

I'm not sure that you'll see significantly better/worse performance in terms of MB/s read/write rates, but a controller in IT mode which just acts as a simple HBA is way more convenient to manage than having to expose each drive as a single-disk raid-0 via the card's bios configuration utility or via megacli. IT mode just strips out all of the RAID functionality and turns the card into a simple HBA controller. And since you're using unRAID for your redundancy, presumably 90% of the time you're not looking for hardware RAID functionality anyway.

 

By the way, just as a side note, you didn't mention which 9211-based card you bought, but if you got a Dell H310 and you're planning to install it into a desktop-class motherboard's PCI-E x16 port, you may need to apply the pin B5/B6 "tape mod" in order to get the system to boot properly.

[Ruthalas]

Quote

"IT mode just strips out all of the RAID functionality and turns the card into a simple HBA controller."

Ah! This is what I was missing. Thank you.

 

Quote

"By the way, just as a side note, you didn't mention which 9211-based card you bought, but if you got a Dell H310 and you're planning to install it into a desktop-class motherboard's PCI-E x16 port, you may need to apply the pin B5/B6 "tape mod" in order to get the system to boot properly."

I purchased this card. 

The only identifying information in the listing appear to be these:

ASIN: B002RL8I7M
Item model number: LSI00194
LSI UPC: 830343006717

 

I plan on putting it in a HP Proliant DL380G5 though, so I shouldn't need to cover pins I guess?

Edited March 14, 2018 by Ruthalas
Added quote blocks

[JorgeB]

10 minutes ago, Ambrotos said:

If you receive the SAS controller and it's currently in IT mode, I wouldn't bother flashing it

Just check it's not using p20.00.00 or p20.00.04 as those have issues, especially p20.00.00.

[Ambrotos]

 

3 minutes ago, Ruthalas said:

plan on putting it in a HP Proliant DL380G5 though, so I shouldn't need to cover pins I guess?

 

I believe the issue I was referring to is particular to the Dell H310s, so you should be OK.

 

 

[Ruthalas]

31 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Just check it's not using p20.00.00 or p20.00.04 as those have issues, especially p20.00.00.

Is the version number denoted during boot?

Or would I have to track it down via another method?

 

30 minutes ago, Ambrotos said:

I believe the issue I was referring to is particular to the Dell H310s, so you should be OK.

Excellent. Thank you!

[JorgeB]

Just now, Ruthalas said:

Is the version number denoted during boot?

Yes, if the bios is present.

 

1 minute ago, Ruthalas said:

Or would I have to track it down via another method?

It will be on the syslog, e.g.:

 

Mar 11 10:40:59 Tower6 kernel: mpt2sas_cm0: LSISAS2308: FWVersion(20.00.07.00), ChipRevision(0x05), BiosVersion(07.39.02.00)

 

[anhloc]

I would flash it to IT mode.

I had a 9211-8i in my old guts server (Asus B75-M/CSM and Core i3-3220) running IT mode FW 19. When I upgraded to my current server (Asus Prime Z370-A and Core i3-8100,) for some reason, the system took like 6 minutes to boot, compared to a couple on the old system. I finally worked the courage to flash the newer FW20 version, and remove the BIOS, which shaved a huge amount of time off boot. And everything is hunky dory again on my server.

So yes. Flash it to IT mode, version 20 is the newest one, and remove the BIOS from the card, as it isn't needed. And yes, I know you probably won't reboot your server that often, but why spend that time when you don't need to.

[Ruthalas]

Thanks all!

 

I will be back if I have questions about the flashing process.

[Ruthalas]

Hello folks!

 

I am looking for the appropriate firmware for this card.
On this broadcom page I have selected 'Storage adapters', and 'All storage adapters', but there is no product name that matches my device.

There is '9210...' and '9217...' but not '9211'.

Is this the correct location to be looking for an updated firmware package?

 

I am currently following this guide.

 

EDIT:

That guide provides a direct link to the firmware for the 9211 model.

It is the following version:
Version no: 20.00.07.00

Release date: 11-FEB-16

I am proceeding with that, as it is what Ambrotos said is the 'latest and greatest'!

Edited March 16, 2018 by Ruthalas
Adding further information

[Ruthalas]

Successfully flashed!

Thank you all for your help.

[KR1SeS]

On 3/15/2018 at 8:35 PM, Ruthalas said:

Hello folks!

 

I am looking for the appropriate firmware for this card.
On this broadcom page I have selected 'Storage adapters', and 'All storage adapters', but there is no product name that matches my device.

There is '9210...' and '9217...' but not '9211'.

Is this the correct location to be looking for an updated firmware package?

 

I am currently following this guide.

 

EDIT:

That guide provides a direct link to the firmware for the 9211 model.

It is the following version:
Version no: 20.00.07.00

Release date: 11-FEB-16

I am proceeding with that, as it is what Ambrotos said is the 'latest and greatest'!

I believe in this guide the BIOS remains?

 

Would we drop the -b mptsas2.rom from: sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom? Or would we perform an additional command after this one?

 

Edit: Maybe I should not have resurrected an old thread, sorry! I'll start a new thread.

Edited September 27, 2018 by KR1SeS