Difference between HP H220 card models?


craigr

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There are at least three different part numbers for the HP H220 SAS cards.  The ones I have found are:

 

SAS9205-8I

HP 638834-001 SAS9205-8i

HP 638834-001 660088-001

HPE 650933-B21 660088-001

 

Does anyone know what if anything is the difference between these cards?  Or is the software different and the hardware the same?

 

I'm thinking about upgrading to these.

 

Thanks,

craigr

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it turns out that there are at least two different versions of this board.  I have no idea how to tell them apart before hand when you purchase them used on eBay or wherever.  However, I found mention of two steppings online.  Stepping C0 uses is an LSI 9205-8i (2008 chipset).  This is still a great card, but less desirable because it's only PCIe 2.0.  Stepping D1 is an LSI 9207-8i (2308 chipset) and is the more desirable of the two because it is using PCIe 3.0.  Luckily it seems this version is far more prevalent.  Note that my boards have a sticker on them that says 9205-8i, but they are still 9207-8I boards.

 

So I was lucky and got the better 9207-8i boards.  There is a lot of information on the net about crossflashing these.  Some things that people said didn't work and others did.  Some say you can use sas2flash v20 and just do it in one line, while others say you must use sas2flash v14 and erase the entire board first and then reload from there.  

 

I went middle of the road.  I was able to do a partial erase (option six) with v20, but I could not write a new firmware with v20 because the vendor did not match.  This is what I did...

 

I obtained the UEFI versions of sas2flash.efi v20 and v14 along with the LSI IT firmware for the 2308 chipset directly from Broadcom's web page currently here:

 

https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i#downloads

 

I then downloaded and copied the UEFI  versions of sas2flash.efi v20 and v14 along with the IT ROM (2308T207.ROM version 20.00.07.00) onto a FAT32 formatted USB stick. Note, don't use the linux version of sas2flash as it does not support advanced functions; you must use DOS or UEFI versions. I powered down my unRAID server, removed the unRAID USB drive, disconnected all hard drives, and inserted the USB stick into a USB 2.0 port.  Next I powered the server up and set my motherboard bios to boot from its native UEFI boot shell.  I then did a option six erase of the boards with sas2flash.efi v20, but then found I could not write the 2308T207.ROM with v20 so I used v14.  I think you are better off just using v14 for everything as it does not check the vendor ID. 

 

If you are so inclined, you can read the sas2flash manual and see what the different erase "-e" options (numbers 1-8) mean.  Shortly put, "-e 6" is a "clean flash" and erases everything on the board except the manufacturing area.  "-e 7" completely erases the flash, but then you must also go back and rewrite the SAS Address, Board Assembly, and Board Traces Number (all of which are on stickers on the board) after you install the new firmware.  "-e 6" simply saves you the hassle of having to do extra work for no reason.

 

Below are the commented commands:

# List information about the controler card and verify that it's correct.  Your 
# board's chipset (stepping) will be listed here as well. 

sas2flash -list

# "-o" switches to advanced mode and "-e 6" commands level six erase.

sas2flash -o -e 6

# Do not reboot now or you may brick your card.

# Install the new firmware.  -f is the flash command.

sas2flash -o -f 2308T207.ROM

# Check that the new firmware is loaded.

sas2flash -list

# The firmware version should match the one you just installed and the 
# "NVDATA Product ID" should have changed from "Undefined" to "LSI2308-IT."

That's it.  You now have an 9207-8i for around $35 USD.

 

craigr

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  • 6 months later...

HI i bought a modell which was advertised as "HP H220 660088-001 LSI IT Mode 9205-8i PCIe 3.0 6G S SAS 2*SFF-8087 SATA".

As you stated, it could be a D1 Stepping with 2308 chipset.

So tried to repeat your steps and confirm the stepping with a sas2flash -list.

 

I couldnt find the P14 uefi installer on the br0adcom site. They are starting from P15 and above.

So i tried to flash the card while using DOS.

I made a freedos usb stick with rufus. Copied "Installer_P14_for_MSDOS_and_Windows\sas2flash_dos_rel\sas2flsh.exe", "9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\Firmware\HBA_9207_8i_IT\9207-8.bin" and "9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom" on the usb stick.

 

Now when i execute sas2flash i always get the error:

ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program.

 

Do you still have the P14 sas2flsh.efi ?

Should i even do an firmware flash?

It is alredy in the IT mode, i just dont know how old the fimrware/bios version is.

IMG_20191102_145505.jpg

Edited by varona
correct typo
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Well it’s been a while, but it looks like you may already have the right vendor to flash directly without cross flashing.  You are in firmware 15 so you absolutely should upgrade.

 

i think you may find that you can just flash it with no option rom directly.  I’ll look at this more later when I can get to my computer.

 

and yes I can send you version 14 if you need it.

 

best,

craigr

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  • 1 year later...
On 11/2/2019 at 9:01 AM, varona said:

HI i bought a modell which was advertised as "HP H220 660088-001 LSI IT Mode 9205-8i PCIe 3.0 6G S SAS 2*SFF-8087 SATA".

As you stated, it could be a D1 Stepping with 2308 chipset.

So tried to repeat your steps and confirm the stepping with a sas2flash -list.

 

I couldnt find the P14 uefi installer on the br0adcom site. They are starting from P15 and above.

So i tried to flash the card while using DOS.

I made a freedos usb stick with rufus. Copied "Installer_P14_for_MSDOS_and_Windows\sas2flash_dos_rel\sas2flsh.exe", "9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\Firmware\HBA_9207_8i_IT\9207-8.bin" and "9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows\sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom" on the usb stick.

 

Now when i execute sas2flash i always get the error:

ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program.

 

Do you still have the P14 sas2flsh.efi ?

Should i even do an firmware flash?

It is alredy in the IT mode, i just dont know how old the fimrware/bios version is.

I know this is old but just to follow up...

 

I had to flash three more of these yesterday and found that sas2flash.efi only works on older UEFI versions.  I was not able to quickly locate an old enough EFI image so I tried using the sas2flsh.exe DOS program.  This resulted in the error you got:

ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program.

And then I remembered, this error happens when you try and use the DOS sas2flsh.exe on any modern computer that has an UEFI BIOS.  I took the card out and put it into my 10+ year old desktop that now runs Chromium OS for my son's school and booted with a DOS USB.  I was able to easily crossflash once again using sas2flsh.exe version 14.

 

There is now a sas3flash.efi available, but I didn't try it because I am pretty sure this hole will have been plugged by Broadcom as it was on v15 and later of sas2flash.

 

craigr

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