January 15, 20206 yr Hi people, Sorry if my request is dense but I have flashed all kinds of devices before but seem to come up short on how to do it to the LSI 9207-8i Controller. It is running the latest Firmware: 20.00.07.00 in IT mode. The BIOS however is a bit outdated so I wanted to upgrade to: 7.27.01.01 since my version is from 2015 and since I am new to all of this I did not want to worry about it after installing Unraid. I managed to download the latest BIOS from their website here: https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i I used Rufus to make bootable USB I unzipped the root contents of the BIOS download on to said USB It boots fine into said USB This is where I get lost. I need to know exactly what command to type to flash the controller and I read the readme and I understand that I am surely dense but help a fellow out please? I have only one controller plugged in but as I said I have no idea what exact syntax I need to make magic happen. Remember I am new to all of this! Any help would be appreciated!
January 15, 20206 yr If I understand it correctly, there's no fundamental reason to upgrade the BIOS of the card. It's really only used to make RAID sets or enumerate the drives at POST. (As a matter of fact, neither of my LSI cards flashed to IT mode have a BIOS installed at all in them)
January 15, 20206 yr Like mentioned you don't really need a bios, but if you want to update: sas2flsh.exe -o -b MPTSAS2.ROM
January 15, 20206 yr Author Thank you both for the swift and excellent replies! But mine was shipped with BIOS on them? how would I remove their BIOS and what would be the point to have BIOS or not if you do not mind me asking?
January 15, 20206 yr Following the "how to cross flash thread here", it's instructions and steps include removing the BIOS. Not having a BIOS simply speeds up the boot process. In my case though, I simply forgot to reinstall it after I removed it as part of the crossflashing, and have never gotten around to re-installing it. Either way, the BIOS is more or less pointless in IT mode, as there's no RAID sets to make, and unRaid will simply enumerate the drives itself. Since every flashing operation entails a slight risk of bricking, I'd just leave well enough alone and not worry about it..
January 15, 20206 yr You only need a bios if you want to boot from a connected device, and that's never needed with Unraid.
January 15, 20206 yr To erase bios you can use: sas2flash -o -e 5 It can be flashed later at anytime if needed.
March 20, 20206 yr Hey Squid, I finally ordered a LSI SAS 9207-8i card. I'm wondering, If I wanted to add additional drives to my system beyond 8 (not counting the MB SATA ports). Would I need to add an additional 9207-8i card? Or is there another way? I've seen reference to "expander cards" (?) Also, based on this thread I should't be concerned about the Bios/Firmware versions that my 9207-8i has. Thanks
March 21, 20206 yr 13 hours ago, Walter S said: I've seen reference to "expander cards" (?) There are SAS expanders, but they require a SAS HBA, like the 9207.
January 17, 20215 yr A bit late to the party but wanted to add, Updating to the 07.39.02.00 bios (from 07.39.00.00) fixes the long delay at POST when the system has CSM enabled.
February 3, 20215 yr Hi guys Where is the thread showing us how to remove the bios? I cant seem to locate the link in the comments. On 1/15/2020 at 2:45 PM, Squid said: Following the "how to cross flash thread here", it's instructions and steps include removing the BIOS. Not having a BIOS simply speeds up the boot process. In my case though, I simply forgot to reinstall it after I removed it as part of the crossflashing, and have never gotten around to re-installing it. Either way, the BIOS is more or less pointless in IT mode, as there's no RAID sets to make, and unRaid will simply enumerate the drives itself. Since every flashing operation entails a slight risk of bricking, I'd just leave well enough alone and not worry about it..
February 3, 20215 yr 4 hours ago, alitech said: Where is the thread showing us how to remove the bios? https://forums.unraid.net/topic/12114-lsi-controller-fw-updates-irit-modes/?do=findComment&comment=632252
February 8, 20215 yr I had trouble with the HP 220 branded Broadcom / LSI 2308 card and the sas2flash version not allowing the 9207-8e V20 firmware update to complete because of the in-built manufacturer flag. Way around it has been stated many times around the web by using sas2flash V14 but took me ages to find. Hence here attached to save others searching. lsi-HP-broadcom-SAS2flash_V14-dos.zip And FYI if you are searching and come across this, after I updated to V20 I then had problems with SSD trim operations which turns out V20 doesn't support 😵 (see this thread:) So had to downgrade back to V16. (my card is IT mode with no BIOS) Edited February 11, 20215 yr by Knights21
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