This post is more than 5 years old
5 Posts
0
226660
R515 with H200 with IT firmware
Hi all,
I have a new R515 equipped with PERC H200.
Perc H200 is an LSI based SAS card , exactly LSI SAS 9211-8i, with a DELL-ized firmware.
The LSI card may have two different types of firmware: the IR one (which is shipped into PERC H200) and the IT one (which is shipped with PERC 6Gbps SAS HBA which have esternal ports insted of internal ones as the H200).
The H200 (the card with two internal ports) comes with the IR one, whereas the PERC 6Gbps SAS HBA comes with the IT one. The hardware is exactly the same.
I need to install ZFS filesystem on this server, so I have to use the controller in passthrough mode, and JBOD. No Raid is required at all. To do this, I need to have the card flashed in target mode, by using the IT firmware.
I did take the firmware of PERC 6Gbps SAS HBA and flashed the DELL H200. Everything went fine.
But when I reboot the system, the only message printed on console was:
"Invalid PCIe card found in internal system slot".
It seems, that some bios recognized that the card was not anymore an H200 but it is changed to the another card.
If so, It's possible to bypass this checks ?
What are my options ? Maybe move the card into another slot ?
Any hints ?
Thanks in advance.
sovking
5 Posts
1
November 14th, 2011 19:00
Yes, I solved this problem.
1. I moved the H200 from the storage slot to another slot.
2. I asked longer cables from DELL to connect the backplane to the H200.
3. I flash the firmware with the SAS HBA DELL controller firmware, which contains the IT firmware I needed.
This firmware is not the latest produced by LSI but is perfectly compatible with the backplane.
I tried several firmware but most of them have topology compatibility issue with the backplane.
The system with this firmware works like a charm. I tested with OpenSolaris 11 and FreeBSD.
Now I'm currently using FreeBSD.
Hope this can help you.
sovking
5 Posts
1
January 16th, 2012 01:00
Yes, the procedure is the following:
0) Download the following packages:
a) firmware for DELL 6GBP SaS HBA
the current latest is:
ftp.dell.com/.../DELL_6GBPS-SAS-HBA_A08_R306009.exe
b) download all the firmwares for LSI 9211-8i
they are available at:
www.lsi.com/.../downloads.aspx
the version to download are named like:
9211_8i_Package_P12_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows
I suggest you to download the P7, P8, .. until the latest which now is P12
2) get a bootable iso cd, I sugget the DELL diag utility, the latest is:
ftp.dell.com/.../DELL_32-BIT-DIAGNOSTICS_5154-1_R302859.exe
a) Extract it, usually it places its files in:
C:\dell\drivers\R302859
b) Create a directory inside the DIAGS folder, e.g. 6GBPSAS, then create the following subfolders:
D24/ P07/ P08/ P09/ P10/ P11/ P12/
In D24 extract the DELL 6GBP SaS HBA firmware
In P07 extract the following LSI P7 firmware files: 2118ir.bin 2118it.bin mptsas2.rom
Do the same for P08, P09 ... P12
c) create the iso cd or the bootable images depending the boot device you want use: Virtual Media, usb key or portable cd.
3) Boot your server. When DELL DIAGS ask for a choice press 4: you will have a DOS prompt.
4) Type:
C:
CD 6GBPSAS
CD D24
Now you can flash the H200 controller to IT mode:
sas2flsh -o -f 6gbpsas.fw -o mptsas2.rom
It behasves as e DELL 6GB SAS HBA controller (IT mode)
You can reboot then, when Controller initializes press control-C to define boot device, and then go into the system bios for set boot device.
5) If you wish to switch to LSI original firmware (with all amenities) you have to:
CD ..\P07
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.fw -o mptsas2.rom
When it will prompt about not matching vendour ID and product press yes.
If you wish you can try other firmware version... not all of them are compatible with DELL Backplane.
Right now, the P12 version works like a charm! So;
CD ..\P12
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.fw -o mptsas2.rom
Reboot, eventually adjust controller and bios settings.
If you prefer the DELLized firmware you can flash back to your preferred firmware.
Hope this can be helpful to you!
kangaroo2002
13 Posts
0
November 2nd, 2011 18:00
Hi.
Did you solve this problem?
I'm getting the same server and wanted to flash the board H200 with LSI firmware.
l8niklas
4 Posts
0
November 23rd, 2011 07:00
Hi
Great to hear that you got this working, may I ask how you flashed the controller?
Many thanks in advance
Clark-Kent
2 Posts
0
November 29th, 2011 03:00
Hi all.
Sorry for my bad English.
The IT-Firmware is working well? I have a T210 with a H200 and i need to install FreeNAS on it (based on free BSD).
Is there any point in updating the firmware I have to stay tuned? Is there any procedure?
Regards,
l8niklas
4 Posts
0
January 23rd, 2012 12:00
Sorry I didnt notice that you actually moved the controller to another PCIe slot.
l8niklas
4 Posts
0
January 23rd, 2012 12:00
Thx Sovking, I managed to flash the H200 controller with IT but I'm not able to boot the server. I get the follwing message.
Invalid PCIe card found in the Internal Storage Slot!
System halted!
How did you managed to bypass this? From what I understand I can move the card to another PCIe slot, but the problem is that these internal H200 controllerns dont fit very well in regular slots since it does not have any brackets.
Help is much appreciated
sovking
5 Posts
0
January 24th, 2012 04:00
H200 controllers does not need any brackets, only longer cables.
It's a pity that DELL limits the storage slot to use only DELL cards: it's just a PCI-Express slot; in this way DELL subcract one PCI slots to systems who need a different SAS controller.
sovking
5 Posts
0
January 24th, 2012 06:00
Maybe, if a lot of users ask this, you could ask DELL to release a BIOS release without this limitation.
l8niklas
4 Posts
0
January 24th, 2012 06:00
Yeah really a pity since I dont have any PCIe slots left :-(
But anyway thank you.
SakuraYuyuko
10 Posts
0
August 24th, 2021 21:00
check out this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0AEHVdc_go
change the sbr in order to make the card work in internal slot