Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
2 Posts
1
46183
Replacing internal RAID adapter H700i with H200i in a R610
Hello,
I've got some used H200i Adapter cards as a replacement for the pre-installed H700 RAID Cards in our R610 Servers.
I really don't want any HW-RAID functionality, (ZFS will take care of this).
Removing H700I and inserting H200I cards works like a charm.
The server reboots with no error message.
Flashing the H200I with the newest firmware package (07.03.06.00, H200I_A10_ZPE.exe) works ok.
Flashing the H200I with the newest non-raid firmware (SASHBA_Firmware_6GBPS-SAS-HBA_07.03.06.00_A11_ZPE.exe) also works,
but after rebooting I get “Invalid PCIe in the Internal storage slot! SYSTEM HALTED”.
Moving the H200I to another PCIe slot solves this problem, the RAID function of the Controller is gone and everything is working as expected.
BUT: These H200I cards fit best into the internal storage slot; if I run them in another slot, there are at least some mechanical issues.
This finally leads to my question:
Is there any firmware package for the H200I available, which removes RAID capabilities (like IT-Firmware from LSI) and makes it work in the internal storage slot?
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
•
274.2K Posts
0
September 9th, 2015 12:00
Hello,
There is a difference between the H200 integrated and HBA SAS 6GBPS cards. It sounds like you successfully applied the HBA SAS firmware onto the H200 which got rid of its RAID capability.This now makes H200 adapter not supported in the internal storage or integrated slot. However, I am also not aware of any firmware package that can remove RAID functionality from your card.
alfbar
2 Posts
1
September 10th, 2015 04:00
Thank you for fast responding.
Both firmware images differ only marginally (comparing the hex dumps).
The IR firmware (works in internal slot) shows up as:
# sas2flash -list
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 19.00.00.00 (2014.03.17)
Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved
Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)
Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:03:00:00
SAS Address : 5d4ae52-0-82ce-e500
NVDATA Version (Default) : 07.00.00.19
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 07.00.00.19
Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR)
Firmware Version : 07.15.08.00
NVDATA Vendor : Dell
NVDATA Product ID : H200I
BIOS Version : 07.11.10.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.04.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : PERC H200I
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A
Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.
#
wheras the IT firmware (doesn't work in internal slot) reads:
# sas2flash -list
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 19.00.00.00 (2014.03.17)
Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved
Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)
Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:04:00:00
SAS Address : 5d4ae52-0-82ce-ea00
NVDATA Version (Default) : 07.00.00.19
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 07.00.00.19
Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR)
Firmware Version : 07.15.08.00
NVDATA Vendor : Dell
NVDATA Product ID : 6GbpsSAS
BIOS Version : 07.11.10.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.04.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : PERC H200I
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A
Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.
#
Differences are highlighted.
The main difference of these outputs is the value of "NVDATA Product ID": (H200I vs. 6GbpsSAS)
IMHO it should be no big deal to modify the IT FW-Image so that it will work in the internal slot.
Meanwhile I was partly successful in booting from a plain disk (no RAID signature) attached to the internal H200I controller without any RAID configuration.
Will this operating mode (RAID firmware with non-RAID disks) cause any problems?
Is the full disk capacity available to the running system?
Am I able to freely move disks between different SAS-HBAs, even from different vendors?