LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

Hello Guys, i have 2 questions.

 

I have a Lenovo Thinstation with a 1068E(B2)-Based Controller. Ive bought 3 new 3TB-Harddrives.

Ive tried to reflash the Controller to break the 3TB-Limit to use the full space.

With the latest Firmware ive found on the first Page the Controller still is only seeing 2TB for each harddrive.

Is there an newer version of the firmware available?

In the first posting there is an edit which says that unraid can use the controller with 3TB but i run a normal windows 7 ultimate-workstation.

 

Best regards,

 

dapeace

OS doesn't matter here, you didn't read the OP entirely

LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

...

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

Quick question - I have two identical 3TB WD Red Drives, one as parity drive connected to onboard SATA controller, and the other as a data drive connected to M1015. In unMENU I can see the drive temperature for the one connected to onboard while spundown, but not for the one connected to the M1015.

I flashed the M1015 using the P10 firmware.

a) I'm not sure if this is expected behaviour or not?

b) Am wondering if perhaps I need to use a more recent firmware.

Any input would be much appreciated 

This part can be misunterstood. I read it also the way that with unRAID 5.0 Beta7 the full capacity can be used. 

OS doesn't matter here, you didn't read the OP entirely

 

LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

...

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

This part can be misunterstood. I read it also the way that with unRAID 5.0 Beta7 the full capacity can be used. 

 

OS doesn't matter here, you didn't read the OP entirely

 

LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

...

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

As of 5.0 Beta7, LimeTech the Dev of unRAID (Tom) added the ability to support 3TB drives.

3TB drive support for SAS1068E cards = Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (regardless of what OS).

Hopefully this clears it up for those who feel its not clear enough in the OP.

Quick question - I have two identical 3TB WD Red Drives, one as parity drive connected to onboard SATA controller, and the other as a data drive connected to M1015. In unMENU I can see the drive temperature for the one connected to onboard while spundown, but not for the one connected to the M1015.

 

I flashed the M1015 using the P10 firmware.

 

a) I'm not sure if this is expected behaviour or not?

 

b) Am wondering if perhaps I need to use a more recent firmware.

 

Any input would be much appreciated 

Should work no problem with P10. What version of unRAID and unMenu are you running?

Quick question - I have two identical 3TB WD Red Drives, one as parity drive connected to onboard SATA controller, and the other as a data drive connected to M1015. In unMENU I can see the drive temperature for the one connected to onboard while spundown, but not for the one connected to the M1015.

 

I flashed the M1015 using the P10 firmware.

 

a) I'm not sure if this is expected behaviour or not?

 

b) Am wondering if perhaps I need to use a more recent firmware.

 

Any input would be much appreciated 

 

Should work no problem with P10. What version of unRAID and unMenu are you running?

I'm using unRAID 5.0-rc10 and unMENU Version 1.5 Revision: 246

Since my post just now, I've also noticed that simplefeatures doesn't show the temperature for either drive when spundown - though not sure if that's relevant.

I'm in the middle of pre-clearing a new drive at the moment, so I'm not able reboot and try without simplefeatures running at the moment.. guessing this may well be the next step in troubleshooting this?

Thanks for taking the time to assist. 

Quick question - I have two identical 3TB WD Red Drives, one as parity drive connected to onboard SATA controller, and the other as a data drive connected to M1015. In unMENU I can see the drive temperature for the one connected to onboard while spundown, but not for the one connected to the M1015.

If I remember correctly, that is because unMENU adds a -d ATA parameter to the smartctl command.  The driver for the motherboard interface doesn't care if it's asked to behave as an ATA (parallel) drive, but the LSI driver objects.  If the -d ATA parameter is removed from the command line, the driver for both interfaces will respond as required.

Try typing this command at the command prompt:

  smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdX  (where X is the last letter of your drive identifier - a, b, c etc)

You will find that you get a SMART report for drives on the motherboard interface, but you will get an error for drives on the M1015 interface.

Quick question - I have two identical 3TB WD Red Drives, one as parity drive connected to onboard SATA controller, and the other as a data drive connected to M1015. In unMENU I can see the drive temperature for the one connected to onboard while spundown, but not for the one connected to the M1015.

 

If I remember correctly, that is because unMENU adds a -d ATA parameter to the smartctl command.  The driver for the motherboard interface doesn't care if it's asked to behave as an ATA (parallel) drive, but the LSI driver objects.  If the -d ATA parameter is removed from the command line, the driver for both interfaces will respond as required.

 

Try typing this command at the command prompt:

  smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdX  (where X is the last letter of your drive identifier - a, b, c etc)

 

You will find that you get a SMART report for drives on the motherboard interface, but you will get an error for drives on the M1015 interface.

Makes perfect sense why it wasn't playing ball to start with now.. I even managed to find your post earlier in this thread once I knew to search for '-d ATA' !

I've managed to find out how, and add a custom parameter in unMENU for the drive connected to my M1015, and now have temperatures showing for both. Many thanks for your help! In case anyone finds this post in future, I found how to do this here - http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=9337.msg141761#msg141761

How to accomplish the same in SimpleFeatures is another matter, but I will take that question to the appropriate sub-forum, assuming searching comes up with nothing

Thanks again!

Just flashed my M1015 into a SAS2008 in IT mode using the instructions and ZIP file in this thread. Was pretty straightforward except that I had to try several motherboards until I found one that didn't give me the "Failed to initialize" error.

Props to madburg for putting this together and to everyone that posted their experiences. It would have been a brutal process without this post!

Not sure if anyone cares but I have CS2EE motherboard and I flashed to formware version P15 downloaded from LSI's support site. I'll test for a few days but things look good at first glance. No syslog errors, can read all drive temps and I can spin drives up/down from the web console.

This was a very helpful Thread. I have 2 M1015s running smooth with the advice you have given.

Thank you

followed the instructions here:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg124393#msg124393

Updating the m1015, point 5

5. Reflash controller to IT-mode.

sas2flsh -o -f 2108it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

coming up with no LSI adapter found

Have tried 2 different boards any pointers/help?

Just an update , first board has a uefi bios, so will try again with the version of sas2flsh to support uefi , 2nd board was a bog standard HP board (m1015 didnt light up)

UPDATE: Just got it working. phew! ended up using my old asus motherboard.  Tried various dells and hp's in work trying to flash it, but nothing would pick it up (thought i had bricked it !)

thanks

nick

I just successfully reflashed my IBM M1015 from the MegaRAID to the SAS2008 using the zip file found on page 1. Worked like a charm. No motherboard issues or anything. Thanks for the great write up on here. I was even able to find a brand new card on ebay dirt cheap. I may need to pick up a few more now that I know it will work.

LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

2) IBM BR10i

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

just wondering - as of the 5.0beta7, will all 3TB be useable? sounds like it is from this post. i'd need to get two and would hate to only use 2.2TB;

LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

1) LSI SAS 3081-R

 

2) IBM BR10i

 

3) Intel SASUC8I

 

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS1068E chipset with the provided zip

 

FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10 (LSI P20)

Both IT/IR mode available

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20).zip - 3.8 MB (Windows)

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20)Linux.zip - 4.5 MB (unRAID)

 

FW:1.33.00.00, BIOS 6.36.00.00 / 22-AUG-11 (LSI P21)

Both IT/IR mode available

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21).rar - 1.46 MB (Windows)

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21)Linux.rar - 2.02 MB (unRAID)

 

Linux Driver: MPTSAS - supports the LSI SAS1064, SAS1064A, SAS1064E, SAS1066, SAS1068, SAS1068E, and SAS1078 chipsets. (Thanks to "BRiT"s prior post)

unRAID Support: Added as of 5.0Beta6a

 

Drive Spin Down Support: YES (UPDATE: Added as of 5.0Beta7)

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: even though 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support, this card does NOT support 3TB drives, it only sees and uses 2.2TB from a 3TB drive)

 

*** Note: Multiple controllers all post under one MPTSAS Bios, there are global setting that affect all controllers and individual settings per controller available ***

OP updated since its not clear for some.

OP updated since its not clear for some.

ty sir - i got excited when i saw it. I know there was some debate in the past.. didn't know if it was an UnRaid issue or card/bios issue. Ty for clarifying. Would've been cool.

Is there a newer bios for BR10i? anyone know what to use?

LSI SAS1068E chipset

1) LSI SAS 3081-R

2) IBM BR10i

3) Intel SASUC8I


Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS1068E chipset with the provided zip

FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10 (LSI P20)
Both IT/IR mode available
LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20).zip - 3.8 MB (Windows)
LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20)Linux.zip - 4.5 MB (unRAID)

FW:1.33.00.00, BIOS 6.36.00.00 / 22-AUG-11 (LSI P21)
Both IT/IR mode available
LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21).rar - 1.46 MB (Windows)
LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21)Linux.rar - 2.02 MB (unRAID)

P21 is the last they have published (as it stands) for the 1068 chipset.

Thanks

i have just got hold of a IBM ServeRAID M1015 card and struggled a bit to try and update to the latest LSI firmware (P15) once cross flashed to LSI 9211-8i.

i have now got it all figured out so thought i would share the tools i used and notes on how to update both the firmware and bios revisions to the latest version (as of feb 2013).

download the zip from the following location and unzip and then open the text file "upgrade instructions.txt" and follow carefully.

http://sharesend.com/0m95ic8t

IMPORTANT:- please note this will ONLY work once the M1015 has been cross flashed to a LSI 9211-8i (firmware revision P11) using the instructions shown in the first post of this thread.

i hope this helps somebody out. 

Start flashing my BR10i card ....

Just made a USB bootable with DOS, but the program to flash can't be run under DOS :-(  what is the alternative, I do not have any more PC to flash on except my server.

//Peter

Start flashing my BR10i card ....

Just made a USB bootable with DOS, but the program to flash can't be run under DOS :-(  what is the alternative, I do not have any more PC to flash on except my server.

 

//Peter

I found a utility for dos, but now I got this errot

Failed to initialize PAL

Any clue what that means ??

//Peter

Start flashing my BR10i card ....

Just made a USB bootable with DOS, but the program to flash can't be run under DOS :-(  what is the alternative, I do not have any more PC to flash on except my server.

 

//Peter

 

I found a utility for dos, but now I got this errot

 

Failed to initialize PAL

 

Any clue what that means ??

 

//Peter

Start flashing my BR10i card ....

Just made a USB bootable with DOS, but the program to flash can't be run under DOS :-(  what is the alternative, I do not have any more PC to flash on except my server.

 

//Peter

 

I found a utility for dos, but now I got this errot

 

Failed to initialize PAL

 

Any clue what that means ??

 

//Peter

That sounds similar to flashing a M1015 on an incompatible MB.

Yup, However it's simple enough to get around.  That portion of the flashing procedure should be done in a UEFI shell.

Thanks, cane you explain UEFI she'll ? How I can change to that ?

// Peter

Thanks, cane you explain UEFI she'll ? How I can change to that ?

 

// Peter

When booting, enter The BIOS and select the UEFI shell as a boot device.  From there, you can flash the M1015. 

Ogi