X9SCM-F Bios v2.0 - ESXi 5 - HBAs working

So others can hopefully find easier than in the Atlas thread.

I have sucessfully run the X9SCM-F motherboard with Bios v2.0, ESXi 5U1.

I have an M1015 flashed to IT mode with latest LSI firmware passed through to unRAID.

an Areca-1201 hardware raid Mirror for the ESXi data store.

All seems to run great despite people claiming issues with ESXi5 and this motherboard bios dropping HBAs when in pass-through mode.  I don't have a need for more than 1 in pass-through mode, so perhaps that is the time you see the issue...

Did you flash the M1015 on the X9SCM-F? If yes, can you write in detail how you did it?

I have an M1015 flashed to IT mode with latest LSI firmware passed through to unRAID.

Could you specify the LSI Firmware version?

Since others might look at this some time down the road, what is the "latest" that you used, may not be the "latest" currently.

No guarantee that later firmware versions will continue to work.

Did you flash the M1015 on the X9SCM-F? If yes, can you write in detail how you did it?

Sorry, flashed on another motherboard (my test machine).  I've read the X9 has issues flashing, but haven't tried.

I used version "9211_8i_Package_P13.5_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows"

These are the procedures I follow:

How to cross flash

First things first, we take no responsibility for anything going wrong.

Please read carefully, don’t take shortcuts, and BE CAREFUL.

If in doubt or you can’t afford a replacement should it go wrong then ‘walk a away’

Warnings are done, lets flash:

Make a bootable USB stick, needs to be DOS bootable for the flasher etc to work, there are number ways to do it, ask Google

Download the files I have compressed over here

Self Extract the files somewhere, then place onto the USB stick

Turn machine off grab the SAS address of the card, it’s on the back on a green sticker (ie 500605B0xxxxxxxx)

Turn machine on (with card back in) choose USB stick at boot option, for all the below it is assumed you are booted to USB stick in the directory with the files from download.

Convert LSI9240(IBM M1015) to a LSI9211-IT mode

Type in the following exactly:

megarec -writesbr 0 emptysbr.bin

megarec -cleanflash 0

<reboot, back to USB stick>

sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605b0xxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)

<reboot>

Done!

Convert LSI9211-IT or IR to LSI9211 IR or IT

Type in the following exactly:

Megarec -cleanflash 0

<reboot, back to USB stick>

sas2flsh -o -f 2118ir.bin -b mptsas2.rom (2118it.bin = IT mode FW, change according to which way to flash)

sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605b0xxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)

<reboot>

Done!

Convert LSI9211-IT/IR to LSI9240

Type in the following exactly:

Megarec -cleanflash 0

Megarec -writesbr 0 m1015sbr.bin

<reboot, back to USB stick>

Megarec -m0flash 0061_lsi.rom (for latest LSI firmware, also included 2x IBM roms too, just change name)

<reboot>

Done!

You could with LSI9211-IT mode not flash the MPTSAS2.ROM and have no OptionROM at boot time You won’t be able to choose a boot drive, but you will speed up boot time.

Might be of use.

I upgraded to BIOS V2.0a on ATLAS and it "seems" completely stable.

BIOS 1.01a had some "Reported" issues with ESXi and PCIe issues.

BIOS v2.0 has had "reports" of the NICs getting their ROM corrupted upgrading to 2.0

(Supermicro has a fix to re-flash the NICs)

A few quick notes on the 2.0a upgrade.

I had to re-enable Vt-d in the BIOS

I also had to set PCI-E slots OPROM to disabled for my build.

I upgraded to BIOS V2.0a on ATLAS and it "seems" completely stable.

 

BIOS 1.01a had some "Reported" issues with ESXi and PCIe issues.

BIOS v2.0 has had "reports" of the NICs getting their ROM corrupted upgrading to 2.0

(Supermicro has a fix to re-flash the NICs)

 

A few quick notes on the 2.0a upgrade.

I had to re-enable Vt-d in the BIOS

I also had to set PCI-E slots OPROM to disabled for my build.

I'm running the older bios 1.1A. Is it worth my wild to update the bios? I am not running ESXI or anything fancy. I will be adding a M1015 card in a few days.

If your not having issues id leave it alone. 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

If your not having issues id leave it alone. 

 

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for the input...I was not having any problems, so if it aint broken dont fix it.....

Supermicro tends to put out broken bios updates sometimes. Those are one of those if it's working.. Don't mess with it situations.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All seems to run great despite people claiming issues with ESXi5 and this motherboard bios dropping HBAs when in pass-through mode.  I don't have a need for more than 1 in pass-through mode, so perhaps that is the time you see the issue...

I've got 3 M1015s(IT mode) in passthrough on ESXi 5.0U1 with BIOS 2.0a and no issues.

Good news re the 2.0a update, I'm going to give it a shot as I'm a bit anal about these things lol ?

Good news re the 2.0a update, I'm going to give it a shot as I'm a bit anal about these things lol ?

I have to agree, just updated and all is well except (my monoprice controller is not being recognized), not a big deal waiting for the M1015.

Good news re the 2.0a update, I'm going to give it a shot as I'm a bit anal about these things lol ?

 

I have to agree, just updated and all is well except (my monoprice controller is not being recognized), not a big deal waiting for the M1015.

You should be able to pass through the Monoprice controller.

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2

Anything special in the bios i need to set up? I set it up exactly as I did with the previous bios revison, even moved it to the x4 slot, and nothing.

Anything special in the bios i need to set up? I set it up exactly as I did with the previous bios revison, even moved it to the x4 slot, and nothing.

Check that VT-d is enabled. It's been relocated in the new BIOS version, but I cannot remember where.