BPN-SAS3-846EL SAS3 backplane firmware update problem

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ptr727

Member
May 20, 2012
78
5
8
Manhattan Beach, CA, USA
blog.insanegenius.com
Hi, I am upgrading my SAS2 backplanes in SC846 chassis to SAS3.
I bought 2 refurbished BPN-SAS3-846EL1 backplanes on ebay.
I asked supermicro support for the latest firmware.
They asked for serial numbers and hardware versions, and provided me with the latest firmware.
I followed the instructions in the release notes file.
After the 3 regions updated, before I could update the mfg region, the expander seemed to disappear.
Reboot, reset, not coming back, LED lights look like before.

X10SLM+-F motherboard, LSI 9340-8i in IT mode (9300-8i), two SAS mini HD cables connected from LSI HBA to backplane, running ubuntu server from USB stick.

Any ideas?

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -i -t 5003048001B24DBF

================================================================================

COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.

================================================================================

UNIT SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
SAS ADDRESS - 5003048001B24DBF
ENCLOSURE ID - 5003048001B24DBF

ENCLOSURE INFORMATION:
PLATFORM NAME - SMC846ELSAS3P
SERIAL NUMBER -
VENDOR ID - LSI
PRODUCT ID - SAS3x40

VERSION INFORMATION:
FLASH REGION 0 - 66.06.01.02
FLASH REGION 1 - 66.06.01.02
FLASH REGION 2 - 66.06.01.02
FLASH REGION 3 - 06.02

DEVICE INFORMATION:
DEVICE NAME - /dev/sg0
BMC IP - NULL

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -f all -t 5003048001B24DBF -d SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw

================================================================================

COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.

================================================================================

Firmware Region 0 - Finished

Firmware Region 1 - Finished

Firmware Region 2 - Finished

Please reset expander to activate

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -f 3 -t 5003048001B24DBF -d BPN-SAS3-846EL-PRI_16_11.bin -r

================================================================================

COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.

================================================================================

Error, incompatible file type or directory

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -l
[sudo] password for pieter:

================================================================================

COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.

================================================================================

Error, no enclosure has been found

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -i -t 5003048001B24DBF

================================================================================

COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.

================================================================================

Error, no enclosure has been found

pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$
 
ari2asem

ari2asem

Active Member
Dec 26, 2018
745
128
43
The Netherlands, Groningen
maybe stupid suggestion, but try with 1 mini sas hd cable between hba and expander.

and that usb stick...is it live iso iamge on it? or ubuntu installed in a normal way on usb stick?
 
R

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,634
1,767
113
Out of curiosity, any particular reason to upgrade the firmware? Or just to have the latest?
 
P

ptr727

Member
May 20, 2012
78
5
8
Manhattan Beach, CA, USA
blog.insanegenius.com
I tried with only one sas cable, same result as with two cables in multi path.
The Ubuntu server on a stick is a full install with SSH server so I can SSH remotely to any box it boots from.

The expanders are refurbished, very old date codes, I wanted to start the swap at a good place. Supermicro was willing to help, I did not expect the update to fail.

I suspect the provided MFG firmware was wrong or its update failed, but I am just speculating:
pieter@ubuntuusb:~/SAS3$ sudo ./CLIXTL -f 3 -t 5003048001B24DBF -d BPN-SAS3-846EL-PRI_16_11.bin -r
================================================================================
COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE XTOOL
version 6.10.C
Supermicro Computer ,Inc.
================================================================================
Error, incompatible file type or directory

I've seen some reports of self service flashing over serial, e.g.:
Did I brick one of my BPN-SAS2-846EL1 backplanes?

I did not see a communication target commandline option in the latest CLI XTools, it is still available on the older GUI version:
www.supermicro.com - /wftp/utility/ExpanderXtools_Lite/Linux/

Anybody with experience recovering hte firmware over serial on the SAS3 backplanes?
 
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ptr727

Member
May 20, 2012
78
5
8
Manhattan Beach, CA, USA
blog.insanegenius.com
Based on FingerBlaster's post on HardForum, I tried to verify the pin layout on my own board, but I could not quite determine the correct pin assignment. It looked like the high pins were at around 1.8V (I expected 3.3V, 5V, or 12V), and my oscilloscope was not of much use, seeing no activity other than a blip on power up.

I took a chance and connected my USB serial converter in 3.3V mode, PIN 1 : TX to RS232 RX, 2 : GND to GND, 3 : RX to TX.

Using the older "SAS3ExpanderXtools_v1.4_Windows_version" that includes COM support, read the board, and got:
C:\Users\piete\Downloads\SAS3ExpanderXtools_v1.4_Windows_version\Windows>g3Xflash.exe -s com4 get ver 3
********************************************************************************
g3Xflash
LSI SAS Expander Flash Utility
Version: 2.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.
********************************************************************************
Initializing Interface..
INFO: Bootstrap is not present on board.
Downloading the Bootstrap
................................................................Download Bootstrap Complete.
...
Expander: Unknown (SAS_3X_40)
Reading the MFG Version Info page....Manufacturing image not found in flash.
Unable to retrieve version.

So something, but obviously not correct.

I then programmed the regions:
g3Xflash.exe -y -s com4 erase flash
g3Xflash.exe -y -s com4 down fw SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw 0
g3Xflash.exe -y -s com4 down fw SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw 1
g3Xflash.exe -y -s com4 down fw SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw 2
g3Xflash.exe -y -s com4 down mfg BPN-SAS3-846EL-PRI_16_11.bin 3
g3Xflash.exe -s com4 reset exp

And when done, I got:
C:\Users\piete\Downloads\SAS3ExpanderXtools_v1.4_Windows_version\Windows>g3Xflash.exe -s com4 get ver 3
********************************************************************************
g3Xflash
LSI SAS Expander Flash Utility
Version: 2.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.
********************************************************************************
Initializing Interface..
INFO: Bootstrap is not present on board.
Downloading the Bootstrap
................................................................Download Bootstrap Complete.
..................
Expander: SC846-P (SAS_3X_40)
Reading the MFG Version Info page..........................
Product Id : 03
Platform Id : 00
FW Version : 66.16.11.00
MFG Version : 16.11
Platform Version : 00.00
Product Name : SMCSAS3X40
Platform Name : SMC846ELSAS3P

C:\Users\piete\Downloads\SAS3ExpanderXtools_v1.4_Windows_version\Windows>g3Xflash.exe -s com4 get exp
********************************************************************************
g3Xflash
LSI SAS Expander Flash Utility
Version: 2.0.0.0
Copyright (c) 2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved.
********************************************************************************
Initializing Interface....................
Expander: SC846-P (SAS_3X_40)
Reading the expander information................
Expander: SC846-P (SAS_3X_40) C1
SAS Address: 50030480:0000007F
Enclosure Logical Id: 50030480:0000007F
Component Identifier: 0x0232
Component Revision: 0x03

Great, it looks alive, but the SAS address was lost.
I could not find a way to set the SAS address from the CLI.
I tried the GUI, and it let me change the address, but on reset, the expander was dead again.
I repeated the programming steps, leaving the SAS address as is.
It looks like the MFG file that gets dynamically created to set the SAS address screws up the firmware.

I've yet to hear back from supermicro support.
I'll have time over the weekend to hook the expander up to a SAS card to see if it works again.
 
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A

Almighty

Active Member
Oct 27, 2019
255
182
43
Well crap wish I saw this before flashing... Ran into the same problem following instructions. Regions 0-2 updated firmware okay, but then the mfg file failed to flash. Now the expander no longer shows up in my system, and I don't have the tools to manually flash this thing. Ugh!
 
T

TimTronic

New Member
Dec 13, 2023
1
1
3
I fell into the same trap. Used the g3xflash to overwrite my enclosure id with 500304800000007F.

ptr727 said:
FYI, Supermicro support says no way for a user to set the SAS address, send the backplane for service, or let support remotely change it.
Details here: Recovering the Firmware on a Supermicro BPN-SAS3-846EL1 Backplane
Click to expand...
The code to update the sas id still exists in the binary, if you need to fix yours...

#!/bin/bash
# changes the -n command to update the enclosure sas id instead of the serial number
# get CLIXTL from https://www.supermicro.com/wdl/utility/ExpanderXtools_Lite/Linux/CLIXTL7.10.C_Linux.zip
cp CLIXTL CLIXTL-ID && echo -ne "$(printf '\xc0\x17')" | dd of=CLIXTL-ID bs=1 seek=$((0x17b0)) conv=notrunc
echo "013ee0d9b880a612cf86cda92aec200fad1fd1153f26384ccd17e9cb1ab97377 CLIXTL-ID" | sha256sum -c

then use ./CLIXTL-ID -t 500304800000007F -n 5003048...

you will need to reset the expander before it'l show up as changed
 
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