Crossflashing of LSI 9341-8i to LSI 9300-8i. Success (but no SMART pass through)

I think you should extract SBR file from 9361-8i with megarec.
MegaRec -readsbr <n> <image>
and probably SPD
MegaRec -readspd <n> <image>

9361-8i firmware is on Broadcom website.

 

Finally swooped up a Dell OEM 9341-8i for a decent price, hope it's as easy to flash as well. Shows Dell PN OWFN6R but hell if I can find any info on it.

 

Awesome! Guess I need to tweak my alerts. Cheapest I've seen recently been over $135 OBO. May be spoiled by the past $65 - $75 deals for M1215s. I've been on the hunt too now that I have SC216 chassis.

IIRC, process should be similar other the location of Jumper is different. Scan thru this thread.


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Just flashed my 9341-8i, used P10 first (as I had it stashed from a few months back), put it in IT mode, FreeNAS b|tched abt firmware mis-match and wanting/needing P12, couldn't find that on 9300-8i/9311-8i on FW download page, only P14, flashed it up to P14 and now FreeNAS is still complaining that I am not on P12 since I flashed P14, even the archive link on broadcom's site did not show me P12.

SMH.

Whatever, it's working.

My notes for a thread refresher

Code:

Jump J6

* Boot FreeDOS *

sas3flsh.exe -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin -noreset

* Power Down *
* Remove Jumper *
* Boot FreeDOS *

sas3flsh.exe -o -e 7
sas3flsh.exe -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin
sas3flsh.exe -o -sasadd 500605BXXXXXXXXXX

* Reboot *

Reflash from P10 to P14 went like this

Code:

sas3flsh.exe -o -e 6
sas3flsh.exe -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin

 

May be a browser issue or something on your machine. The previous versions are still there under archive. If you can't find and still need them Let me know. I have copies of P10 thru P13.

 

I see it, stupid chrome, FF worked, need to close my chrome browser apparently. Question is, is P14 the best/most current/solid FW or should I go back to P12?

I have P10, P12, P14 stashed/prepped now on my flasher stick. :-D

 

I just rolled with P14 on my Quanta 3008 mezzanine adapter (1st of 4). I don't know if there are pros/cons to P14 over previous releases, but so far so good. I am using this host as a vSAN node so I should hopefully know if there are any issues shortly.

I'm pretty surprised that I didn't have any problems picking up all 6 disks in the sled since the adapter is non-standard. Here's a shot before I ripped out the IR firmware:




I followed Patrick's article and only deviated on:

• the jumper (mine had none)
• I used sas3flash.efi -o -e 6 instead of -e 7

After it flashed, I reseated the server node and the adapter picked up my disks on reboot.

 

I am having some issues with P14 in ESXi 6.0u1. Don't know if it's driver or firmware but consistently had an issue deploying an OVF to a single disk datastore that did not have a problem deploying to a datastore I had on the satadom...

 

@vorticity_flux or Admins/Mods:
Can you please add the following info at the end of the OP?


Troubleshooting:

*When flashing an 12G HBA (SAS 9300 family) with IR mode firmware provided in the same package, named 9311,
SAS3Flash returns the following error:

ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Subsystem ID!
ERROR: No compatible NVDATA Image(s) found!
Firmware Image Validation Failed!

Resolution:
Using DOS or EFI SAS3Flash version 10.00.00.01 or higher with following command string

DOS

sas3flsh –o –e -6
sas3flsh –o –f <firmware> -b <bios> -nossid​

EFI:

sas3flash –o –f <UEFI BSD firmware> -nossid​

Flashing SAS9305-16e with ‘–o –e 6’ parameters erases some controller values

- Due to a defect in the SAS9305-16e, When running the ‘-o –e 6’ (which is only needed if flashing older firmware), the controller erases the , the SAS address, board tracer number, and board assembly number.

- Only the DOS and EFI versions of sas3flash support the ‘-o –e 6’ option.

Workaround: Capture the SAS address, board tracer number, and board assembly number before flashing using sas3flash -list and reflash the SAS address, board tracer number, and board assembly number afterwards.


This example is for the EFI version of sas3flash. Use ‘sas3flsh’ for the DOS version.

sas3flash -list [Capture to a file or Write down SAS address, Board Assembly and Board Tracer Number.]
sas3flash -o -e 6
sas3flash -o -f <firmware file name> -b <bios>
sas3flash -o -sasadd <SAS address>
sas3flash -o -tracer <tracer number>
sas3flash -o -assem <assembly number>

 

has any successfully applied this cross-flashing procedure on a Dell H330?

 

IIRC, @whitey updated FW on a Dell 12gbps card. Not sure H330 or a different one if there are more variants (Like H200 & H310 in the SAS2008 space)

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Initial posts mentioned that there is no Smart data reported after flashing. Is that still the case?

 

I'm not using one at the moment but I believe P10 or P11 FW addressed the SMART data issue. The latest I believe is P15.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

Have a bunch that I was using with the stock firmware. Will try this in a couple of weeks when I get home.

 

Still waiting for confirmation of LSI IT flash on H330...

 

did this successfully with a M1215 card today. however, I did not bother to erase anything. with the jumper on, i could not do a listing (-list), but the sas3flash utility said the card needs firmware and prompted me for a file. i gave it the IT mode .bin file and it flashed just fine; I did not have to re-flash during a 2nd step. i then rebooted with the jumper off, and the card was seen as a 9300-8i and works. i later rebooted to UEFI shell again and flashed the BIOS + UEFI rom files. strange thing is that although I did not perform any erase (-e) procedure, the SAS address was all "0" and the board assembly/tracer were also erased. I added those back in based on the information on the stickers on the card.

also tried a Dell H330 today, but no luck. there's no jumper like the M1215 that I can see. sas3flash cannot see the H330 card at all so no way to flash anything.

 

@BLinux

I don't own a H330 to check but have you tried the Dell FW? I know you are trying to go to LSI stock FW. Not sure if you need to flash the 12GBP HBA FW first before flashing the IT FW. ( like the 2008 based ones first use 6gbpsas.rom & then 2118IT)

Unlike HP, the FW downloads do not require support contract. Only quirkiness of the Support / downloads is that you need to pick a compatible system these accessories/cards are typically installed.

On the link below, filter SAS-Non RAID / HBA and select the required downloads. Hopefully update program does not throw a fit in non-dell system.

Support for PowerEdge T640 | Drivers & downloads | Dell Canada

Spoiler: SASDUPIE usage

PS G:\downloads\Dell\H330\IR-A05> .\SASDUPIE.exe -?
========================================================================
Firmware Download Program
Dell Inc - All Rights Reserved. 2005-2007
========================================================================

Usage: -h
Provides detailed help information
Usage: -v
Provides program version information
Usage: -i [-o <output filename>] [-debug]
Provides inventory information of all identified devices.
-o Specifies the output filename.
-debug Specifies to create a debug log file.
Usage: -u [-s <image folder>] [-f] [-o <output filename>] [-debug [filename]] [-su [FQDD's with Comma Separation]]
Downloads the firmware to all devices which are compatible with
the image file.
-s Specifies the folder containing the firmware image files. Current
folder is default Ex. c: mp (win) or //tmp (linux)
-f Specifies to download if the same or a newer version is installed.
-o Specifies the output filename.
-debug [filename] Specifies to create a debug log file. The default
filename is debug.log in the current folder.
-su option works with only -u option.

 

I did try Dell's HBA 330 Firmware, and even their IR firmware just to see if I can do something. unfortunately, it complained "insufficient inventory" or something like that, probably meaning I didn't have the right "system". I'm not sure I have a compatible system... I do have an ancient Dell 2900-III I can revive to try, but I haven't done that yet.

The sas3flash program (DOS, UEFI, and Linux versions) all do not see the H330 card.

 

What queue depth length do the H330 pcie cards identify in esxi with the stock firmware? Does the stock firmware support drive pass through?

Was anyone successful in flashing the H330 to 9300-8i firmware and are their any differences or gains for the purpose of hba?

Thx

 

I can't answer the ESXi question as queue depth is dependent on driver as well as hardware capability and I'm not using ESXi.

The stock Dell firmware does support pass through capability as long as you enable "HBA" mode in the firmware (the same firmware can support both "IR" and "HBA" mode, you just need to change the setting). Also, bare in mind, in Linux world at least, enabling "HBA" mode still makes the card load the 'megasas' driver, not the mpt3sas driver - it works fine for passing through the disk and getting SMART data, etc. However, it does not create a /dev/sgX device file so you to access the drives with the sg* utilities like sg_format. If the later part is something you require or desire, the H330 will not work for you even in "HBA" mode.

Although I tried, I was never able to flash LSI firmware on the Dell H330. I heard rumors of people claiming to have done so, or could do so, but I was never able to verify that claim.