Flash a Dell H310 with Dell HBA or LSI firmware?

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nk215

Active Member
Oct 6, 2015
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Guys,
I flashed my Dell H310 card with Dell HBA IT firmware last night but have been wondering should I go with LSI firmware instead. I intent to use is this card for my guest Xpenology under ESXi 5.5 (PCI pass through).
 

azev

Well-Known Member
Jan 18, 2013
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Wow that is super awesome, Whitey, do you mind posting all the files that you used to do this flash ?
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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The gent has them hosted here and process to make bootable usb if memory serves me correct. I could put them up in a tar.gz or zip if needed though, let me know.

SAS HBA crossflashing or flashing to IT mode, Dell Perc H200 and H310

More direct link would be:

LSI-9211-8i.zip

EDIT: I seem to be getting 'potentially malicious file' on the download so if you want my goodies there are here. Still follow the rufus/make bootable cd off previous link though. It's pretty easy, install rufus, make freedos/bootable usb device, copy files onto usb stick...BOOT...FLASH

http://71.196.231.126/vsphere/LSI-9211-8i-master.zip
 
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azev

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Jan 18, 2013
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Took me all night last night to flash my 2 H310 and it is not without issue.
The issue that I was having was that I had to reboot almost in every step or else the next step would end up in error.

Thanks again for all the instruction.
 

whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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Yep, very critical, that's why in my process of steps I explicitly listed reboot after each stage. I actually pwr off/down and pull pwr plug for 30 secs between each flash :-D call me paranoid.
 

nk215

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Oct 6, 2015
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The Dell HBA firmware already works. What's the point of flashing it all the way to LSI firmware? Vt-d works fine with Dell firmware.

Is there documented issue with the Dell firmware?
 

whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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The Dell HBA firmware already works. What's the point of flashing it all the way to LSI firmware? Vt-d works fine with Dell firmware.

Is there documented issue with the Dell firmware?
Nothing wrong with the Dell firmware...mostly preference I assume, let's just say I 'trust' LSI's engineering processes for 'their' HBA's more than Dell's but there's nothing wrong with stopping at 6GBPSSAS.FW image. Pretty sure it's still IT mode, just not sure of version, thought it may be 7. Whatever floats your boat :-D NEVER had an issue w/ v19 LSI firmware on any 2008 based HBA for nearly 5 years makes me feel all warm and fuzzy w/ stock/vendor provided firmware.
 

RyC

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Oct 17, 2013
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I tried these steps to try to flash a Dell 85M9R (C1100/CS24-TY mezzanine LSI 2008 controller: DELL MEZZANINE 6GBPS SAS RAID CONTROLLER 85M9R For PowerEdge C1100/C2100/FS12-TY) to the LSI IT firmware (it came with a really old IR firmware).

megarec -cleanflash 0 gave an error message maybe 75% of the way through. Even after restarting, that command would still fail. I continued with the remaining steps, and they seemed to flash the IT firmware successfully, but the card BIOS wasn't erased. I ended up using the command sas2flsh -o -e 6, which seemed to wipe out both the firmware and the BIOS, then continued with the remaining sas2flsh steps and everything worked without errors. It now recognizes itself as an LSI 9211-8i just like the previous M1015 that was in it (I needed the real PCIe slot for a Mellanox card). I also didn't have to restart between sas2flsh -0 -e 6 and sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin.
 

nk215

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Oct 6, 2015
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I kept the Dell IT firmware so that I can easily differentiate the card from a flashed M1015 in ESXi for pass-through.
 

Terry Kennedy

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Jun 25, 2015
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Nothing wrong with the Dell firmware...mostly preference I assume, let's just say I 'trust' LSI's engineering processes for 'their' HBA's more than Dell's but there's nothing wrong with stopping at 6GBPSSAS.FW image. Pretty sure it's still IT mode, just not sure of version, thought it may be 7. Whatever floats your boat :-D
One thing to watch out for if you use the crossflashed card in a Dell server is that the Dell SUU (quarterly firmware update DVD) will still detect it as a Dell card and may try to flash it with Dell firmware. That may fail, or it may work and confuse the user (and/or the operating system).

NEVER had an issue w/ v19 LSI firmware on any 2008 based HBA for nearly 5 years makes me feel all warm and fuzzy w/ stock/vendor provided firmware.
Many people still avoid P20 because of problems with the initial release (20.00.00.00). LSI/Avago rebuilt it twice (20.00.02.00 and 20.00.04.00). I've been running the 20.00.04.00 on a large number of controllers / environments and haven't had any issues with it.
 
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Terry Kennedy

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Jun 25, 2015
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I have P19 LSI flashed, what step do I need to flash to latest P20?
Just go to the LSI website, select the generic version of your adapter from the support and downloads section, and download the DOS/Windows flash tool from the Firmware section. For example, 9200_8e_Package_P20_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows. If you won't be flashing under DOS, grab the appropriate "Installer P20 for ..." utility as well.
 

whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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When I did mine i did it like this.

megacli -AdpAllInfo -aAll -page 20 (document sas address)
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
reboot
sas2flsh -o -f 6GBPS.fw
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 5004############ (16 digit sas address)
reboot
sas2flsh -o -f 2118itP7.bin (*v7 LSI fw, will prompt to cross-flash vendor mismatch, say yes)
reboot
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin (from LSI v20 IT mode FW pkg)

DONE DEAL!


You could try going straight from LSI IT mode v19 to LSI mode v20 but if memory serves me correct it threw an error, I think trick it to get to v7 FW, then flash-up to v20 from there.

2cents. I have FW pkgs if you all want it w/ ALL utilities/FW mentioned above, offered and others have used before, let me know.
 
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petersm

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Feb 8, 2016
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Yes please , a link to this package would be great :) what version of P20 is attached in your packages ?