Getting my X11SSW-F motherboard (in a CSE-113 chassis) updated for BIOS, BMC, etc…

[Ps23Rick]

So I got this 1U server a few days ago and am going through the process of loading software on it and playing with it to see if it’s working properly. I just got the BMC enabled (the jumper was set to disabled) and the fans are now behaving properly and I got logged into the IPMI with the default login creds. The System Summary page in IPMI shows the following:

Firmware Revision : 2.27
Firmware Build Time : 11/02/2015
BIOS Version : 1.0a
BIOS Build Time : 02/17/2016
EC Version : 00.18


With that said, I downloaded the latest BMC & BIOS updates from the Supermicro site but it says if you’re not having issues then they recommend not updating. But I see some of the issues are associated with security fixes for IPMI at least but I’m not sure what version of IPMI I’ve even got — not sure if that’s separate from BMC updates or not.

What would you all suggest?

The BMC version that I downloaded is 4.07 and BIOS v3.0 which also has a number of security fixes..

I’m tempted to just install both of the updates and hope for the best — knowing that the software in the server right now is quite dated.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Thanks in advance!

 

[T_Minus]

I would update it all before deploying, and then after deployment only upgrade if needed

 

[RolloZ170]

But I see some of the issues are associated with security fixes for IPMI at least but I’m not sure what version of IPMI I’ve even got — not sure if that’s separate from BMC updates or not.

you have BMC/IPMI FW 2.27

I downloaded the latest BMC & BIOS updates from the Supermicro site but it says if you’re not having issues then they recommend not updating.

BMC FW: you have security issues.
BIOS:

• BIOS version 2.0 or above is required to support 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processors and Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1200 v6 series

first BMC FW then BIOS
note X11SSW-F and X11SSW-TF/4TF have different BIOS.

 

[Ps23Rick]

you have BMC/IPMI FW 2.27

BMC FW: you have security issues.
BIOS:

• BIOS version 2.0 or above is required to support 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processors and Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1200 v6 series

first BMC FW then BIOS
note X11SSW-F and X11SSW-TF/4TF have different BIOS.

Thanks! I’ve downloaded the respective BIOS’ from the support page for the board I’ve got and the release notes indicate that so I’m going to assume it should go as expected. I’ll see about upgrading probably from within IPMI as that seems easiest — at least at this point

 

[RolloZ170]

Thanks! I’ve downloaded the respective BIOS’ from the support page for the board I’ve got and the release notes indicate that so I’m going to assume it should go as expected. I’ll see about upgrading probably from within IPMI as that seems easiest — at least at this point

if you want to try older BIOS here is a collection
BIOS with STDsp in the filename are signed, you can't go back to unsigned BIOS after upgrade to those.

 

[Ps23Rick]

Thanks for that.. I’m ok with using the latest. I was able to get the BMC updated from 2.27 to 4.07 without issue. It’s happy and looks a bit different .. I’m trying to get the memory stick to boot up now with the DOS and so forth.. We’ll see what happens here shortly.

 

[RolloZ170]

can you check BMCWebGUI(IPMI) for presence of Maintainance->BIOS update ?
if you have that you need OOB licence ( you don't have to buy, make your own )

 

[Ps23Rick]

Yeah.. my IPMI has that feature but asked me for a license key.. sounds like someone has figured out how to get around that on older systems perhaps.. I’m about to update the BIOS. I finally got the USB stick with DOS on it to boot — had to enable Legacy mode for booting Otherwise it refused to boot from that stick. Live & learn I guess!

 

[RolloZ170]

sounds like someone has figured out how to get around that on older systems perhaps.

here is some background

Reverse Engineering Supermicro IPMI – peterkleissner.com

your BMC MAC goes on the on the left, on the right comes your licence (first six sets)

Modular conversion, encoding and encryption online

Web app offering modular conversion, encoding and encryption online. Translations are done in the browser without any server interaction. This is an Open Source project, code licensed MIT.

cryptii.com

 

[Ps23Rick]

Wow.. gotta love it! Thanks for that!

 

[Ps23Rick]

Ok .. BIOS update seemed to get done and the machine is going through the cycles of turning off/on .. I think it’s done it 3-4 times now after I power-cycled the chassis when the BIOS update was complete.

 

[Ps23Rick]

Ok.. It refuses to boot using my NVMe drive that has TrueNAS on it and was working fine with the old BIOS.. Any ideas on what to check? I’ve got UEFI booting enabled and have selected the UEFI Hard Drive as the first device to boot from.

It says in the end :

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
Please press the <DEL> key into BIOS setup menu.
or Press the <CTRL-ALT-DEL> key to reboot system.

 

[Ps23Rick]

I might just reinstall TrueNAS since I hadn’t done any config changes to it yet.. maybe I’ll try that

 

[Ps23Rick]

Ok.. that didn’t work.. I still get the same message even after TrueNAS installed without issue. I guess something else needs some TLC somewhere.

 

[RolloZ170]

sorry was asleep. after BIOS update setting are returned to default
BIOS uses NVMe Firmware source from Vendor(bootrom from ssd) if none that fails.
there is an option:
Advanced->PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration->NVMe Firmware Source
default is "Vendor defined Firmware"
set to "AMI Native Support"

 

[Ps23Rick]

Thank you!!