Guide: Flashing H310/H710/H810 Mini & full size to IT Mode

[johnbock]

I do have access to additional dell percs. Before flashing those, I'll have a little time to play. May take a few days though...

Scanning i2c on the R620 didn't reveal too much:

• ISA bus, address 0xca8
  Chip `IPMI BMC KCS' (confidence: 8)
• Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

 

[Roelf Zomerman]

two D1's flashed successfully !.. THANK YOU!

Installed ASDK (Azure Stack Dev Kit) on one of them.. and so far all is ok..

 

[Roelf Zomerman]

Not sure if others have the same.. but it seems like the drive slots have changed after the upgrade.

They are reversed now.. in my 8 slot unit I have physically:
0: Toshiba AL13SEB600
1: Toshiba MBF2600RC
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Toshiba MBF2600RC
4: Intel SSDSC2BW08
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Intel SSDSC2BW08
7: Toshiba MBF2600RC

After the upgrade, the Avago SAS controller now sees them in reverse order:
0: Toshiba MBF2600RC
1: Intel SSDSC2BW08
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Intel SSDSC2BW08
4: Toshiba MBF2600RC
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Toshiba MBF2600RC
7: Toshiba AL13SEB600

So be aware when wanting to install OS on particular drives..

(also for me the CRTL-C for the utility doesn't do anything, but I hope/guess that's normal)

 

[wolololo]

Many thanks for this utility. I've flashed a Dell H710 Mini rev. D on a Dell R720 through idrac. Everything went according to the guide, including the optional boot images. The drives show up in linux and I intend to pass it through to a FreeNAS VM. Again, Thank You!

 

[nthu9280]

Not sure if others have the same.. but it seems like the drive slots have changed after the upgrade.

They are reversed now.. in my 8 slot unit I have physically:
0: Toshiba AL13SEB600
1: Toshiba MBF2600RC
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Toshiba MBF2600RC
4: Intel SSDSC2BW08
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Intel SSDSC2BW08
7: Toshiba MBF2600RC

After the upgrade, the Avago SAS controller now sees them in reverse order:
0: Toshiba MBF2600RC
1: Intel SSDSC2BW08
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Intel SSDSC2BW08
4: Toshiba MBF2600RC
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Toshiba MBF2600RC
7: Toshiba AL13SEB600

So be aware when wanting to install OS on particular drives..

(also for me the CRTL-C for the utility doesn't do anything, but I hope/guess that's normal)

I don’t have this card / setup. Typically if you didn’t flash the bios, you wont be able to use card bios with the key combination.

The disk / slot numbering is also wonky. I think if you swap the drives in the controller reports the old slot number.

The below link is for VMware but you get the gist.

Solved: How to identify disks with LSI HBA |VMware Communities

 

[Anticell]

I’m having issue flashing my H710 B0 raid card. First attempt I did not remove the battery as it wasn’t stated in the instructions. After reading this thread I removed it and reverted back to original FW. I rebooted and attempted to start all over. I’m getting the following errors.

 

[fohdeesha]

I’m having issue flashing my H710 B0 raid card. First attempt I did not remove the battery as it wasn’t stated in the instructions. After reading this thread I removed it and reverted back to original FW. I rebooted and attempted to start all over. I’m getting the following errors.

remove all power from the system (all power cords and raid battery), then plug the server in about 30 seconds later. Boot back into freedos, and run the B0CROSS script twice - I've seen a couple times where it doesn't completely wipe the dell bootloader on the card and it will spit out operation fault in linux like that. So to reiterate, reset power to the server completely, boot freedos, run B0CROSS to erase the card, then run B0CROSS again. send a screenshot of that so I can see if B0CROSS is spitting out any errors. then you should be good to boot into the linux ISO and run the flash script

 

[Anticell]

remove all power from the system (all power cords and raid battery), then plug the server in about 30 seconds later. Boot back into freedos, and run the B0CROSS script twice - I've seen a couple times where it doesn't completely wipe the dell bootloader on the card and it will spit out operation fault in linux like that. So to reiterate, reset power to the server completely, boot freedos, run B0CROSS to erase the card, then run B0CROSS again. send a screenshot of that so I can see if B0CROSS is spitting out any errors. then you should be good to boot into the linux ISO and run the flash script

It... worked!!!!! You’re awesome!!!

 

[fohdeesha]

Not sure if others have the same.. but it seems like the drive slots have changed after the upgrade.

They are reversed now.. in my 8 slot unit I have physically:
0: Toshiba AL13SEB600
1: Toshiba MBF2600RC
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Toshiba MBF2600RC
4: Intel SSDSC2BW08
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Intel SSDSC2BW08
7: Toshiba MBF2600RC

After the upgrade, the Avago SAS controller now sees them in reverse order:
0: Toshiba MBF2600RC
1: Intel SSDSC2BW08
2: Toshiba MBF2600RC
3: Intel SSDSC2BW08
4: Toshiba MBF2600RC
5: Toshiba MBF2600RC
6: Toshiba MBF2600RC
7: Toshiba AL13SEB600

So be aware when wanting to install OS on particular drives..

(also for me the CRTL-C for the utility doesn't do anything, but I hope/guess that's normal)

the ctrl-c utility definitely works, you just have to use the drac virtual keyboard to send the key presses - if you just hit ctrl-c over an IDRAC window, the browser interrupts it as a copy command

 

[fohdeesha]

Updated the guide:

New freedos ISO:
-proper hybrid ISO now, can be booted via virtual media, burnt to a flash drive with rufus, balena, unetbootin, or raw written via dd, all work perfectly now. Dealing with isolinux / freedos bootloaders / hybrid ISO creation gave me indescribable AIDS
-much newer version of freedos
-new version of grep not from 1995, 32-bit now instead of 16-bit so no more memory errors
-combined Info and SAS BATs to reduce the amount of commands the guide requires
-added the megacli arg -NoLog to scripts using megacli.exe so it no longer tries to write out a log to a ramdisk environment

updated the guide to remove the need to run "sas" to get the sas address, the "info" command you run first now spits it out for you to reduce the number of commands required. Moved the warnings about bios settings and only having 1 adapter in the system up to the "preparation" section. Previously they were low enough in the guide that users with H310's would get to the h310 note stating to skip to the H310 page and never see those warnings

 

[wolololo]

Many thanks for this utility. I've flashed a Dell H710 Mini rev. D on a Dell R720 through idrac. Everything went according to the guide, including the optional boot images. The drives show up in linux and I intend to pass it through to a FreeNAS VM. Again, Thank You!

The card seems to work just fine. Don't know if this is the proper place to ask but, here it goes.
I've passed the card to a FreeNas VM on Proxmox. I see the disks, but there's no smart data except for their SN - not even disk size. Proxmox however does have smart data when running smartctl.

 

[fohdeesha]

The card seems to work just fine. Don't know if this is the proper place to ask but, here it goes.
I've passed the card to a FreeNas VM on Proxmox. I see the disks, but there's no smart data except for their SN - not even disk size. Proxmox however does have smart data when running smartctl.

sounds like an issue with passthrough, with a crossflashed h710 I can see smart data no problem in my freenas install:

root@zfs[~]# smartctl -a /dev/da0
smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Intel 730 and DC S35x0/3610/3700 Series SSDs
Device Model:     INTEL SSDSC2BB080G4
Serial Number:    BTWL345301RZ080KGN
LU WWN Device Id: 5 5cd2e4 04b523fb5
Firmware Version: D2012370
User Capacity:    80,026,361,856 bytes [80.0 GB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 T13/2015-D revision 3
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 24 16:07:24 2020 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
etc etc etc

if proxmox is seeing the smart info, it sounds like it's interrupting at least part of the disk before it's getting to freenas

 

[wolololo]

sounds like an issue with passthrough, with a crossflashed h710 I can see smart data no problem in my freenas install:

root@zfs[~]# smartctl -a /dev/da0
smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Intel 730 and DC S35x0/3610/3700 Series SSDs
Device Model:     INTEL SSDSC2BB080G4
Serial Number:    BTWL345301RZ080KGN
LU WWN Device Id: 5 5cd2e4 04b523fb5
Firmware Version: D2012370
User Capacity:    80,026,361,856 bytes [80.0 GB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 T13/2015-D revision 3
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Feb 24 16:07:24 2020 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
etc etc etc

if proxmox is seeing the smart info, it sounds like it's interrupting at least part of the disk before it's getting to freenas

Thanks! You're right, it's something with the passthrough. I've used a different config now and I'm getting somewhere. So:
Machine: i440fx instead of q35 - didn't expect this
BIOS: OVMF

I'm getting smart data in the terminal but not in the web ui. I'll investigate further.

 

[fohdeesha]

updated the guide/iso/etc with instructions on crossflashing the full size H710 b0 variant. can add guides for the full size d1 and P variants as well but need someone with those cards to send me SBR dumps. Unless you already have a full size laying around it doesn't make much sense to pick one up, for some reason they cost 3x the price of the mini's and actual LSI cards

 

[Roelf Zomerman]

probably a weird question.. but ehm.. does anyone know which drivers to use for the flashed unit to run Windows 2008 ? the OS didn't find any drives.. and I need it to upgrade the Firmware on my HP NC523SFP which isn't detected in Server 2019

 

[fohdeesha]

you need the lsi drivers for the sas2 cards (because that's what your perc is now), broadcoms site is a mess, but here

for windows 2008: Broadcom Inc. | Connecting Everything

for windows 2008 R2 - Broadcom Inc. | Connecting Everything

 

[razvan1]

Not sure what went wrong in my setup. I have Dell R720xd wwith h710B0, flashing and installing procedure went right but I can't hit into configuration utility (system reboot). Also on server boot I can see all disks and controller listing but in bios it doesn't appear in devices tab. When server boot leds are blinking in a random order.
Can you guide me please to solve this?
Thanks

 

[Roelf Zomerman]

I can't hit into configuration utility (system reboot).
Can you guide me please to solve this?

You have to use the virtual keyboard (or an actual one on the server) to hit ctrl-c and it will be invoked AFTER the device boot selection.

In my R620, the drives actually reversed, so my physical slot 7 drive is now my disk-0 in the controller. Perhaps you have the same.. as there is no drive-0 it probably won't boot from it if you are running in BIOS mode..

 

[fohdeesha]

are you sure you have a B0? Non-P? when trying to enter the boot configuration utility, you need to use the drac virtual keyboard to send the key presses, you can't just send ctrl+c as the browser will intercept it. I don't think the disks are supposed to show up in the dell bios if that's where you're looking for them, if you want to configure LSI-connected disks as boot devices, you need to use the lsi boot utility

 

[fohdeesha]

You have to use the virtual keyboard (or an actual one on the server) to hit ctrl-c and it will be invoked AFTER the device boot selection.

In my R620, the drives actually reversed, so my physical slot 7 drive is now my disk-0 in the controller. Perhaps you have the same.. as there is no drive-0 it probably won't boot from it if you are running in BIOS mode..

yeah, the dell backplanes in 12G servers is connected completely out of order, the dell megaraid firmware has a map in it to correct it and make it appear normal. The weird ordering we're seeing now is how the backplane is actually connected. To verify I connected the backplane to a full size 9211-8i (so no cross flashed cards), and the ordering is the same weird ordering as with a cross flashed card, it reports slots 0 and 1 as slots 4 and 5:

root@zfs[~]# mpsutil -u 0 show adapter
mps0 Adapter:
       Board Name: SAS9211-8i
   Board Assembly:
        Chip Name: LSISAS2008
    Chip Revision: ALL
    BIOS Revision: 7.39.02.00
Firmware Revision: 20.00.07.00
  Integrated RAID: no

PhyNum  CtlrHandle  DevHandle  Disabled  Speed   Min    Max    Device
0                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
1                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
2                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
3                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
4       0001        0009       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
5       0002        000a       N         6.0     1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
6                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator
7                              N                 1.5    6.0    SAS Initiator

Arkadius figured out how the backplane is wired on his R720XD 3.5", no idea why dell did it this way:

phy2 -> 6
phy3 -> 7
phy4 -> 9
phy5 -> 10
phy6 -> 8
phy7 -> 11
phy8 -> 2
phy9 -> 5
phy10-> 12
phy11-> 13
phy12-> 1
phy13-> 4
phy14-> 0
phy15-> 3