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

[fohdeesha]

I was not on the latest bios version. I was on version 2.6.1. I did upgrade to version 2.9.0 following the steps outlined in

but once it completed I tried again and same results stuck on the suspect partition size setting.

I'm using the Map CD/DVD option with virtual media like your attached screenshot. Next I'll try reseting the bios back to default settings and flip off the following

Processor Settings > Virtualization Technology
Integrated Devices > SR-IOV Global Enable
Integrated Devices > I/OAT DMA Engine

They are currently all disabled but perhaps there are additional settings that need to be off as well that you get from defaulting the bios. I bought this server from a 3rd party company that was using it for hosting. Perhaps they had some other non compatible bios settings in place.

Edit:

After resetting all bios to defaults and flipping off the 3 things above to disabled it is still stuck on the suspect partition step if I use idrac virtual media.

Burned an ISO with the freedos version extracted from the zip. Verified the MD5 hash of the zip and it matches what is on the website and verified the MD5 hash of the custom freedos install of c389a233c40d7e73a036f069fd0e55f8 and same thing. Still stuck on the suspect partition step. The rufus tool I used to burn the iso has two modes one is dd mode and there is another mode that lets you write to the flash drive even after an ISO is burned. Tried both and no progress with either mode.

I have no idea why my server is acting up with this ISO. It doesn't sound like anyone else has had this issue. I tried to read back other messages to this thread but couldn't come up with anything.

fohdeesha do you have previous versions of the .zip files around that I could try?

You're being sure to set the bios boot mode to bios right? Under Boot Settings > Boot Mode > Set to BIOS

do you have any extra PCIe devices or addons in this system? It seems like freedos is crashing as soon as it gets to finishing loading the kernel

 

[Dustin123]

You're being sure to set the bios boot mode to bios right? Under Boot Settings > Boot Mode > Set to BIOS

do you have any extra PCIe devices or addons in this system? It seems like freedos is crashing as soon as it gets to finishing loading the kernel

I have good news

I verified that my boot settings were correct and when I ran the previous version of the iso it didn't work. But after I unplugged everything extra that uses PCIe from my server I got the dos prompt to show up.

I replugged all my PCIe devices again and it failed to load so I started trying one thing at a time until I could get it to break. What ultimately was causing the boot to crash was that I had a dual SD Card Module Reader installed and it had two SD cards for VMware. Once I removed the two SD cards, replugged the dual SD card module reader, and rebooted the server it sent me over to the dos prompt. I used a USB so I'll also try with idrac virtual media as well just to confirm that that one works as well.

Might want to include an extra step that any SD cards are also removed before using the custom freedos ISO.

Thanks so much for all the debugging help fohdeesha

 

[fohdeesha]

I have good news

I verified that my boot settings were correct and when I ran the previous version of the iso it didn't work. But after I unplugged everything extra that uses PCIe from my server I got the dos prompt to show up.

I replugged all my PCIe devices again and it failed to load so I started trying one thing at a time until I could get it to break. What ultimately was causing the boot to crash was that I had a dual SD Card Module Reader installed and it had two SD cards for VMware. Once I removed the two SD cards, replugged the dual SD card module reader, and rebooted the server it sent me over to the dos prompt. I used a USB so I'll also try with idrac virtual media as well just to confirm that that one works as well.

Might want to include an extra step that any SD cards are also removed before using the custom freedos ISO.

Thanks so much for all the debugging help fohdeesha

glad you got it fixed!

 

[tomfw]

Hi,

I just went through the guide for flashing a PERC H710 Mini (D1) into IT mode. I'm fairly new to this, but it all seemed to go as expected. FreeDOS part went without any unexpected errors, and Linux was the same. Once it came back up I was able to set the SAS address back and everything seemed perfect. The output matched the guide and it confirmed it was in IT mode.

At the time I elected not to install the bootloaders, as I wasn't planning on booting from those drives. Shortly thereafter, however, I changed my mind and booted back into the linux iso with the intent to flash the BIOS bootloader. To my surprise, Linux is now reporting that no LSI cards are found. FreeDOS likewise isn't showing cards when I run info.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or what I should do next? Am I like... screwed?

Please treat me like an idiot as that will give me the best chance.

Thanks

 

[fohdeesha]

Hi,

I just went through the guide for flashing a PERC H710 Mini (D1) into IT mode. I'm fairly new to this, but it all seemed to go as expected. FreeDOS part went without any unexpected errors, and Linux was the same. Once it came back up I was able to set the SAS address back and everything seemed perfect. The output matched the guide and it confirmed it was in IT mode.

At the time I elected not to install the bootloaders, as I wasn't planning on booting from those drives. Shortly thereafter, however, I changed my mind and booted back into the linux iso with the intent to flash the BIOS bootloader. To my surprise, Linux is now reporting that no LSI cards are found. FreeDOS likewise isn't showing cards when I run info.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this or what I should do next? Am I like... screwed?

Please treat me like an idiot as that will give me the best chance.

Thanks

as long as the server boots, it's not bricked and can always be recovered with the revert command outlined in the matching guide page on the site. So that's always an option if you wanna go back to completely stock dell, and try the flash guide again (just pull power completely from the server for ~30 seconds after it's succesfully reverted, before going on to flash it again). However if you were able to set the sas address, the guide definitely worked.

It's expected for freedos "info" to now show no adapters, because the info command in freedos only looks for stock dell firmware, which you no longer have. The "info" command in the linux iso however will show IT mode cards, but don't forget to sudo to root first as the guide outlines. What's the output of info in linux? Make sure you're sudo'd to root when flashing the bootloaders to, or else it won't find cards

 

[tomfw]

The "info" command in the linux iso however will show IT mode cards, but don't forget to sudo to root first as the guide outlines. What's the output of info in linux? Make sure you're sudo'd to root when flashing the bootloaders to, or else it won't find cards

I was root when I tried to flash the bootloader and I got the same error I get when I run info. I've attached a screenshot.

I definitely don't WANT to go back to stock, but I thought it was reasonable to go back and try it again. Like you I didn't really think that was the issue though as everything seemed to work fine during the flashing step. Unfortunately I get errors from FreeDOS too when I try to revert. It says no cards found and tells me to "disable the SBR loading". That's when I knew for sure I was in over my head.

 

[tomfw]

I know you go out of your way to help people so I just wanted to follow up to keep you from wasting any time with me. Somehow I disabled the controller from the BIOS. I'm guessing I did it when I was messing around with the integrated SATA and disabled the wrong one by mistake. Totally my fault.

Guide was easy to follow and worked perfectly. It can't possibly account for me being the one doing it. Disk is now recognized and boots up without any issues.

Thanks a lot for responding still very helpful to know that my suspicions that it was something else were probably correct.

 

[herbskies]

I am looking for some info about fan speeds on a R420 that I have running unraid. I used Introduction - Fohdeesha Docs as a guide to flash the h310 mini to IT mode which went though successfully on each step. However when I booted into the unraid OS the fan speeds never quieted down.

My other UNRAID server seems to take care of the fan speeds automatically but the R420 just seems to set the fans to 46% and won’t spin them down to a normal level. I eventually had to SSH into the iDRAC and run this command to get the fans to spin down:

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 1

This made it more tolerable to be around, but keeps the fans at 33% all the time. This doesn’t seem like a permanent fix since the fans are now set to a fixed speed and is a little loud.

I reset the SSH command back to:

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 0

after a few days to see if it would automatically control the fans but so far nothing has change and its just back to 46% for most of the fans. Has anyone successfully gotten automatic fan control in the R420 using unraid for the fans?


I have also attached some pictures, if you need other info please let me know.

 

[domqc]

I know you go out of your way to help people so I just wanted to follow up to keep you from wasting any time with me. Somehow I disabled the controller from the BIOS. I'm guessing I did it when I was messing around with the integrated SATA and disabled the wrong one by mistake. Totally my fault.

Guide was easy to follow and worked perfectly. It can't possibly account for me being the one doing it. Disk is now recognized and boots up without any issues.

Thanks a lot for responding still very helpful to know that my suspicions that it was something else were probably correct.

EDIT: to others who may be new or dumb like me....DO NOT DISABLE THE RAID CARD IN THE BIOS. THE FLASHED CARD IS A RAID.

Where did you disable the card? Im having a similar issue to you... I flashed and everything worked then on a reboot no hd were being detected in the bays....

 

[sabasigh]

Ok tried reading this whole thread but not seeing this info. I have a PE720xd with
Product Name : PERC H710P Mini ChipRevision : D1

Flashed it per the guide, then flashed it to give it the Boot image:
flashboot /root/Bootloaders/mptsas2.rom

Everything works great, but i get into the Card's BIOS and there's no RAID option there to create any Virtual Disks.

So i install Win2019 on 1 of the disks, install MegaRaid Software v8.00.0500 and it sees the adapter, sees 23 drives (i have an empty slot) but the option to create a Virtual Disk is greyed out.

Did i wipe out the card's RAID capability and must use Windows Software raid or is there another image to load?

thanks

 

[ericloewe]

there's no RAID option there to create any Virtual Disks.

Of course not, it's IT mode, which explicitly does not do RAID. That's the whole point of this process.

 

[fohdeesha]

Ok tried reading this whole thread but not seeing this info. I have a PE720xd with
Product Name : PERC H710P Mini ChipRevision : D1

Flashed it per the guide, then flashed it to give it the Boot image:
flashboot /root/Bootloaders/mptsas2.rom

Everything works great, but i get into the Card's BIOS and there's no RAID option there to create any Virtual Disks.

So i install Win2019 on 1 of the disks, install MegaRaid Software v8.00.0500 and it sees the adapter, sees 23 drives (i have an empty slot) but the option to create a Virtual Disk is greyed out.

Did i wipe out the card's RAID capability and must use Windows Software raid or is there another image to load?

thanks

yeah the whole point of IT mode is that it's *not* RAID for direct disk access lol

 

[pilfos]

I don't know if this can help others but I have 2 H310 full size, flashed to IT mode some years ago with megarec and sas2flsh tools.

The cards were not recognized by the R720 so what I did was to puth back the Dell H310 firmware and then flash again to IT mode following fohdeesha docs and now the card is recognized by R720.

But I thought that with a simple 8087-8087 cable I could see the 8 disks from r720 backplane but I only see 4 at the same time, depending If I connect to A or B (in the backplane). Is that correct?

So my idea is to have one H310 connected to the internal R720 backplane and another H310 connected to a Netapp 4243.

Thanks fohdeesha for your docs!

 

[sabasigh]

yeah the whole point of IT mode is that it's *not* RAID for direct disk access lol

View attachment 28080

I wanted the Hardware RAID but the Dell firmware wasn't recognizing 24 SSD's when booting, gave "Adapter at Baseport is not responding: No Adapter".

Its an old server with 24 slots and i had 24 1TB EVO's so thought i'd make a spare ESX server to run some low resource VMs.

Googling + Reddit lead me to the guide

 

[ericloewe]

But I thought that with a simple 8087-8087 cable I could see the 8 disks from r720 backplane but I only see 4 at the same time, depending If I connect to A or B (in the backplane). Is that correct?

8-bay backplanes are unlikely to have expanders, so you'd need two cables for four drives each.

 

[fohdeesha]

I wanted the Hardware RAID but the Dell firmware wasn't recognizing 24 SSD's when booting, gave "Adapter at Baseport is not responding: No Adapter".

Its an old server with 24 slots and i had 24 1TB EVO's so thought i'd make a spare ESX server to run some low resource VMs.

Googling + Reddit lead me to the guide

that sounds like the perc card was poorly seated or something, remove it, and reseat it very firmly, then follow the "revert" section of the IT mode guide you followed to get the stock dell firmware back on it

 

[domqc]

The fans spin way harder after the it flash. I did follow the extra steps but it doesnt change anything. Is there anything else to do? I only have idrac basic. Its an r520 with h710 mini. Thx

 

[amp88]

The fans spin way harder after the it flash. I did follow the extra steps but it doesnt change anything. Is there anything else to do? I only have idrac basic. Its an r520 with h710 mini. Thx

Just to clarify, when you say you "did follow the extra steps", are you referring to the section titled "Extra: Disable ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse" here? If so, have you verified that ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse is definitely disabled?