I brought 2 of these off ebay from the same company. One of the expanders works without any problems but if I swap out the first one with the second one it does not work. I tried the board with just power, a green and an orange LED light up then the orange one goes out leaving just the green lit. By contrast the one that works clearly goes through a full POST with much LED activity. Being convinced that this board was faulty I obtained another through another supplier and this too only powers up with the green and orange LED's ,the same as the other "faulty?" board. I have read online that some of these boards are locked to IBM servers. Any help in getting to the bottom of this would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to buy another as I am not convinced I have 2 out of 3 faulty boards.
IBM 46M0997 Expander - Problems
- Thread starter TrevInCarlton
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Are the cards really identical?
Doubt it, but it might be a firmware issue... see https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...ders-60-ibm-lsi-chip-intel-alternative.11365/
Doubt it, but it might be a firmware issue... see https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...ders-60-ibm-lsi-chip-intel-alternative.11365/
Hi, thanks for the input. Already read the thread you sent me which also talks about firmware updates but despite all my efforts I can't find any firmware online. Also the only way to do the firmware update is through the expander being connected to the HBA and at this moment my IBM LSI ServeRAID-M1015 46M0861 SAS9220-8I and LSI9207 can't even see the expander. Have checked the cards in great detail and physically they are all identical
Don't have any problem with the M1015 and have already found and tested flashing the M1015 to IT mode. The problem is with the Expander, no issues with my 2 HBAs
Sorry, I meant that the M1015 would be perfect for flashing, it being IBM.
When I flashed using my plain LSI 9201-16e I got all sorts of warnings and errors, etc.
But in the end I could see firmware 634a in MegaRAID Storage Manager.
When I flashed using my plain LSI 9201-16e I got all sorts of warnings and errors, etc.
But in the end I could see firmware 634a in MegaRAID Storage Manager.
The problem remains, if the M1015 can't see the expander would it still be possible to update the firmware over DOS. If so what packages would I need and more to the point where would I get the firmware from ?
got a few of these cards on the way, anybody have the link for the latest firmware for this for linux? have no windows machines around to flash this in.
Hi
I posted this video tutorial in the STH thread mentioned above.
How to update the IBM 46M0997 Expander to 634a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw4TTI_HYqM
It worked well for me, you might find this very useful too.
RedX1
I posted this video tutorial in the STH thread mentioned above.
How to update the IBM 46M0997 Expander to 634a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw4TTI_HYqM
It worked well for me, you might find this very useful too.
RedX1
Thank you for this. should make it easier. ive done lots of reading but seeing it sometimes makes it easier.
I just picked up one of these cards from the local Recycler and unfortunately it looks like I am going to need the firmware update also, as my drives don't show up.
I have watched the video above and made the required notes to get me on my way, but I have a couple questions that perhaps 'Art of Server' (the creator of the video tutorial) might be able to answer, as I seem to have run into my own set of hardware and software issues, or limitations ?.
Question #1 - Does this Expander require a PCIe Gen3 capable motherboard/Slot to be seen by the OS ? Even in Linux ?
Question #2 - Can this update be done in a Live USB (test drive) Linux environment ? as I don't currently use Linux.
I have attempted to prepare for the upgrade, but it seems that either 1 or both of my above questions may be working against me, as I booted into a Live Ubuntu environment with the card tested in an x8@x4 Slot as well as both the primary and secondary x16@x16 Slots, all being Gen2 PCIe, on a SuperMicro C7X58 LGA1366 Motherboard (an X8SAX without PCI-X slots) with it's currently running config that includes an L5638 6c/12T Xeon.
Thank you in advance to anyone who is familiar with this Expander.
{EDIT}
I should also add, the LEDs come to life, so it seems to be getting power from each slot that I try it in..
I have watched the video above and made the required notes to get me on my way, but I have a couple questions that perhaps 'Art of Server' (the creator of the video tutorial) might be able to answer, as I seem to have run into my own set of hardware and software issues, or limitations ?.
Question #1 - Does this Expander require a PCIe Gen3 capable motherboard/Slot to be seen by the OS ? Even in Linux ?
Question #2 - Can this update be done in a Live USB (test drive) Linux environment ? as I don't currently use Linux.
I have attempted to prepare for the upgrade, but it seems that either 1 or both of my above questions may be working against me, as I booted into a Live Ubuntu environment with the card tested in an x8@x4 Slot as well as both the primary and secondary x16@x16 Slots, all being Gen2 PCIe, on a SuperMicro C7X58 LGA1366 Motherboard (an X8SAX without PCI-X slots) with it's currently running config that includes an L5638 6c/12T Xeon.
Thank you in advance to anyone who is familiar with this Expander.
{EDIT}
I should also add, the LEDs come to life, so it seems to be getting power from each slot that I try it in..
Just using the PCIe slot for power, no? So version/speed shouldn't matter. In fact a cheap mining 1x 16x riser powered via PCIe 6-pin,molex,SATA should work just fine (purely for power, not connected to PCIe slot) and leave the slot free for other cards. No mention of HBA SAS card? Should be connected to a HBA, even for just flashing.
yes, pcie is only for power.
you need to connect expander to hba card to see your hdd in OS. expander doesn't have communication to your OS. hba talks with OS.
flashing expander happens when connected to hba card
Does flashing then require an HBA exclusively ? I only have 2 HW Raid cards (MegaRaid SAS 9261-8i, both with latest firmware) and neither card can see the expander.
So just to confirm, flashing takes place over the 8087 cable and NOT over the PCIe bus ? ....and required an HBA and NOT HW RAID Card ?
So just to confirm, flashing takes place over the 8087 cable and NOT over the PCIe bus ? ....and required an HBA and NOT HW RAID Card ?
yes, flashing is over the cable sff-8087.
if you connect 2-3 hdd's to expander and then connect expander to your hw raid. and you dont see hdd, then you can't flash expander with hw raid card.
your card (hba or hw raid) need to see the expander to flahs it
if you connect 2-3 hdd's to expander and then connect expander to your hw raid. and you dont see hdd, then you can't flash expander with hw raid card.
your card (hba or hw raid) need to see the expander to flahs it
I don't want to overstep, but are you sure you aren't referring to the HP 24port expander that required a p200 or similar ?
It's quite obvious in the IBM 16port expander video linked to in this post that under Linux at the terminal, the ONLY devices that were listed using the lsscsi -g command were the author's cd/dvdrom, boot ssd and the expander...NO HBA or HW/R.....which tells me that he flashed the card over the PCIe bus.
Again, with the latest SAS drivers, I tried the Expander with 2 8087 cables connected directly to the outputs of my MR SAS9261-8i cards (tried both of them, as I have 2) both WITh and WITHOUT drives (both Sata and SAS drives and nothing was seen inside of the MegaRaid Storage Manager.
I tried this both in Windows and Linux (please see my first post for particulars).
I had REALLY hoped to hear from someone who has done this. Not simply passing on someone's information.
It's quite obvious in the IBM 16port expander video linked to in this post that under Linux at the terminal, the ONLY devices that were listed using the lsscsi -g command were the author's cd/dvdrom, boot ssd and the expander...NO HBA or HW/R.....which tells me that he flashed the card over the PCIe bus.
Again, with the latest SAS drivers, I tried the Expander with 2 8087 cables connected directly to the outputs of my MR SAS9261-8i cards (tried both of them, as I have 2) both WITh and WITHOUT drives (both Sata and SAS drives and nothing was seen inside of the MegaRaid Storage Manager.
I tried this both in Windows and Linux (please see my first post for particulars).
I had REALLY hoped to hear from someone who has done this. Not simply passing on someone's information.
no, expander does not communicate throught pci-e slot. pci-e slot is only for power. that is all
And how are the optical drive and SSD connected without a controller? Ok, would likely be a SATA controller not SAS, but the point is it wasn't listed. Same would apply for a SAS controller, but not a connected expander which should show up the same as connected drives. What you'd want to check for a PCI card is lspci, but I would not expect the expander card to show up. PCIe is just being used for power and mounting/form factor.
Fact is whether it be IBM, Dell, HP, all this stuff is designed to run in their own servers, so bound to be compatibility problems.
Now, I have a 46m0997 sitting next to me in a PCIe riser. Don't expect it to work, but if I have time, I will put it in a PCIe slot. Only HBA I have is a HighPoint 2760, That's running with 24 HDDs though, no plans right now to mess with it. Have a H200 on the way though. Plan was to flash that to IT mode and use it with the 46m0997. So will come back when I've got both.
Got my H200 the other day, 46m0997 detected fine when powered by PCIe riser via 6-pin PCIe and connected to the Dell H200 via sff-8087 (stock 07.15.08.00 firmware and after updated to IT mode). No issues updating the IBM firmware. If the 46m0997 doesn't show up under lssci, then I would suggest an issue with the SAS card or cable.
I believe that it is a problem with my LSI-9261-8i cards, as they are the 'black sheep' quickly discontinued due to quirks. They run fine as HW RAID, but are not able to run as an HBA using IT Firmware.
I recently dug up an old LSI SAS1 HBA from the scrap bin that I haven't had a chance to try, but I believe that it should work, as it's not like it will see any drives during the process.....unless the 32bit LBA will render it useless for even THIS operation.
I recently dug up an old LSI SAS1 HBA from the scrap bin that I haven't had a chance to try, but I believe that it should work, as it's not like it will see any drives during the process.....unless the 32bit LBA will render it useless for even THIS operation.