IBM M5015 experiences

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CommanderPaco

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Nov 13, 2015
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Would the LSI RAID CacheCade Pro 2.0 physical key for the 9260/9280 Series work? The part number is LSI00292. I assume without a CrossFlash, this wouldn't work, correct?
 

mgrudzin

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Jan 22, 2016
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Dear All,

I have M5015, and would like to use Trial 30 days for chachecade and see is this worth to pay for. Thing is that I have card and Asus workstation, so I think that only ways to use trial is to flash cart to LSI instead of IBM. To the point I have done this... by using megarec dos and OLD LSI firmwar. Card reported to be LSI, then using MSM (this java tool) I have upgraded card with most current Avago firmware, and.... Card is thinking again that it's IBM... Any idea how to permanent flash this card ? BTW any idea that LSI hardware cachecade key is working with IBM card?

Thanks in advance,
Maciek
 

klree

Member
Mar 28, 2013
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Dear All,

I have M5015, and would like to use Trial 30 days for chachecade and see is this worth to pay for. Thing is that I have card and Asus workstation, so I think that only ways to use trial is to flash cart to LSI instead of IBM. To the point I have done this... by using megarec dos and OLD LSI firmwar. Card reported to be LSI, then using MSM (this java tool) I have upgraded card with most current Avago firmware, and.... Card is thinking again that it's IBM... Any idea how to permanent flash this card ? BTW any idea that LSI hardware cachecade key is working with IBM card?

Thanks in advance,
Maciek
Read the post again and you will know cross flash is broken on newer firmware. So stick to the OLD LSI firmware
 

bearhntr

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Feb 29, 2016
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I have followed these steps from this URL: SAS2108 (LSI 9260) based firmware files - Projects, Tools, Utilities & Customized INFs

LSI 9260 based controller Firmware page.

Here all the latest LSI SAS2108 based FW can be found.
It includes FW from LSI, IBM, Dell, Oracle, SuperMicro, Fujitsu and Intel.

sas2108

How to flash the SAS2108 based cards:

Make a bootable DOS USB disk (Google it)
Place the above files on the USB

Boot to USB
Megarec -cleanflash 0 (0 = if only one LSI card in computer, you'll need to work out which number to flash if more than one)
Reboot to USB
Megarec -m0flash 0 0xxx_yyy.rom (xxx= version number, yyy= OEM version)
Megarec -writesbr 0 sbrzzzzz.bin (zzzzz= Card type you are trying to flash to, only really needed with M5014/5015)
Reboot
Done

Latest BIOS from Firmware Package 12.12.0-0124
BIOS 3.25.00_4.12.05.00_0x05180000.00 7/25/20

Use Megarec or Megacli or MSM to flash to controller, nothing else will be updated only BIOS

==========================================[end]

I have an IBM M5015 controller which was not seeing any HDDs installed in my X3500 (7977) server. I installed a longer cable from the backplane to the controller, and disabled the ONBOARD SAS - as nothing was attached to it. None of the HDDs were seen in the Web Setup tool, although they all lit up on boot up. The server has an IBM ServeRAID 8k-l controller - which is like a DIMM (server does not boot without it installed).

I was told this was because the HDDs were not IBM and the controller was looking for specific drives. It was suggested that I flash the controller to the 9260-8i. I found the steps above, and performed them exactly.

Now when I boot the server I am no longer getting the BIOS information for the controller card. I get nothing at all.

Did I kill my controller? Can it be fixed?

Please help.

*BH*
 

bearhntr

New Member
Feb 29, 2016
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OK ... UPDATE.

I was able to get my controller to start showing on the boot up....but I am still not seeing my (4) 4TB and (1) 160GB HDDs (when I press CTRL+H) on that prompt; which are on the hotswap backplanes connected to the controller with MINI-SAS to MINI-SAS cables. I had to buy longer ones as the ones which went to the system board were not long enough.

Any ideas?
 

nimsoc

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Mar 21, 2016
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Hello!
I have a M5015 flashed as LSI-9260-8i and I want to use Cachecade (I have in server 4 x 1TB Seagate Enterprise and 1 x SSD Intel 535).
On other servers with LSI-9260-4i I was able to enable Cachecade very easy.
Here I didn't have the link witn "Manage MegaRAID Advanced Software Options" but I have "Create CacheCade SSD Caching" gray link (cannot be clicked).
I have a trial key for 30 days for LSI 9260, how can I use it?

Thank you very very much!
 

adamjb

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Jun 1, 2016
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Howdy all, I'm not sure if we need a new thread for this or not. However ... I asked the question about the 12Gb SAS Drives from Seagate (ST6000NM0034). I was attempting to get these to spin up on an M5015 ...No joy there. I ended up purchasing a pair of M5210 cards and finally things were working. Does anyone know if the 12Gb spec is not compatible with 6Gb cards? I'm hearing it should be. Is it only 6Gb cards with SFF-8643 MiniSAS connectors? Of course that's conjecture on my part but with SFF-8087 is there actually a difference in the cabling for 12Gb there are SSF-8087 -> SFF-8482 fan-out cables, none I tried worked.
Also on the new M5210 getting into the config utillity has not been possible for me. I have a UEFI bios and do not seem to be able to navigate into any utilities for the card. I have the AVAGO MSM in windows but I want to configure JBOD and it seems as if the only way to do that is with the configuration utility on boot. I just don't know how. Is there as string on this site with an answer to the utility issue I'm having?
Ever have any luck getting this sorted out?
 

Sic_Alpha

New Member
Aug 2, 2016
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I posted the below in another thread but it appears to be dead...

I just purchased an IBM ServeRAID M5015 and was hoping to flash the firmware to LSI 9260-8i as in this article:
How to Flash IBM ServeRAID M5014 to LSI 9260-8i Firmware

I don't have a SuperMirco mobo thus wanted to verify that this Live CD will be OK for me.
New Project - Supermicro IPMI 2.0 BIOS Update Live CD

I also assume that I could just copy the sas2108 directory to my own Live CD and use the commands and files from the above tutorial, the sas2018 folder.

I was hoping to use a newer firmware. I obtained the 12-15-0-0189 LSI firmware from here:
MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i

I believe that is the correct firmware. Will it still work or should I use the 0102_lsi.rom file on the above Live CD sas2018 folder? I noticed this comment earlier on this thread "0189 seems to be the latest firmware that doesn't revert to M5015." which is why I chose that version.

Also if the 0189 firmware will work can I still use the sbrlsi.bin on that Live CD's sas2018 folder with it? Or do I need to find one that is correct for the 12-15-0-0189 driver?

Apologies for so many questions. This is my first RAID x-flash.

Thank you in advance.
 

Sic_Alpha

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Aug 2, 2016
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I've read that these have a long boot time but it can't be 15 minutes long can it?
I installed the card, have the bootable USB inserted, I'm stuck at this screen:



I've rebooted once and chose the "any key to continue" option with the same result, stuck on "0 Virtual Drive(s) found on the host adapter."

I can't even get to where I can boot from the USB drive.

Do I have to connect a drive to the controller for it to continue? I was just going to flash it with my PC as my server build isn't ready for it yet.

UPDATE
I found a spare drive and connecting it to the controller; that gets it past that screen and I can get into the configuration utility, though it wont work with my USB mouse...

The problem I have now is that it will only load the LSI web or CLI utility, and reboot. I can't get to the USB drive to boot and flash.

UPDATE 2
Clearing the existing configuration allowed me to get to the USB drive and boot from it.

UPDATE 3
Success!


Thanks for the assistance! Much appreciated! I'm looking forward to expanding my Plex library very soon :)

Let me know if the screenshots are cluttering up the thread too much and I'll remove them
 
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Boushard

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Dec 1, 2016
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Hi guys!!

I'm new here and I have a question about cross flashing my "new" M1015.

I follow the how-to from Peter as described here:
IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 4: Cross flashing to a LSI9211-8i in IT or IR mode

But I'm stuck on the first step on 2 different system, with the same "error"



I've use Win98 Dos image on a cruzer micro 4gb.

First flash rig
A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD 4800 X2

Second rig
EVGA X58FTW3
i7 960 3.2Ghz

Anyone have ever encounter this error when cross flashing!?!
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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What is your "error", I don't see one listed in your screenshot?

If the command megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin fails, you could try megarec -cleanflash 0 instead.

I would also say don't use a win98 dos boot disk for this, instead use Rufus/ Freedos to create your boot disk :)
 

Boushard

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Dec 1, 2016
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What is your "error", I don't see one listed in your screenshot?

If the command megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin fails, you could try megarec -cleanflash 0 instead.

I would also say don't use a win98 dos boot disk for this, instead use Rufus/ Freedos to create your boot disk :)
It's not a real error, but the line under the command say "Protected Mode Run-Time".

So the command is send to the wrong device, my HBA is faulty or it's really the boot disk who's not correct.

I've only one HBA in each test rig, so it's probably not this..
I can access the stock IBM WEBios, and the HBA correctly see my 8disk
So I'll try the FreeDOS tonight then!! :p

Thanks pricklypunter!
 

Boushard

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Dec 1, 2016
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It's not a real error, but the line under the command say "Protected Mode Run-Time".

So the command is send to the wrong device, my HBA is faulty or it's really the boot disk who's not correct.

I've only one HBA in each test rig, so it's probably not this..
I can access the stock IBM WEBios, and the HBA correctly see my 8disk
So I'll try the FreeDOS tonight then!! :p

Thanks pricklypunter!
Just tried with FreeDOS with the same result "Protected Mode Run-Time".

Also have an "issue" if I let the startup run without any keypress: "No physical memory is available at the location required for the windows boot Manager. The system can not continue"

https://cloud.mail.ru/public/6r6x/bGSNPxH4Y

This the complete startup of the A8N-SLI, same result on my main rig EVGA X58-FTW3.
 
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risty

New Member
Oct 6, 2016
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hi to everyone! i'm needs some help.
i have M5015 and i flash it to 9260-8i(with 0189_lsi.rom firmware). controller found IBM raid configuration and PC have boots normally. After some playing with hardware key (LSI00292 not valid for crossflased m5015 =(((( ) and perfomance testing i diside to return to IBM rom.
i sucessfully flashed to latest 0248 ibm firmware. controller boots but cant load config from disks and mark them as "foreign".
what can i do to make M5015 load config from disks after crossflash?
 

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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If the card is loading properly, it generally goes something like this:

Hit C to get into config utility at boot
Click the Preview button
You should see your raid marked as foreign, select it
Click on the Import button
Exit and reboot

That might not be the exact sequence for your card, but it shouldn't be far away :)
 

pricklypunter

Well-Known Member
Nov 10, 2015
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Just tried with FreeDOS with the same result "Protected Mode Run-Time".

Also have an "issue" if I let the startup run without any keypress: "No physical memory is available at the location required for the windows boot Manager. The system can not continue"

https://cloud.mail.ru/public/6r6x/bGSNPxH4Y

This the complete startup of the A8N-SLI, same result on my main rig EVGA X58-FTW3.
That looks like you are still trying to boot using the windows boot loader rather than a pen drive. Get a DOS/ FreeDOS boot disc image and burn that to a CD along with your firmware files and flashing tools and boot from the CD instead :)
 

risty

New Member
Oct 6, 2016
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If the card is loading properly, it generally goes something like this:

Hit C to get into config utility at boot
Click the Preview button
You should see your raid marked as foreign, select it
Click on the Import button
Exit and reboot

That might not be the exact sequence for your card, but it shouldn't be far away :)
i forget to make photos =(((
after card loading it says:
zero virtual disc found and it cant load foreing configuration from disk. then i go to WebBios (CTRL+H) and scan disks there cards founds config but cant load it (

if i flashing card "back" to 9260 it boots normaly.