LSI RAID Controller - HBA Equivalency Mapping

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john4200

New Member
Jan 1, 2011
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Did you have to install drivers or configure via the WebGUI - or just flash the card with the LSI firmware (and not some IT mode firmware, but just general firmware) and then they are JBOD? We have flashed with the december IBM firmware, but will try LSI firmware if that will work...
I am using the megaraid_sas.ko kernel module driver that came with the 2.6.37 kernel that I am using. I did not use the WebGUI (nor megaraid manager, nor change anything in the M1015 BIOS). All I did was use FreeDOS and megacli tool to flash the firmware to the Dec 2010 firmware for 9240-8i from LSI's website. I flashed the firmware one card at a time (I have no idea if I could have successfully done more than one at a time)

Code:
$ modinfo megaraid_sas
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.37-autogroup/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko
description:    LSI MegaRAID SAS Driver
author:         megaraidlinux@lsi.com
version:        00.00.04.31-rc1
 

john4788

New Member
Mar 7, 2011
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I picked a couple of the M1015 and flased them with the latest LSI firmware in hopes of running them in an intel 775 based system that supports VT-d. I tried and failed with a DQ45CB motherboard (I can see and configure the card but no OS I tried (ESXi, Solaris, Win) could load the driver for it). Does anyone know of a motherboard that *should* work and supports VT-d?
 

DJ_Datte

New Member
Apr 12, 2011
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The Dell H200/Dell 6Gbps SAS HBA is based off the LSI SAS2008. My Dell 6Gbps has an IT firmware and near identical firmware to my LSI SAS3081E-R
I wonder if the firmware can be updated with the LSI firmware. I'll post the firmware and any other info if people want.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...topics/en/us/raid_controller?c=us&l=en&cs=555
Hi!

I bought 3 Perc H200, but unfortunately, mine came with -IR firmware. Any chance you would be up to posting your -IT firmware, so I can flash that ? I would be really grateful. I am intending to use the card as a ZFS / Jbod host, and don't need the extra utility of -IR. Plus I am not sure the -IR supports the full 256 devices that -IT does.

Thanks again!

-DJ
 

Metaluna

Member
Dec 30, 2010
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Hi!

I bought 3 Perc H200, but unfortunately, mine came with -IR firmware. Any chance you would be up to posting your -IT firmware, so I can flash that ? I would be really grateful. I am intending to use the card as a ZFS / Jbod host, and don't need the extra utility of -IR. Plus I am not sure the -IR supports the full 256 devices that -IT does.
Have you tried flashing the H200 with stock LSI firmware? I don't think anyone has confirmed if this works or not yet. I ordered one from ebay but it's coming in from Israel so I probably won't get it for a few more weeks.
 

DJ_Datte

New Member
Apr 12, 2011
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Have you tried flashing the H200 with stock LSI firmware? I don't think anyone has confirmed if this works or not yet. I ordered one from ebay but it's coming in from Israel so I probably won't get it for a few more weeks.
Yes. But it's tricky as hell. You can't flash the Dell-IR fw with LSI-IT directly and make it work. I have found a Dell IT firmware (Using the firmware from their 6GBPS SAS HBA update file). You also can't flash the LSI fw if you do a erase on the Card (then when flashing the LSI fw, you get a "flashing MfgPage2, validating failed, erroring out". What you can is flash Dell-iR > Dell-IT, then Dell-IT>Lsi-IT. It works. But I am getting a strange bug, when the disks get detected, and it prints its "LSI MPT2 Bios Installed" or some such, computer freezes there. I don't know if its a M/B issue, or it is the fact that the LSI IT firmware isn't "perfectly" compatible. But I assume the Dell-IT firmware will be good enough (will have to confirm that the Dell-IT firmware does not have the freeze, if it does, I may assume its the M/B and test another M/B).

I can say I was scared at first when I couldnt reflash the LSI firmware after erasing the card in DOS, as LSI States "If you reboot at this point, your card will be ruined". Which was not true. The card fails, but the flash tool works fine to detect the card, so you can continue experimenting even after reboot. All my flashing is done in DOS from a booted USB stick.

Quite a fun ride, after the scare.
 

DJ_Datte

New Member
Apr 12, 2011
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Some extra info regarding Perc H200A / LSI SAS 2008:

if you want to flash directly from Dell software to LSI software -IT, you have to flash with a older flasher (the one in the dell packages works), as the newer LSI sas2flsh does not work. The LSI 9211-8i has a problem that it does not work as a boot hba (if it has configured boot bios, it hangs, but it does not if you have it disabled, and only use it as pure controller).
 

zicoz

Member
Jan 7, 2011
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Is it possible to change the x8st3-f to IT-firmware?

edit:
Turns out all I had to do was to remove a jumper.
 
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DJ_Datte

New Member
Apr 12, 2011
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It's the same chip, any of those would work. the L4 is a 4port card, the LP is just "low profile". All of them are likely the same actual firmware.
 

Metaluna

Member
Dec 30, 2010
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This is probably old news to most of you, but after applying a bit of Google-fu, I was able to track down the IT firmware for the Dell PERC H200 (actually the "6Gpbs SAS HBA", which I think has external ports and IT firmware, but is otherwise identical to the H200)

http://tinyurl.com/42a9rcz

Scroll about halfway down the page until you see the "SAS Non-RAID Controllers" drop-down menu. There are both driver and firmware packages for the 6Gbps SAS HBA. The regular H200 firmware is under the "SAS RAID Controllers" category.

The included .bat file will not recognize the H200. I needed to run the included sas2flsh manually with the "-o" option to get the IT firmware on my card, but otherwise did not need to erase the firmware or anything scary like that.

The card came right up under SE11. No need to install any drivers. Next I'll try it with FreeBSD 8.2.

P.S. The Dell site sucks for finding firmware. You can't search directly for a particular adapter. You have to know which Dell servers come configured with that adapter as an option (e.g. PowerEdge T710), then search for that model number, (preferably with a service tag that includes the right adapter) and go from there.
 

DJ_Datte

New Member
Apr 12, 2011
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Yep, thats what I did. But I then went further and flashed the pure LSI -IT fw. But I have the 6GBPS firmware as backup for future uses.

Cheers for confirmation.
 

ubiquityman

New Member
Mar 18, 2011
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I'm looking at a used IBM SAS PCIe CONTROLLER 25R8071. It's listed as based on the LSI SAS3444E. It shows 64-bit drivers for Server 2008, but I'm wondering if it is supported under Win 7 64-bit.

Does anyone know?
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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I'm looking at a used IBM SAS PCIe CONTROLLER 25R8071. It's listed as based on the LSI SAS3444E. It shows 64-bit drivers for Server 2008, but I'm wondering if it is supported under Win 7 64-bit.

Does anyone know?
I don't know for sure, but Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are essentially the same code base. Odds are very high that a 2008 x64 driver would work fine in Windows 7 x64, but YMMV.
 

ubiquityman

New Member
Mar 18, 2011
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Thanks for the info.
The drives I'm going to connect are all SATA II. (No need for SATA III)
I ended up getting a HP 431103-001 (LSI SAS3041E)

I'm wondering:

1. Can I connect optical drives to this, or only HDs?
2. Since this card is not PCI-e 2.0, on the ASUS P8B WS, is there a particular slot I should use if I plan to have 2 video cards in Crossfire in addition to this SAS card?
 

vv111y

Member
May 6, 2011
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Niagara Falls, Canada
Hi,

What's the cheapest SAS2008 card that's compatible with both HP SAS expander and can be flashed to IT mode (this will be for OI ZFS build)? I understand the IBM M1015 can't be flashed to IT mode and so won't play well with OI+ZFS, right?

Thanks
 

Metaluna

Member
Dec 30, 2010
64
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Hi,

What's the cheapest SAS2008 card that's compatible with both HP SAS expander and can be flashed to IT mode (this will be for OI ZFS build)? I understand the IBM M1015 can't be flashed to IT mode and so won't play well with OI+ZFS, right?

Thanks
That would probably be either the Dell PERC H200 or Supermicro AOC-USAS2-L8e, though I'm not sure about the expander part.

Both cards have advantages and disadvantages. The Supermicro I think can be flashed with stock LSI IT firmware, but it is a UIO card which means you will have to remove or mod the bracket to fit it in a normal PCIe/ATX case. The Dell is a regular PCIe card but you can't flash it with stock LSI firmware without jumping through some hoops. Dell has their own IT firmware which appears to work okay, if you can find it.

The Supermicro costs less than the Dell when bought new, however you may be able to find nearly new "pulled" Dells on eBay for cheap. I got one for around $100, which is a bit less than the Supermicro.
 
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The Supermicro I think can be flashed with stock LSI IT firmware, but it is a UIO card which means you will have to remove or mod the bracket to fit it in a normal PCIe/ATX case.
I believe a standard full height bracket will fit fine on these cards and put it in the right position (UIO is basically ISA orientation) - brackets can be bought from Mouser and similar places (Keystone/Keyelco part# 9203, + 4-40 screws)
 

SebastianMWS

New Member
May 7, 2011
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Greetings everyone,

New »kid one the block«, joining this forum to take part in this particular thread, at least for the time being.

I'm considering to purchase a basic but reliable SAS HBA (as in proven HW/FW) for my new Linux build (OpenSUSE or Fedora). One of the most appealing choices for the planned Linux software RAID seem to be LSI SAS1068E based HBA - IBM 25R8060/8071, which is essentially LSI SAS3444E (resembles SAS3041E-R in appearance, with an added external SAS connector).

The original LSI 3444E card seems to quite an »elusive bird«. Attempting to learn more about it on LSI site doesn’t get you far; there's a Product Brief PDF document (marked â€PRELIMINARYâ€) available for download, it is listed in LSI User’s Guide (â€PCI Express to 3.0-Gb/s SAS Host Bus Adaptersâ€), but there’s no other LSI resource available for it, like OS drivers, BIOS & Firmware downloads etc, as they are for every other past and present LSI controller.

It seems like this HBA was never officially released as LSI 3444E HBA for retail market, only as IBM OEM product. Firmware and BIOS packages apper to be available for rebadged 25R8060/8071 on IBM web site, though I was unable to download any file from their download page, like v2.7 BIOS/Firmware Update files. All I get is the 404 NOT FOUND message:

“The requested URL /ibmdl/pub/ecc/sar/CMA/XSA/ibm_fw_mptsas_sash was not found on this serverâ€

Even if I was able to download IBM’s BIOS/FW updates, I really don’t want to depend on proprietary firmware of any kind (it’s just not future-proof), but the question is – were there ever the original LSI Firmware and BIOS files for the 3444E HBA available, and where on earth I’m supposed to find them ?

I do intend to poke LSI and IBM Tech Support about this, but I’d rather not be overly optimistic.

Thank you in advance !

Sebastian
 

SebastianMWS

New Member
May 7, 2011
26
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Bumping the thread with my own reply;

I sent my queries to both, IBM and LSI Tech Support, and to IBM forum in addition. Will keep you posted if I hear from anyone.

Patrick,

If I'm not mistaken you asked people reading this thread to provide you an information about LSI SAS1068E I/O controller chip. Well, the »dinner is served«:

SAS1068E belongs to ARM9 Processor Family, built around ARM9TDMI processor. The model corresponding to SAS1068E is ARM966E-S processor (EOL, you have to use the Search option). Loads of documents are available for download, so feel free to dig in ;-)

FOLLOW UP: LSI 3444E is not the only “odd-ball†1068E based HBA that never lived to see the light on retail market as original LSI product. LSI made another 3Gb/s HBA for IBM, on the outside literally identical 44E8700/8701, which bears an LSI designation 3445E-R (3444E with added RAID 0,1,1E and JBOD).

Kind regards,

Sebastian