Supermicro onboard LSI3008 from IR to IT mode

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EluRex

Active Member
Apr 28, 2015
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Los Angeles, CA
Supermicro X11 or H11 onboard LSI 3008 are shipped with IR mode firmware ph.10. After few email exchange with Supermicro Support, here is the summary,
  1. its their official advisory that user can invalid their warranty if they want to flash the onboard LSI 3008 controller firmware to IT Mode.
  2. Supermicro also said the Chip does not support IT mode at all
  3. If user want to upgrade their onboard LSI firmware, it is best to RMA back to supermicro to do so.
This does not make sense at all, although my boards are not yet in production, but there is still needs to update the firmware to match the latest driver.

After reading many website/forum/blog here is my way to flash LSI 3008 Supermicro onboard controller using FreeDOS (sorry I have not yet to find out how to use uefi which should be much easier)

DO NOT REBOOT between step 1~8, you may brick your motherboard. Use at your own risk.
  1. Use RUIFUS or download freedos 11 live cd iso to make a bootable usb disk

  2. Download latest lsi9300-8i firmware my example is ph15 and extract the archive to usb disk you just made

  3. Boot up the system using the usb disk

  4. Make a record of existing sas address by running
    sas3flsh.exe -list

  5. Erase existing lsi controller firmware & bios by running
    sas3flsh.exe -o -e 7

  6. update new firmware & bios
    sas3flsh.exe -o -f sas930~1.bin -b mptsas3.rom

  7. update uefi bsd version bios
    sas3flsh.exe -b mpt3x64.rom

  8. set sas address
    sas3flsh.exe -o -sasadd 50030480XXXXXXX
  9. reboot
Before Flashing - IR mode firmware @ ph10
29216717_10215286971078095_249502291150574465_n.jpg

After Flashing - IT mode firmware @ ph15
29257815_10215286975238199_315808815167502341_n.jpg

I am not able to use the LSI3008 firmware provided by Supermicro FTP site, the sas3flsh.exe will complain NVDATA Image does not match controller subsystem ID as following screenshot
1521183648865.jpg
 
Last edited:

EffrafaxOfWug

Radioactive Member
Feb 12, 2015
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Curious, as when I was mulling buying an SM board with the 3008 chip in it, their firmware bundle comes with both the IT and IR firmware included;
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/3008/Firmware/

From the KB of LSI/avago/broadcom/whoever they are when you read this, this is something that might be fixable using a newer version of sas3flsh (although this particular instance is talking about IT -> IR rather than vice versa);
Code:
*When flashing an 12G HBA (SAS 9300 family) with IR mode firmware provided in the same package, named 9311, SAS3Flash returns the following error:
 
ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Subsystem ID!
ERROR: No compatible NVDATA Image(s) found!
Firmware Image Validation Failed!
 
Resolution:
Using DOS or EFI SAS3Flash version 10.00.00.01 or higher with following command string

sas3flsh –o –e -6
sas3flsh –o –f <firmware> -b <bios> -nossid
 

EluRex

Active Member
Apr 28, 2015
218
78
28
Los Angeles, CA
Curious, as when I was mulling buying an SM board with the 3008 chip in it, their firmware bundle comes with both the IT and IR firmware included;
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/3008/Firmware/

From the KB of LSI/avago/broadcom/whoever they are when you read this, this is something that might be fixable using a newer version of sas3flsh (although this particular instance is talking about IT -> IR rather than vice versa);
Code:
*When flashing an 12G HBA (SAS 9300 family) with IR mode firmware provided in the same package, named 9311, SAS3Flash returns the following error:
 
ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Subsystem ID!
ERROR: No compatible NVDATA Image(s) found!
Firmware Image Validation Failed!
 
Resolution:
Using DOS or EFI SAS3Flash version 10.00.00.01 or higher with following command string

sas3flsh –o –e -6
sas3flsh –o –f <firmware> -b <bios> -nossid
I have tried sas3flsh –o –f <firmware> -b <bios> -nossid but getting no where... but if using LSI/AVAGO/Broadcom website firmware... you don't need to use the -nossid switch
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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I am not able to use the LSI3008 firmware provided by Supermicro FTP site, the sas3flsh.exe will complain NVDATA Image does not match controller subsystem ID as following screenshot
I remember using the files downloaded from the SM site. The zip file included sas3flash and a batch file with all the commands.
 

EluRex

Active Member
Apr 28, 2015
218
78
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Los Angeles, CA
I remember using the files downloaded from the SM site. The zip file included sas3flash and a batch file with all the commands.
in that bat... the code are as follow

Code:
@echo off
sas3flsh -o -e 7
cls
sas3flsh -f 3008IT15.rom
sas3flsh -b mptsas3.rom
sas3flsh -b mpt3x64.rom
cls
sas3flsh -o -sasaddhi 5003048
tried it but didn't work
 

EluRex

Active Member
Apr 28, 2015
218
78
28
Los Angeles, CA
Also it can be done using builtin uefi shell
  1. F11 invoke boot manager and select built in uefi shell

  2. Download latest lsi9300-8i firmware my example is ph15 and extract the archive to an usb disk with sas3flash.efi

  3. in shield, input fs0:

  4. Make a record of existing sas address by running
    sas3flash.efi -list

  5. Erase existing lsi controller firmware & bios by running
    sas3flash.efi -o -e 7

  6. update new firmware & bios
    sas3flash.efi -o -f sas9300.15.bin -b mptsas3.rom

  7. update uefi bsd version bios
    sas3flash.efi -b mpt3x64.rom

  8. set sas address
    sas3flash.efi -o -sasadd 50030480XXXXXXX
  9. reboot
 
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Jeff Robertson

Active Member
Oct 18, 2016
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Chico, CA
Also it can be done using builtin uefi shell
  1. F11 invoke boot manager and select built in uefi shell

  2. Download latest lsi9300-8i firmware my example is ph15 and extract the archive to an usb disk with sas3flash.efi

  3. in shield, input fs0:

  4. Make a record of existing sas address by running
    sas3flash.efi -list

  5. Erase existing lsi controller firmware & bios by running
    sas3flash.efi -o -e 7

  6. update new firmware & bios
    sas3flash.efi -o -f sas9300.15.bin -b mptsas3.rom

  7. update uefi bsd version bios
    sas3flash.efi -b mpt3x64.rom

  8. set sas address
    sas3flash.efi -o -sasadd 50030480XXXXXXX
  9. reboot
Thank you! This helped immensely, it didn't occur to me Supermicro would lock the ability to change to IT mode which is a requirement for my project.
 

Myth

Member
Feb 27, 2018
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Los Angeles
Yes other users and people have been able to flash to IT mode. What is the difference between IT mode and IR mode?
 

cesmith9999

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2013
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IT = Target mode (HBA) - good for Storage Spaces Direct and ZFS - Software RAID

IR - Raid Mode - Traditional storage redundancy - WBC/ HW RAID

Chris
 

Myth

Member
Feb 27, 2018
148
7
18
Los Angeles
IT = Target mode (HBA) - good for Storage Spaces Direct and ZFS - Software RAID

IR - Raid Mode - Traditional storage redundancy - WBC/ HW RAID

Chris
I have the H11 Motherboard, but when I plug in drives to the SAS ports they just show up in the disk partition manager in windows. I thought it was just a pass-through. But you are saying it's a HW RAID, how?
 

workingnonstop

Active Member
Feb 24, 2016
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I just updated the onboard LSI in an Asrock D1541D4U-2T8R using the instructions in the first post. Thanks! :)
 

Brain2000

New Member
Jun 16, 2020
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FYI, when you add your SAS address, do NOT put the SAS address of the expander or you will have errors because there will be a duplicate address conflict, and it will just hang the 3008 at initializing, then eventually give a message that it failed. There IS a SAS address sticker on the LSI card itself, but you need to unplug the SAS connectors in order to even see it (yes, they hid it). Once you put that address in, things will work again.
 

986box

Active Member
Oct 14, 2017
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If it’s boot up with chip is in fault state error.

Firmware fault error 06. Any idea how to fix.
 

Woogz

New Member
May 8, 2021
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When I try to do this using a DOS bootable drive I get the error "failed to initialize pal" so I want to try UEFI instead but I can't figure out how for the life of me to create a UEFI bootable USB. When I use Rufus it makes me choose an ISO but when I create an ISO using 3 or 4 different programs from the contents of the UEFI folder from the firmware I downloaded from Supermicro I get an error about it not being supported or it not being a bootable ISO.

I'm happy to use UEFI but I can't figure out how to make a UEFI bootable thumb drive given what I have.
 

mmo

Well-Known Member
Sep 17, 2016
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When I try to do this using a DOS bootable drive I get the error "failed to initialize pal" so I want to try UEFI instead but I can't figure out how for the life of me to create a UEFI bootable USB. When I use Rufus it makes me choose an ISO but when I create an ISO using 3 or 4 different programs from the contents of the UEFI folder from the firmware I downloaded from Supermicro I get an error about it not being supported or it not being a bootable ISO.

I'm happy to use UEFI but I can't figure out how to make a UEFI bootable thumb drive given what I have.
you don't need to create a bootable disk for UEFI. You copy the files to a usb drive and boot to UEFI shell from BIOS boot menus. You can find the sample flash steps below.

 

Woogz

New Member
May 8, 2021
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you don't need to create a bootable disk for UEFI. You copy the files to a usb drive and boot to UEFI shell from BIOS boot menus. You can find the sample flash steps below.

Thanks after some back and forth I got it to boot up. For those who find this thread later I followed step 4 from this link to make a bootable uefi thumb drive. (you have to create some directories and download the shell.efi file and rename it a few times.)






Once I had the UEFI boot working, the console was showing "Shell". I ran the efi equivalent of a batch ( by just typing "SMC3008T.NSH" and hitting enter) per the supermicro instructions and it hit me with "Controller is not operational. A firmware download is required."

So I enter 3008it16.rom and it says "ERROR: could not open file: 3008it16.rom"


EDIT: Nevermind. I had to enter "fs0:" first to get to the right directory. No idea how the NSH file ran enough to erase the card but not enough to find the new firmware. All's well that ends well.
 
Last edited:

eptesicus

Active Member
Jun 25, 2017
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Resurrecting the dead here...

I have a new 4-node server chassis that has BPN-ADP-8S3008-1UF RAID controllers in them. However, they've been flashed to IT mode already. That's ok for 3 of the nodes, as I'm going to run them in vSAN, but the 4th node needs RAID capabilities.

I'm trying to find the IT and IR firmwares for this card. Can anyone guide me where to find them? I've been looking on the Broadcom site without luck. Also, is the process above the same for flashing an IT card back to IR?