9.3.1 Update with alert Firmware version 16 does not match driver version 20 for /dev/mps0

[cyberjock]

*I* am unaware of any performance problems with SATA or SAS with 20.00.02 that was fixed in 20.00.04. In fact, I'm not aware of any performance problems in any 20.00.xx.xx versions.

 

[j_r0dd]

*I* am unaware of any performance problems with SATA or SAS with 20.00.02 that was fixed in 20.00.04. In fact, I'm not aware of any performance problems in any 20.00.xx.xx versions.

When I was first communicating with ASRock they did say there were performance issues with P20 firmware. No details were given on which version or what the issue was.

 

[RAurelian]

I will also chime in with the fact that I too had great experience with SuperMicro support (replies in under 15 minutes or less and very useful). I too need a P20 firmware for a SM AOC-S2308L-L8E HBA and they quickly supplied a link to download v20.00.02.00 from them. They said they do not have any ETA on the v20.00.04.00 firmware, but I can try v20.00.04.00 directly from Avago: http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i#downloads

If I had no choice, I would have gone with their 20.00.02 version, but since they said I can try the 20.00.04 version from Avago, now I am undecided :)

Apart from losing branding on the HBA card, are there any other risks if I flash the Avago firmware?

 

[RAurelian]

Update: went ahead and updated my SM AOC-S2308L-L8E HBA to the latest v20.00.04.00 firmware from Avago as suggested by SuperMicro Support and everything went clean and painless (just ran 'sas2flash -c 0 -f 9207-8.bin -b mptsas2.rom'). I`ve got no issues so far, so lets hope everything is good.

 

[MartynW]

I too emailed Support@supermicro.com and got a reply the next business day.

This was his reply

To inform you that the 20.00.04.00 firmware for this 2308 controller has not been officially release and it is still under beta stages. You can try it out at your own risk if you would like to but we’re not guaranteed if it would work or not and there might be a compatibility issue and will not responsible for any issues that might occurred. The firmware can be downloaded under this link:

Hmm, ... what to do? I guess the more people ask, the quicker they may get the prod version tested and released?

They sent me links to their private ftp site, plus a username and password.

The release notes are as follows

Code:

---------------------------------------------
SAS2308IT Controller Firmware Release Note
---------------------------------------------


Firmware Version: 20.00.04.00
NVDATA Version: 14.01.10.01
OPROM Version: 7.39.00.00


Firmware Update History
-------------------------
1. Persistent bit off
2. Fix PCIe link timeout
3. Fix NCQ I/O error messages


How to Flash Firmware
-------------------------
option 1: boot into DOS, run SMC2308T.bat
option 2: boot into UEFI, run SMC2308T.NSH

---------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2015, Super Micro Computer. Inc, All rights reserved

 

[fx24]

Supermicro X10SL7-F

Avago 9207-8i P20 (v20.00.04.00) installed like a breeze for my onboard HBA.

 

[Hobbel]

Hmm, ... what to do? I guess the more people ask, the quicker they may get the prod version tested and released?

If you want to run your controller with the original "branded" firmwre, than you probably should wait for the official release. I'm confused about the different NVDATA versions around the 20.00.04... But before flashing the stock Avago firmware I will hold back the FreeNAS update until Supermicro releases its firmware for the AOC-2308L-L8E.

 

[DaveFL]

Can someone DM me a link to this firmware. Need the card version, not the onboard.

 

[Xelas]

I had just upgraded the firmware to 20.002.00 blah blah last week, so this thread was an unpleasant surprise.

I was tired, brave, and stupid, and the system itself is a PITA to get to, so I flashed the on-board 2308 on my X10Sl7-F via SSH in Freenas, but I stupidly (I was tired, OK!?) put SAS2FLASH and the firmware on a directory on the pool attached to the adapter. I used the sas2flash utility and the firmware from Avago's website (http://www.avagotech.com/support/download-search - 6Gb/s SAS HBA, 9207-8e)
Did I also mention that my FreeNAS is a VM in ESXi, with the controller in pass-through?
Anyway - the firmware installed great, but then the whole shebang locked up solid during the "Resetting Adapter..." stage. I waited for 15 minutes, then hard-rebooted the system via ESXi.
I did stop the crashplan service, and stopped all sharing services beforehand, so the system was pretty much quiescent before the update.
Everything came back up perfectly fine, scrub is clean, no data lost.
It probably would have been fine if I'd mounted another drive and done it from there, and not from the pool!

I DO have complete and verified backups of all my data, so I'm not totally crazy!

TL;DR - Don't do the flash from Freenas when the firmware files are on the pool itself. This was not intentional on my part, and I'll never do it this way again!

 

[9C1 Newbee]

...I'll never do it this way again!

But it makes you feel alive,doesn't it?

 

[Xelas]

But it makes you feel alive,doesn't it?

Yeah - some go wingsuit flying...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urw5Vr02bYo
... and other idiots (like me) update SAS firmware dangerously. I did need a beer afterwards.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Yeah - some go wingsuit flying...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urw5Vr02bYo.....

According to cyberjock, that is the equivalent of running non-ECC ram.

 

[AndreStarTrek]

But it makes you feel alive,doesn't it?

LOL

 

[moon]

A couple of days ago I've got an email from Supermicro's support confirming that their 20.00.04 firmware for LSI 2308 is officially released.
They sent me a link and log in to download it and said it will also be available to download from the usual location (ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/) in a couple of days.

Hope to see some feedback from freenas users soon.

 

[attilahooper]

moon, your embedded link has typo http://
fw hasn't made it there yet
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/

 

[TXAG26]

I hope ph20.00.04 for the 2308 posts soon, along with ph9 for the LSI 3008 chipset. I've been waiting for SM's firmware before upgrading anything.

 

[dfsooner]

I'm happy that others have managed to get to P20 firmware without incident. However, I have not been so fortunate.

I have two freenas file servers with 24 disks each. Both use an LSI 9211-8i controller along with an Intel SAS Expander. On has an ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 Motherboard with an Intel i5 processor. Updating to P20 firmware on the LSI card rendered the server virtually unusable. I have seen other references to problems with this motherboard and P20 firmware so I just went back to P16 and everything works fine. The other system was usable after the upgrade but I was getting so many errors that it too became scary so I had to revert back to P16 as well. That system has an Asus Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard with an AMD Phenom II X4 840 Processor.

I am of the opinion that there are indeed problems with either the LSI/Avago P20 firmware or the drivers.

 

[cyberjock]

I am of the opinion that there are indeed problems with either the LSI/Avago P20 firmware or the drivers.

Considering that TrueNAS users are having zero problems with the P20 firmwares and drivers (and P20 has been tested at iXsystems for almost a year), I highly doubt its a firmware/driver issue and more of an incompatibility with your systems. Neither of your systems use components we recommend (we don't recommend desktop systems like a Z77 because of potential conflicts and incompatibility with hardware and we don't recommend AMD at all) so I tend to chauk it up to your choice of hardware.

 

[PenalunWil]

I've up-dated my X10SL7-F Mobo's LSI 2308 Firmware to 20.00.02.00 and I'm running FreeNAS 9.3.1 with no problems. However I'm watching "ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/" for the 20.00.04.00 up-date on a daily basis however it's still not there.

 

[Ericloewe]

Considering that TrueNAS users are having zero problems with the P20 firmwares and drivers (and P20 has been tested at iXsystems for almost a year), I highly doubt its a firmware/driver issue and more of an incompatibility with your systems. Neither of your systems use components we recommend (we don't recommend desktop systems like a Z77 because of potential conflicts and incompatibility with hardware and we don't recommend AMD at all) so I tend to chauk it up to your choice of hardware.

I'd add that, for consumer boards, validating stuff like SAS controllers is a very low priority. Some boards have been known to behave erratically with anything but a graphics card in the first PCI-e x16 slot.