LSI 2008 Live Firmware Update

[wpirobotbuilder]

This stems from this thread, but I figured that necroing a thread from 8 months ago wouldn't be appreciated.

The short of it is that I purchased a PIKE 2008 (basically an LSI 2008 on an ASUS proprietary interface). I did so because my motherboard has 8 ports on it that will activate when it's installed, saving me valuable PCI slot space.

I'd like to update the firmware on the card to v16, since I get that little alert that says the driver and the firmware don't match. Do I basically run the sas2flash command on the live system (with drives attached) and reboot?

Code:

sas2flash -o -f whatever.bin

Side question: Can you run two LSI cards in the same system, one in IR mode and one in IT mode?

I am running FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201501162230. The hardware I'm using is:

ASUS Z8NR-D12
2x Intel x5650
96GB Kingston ECC
Intel x520-DA2 (10GbE )
Intel 82545EM (1 GbE)
ASUS PIKE 2008

The output of lspci:

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# lspci | grep LSI
00:10.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1030 PCI-X Fusion-MPT Dual Ultra320 SCSI (rev 01)
03:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)
[root@freenas] ~#

The output of sas2flash:

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# sas2flash -list
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 14.00.00.00 (2012.07.04)
Copyright (c) 2008-2012 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

        Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)

        Controller Number              : 0
        Controller                     : SAS2008(B2)
        PCI Address                    : 00:03:00:00
        SAS Address                    : 5000ea6-3-2005-7300
        NVDATA Version (Default)       : 0d.43.00.00
        NVDATA Version (Persistent)    : 0d.43.00.00
        Firmware Product ID            : 0x2713 (IR)
        Firmware Version               : 13.00.57.00
        NVDATA Vendor                  : LSI
        NVDATA Product ID              : Undefined
        BIOS Version                   : 07.25.00.00
        UEFI BSD Version               : N/A
        FCODE Version                  : N/A
        Board Name                     : PIKE 2008
        Board Assembly                 : N/A
        Board Tracer Number            : N/A

        Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
        Exiting SAS2Flash.
[root@freenas] ~#

The firmware is set to IR mode, but I didn't have to create a virtual disk to pass it through, and the system has access to SMART data. It's been working fine for several weeks now. The reason being that the PIKE card passes the drives through as JBOD if they aren't configured in RAID (source)

Code:

[root@freenas] ~# smartctl /dev/da1 -a
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p8 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate NAS HDD
Device Model:     ST3000VN000-1H4167
Serial Number:    S300PLS6
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 074aff102
Firmware Version: SC44
User Capacity:    3,000,592,982,016 bytes [3.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5900 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Sun Apr  5 12:36:58 2015 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                                        was never started.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (  128) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        No Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 416) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x10bd) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   118   100   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       175638408
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   092   091   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       81
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   068   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       6493280
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   093   093   000    Old_age   Always       -       6244
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       81
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   068   051   045    Old_age   Always       -       32 (Min/Max 21/36)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       58
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       81
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   032   049   000    Old_age   Always       -       32 (0 17 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

[root@freenas] ~#

 

[Ericloewe]

This stems from this thread, but I figured that necroing a thread from 8 months ago wouldn't be appreciated.

The short of it is that I purchased a PIKE 2008 (basically an LSI 2008 on an ASUS proprietary interface). I did so because my motherboard has 8 ports on it that will activate when it's installed, saving me valuable PCI slot space.

I'd like to update the firmware on the card to v16, since I get that little alert that says the driver and the firmware don't match. Do I basically run the sas2flash command on the live system (with drives attached) and reboot?

Code:

sas2flash -o -f whatever.bin

I'd personally avoid messing with the firmware while the card is serving a pool. If it's not too much trouble, I'd also disconnect the drives for extra safety.

Side question: Can you run two LSI cards in the same system, one in IR mode and one in IT mode?

Sure. Why would you want to do it?

There's really no advantage to IR mode, but it opens up a few failure scenarios which can be completely avoided by flashing IT mode.

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

I'd personally avoid messing with the firmware while the card is serving a pool. If it's not too much trouble, I'd also disconnect the drives for extra safety.



Sure. Why would you want to do it?

There's really no advantage to IR mode, but it opens up a few failure scenarios which can be completely avoided by flashing IT mode.

The reason is that the LSI card is ASUS proprietary, and I can't just download the driver from the LSI website. Since the PIKE card is technically operating in IR mode, but passing unconfigured drives through correctly as JBOD drives, I'd like to leave it alone if at all possible. The question was posed because I may want to add more drives in the future, at which point I'd get an M1015 and flash it to IT mode, so I'd have an IR and an IT card running together.

 

[BigDave]

The reason is that the LSI card is ASUS proprietary, and I can't just download the driver from the LSI website. Since the PIKE card is technically operating in IR mode, but passing unconfigured drives through correctly as JBOD drives, I'd like to leave it alone if at all possible.

I'm not saying the Asus card will not work, but I can say with conviction that it is not recommended.
Freenas needs (HBA/passthrough) direct access to the disks, and afaik, any other mode of interface is a risk.

 

[marbus90]

You don't need to download a driver from the LSI website. You need to download the firmware. Most likely the PIKE card can be flashed to IT mode as well. You usually cannot brick a LSI based card beyond repair.

 

[Ericloewe]

Unless the motherboard actively enforces a list of acceptable cards, yours will work fine even if "crossflashed" (it's not really a crossflash in this case).

Dell cards that work like this typically present themselves with a Dell Vendor ID, not as standard LSI cards.

The flashing procedure will almost certainly work, so you only need to figure out if the motherboard is doing underhanded things.

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

I'm not saying the Asus card will not work, but I can say with conviction that it is not recommended.
Freenas needs (HBA/passthrough) direct access to the disks, and afaik, any other mode of interface is a risk.

Agreed, but that doesn't appear to be the case with the PIKE card -- FreeNAS does have direct access to these disks, even with the IR firmware on the card, as long as they are not configured in a RAID configuration (source, other source). ASUS says this themselves in an FAQ (linked previously).

The reason I wanted to do the firmware flash at all was to get it up to v16, as it is currently at v13.

The reason I was asking about flashing IT mode was because I came across a review of the LSI 9207 which said that you cannot run both an LSI card in IR and a card in IT mode in the same system. However, I was not able to verify this anywhere else, which is why I asked.

Unless the motherboard actively enforces a list of acceptable cards, yours will work fine even if "crossflashed" (it's not really a crossflash in this case).

Dell cards that work like this typically present themselves with a Dell Vendor ID, not as standard LSI cards.

The flashing procedure will almost certainly work, so you only need to figure out if the motherboard is doing underhanded things.

I'll check with ASUS customer support about upgrading the firmware.

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

Also, this article says that sas2flash cannot convert from IR to IT mode, sas2flsh must be used instead.

 

[BigDave]

I think that what you are going with here (pike card) will be pretty much experimental. I did a search
for the word pike on the forum and only found one other thread! The thread contained no useful info.
I ask that you please keep us informed with your experiences regarding this hardware combination
and I wish you good luck!

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

I think that what you are going with here (pike card) will be pretty much experimental. I did a search
for the word pike on the forum and only found one other thread! The thread contained no useful info.
I ask that you please keep us informed with your experiences regarding this hardware combination
and I wish you good luck!

Yeah I knew it would be a long shot from the start. I've had FreeNAS running with this card for about a year without difficulties and I've done drive swaps between this controller and the motherboard SATA controllers before without any difficulties. Will definitely update if ASUS comes back with a useful answer.

 

[Ericloewe]

Also, this article says that sas2flash cannot convert from IR to IT mode, sas2flsh must be used instead.

That's odd, I'm fairly certain the UEFI flasher works fine between IT and IR mode.

 

[cyberjock]

The Pike card should work fine, if you can upgrade the firmware. That's the question.

Asus is the *only* place you should be getting firmware for it. So unless they have P16 firmware, you can either flash it with LSI's basic package firmware and hope for the best, or you can get more appropriate hardware like the M1015.

 

[Ellimist]

Is there any update on this? I have a board which supports the PIKE card and would like to use one as well if possible.

 

[BigDave]

@wpirobotbuilder did you ever get this resolved?

 

[wpirobotbuilder]

@wpirobotbuilder did you ever get this resolved?

I did not, but I'm not too fussed about it. The long and the short of it is that the IR vs IT mode shouldn't be an issue, at least according to the iXsystems IT director, because it has an HBA mode and there is no write caching (see http://www.freenas.org/whats-new/20...design-part-i-purpose-and-best-practices.html). The only concern would be the specific revision of the firmware (13 vs 16), and I wonder if I chucked a Windows OS into there that I could use the LSI MegaRAID utility to flash the firmware. ASUS customer support pointed me here -- http://www.asus.com/Server-Workstation/PIKE_2008/HelpDesk_Download/

At some point I might get an M1015 (or equivalent), but given that I have 14 drive ports already, I'm not in any rush to expand.

I originally got the card because I read an article about how the version that I bought was essentially an M1015 running in IT mode (see http://www.sotechdesign.com.au/asus-pike-2008-card-review/). I also didn't want that space on the motherboard to be unused.

 

[Ellimist]

I purchased one of these for my KGPE-D16 and installed it today. I can crossflash to version 16 but not v20 for some reason. Basically if I go to V20 I don't get any drives detected but I do under V16. Its weird.

The crossflash process is same as normal. I wrote it down below anyway.

1) Install Card as per Pike 2008 install manual
NOTE: At this point it is a good time to write down the SAS address of the card as you will need it later.
2) Attach a hard drive to SAS1 on the motherboard
3) Boot Server and press CRTL + C and capture current firmware information for LSI card
4) Boot into Freenas and check that the card works properly before flashing.
NOTE: At this stage if you are using the standard ASUS firmware you should have a mismatch warning
NOTE 2: the card came standard in IR mode
NOTE 3: The hard drive should show up with all its information even with the firmware mismatch
5) Head over to http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-lsi-92xx-firmware-files/ and download the SAS2008 files
6) Download the latest 9211-8I firmware as per the warning requirement in FreeNAS. Currently P20 as of writing
NOTE: P16 is currently the highest version I have tested. P20 currently doesn't work as far as I can tell.
7) Replace the 2118it.bin, 2118ir.bin, mptsas2.rom and mptbios.txt in the extracted files from http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-lsi-92xx-firmware-files/ with the files downloaded from LSI
8) Check the SAS address of the card. This can be found in the bios of the card or on a sticker on the back of the card that you would have written down in step 1
9) Create a bootable USB drive (I used Rufus and FreeDOS) and put it into the FreeNAS box and boot to it.
10) Backup the original boot rom on the controller using the command megarec -readsbr 0 <backup file name>.sbr
11) Follow the rest of the instructions for flashing the controller:
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
<reboot, back to USB stick>
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom (sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin if OptionROM is not needed)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address) - NOTE: I used the entire address of the PIKE card as even the beginning was different.
<reboot>


http://www.unixgr.com/hacking-the-ibm-m1015-a-k-a-lsi-9640-8i-raid-controller/
http://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-lsi-92xx-firmware-files/
https://www.asus.com/Commercial-Servers-Workstations/PIKE_2008/HelpDesk_Manual/

 

[Ellimist]

For others that come upon this thread and want to use this card I now have it working with P20 firmware. I left the rom enabled to check that all drives are detected before booting into freenas. I would recommend that you do this in case you get a missing drive like I did when I was first testing this.

Also it appears SATA 1 drives will not work if you are still using any drives like that.

 

[James S]

Yeah I knew it would be a long shot from the start. I've had FreeNAS running with this card for about a year without difficulties and I've done drive swaps between this controller and the motherboard SATA controllers before without any difficulties. Will definitely update if ASUS comes back with a useful answer.

Hi, to clarify - this means you inserted the pike card, connected the drives and there was no other 'technical' configuration - aside from configuring the volume in the GUI?
I also have an Asus board and am considering using this pike card to expand my pool. I'm looking, though, for the least complex way of doing this.
Thanks for any input.

 

[XO.Joker]

I have an ASUS PIKE 2008 (LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2) Chipset: LSISAS 2008) installed on a ASUS Z9PE-D16 2/L and it is running in IR Mode and FreeNAS 11.1 does see the drives connected just fine as it does act as JBOD as long as you don't configure RAID, but I also want to upgrade the Firmware and switch to IT mode.

[root@freenas ~]# sas2flash -list
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)

Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:02:00:00
SAS Address : 5000ea6-4-8004-3400
NVDATA Version (Default) : 0f.00.00.00
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 0f.00.00.00
Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR)
Firmware Version : 15.00.00.00
NVDATA Vendor : LSI
NVDATA Product ID : Undefined
BIOS Version : 07.29.00.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.23.01.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : PIKE 2008
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A

Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.
[root@freenas ~]#

But I can not find anything searching on the Broadcom site as far as firmware.... I see some links to LSI9211 but can't find it from the Broadcom site to try. Can anybody lead me to where I need to go to get the firmware?

Thank you for any input

Just installed FreeNAS 11.1
ASUS Z9PE-D16 2/L with an ASUS PIKE 2008 6Gps 8 port, adapter is LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2) Chipset: LSISAS 2008
Dual Xeon 2680
64GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC
Norco RPC-4116 Server Case
Corsair HX1000i
6 Western Digital WD80EMAZ 8TB Drives for 48TB
OS is Mirrored on two 128GB Cyro SSDs

 

[danb35]

If it's an OEM board, your best bet would be to get the firmware from the OEM. But failing that, the chip is the same one used in the 9210/9211. You can finding the latest P20 firmware here.