M1015 Question

[Mr_N]

I finally got my NAS build going and successfully flashed the IBM card into IT mode using version 15 of the 2118it.bin, and noticed later the lsi website has version 17 up there, so my question is, should i go ahead and put v17 on or will i not noticed any benefits?
I'd rather keep the flashing to a minimum so i dont break something :)

 

[cyberjock]

Ideally you want to stick with the same version as the driver version for the OS you are using. Currently FreeNAS uses v14. Usually if your firmware version is newer than the driver things will be okay. But don't ever let the driver version be higher than the firmware version.

 

[Mr_N]

ok thanks, so do the driver versions in freenas get updated often?

 

[cyberjock]

Eh, so-so. Basically with each FreeNAS update you should check the release notes to see if its been updated.

 

[dlavigne]

And if you're impatient, creating a feature request at bugs.freenas.org lets the devs know that a newer driver is available. If you create a request, post the issue number here.

 

[cyberjock]

And if you're impatient, creating a feature request at bugs.freenas.org lets the devs know that a newer driver is available. If you create a request, post the issue number here.

I already did that months ago... still open.

Ticket#2400

 

[jgreco]

The LSI driver in FreeBSD was updated a few months back, but it isn't clear if there's a good reason to upgrade this. The OP's question was about the firmware, not the driver, and historically the answer has been "use matching driver<->firmware, but if not, then use newer firmware". Updating the driver would imply that all M1015 users would need to update the firmware on their cards, which is potentially disruptive. I don't recall hearing of any issues with the phase 14 driver/firmware, so any updates should probably be done thoughtfully. The code provided by LSI appears to include a different set of changes, so someone with some familiarity with the history of the driver will probably want to address this.

 

[cyberjock]

I agree with one exception. I don't expect companies to list every bug they fix in their change log. Just look at the release notes for FreeNAS. They may do major commits on every aspect of FreeNAS, but the actual release notes will only cover stuff that are deemed to be "big ticket" items. With that in mind, I prefer to stick with the most up to date unless there's evidence that a particular version shouldn't be trusted.

 

[jgreco]

"Mandatory firmware upgrade" strikes me as a "big ticket" item. Just sayin'. If they finally managed to get the firmware flash tool into FreeNAS, then that'd be awesome.

 

[cyberjock]

Well, I could argue that FreeNAS isn't a "mandatory upgrade" either. :P

 

[Mr_N]

ok i think i'll just stick to v15 and when FreeNAS updates the driver in the future, look into reflashing then.

 

[cyberjock]

Not a bad choice at all!

 

[raidflex]

I have not had any issues with v17 currently.