Flashing IT firmware to Dell H200 on X9SCM

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I'm having problems flashing IT firmware to my Dell H200 card on my SuperMicro X9SCM. The card identifies itself as an Internal Tape Adapter instead of a Perc H200. Here's what I've tried:

- Boot to DOS, use LSI's sas2flsh.exe from the P16 firmware to try to erase the firmware. "ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program" http://mycusthelp.info/LSI/_cs/AnswerDetail.aspx?inc=7466 says that motherboards with EFI/UEFI bios have limited optionROM and suggests to use a different motherboard or try the EFI sas2flash.efi utility instead. I don't have any other motherboards available.

- Boot to X9SCM's EFI Shell, use LSI's sas2flash.efi from the Installer P16 for EFI. Successfully erase firmware with "sas2flash -o -e 6", but when I try to write the P16 or P07 firmware 2118it.bin, I end up with a firmware fault, fault code D04. Managed to go back to the Dellized firmware A10. But despite checking that the 6GBPSAS.FW file came from the SAS non-Raid section, a subsequent sas2flash -list reports that the card is in IR mode. I've also tried the Dellized A08 firmware that Stanza recommended here, and still remained in IR mode.

- Attempted to flash the LSI 2118it.bin without first erasing, and it reports that it is unable to flash IT firmware over IR firmware.

- Googled some forum posts which suggest that LSI has removed the ability to cross-flash firmwares in later versions of the sas2flash.efi utility. The P12 version is known to work, but cannot be downloaded from the LSI website any more because it was quarantined by LSI's antivirus. Somebody managed to find the P13 version and posted it on mediafire, but the file is no longer available there. On the LSI website, only P16, P15 and P05 EFI installers are available. P16 and P15 both refuse to cross-flash. P05's sas2flash.efi seems to be too old and has a flashing error.



So I'm currently stuck.

1. Anyone knows why the non-RAID 6GBPSAS.FW flashes successfully but still leaves me with an IR mode controller?

2. Does anyone have a P10-P13 sas2flash.efi, or one that can cross-flash?

3. I was planning to connect individual disks in ZFS format to IT-mode controller, and to use snapraid to generate parity on separate disks. Given that I'm not going to use zfs mirror or zraid modes, would there be any loss if I just left the controller in IR mode and attached JBOD?

Greatly appreciate any suggestions on how to proceed.
 
I had an issue flashing my M1015 on the super micro board - I had to do it on an older dell optiplex.

As for the H200 - I just recently flashed one. It is easiest to use the dell firmware utility before flashing LSI.

I did exactly what is on this website:

Code:
http://forums.servethehome.com/f19/dell-h200-flash-firmware-procedure-dell-servers-467.html

--

Aside from that - If you can get the card in IR then don't risk accidentally making your controller a paper weight. I believe in the IR the drives are just JBOD/ seen attached to a normal HBA by default

I am actually using the IR firmware on the H200 I have no because I wanted to play with the mirror option - but I just need it for an HBA. IR mode I believe will add a few moments to your system boot time as it initializes and prompts you to enter set up. That can be disabled though, I think
 
I started to write up revised instructions for flashing H200/H310 cards but have not had a chance to finish this yet. I use LSI P7 to crossflash which can be downloaded here
 
It may be too late but make sure you read the SAS address from the card before flashing. The Dell cards do not have a sticker with the SAS address.
 
By all accounts, the sas2flsh.exe versions that were posted by stanza and sovking are able to cross-flash. Unfortunately I can't run them in DOS due to the PAL error, and I don't have another motherboard to do the flash on. Thus I'm holding out for a similar EFI version of the utility - someone's gotta be keeping it on their hard disk somewhere :)

mini-me01 said:
It may be too late but make sure you read the SAS address from the card before flashing. The Dell cards do not have a sticker with the SAS address.

Thanks for the tip too mini-me01. So far, I've only done sas2flash -o -e 6. At erase level 6, the SAS address doesn't seem to get wiped. I think the SAS address only gets wiped at level 7, or if using the megarec to write an empty sbr to the m1015 cards? (P.S. I never understood the problem with the SAS address. Even if we can't get back to the original globally unique SAS address, can't we just make up a locally unique SAS address?)
 
Unfortunately it does not. That LSI page has UEFI installers for P5, P8, P9, P15, P16.

P15 and P16 give me the firmware fault or something about mfg page 2.
P8 and P9 do not actually contain the sas2flash.efi file, and instead have a replacement text file saying that the forefront antivirus quarantined it as a suspicious file.
P5 is too old and gives me an error when flashing the firmware.
 
Unfortunately it does not. That LSI page has UEFI installers for P5, P8, P9, P15, P16.

P15 and P16 give me the firmware fault or something about mfg page 2.
P8 and P9 do not actually contain the sas2flash.efi file, and instead have a replacement text file saying that the forefront antivirus quarantined it as a suspicious file.
P5 is too old and gives me an error when flashing the firmware.

I see your dilemma. Why not install Linux and flash from there? You could probably even use a live CD.
 
a live CD should work fine. you should be able to access the HD to get the files for flashing the card, or have them on a USB stick. ive flashed SAS cards, mainbords, videocards, and unlocked encrypted hard drives from live cd's.

also you might try just upgrading to the newest regular firmware from dell for the card. passthrough was available on my cards with out needing to crossflash to the IT firmware.
 
I had an issue flashing my M1015 on the super micro board - I had to do it on an older dell optiplex.

As for the H200 - I just recently flashed one. It is easiest to use the dell firmware utility before flashing LSI.

I did exactly what is on this website:

Code:
http://forums.servethehome.com/f19/dell-h200-flash-firmware-procedure-dell-servers-467.html

--

Aside from that - If you can get the card in IR then don't risk accidentally making your controller a paper weight. I believe in the IR the drives are just JBOD/ seen attached to a normal HBA by default

I am actually using the IR firmware on the H200 I have no because I wanted to play with the mirror option - but I just need it for an HBA. IR mode I believe will add a few moments to your system boot time as it initializes and prompts you to enter set up. That can be disabled though, I think

exactlym H200 -IR with unconfigured drives is true JBOD with passthrough.
H200 is LSI 9211 variant.
H3XX is identical wth IBM M1015.

on linux, I do not need to cross-flash firmware, just use default IR firmware.
the easy way is cross-flash dell HBA 6G SAS(IT) to H200, H3XX should be identical(do not know).

I think, we need to flash to IT when using Open Indiana, and other opensolaris variances due on the driver/kernel modules. where IT is the most reliable on opensolaris.
 
the IR firmware on my dell cards lists passthrough devices in 'non-raid' mode. the hard drive appears as if it was connected to the mainboard. i will happily do some load testing when i have the box built to see if it is stable. and i will be doing at least the base install here fairly soon so i can see how some sort of solaris distro deals with them.

as the hardware is the same, the firmware only enables or disables features. its not impossible that some manufacturers force the use of the features, like passing all drives through raid mode. but i would think that would be the outlier not the norm.

searching the vast interwibbles there seems to be about as many people having issues with IT mode as having issues with IR mode. but the constant with all of the issues is a serious lack of info on the rest of their builds. statements like "i had XYZ card and did this, this, this, and this, at the same time, so obviously the IT firmware fixed it"
 
Thanks for the tips guys.

I can't take screenshots because my X9SCM is the one without IPMI. But basically, the sas2flash -list looks something like this (picture from Stanza's post elsewhere),
firmware-on-list.JPG

except for these differences:
Firmware Product ID: 0x2713 (IR)
Board Name: Int Tape Adapter

The (IR) in the firmware product ID made me think that it was still in IR mode despite flashing Dell's non-raid 6gbpsas.fw. But upon reboot and entering the controller config bootrom, it presents itself as a 6gbps SAS, with no raid functionality, so I guess that the IT firmware really is in place. Not gonna worry about the "Int Tape Adapter" unless someone says I should. So it looks like I should be happy and just use it.

Is there any difference between the Dell 6GBPSAS and an LSI 9211? Eg, in the number of addressable drives if I stick in a sas expander, smart pass-thru? Do both cards use the same stable drivers in Linux and in OI?


Now, I was still interested in cross-flashing to the LSI IT firmware, because Stanza and sovking said something about all the amenities of the LSI firmware, and because Dell seems to have stopped updating theirs whereas LSI is still releasing new ones. So in a fatigued stupor last night, I tried using the P15 sas2flash.efi to flash the P07's 2118ir.bin. And it seemed to flash successfully and I could get into the controller config bootrom and all. BUT, there were some messages about invalid data which I attribute to the persistent NVDATA being a different version from the default NVDATA.

The LSI P07 IR firmware gave me some additional features like staggered spin-up. However, although sovking recommended to go from latest Dell firmware to LSI P07 to later LSI firmwares, I was still unable to go from the LSI P07 IR to either of the following: LSI P07 IT, LSI P12 IR. So on the balance of being stuck on an older LSI firmware and having invalid NVDATA possibly leading to unknown problems, it's a no-brainer to stick with the Dell 6GBPSAS IT firmware instead.

I have also tried the following and failed.

- Installed the sas2flash vib inside the ESXi shell, and run sas2flash from there. Did not get PAL initialization error, but some other error which I can't remember. Thus, I'm not sure if running Linux or BSD sas2flash would be any different.

- Created a DOS VM inside ESXi, and passed through the adapter into the VM. Again no PAL initialization error, but I got "Chip is in RESET state. Attempting Host Boot..." and after a very long and worrying time: "ERROR: Firmware Host Boot Failed!"

P.S. I speculate that the P05 sas2flash.efi is simply too old, and the P15 & P16 sas2flash.efi have incorporated new checks that enabled detection of the IR in the firmware product ID, and prevent me from cross-flashing the 2118it firmware. So if I ever get hold of a platform where I can run sas2flsh.exe and the LSI bug bites me again, I'll try the older P12 sas2flsh.exe.
 
the feature set of the cards should be identical, rather dell has done anything to disable any of the features through firmware i can't say. you should be able to compare spec sheets from dell and LSI though.

as for the firmwares themselves, this one from dell was released only a few months ago.
firmware there are RAID and Non-RAID ones listed. build dated 2/4/2013.
 
the feature set of the cards should be identical, rather dell has done anything to disable any of the features through firmware i can't say. you should be able to compare spec sheets from dell and LSI though.

Good idea. Wonder why I didn't think of that! Checking...

Basic googling suggests that Dell H200, 6Gbps SAS HBA and LSI 9211-8i all use mptsas driver in Linux. So in Linux at least, there should be no difference in driver stability.

LSI 9211 specs are at http://www.lsi.com/channel/products/storagecomponents/Pages/LSISAS9211-8i.aspx. 256 devices supported.

Dell SAS controller comparisons are at http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/dell-raid-controllers. The H200 officially supports 16 drives. Whereas the 6Gbps SAS HBA officially doesn't support drives.

There doesn't seem to be a H200 spec sheet... while the 6Gbps SAS HBA datasheet is at http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/...s/Documents/dell-6gbps-sas-ita-spec-sheet.pdf. In particular, the 6Gbps SAS HBA (with 2 external 8088 ports) officially supports Dell-supported external tape drives and Dell-supported RBODs while the Internal Tape Adapter only officially supports Dell-supported internal tape drives.

Looks like an LSI firmware may be in my future yet.

as for the firmwares themselves, this one from dell was released only a few months ago.
firmware there are RAID and Non-RAID ones listed. build dated 2/4/2013.

Hmm. You're right, of course.
 
While not the same as this is for M1015,it has a section of from EFI Shell on a X9SCM-F USB Firmware Tools. I was not able to fash my Intel SAS8CUI with X9SCM-F, but i didnt know the EFI shell way, so i did it on another motherboard, but since you own this motherboard might give another way to flash your Dell cards.

M1015 / X9SCM-F USB Firmware Tools
 
Thanks Abula.

That's a nice collection of tools for the M1015. I've tried a bunch of ideas from the page:

- Ran the "Shell_Full.efi" to see if a fuller shell than my X9SCM's default EFI shell would make a difference. [Nope]

- I wasn't able to google any references of people using the megarec tool (normally for megaraid cards) on the H200, but bravely soldiered on. First thing I did was to save a backup of my H200/6GBPSAS's serial boot rom (SBR) with "megarec -readsbr 0 sbrh200.bin" Then I overwrote it with the empty one, using "megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin". Then I tried to erase the flash using "megarec -cleanflash 0". On the last step, megarec complains that the firmware is not flashable. Not so brave as to reboot to EFI shell and use sas2flash.efi to erase flash at this point, so I backed out and did a "megarec -writesbr 0 sbrh200.bin". In case somebody else forgets to backup his sbr, I've uploaded mine to http://www.mediafire.com/?w4v74fdm34fvf45.

- I've also attempted to use different versions of sas2flash (P8, P12, P16) from Linux. Couldn't successfully cross-flash the card. And in fact, I couldn't even erase the firmware.
 
Last edited:
Don't forget if you are moving from dell IR firmware to LSI IT firmware...

You have to do it in a 3 step dance ( doesn't mater which versions)

Dell IR
Then Dell IT
Then LSI IT

Not direct from Dell IR to LSI IT....

.
 
Hi Stanza.

Yes, I'm currently on the Dell A10 IT firmware. From what I've read, I need to erase the firmware (sas2flsh -o -e 6) before I can move on to the LSI IT. I'm at my wits end because

- I can't use the DOS sas2flsh.exe which many have had success with, due to PAL initialization error and no other board to try the flash on.

- The only available LSI UEFI flashers are P5, P15, P16. P5 seems to be too old. P15 and P16 gave a bunch of errors when flashing the LSI P7 IT firmware. Such as firmware fault code D04. Incidentally, P15 and P16 sas2flash.efi -list shows "Firmware Product ID: 0x2713 (IR)" whereas the earlier versions did not report the "(IR)" so I thought it might be possible that the recent versions have checks to prevent cross-flashing.

- ESXi Shell sas2flash, Linux sas2flash, and sas2flsh.exe from within a DOS VM with the card passed-through all gave various errors too.
 
Which version of the card is it?

UCS-70 or UCS-71

Internal or external ports?

Never seen the tape adapter version....

But I am guessing it's not a H200....

More like the external port version 6gbps adapter.....

Which if that's the case it might be like I found

H200 has ram chips on front AND back sides
6gbps adapter has ram chips on front side ONLY

And there isn't enough rom space to upload the REAL H200 firmware..... Also only takes specific LSI firmwares.... Naturally as rom space is smaller..

So IR firmware might not be fully load able and IT firmware only.

As for it showing IR.... What does it show once you get inside the CTL+C menu?

Does it show a RAID config menu option?

Like
in-H200-BIOS-2.JPG


.
 
Of the 4 cards pictured in your post at http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1045376, it looks most like the H200. Two internal ports. RAM chip only at the front though.

I'm currently running the Dell 6GBPSAS FW (ie, IT). With this firmware, the adapter configuration does not have a raid properties, and the MPT firmware revision reports IT mode.

Apart from the above Dell IT firmware, the only other firmware I've successfully flashed is the LSI P07 IR firmware. I used the LSI P15 sas2flash.efi, and directly flashed the P07 IR 2118ir.bin over the existing Dell 6GBPSAS FW (without doing an erase first). When I attempted to move from Dell IT -> LSI P07 IT in the same way without doing an erase, I'd get the error about flashing IT over IR.

While in the LSI P07 IR firmware, there is a raid properties section. But IIRC correctly there was also an error about some data mismatch.

Perhaps mine is actually the tape adapter? I don't see any part number on the card to definitively identify which variant it is. It's kinda bizarre though that I can flash the LSI P07 IR firmware, but not the LSI P07 IT firmware.
 
Yeah sorry mate, I am at a loss without getting my hands on one to fiddle with.

.

Keep in mind this thread is entirely about the problems flashing on X9SCM with UEFI and the lack of a sas2flash EFI version that allows you to debrand the Dell card. I successfully flashed/debranded/loaded LSI firmware on an H310 with the DOS sas2flash util on an X8ST3 with no problem.
 
Thanks. I'm actually tempted to go with Stanza's idea (that the problem is an Internal Tape Adapter card with insufficient RAM/ROM space). The Dell 6GBPSAS.FW that flashes perfectly is 865KB, whereas the LSI IT firmware are ~ 620KB and always fail, and the one LSI P07 IR firmware that succeeds is 863 KB.

So I may have two problems
- unable to cross-flash to LSI IT firmware (possibly due to missing UEFI flasher... though mini-me01's H310 was fine).
- LSI IR firmware after P07 are too big

Argh, I decided to just stick with the Dell 6gbpsas.fw for the moment and get on with my server build :-}

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.
 
Hi all, I got hold of several of these "H200" Dell SAS 6Gb HBA cards that reported as "Dell Int Tape Adapter". I tried every trick in this thread and others and could not for the life of me get the thing to flash a standard LSI 9211 firmware on it. I would be able to erase the Dell firmware, but the flash always would die with "invalid firmware" or "mfg page 2" errors. I was, at least, able to get the Dell SAS HBA firmware on it, so it didn't say it was a tape adapter anymore.

I read something about Supermicro backplanes and I figured I'd try flashing a Supermicro 2008-IT firmware on it, and curiously, that worked. Then I went to LSI firmware without a problem! (P18)!

Strangely, I found that NOT erasing the Dell firmware was the thing that did it.

I found the latest Supermicro here: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2008/IR_IT/

I used the P07 version of sas2flsh utility to cross-flash the Supermicro FW and BIOS onto the card, again- without erasing the firmware first.

Also I had to use a genuine MSDOS boot disk (USB floppy, at first, then a USB stick later) because FreeDOS would crash when executing sas2flsh.

I then used the P07 sas2flsh to flash the P18 FW and BIOS onto the card. If the card was still reporting as Dell, I was then able to erase the card with an -e 7 level erasure, (wrote down the SAS address first) and then reflash the card with either the P07 or P18 sas2flsh. Both had no problem once they had be LSI-ified once.

I'd be curious if someone else could verify this procedure- it worked for me, it may help others.
 
Also I had to use a genuine MSDOS boot disk (USB floppy, at first, then a USB stick later) because FreeDOS would crash when executing sas2flsh.
Out of curiosity do you recall the exact error you got in FreeDOS? Was it the PAL error or a different one?

I recently cross-flashed an H310 and it took me three different motherboards before I could use a cross-flash capable sas2flsh.exe, yet only one motherboard gave me the PAL error. The other (my current Supermicro X9 board) gave me a CauseWay related error.
 
Out of curiosity do you recall the exact error you got in FreeDOS? Was it the PAL error or a different one?

I recently cross-flashed an H310 and it took me three different motherboards before I could use a cross-flash capable sas2flsh.exe, yet only one motherboard gave me the PAL error. The other (my current Supermicro X9 board) gave me a CauseWay related error.

On a MSI MS-7640 (AMD, EFI) I was getting the PAL errors using FreeDOS, the EFI version of sas2flsh at least worked. I did not try MSDOS on that board. On a Supermicro H8SGL FreeDOS would give an invalid opcode error and lock the box whenever sas2flsh would run.
 
Hi all, I got hold of several of these "H200" Dell SAS 6Gb HBA cards that reported as "Dell Int Tape Adapter". I tried every trick in this thread and others and could not for the life of me get the thing to flash a standard LSI 9211 firmware on it. I would be able to erase the Dell firmware, but the flash always would die with "invalid firmware" or "mfg page 2" errors. I was, at least, able to get the Dell SAS HBA firmware on it, so it didn't say it was a tape adapter anymore.

I read something about Supermicro backplanes and I figured I'd try flashing a Supermicro 2008-IT firmware on it, and curiously, that worked. Then I went to LSI firmware without a problem! (P18)!

Strangely, I found that NOT erasing the Dell firmware was the thing that did it.

I found the latest Supermicro here: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2008/IR_IT/

I used the P07 version of sas2flsh utility to cross-flash the Supermicro FW and BIOS onto the card, again- without erasing the firmware first.

Also I had to use a genuine MSDOS boot disk (USB floppy, at first, then a USB stick later) because FreeDOS would crash when executing sas2flsh.

I then used the P07 sas2flsh to flash the P18 FW and BIOS onto the card. If the card was still reporting as Dell, I was then able to erase the card with an -e 7 level erasure, (wrote down the SAS address first) and then reflash the card with either the P07 or P18 sas2flsh. Both had no problem once they had be LSI-ified once.

I'd be curious if someone else could verify this procedure- it worked for me, it may help others.

lamune, this worked for me as well - thanks very much for the tip. My "Internal Tape Adapter" (Dell part 015MCV or 15MCV) is now happily flashed to general LSI P19 as needed by FreeBSD 10.1:

Code:
mps0: Firmware: 19.00.00.00, Driver: 19.00.00.00-fbsd

I posted more about my FreeBSD-specific experiences here. It could also be useful for FreeNAS folks.

http://roycebits.blogspot.com/2015/01/freebsd-lsi-sas9211-8i-hba-firmware.html

Thanks again.
 
I had an issue flashing my M1015 on the super micro board - I had to do it on an older dell optiplex.

As for the H200 - I just recently flashed one. It is easiest to use the dell firmware utility before flashing LSI.

I did exactly what is on this website:

Code:
http://forums.servethehome.com/f19/dell-h200-flash-firmware-procedure-dell-servers-467.html

--

Aside from that - If you can get the card in IR then don't risk accidentally making your controller a paper weight. I believe in the IR the drives are just JBOD/ seen attached to a normal HBA by default

I am actually using the IR firmware on the H200 I have no because I wanted to play with the mirror option - but I just need it for an HBA. IR mode I believe will add a few moments to your system boot time as it initializes and prompts you to enter set up. That can be disabled though, I think

^^ THIS.

I had to do it on a dell optiplex 3010 or something similar - it had a Pentium D processor in it. But it did the trick... For whatever reason the SuperMicro board couldn't hold communication to the correct BUS.
 
Just addng my $0.02.

I have the Internal Tape Adapter version og the PERC as well. Here's the original output from sas2flsh:

Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:01:00:00
SAS Address : 590XXXX-X-XXXX-XXXX
NVDATA Version (Default) : 07.00.00.19
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 07.00.00.19
Firmware Product ID : 0x2713 (IR)
Firmware Version : 07.15.08.00
NVDATA Vendor : Dell
NVDATA Product ID : IntTapeAdp
BIOS Version : 07.11.10.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.03.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : Int Tape Adapter
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A

The machine is running Openmediavault (Debian Wheezy), with three 4TB HGST Coolspin disks hanging off the controller, configured as one big volume of BTRFS. The kernel kept getting lots of
mpt2sas0: log_info(0x31120303): originator(PL), code(0x12), sub_code(0x0303)
And after a while, the volume ended up with a lot (and I mean A LOT) of
parent transid verify failed on 380799107072 wanted 62114 found 61961
And it was getting worse really fast.

The kernel was running mpt2sas driver version 16, the controller was version 7 (the internal tape adapter version). Anyway, I wanted to flash it to P16, but ran into the same problem that webbrowser did, which is that the P7 sas2flsh.exe quit with the PAL error.

Since I did not have another motherboard to flash on, I figured I might as well do the flash from linux on the existing UEFI board. So I downloaded a bunch of linux installers from http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9211-8i#downloads, from P5 to P11.

I tried several versions of the linux sas2flash to flash the Supermicro firmware, and it looks like quite a few versions could flash IR->IT, I think at least up to version P9 of the linux sas2flash.

Anyway, I ended up using the P5 sas2flash to flash the Supermicro firmware (P16), without first erasing the existing Dell IntTapeAdp firmware. The controller then looked like
Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:01:00:00
SAS Address : 590XXXX-X-XXXX-XXXX
NVDATA Version (Default) : 10.00.00.04
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 10.00.00.04
Firmware Product ID : 0x2213 (IT)
Firmware Version : 16.00.01.00
NVDATA Vendor : LSI
NVDATA Product ID : SAS2008-IT
BIOS Version : 07.11.10.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.03.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : Int Tape Adapter
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A
Then I followed immediately by the LSI (acquired by Avago now I suppose) P16 IT firmware, and then the LSI P16 BIOS. This time I used the P16 sas2flash (not that other versions wouildn't work--I just used the P16 version first and it just worked). After that the controller reported
Controller Number : 0
Controller : SAS2008(B2)
PCI Address : 00:01:00:00
SAS Address : 590XXXX-X-XXXX-XXXX
NVDATA Version (Default) : 10.00.00.06
NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 10.00.00.06
Firmware Product ID : 0x2213 (IT)
Firmware Version : 16.00.00.00
NVDATA Vendor : LSI
NVDATA Product ID : SAS9211-8i
BIOS Version : 07.31.00.00
UEFI BSD Version : 07.02.03.00
FCODE Version : N/A
Board Name : Int Tape Adapter
Board Assembly : N/A
Board Tracer Number : N/A

I stopped there, powered down, reconnected the drives, and booted up the machine. I put the BTRFS volume in readonly mode to copy the data off it, and so far I have not gotten a single word of complaint from the mpt2sas driver. I will post a follow up if everything does not go smoothly henceforth.

Cheers and good luck!
 
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