Running the LSI2308 of an X9SRH-7F in IT mode?

T

TheLastBoyscout

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Messages
142
Hi,

I just got a Supermicro X9SRH-7F with an E5-1650 (as a replacement for an X8DTL-3 with 2x L5518). The LSI2308 has the IR firmware 'installed'. The old board had a little jumper to put the LSI 1068E into IT mode (for ZFS/all-in-one use), but there is basically no information about the LSI2308 chip and how to deal with it in the X9SRH-7F manual. Supermicro currently does not list any SAS updates on their website.
I assume I have to cross-flash the firmware to get to IT mode?

Can I just cross-flash any LSI2308 IT firmware (e.g. 9205-8e or 9207-8i)? Is there anything special to watch out for (I have cross-flashed the IBM ServeRAID M1015 to an 9211-8i in the past)?

Thanks,
-TLB
 
Well, I found out myself. Here are the step-by-step instructions for anyone else running into this issue:

1.) Download the PH15-IT.rar FW file from ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/ (or whatever newer version exists)
2.) Disconnect all storage and boot devices, write down the current SAS ID (or take a picture of it)
3.) Extract the contents of the ..\PH15\UEFI\ folder of the PH15-IT.rar archive to an empty USB stick (the stick can be rather small as the files need ~1.4 MB)
Optional: Remove the following line from SMC2308T.nsh if you want to avoid the long delay during boot (if you're not using an all-in-one system, you probably want to keep the LSI BIOS):
Code: 
sas2flash.efi -b mptsas2.rom
3.) Change the 'BIOS' settings to only allow one boot device 'Built-in UEFI shell' and boot:
capture1sm.jpg

4. When booted correctly into the UEFI shell, it should look like this:
capture2mt.jpg

5. Now change to the USB flash drive:
capture3hoi.jpg

6. Execute the update script:
capture4ny.jpg

7. When the update is almost completed, you will be prompted to enter the last 9 digits of the SAS ID (don’t do the nine zero’s from the picture!):
capture9zw.jpg

7. Remove the USB stick with the FW update files, and re-attach all the storage and boot devices.
8. Reboot
 
Yeah, the controller is in IT/HBA mode and everything is fine, right?
Well, not if you're running an all-in-one system with OpenIndiana. :eek: I am running OI151a7 and it seems that the developers have not included the drivers for the LSI2308 yet as none of the drives connected to the LSI2308 was visible in OI.
Some more digging and it turns out that the mpt_sas driver is simply not associated with the chips device ID.

The following command (enter as root) does the trick of assigning the mpt_sas driver to the LSI2308:
Code: 
update_drv -a –i "pci15d9,69l" mpt_sas

Now all connected drives show up fine and I can import the pool that was originally connected to the LSI 1068E on the original board (see 1st post).
 
Thanks for the tutorial!
But i can't download the IT firmware from supermicro's ftp neither on lsi's site.
edit: nevermind i managed to get it eventually, supermicro's ftp is only very hard to reach.
 
Last edited:
Hi Mastaba

The obvious problem is the following line:
Code: 
'??(' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file
Instead of '??(' it needs to list "fs0" for the EFI shell to access it.

A few things come to mind (in this order):
  1. Try a different USB stick (different brand)
  2. Make sure that the USB stick is FAT32 formatted
  3. Reformat the USB stick
  4. Make sure that the USB stick only has one partition (not sure if it matters, but worth a try)
  5. If you're not using the same motherboard, is there a BIOS (err..FW) update available that maybe addresses this issue?

-TLB
 
TheLastBoyscout said:
Yeah, the controller is in IT/HBA mode and everything is fine, right?
Well, not if you're running an all-in-one system with OpenIndiana. :eek: I am running OI151a7 and it seems that the developers have not included the drivers for the LSI2308 yet as none of the drives connected to the LSI2308 was visible in OI.
Some more digging and it turns out that the mpt_sas driver is simply not associated with the chips device ID.

The following command (enter as root) does the trick of assigning the mpt_sas driver to the LSI2308:
Code: 
update_drv -a –i "pci15d9,69l" mpt_sas

Now all connected drives show up fine and I can import the pool that was originally connected to the LSI 1068E on the original board (see 1st post).
Click to expand...

I have the same problem using OmniOS+nappit.
I successfully flashet my X9SRH-7TF's LSI2308 to IT mode, i also removed the "sas2flash.efi -b mptsas2.rom" line but the hdds don't show up:
08f281f1-be19-41f9-83b2-f4312240a41b.jpg

I can only see 2/10, probably the 2 drives connected to the sata mobo ports.
 
TheLastBoyscout said:
Yeah, the controller is in IT/HBA mode and everything is fine, right?
Well, not if you're running an all-in-one system with OpenIndiana. :eek: I am running OI151a7 and it seems that the developers have not included the drivers for the LSI2308 yet as none of the drives connected to the LSI2308 was visible in OI.
Some more digging and it turns out that the mpt_sas driver is simply not associated with the chips device ID.

The following command (enter as root) does the trick of assigning the mpt_sas driver to the LSI2308:
Code: 
update_drv -a –i "pci15d9,69l" mpt_sas

Now all connected drives show up fine and I can import the pool that was originally connected to the LSI 1068E on the original board (see 1st post).
Click to expand...

I use the firmware PH16.0.1-IT and OmniOS+napp-it.
I tried reflashing with full firmware+BIOS (with the mptsas2.rom line) and i can see all the hdds in the LSI2308 BIOS, but none of them appear on napp-it.
Do you think it's a firmware version issue, or this kind of unassociated mpt_sas driver issue?
I tried this command but it didn't worked.
 
Does someone still have the firmware PH15-IT and could upload it somewhere?
supermicro's ftp is nearly unreachable.
 
Thanks! But unfortunately i don't have fb/google+ accounts :/
mediafire or depositfile works not too badly (but pretty much any other filehosting service can be used without registration)
 
I tried flashing using the PH15 under UEFI but it returned some error message:
Code: 
ERROR: Firmware image does not support Target Adapter Device ID (0x86)
Firmware image supported Family of Device ID's : 0x64 0x74 0x76 0x77 0x72 0x70
Firmware Image Validation Failed!

I also noticed the firmware name was "2008IT15.ROM" while the PH16.0.1-IT have a file named "2308IT16.ROM"

edit:
I tried flashing using PH15-IT (yes, supermicro's FTP worked quite miraculously) and it worked this time.

But i still don't see any drives under napp-it :/
 
Mastaba said:
I tried flashing using the PH15 under UEFI but it returned some error message:
Code: 
ERROR: Firmware image does not support Target Adapter Device ID (0x86)
Firmware image supported Family of Device ID's : 0x64 0x74 0x76 0x77 0x72 0x70
Firmware Image Validation Failed!

I also noticed the firmware name was "2008IT15.ROM" while the PH16.0.1-IT have a file named "2308IT16.ROM"

edit:
I tried flashing using PH15-IT (yes, supermicro's FTP worked quite miraculously) and it worked this time.

But i still don't see any drives under napp-it :/
Click to expand...

Did you ever get your issue resolved? I'm having the exact same issue after a successful flash with the latest firmware off of Supermicro's site
 
zervun said:
Did you ever get your issue resolved? I'm having the exact same issue after a successful flash with the latest firmware off of Supermicro's site
Click to expand...

Disregard - you have to add the device as a PCI device as well and it works.
 
For what it's worth i had my problem of invisible hdds resolved using a new version of OmniOS.
 
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