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Flashing an LSI 9211-8i RAID Card to IT Mode for ZFS/Software RAID (Tutorial)

Yay!!! :D

You sound exhausted. Details when you have the time and energy. ;)

It sure was. The days I was working on it was like, I have to work from 4am to 4pm (hate my job btw) and then I could come back home and keep on working on the M1015. The feeling when I did it is indescribable.

 

I will do a more in-depth explanation of my experience with the M1015 and the flash of it in my build log. I will update this with a direct link to the post to keep it in this post in case somebody should run into the same problems I had.

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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It sure was. The days I was working on it was like, I have to work from 4am to 4pm (hate my job btw) and then I could come back home and keep on working on the M1015. The feeling when I did it is indescribable.

 

I will do a more in-depth explanation of my experience with the M1015 and the flash of it in my build log. I will update this with a direct link to the post to keep it in this post in case somebody should run into the same problems I had.

Excellent, I am definitely curious about the process, and glad that you

finally got things working. In the meantime I have flashed three controllers

with the process outlined in this tutorial successfully, it's so annoying

that the process can be so difficult for other cards.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Excellent, I am definitely curious about the process, and glad that you

finally got things working. In the meantime I have flashed three controllers

with the process outlined in this tutorial successfully, it's so annoying

that the process can be so difficult for other cards.

This is so true and I really don't want my experience to demotivate people to buy an IBM ServeRAID M1015 because even though it's been tough I still think it's a good solution!

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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This is so true and I really don't want my experience to demotivate people to buy an IBM ServeRAID M1015 because even though it's been tough I still think it's a good solution!

Yeah, I'm very happy with my 9211-8i's as well. Price/performance is

very good, and they work well so far. If only the flashing process

was better documented and more consistent in its behavior (i.e. not

so full of funky quirks). I mean, now that I have the process down,

it's a pretty quick and painless operation, but figuring it out was

rather strenuous (although not nearly as much as your journey ;)).

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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If only the flashing process was better documented and more consistent in its behavior (i.e. not so full of funky quirks).

There's a ton of threads and even more questions on the internet about the flashing caused by inconsistency. Very frustrating for everybody. I was actually considering to take contact to LSI's support but at this point I'm still unsure whether they would have been able to help or not.

 

I mean, now that I have the process down, it's a pretty quick and painless operation, but figuring it out was rather strenuous (although not nearly as much as your journey ;)).

With the experience I've gained from this card, I think I'll be able to flash every LSI card no matter what problems I run in to. Because of that I wont hesitate to buy another M1015 in the future, the NAS will need an expansion at some point with 4K and 8K in the near future.

It a good experience to troubleshoot different problems but I think this one was a bit over the top. They don't need to be that difficult to work with, for me to get that satisfaction.

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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It a good experience to troubleshoot different problems but I think this one was a bit over the top. They don't need to be that difficult to work with, for me to get that satisfaction.

^This. There comes a point when adding difficulty to a challenge

stops being fun and starts chipping away at one's sanity. :D

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here we go again.

I just got a SSD for the OS for a more stable system and before I reinstalled the OS I tried to boot the system and got this error.

zPe2hvr.jpg

 

I just disconnected the drives from the M1015 and it booted without any problems. Now that I've installed Debian all over again I connected to drives to the M1015 and the error popped once more, this time with another error message.

95UBJoM.jpg

 

<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" data-cke-saved-href="ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_dell_adapters/dell-sas-hba-6gbps_User" href="ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_dell_adapters/dell-sas-hba-6gbps_User" s%20guide_en-us.pdf"="">Here some explanation on the messages and from this thread it sounds like a bad flash.

The guy from the thread seems to add an UEFI BIOS to the card as well. Is that any different from what I've done and could it be a solution as my motherboard uses UEFI. Seems weird though as I've been able to fully boot the system several times.

 

Should I try to flash it all over again with a never version? The one I succeeded with was the oldest firmware for the 9210-8i as the newest couldn't do it.

Edited by Shaqalac

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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Should I try to flash it all over again with a never version? The one I succeeded with was the oldest firmware for the 9210-8i as the newest couldn't do it.

Well, that's a bummer. :(

I'm honestly not quite sure how you'd solve this, but I don't really

see any other way than to try to reflash it.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Well, that's a bummer. :(

I'm honestly not quite sure how you'd solve this, but I don't really

see any other way than to try to reflash it.

That's my thought as well and if that doesn't work out I think I have to suck it up and buy a new one.  :(

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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I did this a few months ago. It appears my controller has now died.

 

I am getting an error that says:

 

mps0: IOC Fault 0x00002651, Resetting

mps0: Re-initializing controller,

mps0: Firmware: 10.00.00.00, Driver: 15.00.00.00-fbsd

 

This causes freenas to crash and the drives to not be detected.

CPU: i7 3770k @ 4.8Ghz Motherboard: Sabertooth Z77 RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance GPU: GTX 780 Case: Corsair 540 Air Storage: 2x Intel 520 SSD Raid 0 PSU: Corsair AX850 Display(s): 1x 27" Samsung Monitor 3x 24" Asus Monitors Cooling: Swifttech H220 Keyboard: Logitech 710+ Mouse: Logitech G500 Headphones: Sennheiser HD 558 --- Internet: http://linustechtips.com/main/uploads/gallery/album_1107/gallery_12431_1107_23677.png My Setup:  http://linustechtips.com/main/gallery/image/7922-1-rkcf7io/ -- NAS: 3x WD Red 3TB Drives (RAIDZ-1), 5x 750gb Seagate ES HDD(RAIDZ-1), 120gb SSD for caching, OS: FreeNAS --  Server 1: Xeon E3 1275v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5 -- Server 2: Xeon E3 1220v2, 32GB of RAM, OS: ESXi 5.5

 

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OK, this is completely OT, but Ho Lee Sheet, for a second there I was looking at someone in the bathroom.

I prefer to do all kind of testing while I'm sitting on the White Throne  :D

 

I think my card is dead, completely.

I threw it in my main rig and tried the same package and method as last time I got it working. This time I couldn't even get it to complete the megarec command and if I just tried to boot the system with the controller connected it would freeze at the windows logo, no matter if there was a drive connected to the controller or not.

When I first tried to flash the controller I tried through UEFI on the NAS, which resulted in nothing. However, I gave it another go but it was exactly the same as the first time.

 

Any suggestions?

I'm not really into making a ton of trial and error as I feel I've done what can be done and I'm sitting on a bricked card.

Last time I bought this M1015, should I consider another buyer or another card?

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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I did this a few months ago. It appears my controller has now died.

 

I am getting an error that says:

 

mps0: IOC Fault 0x00002651, Resetting

mps0: Re-initializing controller,

mps0: Firmware: 10.00.00.00, Driver: 15.00.00.00-fbsd

 

This causes freenas to crash and the drives to not be detected.

Hm, that sucks. :(

 

 

I think my card is dead, completely.

[...]

Any suggestions?

I'm not really into making a ton of trial and error as I feel I've done what can be done and I'm sitting on a bricked card.

Well, it might be (and I emphasize: might) that your card was

somewhat broken from the get-go, which could also explain why

you've been having so much trouble with it in the first place.

Considering many other people have had success with the M1015

I don't really think it's a systemic fault of the design or

anything like that.

As for alternatives: My three 9211-8i's have been running

without issues so far, although I will admit that I haven't

exactly had them running for too long yet.

They start at about 100 USD on eBay.

 

I'm not really sure if it was the seller's fault TBH, sometimes

stuff just breaks.

Damn, I wanted to like the post after that first sentence, but then came the rest of it :(

 

All this bad news sucks so hard.

Yeah, Shaqalaq seems to be having the worst of luck. :(

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Well, it might be (and I emphasize: might) that your card was

somewhat broken from the get-go, which could also explain why

you've been having so much trouble with it in the first place.

This is most likely true as I had boot problems from the very beginning, can't remember whether I explain it in this thread or my build log.

 

Considering many other people have had success with the M1015

I don't really think it's a systemic fault of the design or

anything like that.

No, mine is probably the lucky one  B)

 

As for alternatives: My three 9211-8i's have been running

without issues so far, although I will admit that I haven't

exactly had them running for too long yet.

They start at about 100 USD on eBay.

Wait, you don't have M1015s? I thought you did.

So you just bought a 9211-8i and flashed to IT mode?

If that's the case, it's in my luck as they are even cheaper than the M1015.

 

I'm not really sure if it was the seller's fault TBH, sometimes

stuff just breaks.

True, I just think I've experienced that a bit too often.  :D

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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This is most likely true as I had boot problems from the very beginning, can't remember whether I explain it in this thread or my build log.

Yeah, it was mentioned somewhere.

No, mine is probably the lucky one  B)

lol

Wait, you don't have M1015s? I thought you did.

So you just bought a 9211-8i and flashed to IT mode?

If that's the case, it's in my luck as they are even cheaper than the M1015.

Nope, I have no M1015s, just 9211-8i.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Nope, I have no M1015s, just 9211-8i.

Think I will try my luck with this one.

Just to be clear, I will still have to flash it to IT mode for straight pass through?

Keeping my build log in mind, this card might be even better for cablemanagement as the SFF8087 connector will head straight for the drives instead of out towards the side panel.

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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Think I will try my luck with this one.

Just to be clear, I will still have to flash it to IT mode for straight pass through?

Keeping my build log in mind, this card might be even better for cablemanagement as the SFF8087 connector will head straight for the drives instead of out towards the side panel.

Yeah, you still need to flash it to IT mode, factory default

is IR.

Best of luck! :D

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, that was easy.

 

Great guide, on one condition, you don't start off with a bricked card.

Haha, true dat. And finally! :D

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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Haha, true dat. And finally! :D

I checked those commands fives times each, just to make sure I got everything right so I wouldn't get an unnecessary error and a possible freeze.

If you do the typing fast and aren't that concerned in making a typo, this flash could be done in 3-5 minutes.

I don't even want to start to think about how many hours I've used working and worry about my flash.

NAS build log: Gimli, a NAS build by Shaqalac.

Mechanical keyboards: Ducky Mini YotH - Ducky Mini

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks in advance for the detailed (and illustrated!) guide.  My M1015 left Hong Kong yesterday.  :)  I'll be using it for FreeNAS, and am recommissioning an older non-UEFI Dell desktop to do the flashing.  (I knew that old thing would come in handy some day :)

 

One question, though.  Should I use the most recent firmware package from LSI's site (P19 dated March 2014) or is there a specific older one that should be used? 

 

I've been looking around (here and elsewhere) and haven't seen any specific warnings about the current version (yet.)  The relevant files mentioned in the guide are all still there and named the same it seems.

 

Thanks again, and it's refreshing to find a forum with this level of detailed, usable info without the resident graybeards automatically assaulting me for not adhering to bank-level IT best practices, ECC RAM, a backup generator and a live failover site in a salt mine in Switzerland for a server to hold my DVD rips and a backup of my Steam library.  /rant

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Thanks in advance for the detailed (and illustrated!) guide.  My M1015 left Hong Kong yesterday.   :)  I'll be using it for FreeNAS, and am recommissioning an older non-UEFI Dell desktop to do the flashing.  (I knew that old thing would come in handy some day :)

 

One question, though.  Should I use the most recent firmware package from LSI's site (P19 dated March 2014) or is there a specific older one that should be used? 

 

I've been looking around (here and elsewhere) and haven't seen any specific warnings about the current version (yet.)  The relevant files mentioned in the guide are all still there and named the same it seems.

I'd say this is probably a bit of a trial and error thing TBH. I have

read that for some people only certain versions seem to work. I'd say

try the newest one, if that doesn't work, fall back to older versions.

Unless you come across something that gives clear information about this

in the meantime, of course.

Also, something I found out while helping @Shaqalac: Apparently, the M1015

is actually a 9210-8i. So if the 9211-8i firmware does not work, you could

try going with the 9210-8i firmware. Come to think of it, if it was my

personal setup, I'd even probably start out with the 9210-8i firmware, as

it appears to me that that would be the "more correct" way to go. I'm not

really sure why so many people seem to be flashing the 9211-8i firmware onto

their M1015 cards when there actually is an IT firmware on LSI's website for

the 9210-8i. Maybe they just don't know that the 9210-8i is the M1015 (as

the 9210-8i is just an OEM controller and isn't sold as-is to end consumers,

so it could just be a matter of recognizeability), or maybe there's a

specific technical reason for it. Feel free to let me know if you come

across anything on that, it would be nice to have more info on that matter.

 

Thanks again, and it's refreshing to find a forum with this level of detailed, usable info without the resident graybeards automatically assaulting me for not adhering to bank-level IT best practices, ECC RAM, a backup generator and a live failover site in a salt mine in Switzerland for a server to hold my DVD rips and a backup of my Steam library.  /rant

Haha, well, you don't have many posts yet, you get some slack (you

have until you get to 100 posts to backup your data to a Swiss bunker :P).

Seriously though: If you make a thread asking for advice, yeah we'll

usually recommend ECC for ZFS and all that (as well as large memory

capacity), since that's what is actually recommended officially.

But, if you have already made your decisions, then you might get a few

questions from members who wish to make sure you're aware of the "party

line" so to speak (just because they want to be helpful and make sure

that you're fully informed), but in the end it's your data and I'll

trust that you can decide for yourself what configuration fits your needs

and you feel comfortable with. I ran a ZFS on Linux server for quite a

while with only 4 GB of non-ECC memory and 17 TB of HDDs. Eventually I

put together a proper ECC server because our data (dad's business, family,

my personal stuff) is important enough to justify that investment, but

in the end that is a choice everybody needs to make for themselves.

BUILD LOGS: HELIOS - Latest Update: 2015-SEP-06 ::: ZEUS - BOTW 2013-JUN-28 ::: APOLLO - Complete: 2014-MAY-10
OTHER STUFF: Cable Lacing Tutorial ::: What Is ZFS? ::: mincss Primer ::: LSI RAID Card Flashing Tutorial
FORUM INFO: Community Standards ::: The Moderating Team ::: 10TB+ Storage Showoff Topic

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