Need Help Flashing LSI SAS 9217-8i to 9207-8i IT Bios

[TheLoneGunman]

Hi, I need some help flashing my LSI SAS 9217-8i to the 9207-8i IT Bios and the latest firmware.  I don't need hardware RAID and it currently takes about 5 minutes to initialize the card.

 

I have tried to flash it myself, but I can't find any straightforward instructions on how to do this.

 

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[leadeater]

9 minutes ago, TheLoneGunman said:

I need some help flashing my LSI SAS 9217-8i to the 9207-8i IT Bios and the latest firmware

The 9217 is a pure HBA so you don't need to flash it, it's not a 9271 by any chance which is a RAID card?

[leadeater]

If it's the 9217 then it may have been flashed or come in IR mode, you'll need to use the actual 9217 firmware to switch it. 

https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9217-8i#downloads

https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12350569

[TheLoneGunman]

Yes.  It is the 9217. I want it to run in IT mode. I know where to download the firmware and bios, but I can't figure out how to actually do the updates. Thanks 

[TheLoneGunman]

I am a newb when it comes to RAID and Free NAS stuff.  I believe what I am trying to do is get the LSI 9217-8i to go from IR mode to IT mode, if that helps. Thanks.

[Jarsky]

9217 and 9207 are the same adapter, so what you're looking to do is crossflash it from the IR to the IT firmware.

 

What you need is sas2flash utility and the required Firmware & BIOS/UEFI files, and put it all on a USB stick. 

Then essentially you run something like this

sas2flash -list    <--- list the controller #
sas2flsh -o -e 6   <--- erase the current firmware
sas2flash -c <controller #> -f <firmware filename> -b <bios/uefi filename> 

e.g sas2flash -c 0 -f 9207-8.bin -b mptsas2.rom -b x64sas2.rom

 

P.S you might need to do some research, I think you need to reboot it somewhere.., but I dont promise you wont brick your card

[paddy-stone]

On my 9211 -8i  I found it much easier to use an efi shell to write the IT mode... assuming you have a PC/server with a UEFI bios to use of course. If so it's similar to this

 

https://digitalcardboard.com/blog/2014/07/09/flashing-it-firmware-to-the-lsi-sas-9211-8i-hba-2014-efi-recipe/

[TheLoneGunman]

Thanks. I just saw your responses. I will give the above a try this weekend.