Flashing LSI 3081e to IT mode?

[SG14_96]

I recently purchased an LSi 3081 SAS HBA/Raid card on ebay for like 30 bucks. I intend to use it with FreeNAS and ZFS and was wondering what were the steps to reflashing this card to IT/JBOD mode?

[Computer King]

I have flashed an IBM ServeRAID M1015 / LSI SAS9220-8i using these steps:

http://www.0x00.to/post/2013/04/07/Flash-IBM-ServeRAID-M1015-to-LSI9211-8i-with-UEFI-mainboard

 

I don't know if it is possible with your card or not.

[dalekphalm]

18 hours ago, Computer King said:

I have flashed an IBM ServeRAID M1015 / LSI SAS9220-8i using these steps:

http://www.0x00.to/post/2013/04/07/Flash-IBM-ServeRAID-M1015-to-LSI9211-8i-with-UEFI-mainboard

 

I don't know if it is possible with your card or not.

The steps would be somewhat similar, but the OP would need to track down all the firmware/bios files, etc, and confirm which exact utility he needed to run them.

 

Considering that the card the OP mentions is not popular in the NAS/Home Server groups, I doubt he's going to find what he needs.

 

On 17/06/2017 at 0:16 PM, SG14_96 said:

I recently purchased an LSi 3081 SAS HBA/Raid card on ebay for like 30 bucks. I intend to use it with FreeNAS and ZFS and was wondering what were the steps to reflashing this card to IT/JBOD mode?

Did you purchase that HBA without doing prior research? You might have ended up with a $30 paperweight. I'd try to sell the HBA you bought, and buy an actual proper HBA or a known good RAID Card to flash, instead.

 

Anything that runs the SAS2008 chipset is great. Examples are Dell H200 (I have one of these, recently flashed to IT, but flashed back to IR due to using it in ESXi), IBM M1015, LSI 9207, etc. Dell H200's can be found for pretty cheap on eBay (not much more than you paid), and can be flashed to IT firmware without much difficulty (Just don't try to flash it inside a Dell server). IBM 1015's are pretty cheap too, and there are way more guides for flashing them (Very popular with FreeNAS guys).

[SG14_96]

4 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

The steps would be somewhat similar, but the OP would need to track down all the firmware/bios files, etc, and confirm which exact utility he needed to run them.

 

Considering that the card the OP mentions is not popular in the NAS/Home Server groups, I doubt he's going to find what he needs.

 

Did you purchase that HBA without doing prior research? You might have ended up with a $30 paperweight. I'd try to sell the HBA you bought, and buy an actual proper HBA or a known good RAID Card to flash, instead.

 

Anything that runs the SAS2008 chipset is great. Examples are Dell H200 (I have one of these, recently flashed to IT, but flashed back to IR due to using it in ESXi), IBM M1015, LSI 9207, etc. Dell H200's can be found for pretty cheap on eBay (not much more than you paid), and can be flashed to IT firmware without much difficulty (Just don't try to flash it inside a Dell server). IBM 1015's are pretty cheap too, and there are way more guides for flashing them (Very popular with FreeNAS guys).

I got it on ebay.

I found the files in the avago/lsi website, so I do have what I need to flash it. I was just wondering how exactly do you flash a raid controller card.

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, SG14_96 said:

I got it on ebay.

I found the files in the avago/lsi website, so I do have what I need to flash it. I was just wondering how exactly do you flash a raid controller card.

The exact process varies. There are several different methods, not all of which work for every card. You should have found a guide before buying it. 

 

You can try one of th guides for another card (like the IBM one above) and just substitute your own files. 

 

That might work. Or it might not. Or it might brick the card. 

 

Make sure to backup the existing firmware and bios before attempting, in case you need to revert. 

[SG14_96]

14 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The exact process varies. There are several different methods, not all of which work for every card. You should have found a guide before buying it. 

 

You can try one of th guides for another card (like the IBM one above) and just substitute your own files. 

 

That might work. Or it might not. Or it might brick the card. 

 

Make sure to backup the existing firmware and bios before attempting, in case you need to revert. 

So what would be an example of a a SAS HBA that is truly an HBA, as in, no need to flash it or anything?

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, SG14_96 said:

So what would be an example of a a SAS HBA that is truly an HBA, as in, no need to flash it or anything?

LSI 9211 and 9207 both come as "HBA" cards by default and shouldn't need flashing. I personally have a 9207-8e (8e meaning 8 channel - or 8 "SATA ports", and e meaning external - the connectors are on the outside of the PCI bracket).

 

There is an 8i version, meaning 8 internal connections. Now, these are actually in the form of 2 SAS multiports, but you can buy breakout cables that turn one SAS multiport into 4 SATA connectors.