9.3.1 Update with alert Firmware version 16 does not match driver version 20 for /dev/mps0

[cyberjock]

Now I've gotten an email from someone asking how *I* will be upgrading my system to v20. Here's how I will be doing it (I'm ultra-conservative though).

1. Shutdown my server
2. Remove enough drives that the zpool can't mount (or simply remove all of the disks temporarily).
3. Bootup FreeNAS. It'll be really unhappy that the zpool doesn't exist. Ignore it.
4. Do the upgrade to 9.3.1.
5. After the upgrade finishes and the reboots are done shutdown again.
6. Bootup using either a DOS disk or the UEFI shell and flash the P20 firmware 20.00.04 (or higher).
7. Shutdown the server again.
8. Plug all your disks in and poweron the server. If you didn't screw something up you should now be on P20 firmware and P20 drivers and never had any data at risk during the upgrade process.

 

[SweetAndLow]

got my 9211 flashed with the new p20 firmware using supermicro built in efi shell. I skipped the bios update and just did the firmware, pretty sure i have the bios disabled anyways.

 

[Sir.Robin]

Right. Moving on! :)

Supermicro flashing! What are all ther ROM's?:

sas2flash.efi -f 2308IT20.ROM
sas2flash.efi -b mptsas2.rom
sas2flash.efi -b x64sas2.rom

So i just HAD to find out myself:

mptsas2.rom is BIOS
x64sas2.rom is UEFI

So i flashed with the LSI 9207-8 packages. Firmware is now 20.00.04.00.

Strange thing though... with the Supermicro package Firmware were 20.00.02.00 and NVDATA were 14.01.00.14
With the LSI, the Firmware is newer but NVDATA is now 14.01.00.06.

Solving questions only to grow new ones...

 

[HardChargin]

So i just HAD to find out myself:

mptsas2.rom is BIOS
x64sas2.rom is UEFI

So i flashed with the LSI 9207-8 packages. Firmware is now 20.00.04.00.

Strange thing though... with the Supermicro package Firmware were 20.00.02.00 and NVDATA were 14.01.00.14
With the LSI, the Firmware is newer but NVDATA is now 14.01.00.06.

Solving questions only to grow new ones...

@Sir.Robin LOL, glad you are leading the front on this one (getting 20.00.04.00 (vs. 20.00.02.00) installed on an X10SL7). I've been watching your posts awaiting the verdict . I too have been eyeballing 20.00.04.00, but didnt feel bold enough to attempt it, not being able to get it directly from Supermicro. I have an email to their support inquiring, if I learn anything valuable, I will pass it along.

 

[Sir.Robin]

Haha... well you gotta take some chances. But i like reading a bit first. It does not hurt to know what one are doing :)

Tired now... but i think i'll edit the FW file so i get the correct name in the Firmware. 9207-8 is bothering me...

 

[cyberjock]

I have heard that any version prior to 20.00.04 should not be used. They have a fatal flaw that can create problems, even for IT mode stuff.

So yeah... :/

 

[Z300M]

I have heard that any version prior to 20.00.04 should not be used. They have a fatal flaw that can create problems, even for IT mode stuff.

So yeah... :/

Why would Supermicro still be offering outdated and buggy firmware?

 

[HardChargin]

I have heard that any version prior to 20.00.04 should not be used. They have a fatal flaw that can create problems, even for IT mode stuff.

So yeah... :/

@cyberjock Thanks for throwing that out there. That was another one of my concerns being that I am now updated to 20.00.02.00 :(. Like Z300M said, I'm wondering how bad it could really be, being that Supermicro is still serving it up. Either way, I'd rather not take chances with this one. And like Sir.Robin is dealing with, I suspect if I were to use a firmware I'm not 100% certain is meant for my application, I'd always be wondering, and also have to look under every nook and cranny, and deal with idiosyncrasies.

 

[Jailer]

So i just HAD to find out myself:

mptsas2.rom is BIOS
x64sas2.rom is UEFI

So i flashed with the LSI 9207-8 packages. Firmware is now 20.00.04.00.

Strange thing though... with the Supermicro package Firmware were 20.00.02.00 and NVDATA were 14.01.00.14
With the LSI, the Firmware is newer but NVDATA is now 14.01.00.06.

Solving questions only to grow new ones...

mptsas2.rom is the boot rom. According to other knowledgable members it's not needed or wanted for freenas. See Ericloewe's reply in this thread where I asked about how to flash the onboard controller without the boot rom.

 

[Z300M]

I have now flashed to P20 both my M1015 (as described yesterday) using pclausen's p20.zip package, and now also my onboard SAS2308 by adding to the USB drive the 9207-8i firmware file from LSI (not the one from Supermicro). But instead of erasing the whole of the flash using -e 7, I used -e 6 (which I had read leaves the SAS address data intact) and then just loaded the new firmware (i.e., without the BIOS -- same for the M1015). All seems well.

 

[Spearfoot]

FWIW, Supermicro technical support claims 'there should be no issues' with the 20.00.02.00 version of the firmware on X10SL7-F motherboards (and other SM boards using the same LSI chip). I'm inclined to stick with the firmware version they provide as long as I don't run into any problems. If problems were to crop up, I wouldn't hesitate to use the slightly newer version from LSI. But I should stress that my FreeNAS systems are part of my personal development lab, not production servers in a business environment. Caveat utilitor!

Hello [Spearfoot],
Thank you for contacting Supermicro technical support. We do not currently have an estimate on when the 20.00.04.00 firmware will be released. The 20.00.02.00 has just been released less than a month ago. The release of the new firmware will depend on how long it will take to validate by our lab. Please keep checking our website for any updates. For now there should be no issues using the 20.00.02.00 firmware until a new firmware is available.

Technical support,
BZ

To: Technical Support
Subject: Question RE: X10SL7-F and LSI firmware

Hello -- I am using FreeNAS v9.3 on a X10SL7-F-based server. The latest FreeNAS update requires version P20 of the LSI SAS IT firmware instead of the previous P16.

Your FTP server has version 20.00.02.00 of the P20 firmware available, but LSI has released newer versions, including 20.00.04.00, which presumably fix additional bugs.

Will you be updating the P20 firmware for the X10SL7-F motherboard? Will I be able to use the slightly older version from your support site without problems?

Thank you!

 

[Ericloewe]

So i just HAD to find out myself:

mptsas2.rom is BIOS
x64sas2.rom is UEFI

So i flashed with the LSI 9207-8 packages. Firmware is now 20.00.04.00.

Strange thing though... with the Supermicro package Firmware were 20.00.02.00 and NVDATA were 14.01.00.14
With the LSI, the Firmware is newer but NVDATA is now 14.01.00.06.

Solving questions only to grow new ones...

Cool, UEFI extension ROMs.

It brings little to the average users of FreeNAS, but proper support for UEFI is encouraging.
Booting from SAS controllers should be noticeably faster with the UEFI extension ROM, since the BIOS emulation step is unnecessary. OS support is naturally required.

mptsas2.rom is the boot rom. According to other knowledgable members it's not needed or wanted for freenas. See Ericloewe's reply in this thread where I asked about how to flash the onboard controller without the boot rom.

Now that we're at P20, I'll change my tune a bit. The fscking stupid bug in the P16 BIOS extension that kept drives from being listed has long since been fixed. The availability of a UEFI extension should also hopefully mean a more stable experience.
I imagine conflicts between SAS2008 and SAS2308 controllers and their boot ROMs have also been fixed.
All things considered, I'd install the extension as well, mostly out of curiosity.

 

[Glorious1]

Using the FreeBSD sas2flash executable (which is part of the FreeNAS base) worked just fine for me once I'd installed the 9.3.1 update (I'm guessing it wouldn't do the flash before the update because I was still running the P16 driver?). Here's what I did:

• Download pclausen's P20.zip file and unzip it somewhere on the pool
• Install the FreeNAS update and reboot
• SSH in to the box as root, and navigate to where I'd unzipped P20.zip
• sas2flash -fwall 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
• Reboot . . .

Thank you! This worked easily. I was in a total panic about upgrading because I had a terrible ordeal doing the initial P16 flash. The only thing to add is you can do sas2flash -list to verify success and look for

Code:

    Firmware Product ID            : 0x2213 (IT)
    Firmware Version               : 20.00.04.00

 

[Darren Myers]

Now I've gotten an email from someone asking how *I* will be upgrading my system to v20. Here's how I will be doing it (I'm ultra-conservative though).

1. Shutdown my server
2. Remove enough drives that the zpool can't mount (or simply remove all of the disks temporarily).
3. Bootup FreeNAS. It'll be really unhappy that the zpool doesn't exist. Ignore it.
4. Do the upgrade to 9.3.1.
5. After the upgrade finishes and the reboots are done shutdown again.
6. Bootup using either a DOS disk or the UEFI shell and flash the P20 firmware 20.00.04 (or higher).
7. Shutdown the server again.
8. Plug all your disks in and poweron the server. If you didn't screw something up you should now be on P20 firmware and P20 drivers and never had any data at risk during the upgrade process.

I know how ill be doing it when i get back to have physical access to my servers again

 

[AuBird]

I just upgraded from P16 to P20 after downloading the firmware from http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9211-8i#downloads. Used the FreeNAS sas2flash command to upgrade and so far I have no problems... haven't even rebooted the machine yet.

[root@freenas] ~# sas2flash -listall
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2008(B2)

Num Ctlr FW Ver NVDATA x86-BIOS PCI Addr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

0 SAS2008(B2) 16.00.00.00 10.00.00.06 No Image 00:01:00:00

Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.



[root@freenas] /mnt/FileStorage/home/neal# sas2flash -fwall 2118it.bin
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

Ignoring All other commands except for output flags

Attempting to flash firmware to LSI SAS SAS2008(B2) :

Executing Operation: Flash Firmware Image

Firmware Image has a Valid Checksum.
Firmware Version 20.00.04.00
Firmware Image compatible with Controller.

Valid NVDATA Image found.
NVDATA Version 14.01.00.00
Checking for a compatible NVData image...

NVDATA Device ID and Chip Revision match verified.
NVDATA Versions Compatible.
Valid Initialization Image verified.
Valid BootLoader Image verified.

Beginning Firmware Download...
Firmware Download Successful.

Verifying Download...

Firmware Flash Successful.

Resetting Adapter...
Adapter Successfully Reset.

Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.




I have this in my dmesg...
Aug 26 21:29:40 freenas mps0: Reinitializing controller,
Aug 26 21:29:50 freenas mps0: Warning: io_cmds_active is out of sync - resynching to 0
...
(repeated 1023 times)
...
Aug 26 21:30:05 freenas mps0: Firmware: 20.00.04.00, Driver: 20.00.00.00-fbsd
Aug 26 21:30:05 freenas mps0: IOCCapabilities: 1285c<ScsiTaskFull,DiagTrace,SnapBuf,EEDP,TransRetry,EventReplay,HostDisc>
Aug 26 21:30:05 freenas mps0: mps_reinit finished sc 0xfffffe0000abe000 post 4 free 3
Aug 26 21:30:05 freenas mps0: Unfreezing SIM queue
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = 6f9d3e2aa4a9948f
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = 6f9d3e2aa4a9948f
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = dd654148b6b58c7d
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = dd654148b6b58c7d
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = 9281e097f6d465b
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = 9281e097f6d465b
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = 4571382bcda0998b
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = 4571382bcda0998b
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = 45613e44dfb3b193
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = 45613e44dfb3b193
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address for SATA device = 9281e0e726b617e
Aug 26 21:30:07 freenas mps0: SAS Address from SATA device = 9281e0e726b617e

 

[AuBird]

Upon reboot there was some mention of importing something... but after a few minutes I have healthy pools.

 

[scurrier]

For anyone who is suffering with Supermicro's IPMI interface not allowing you to mount a USB drive: Download the jnlp file by clicking the IPMI "launch console" button in chrome. Then, start a cmd prompt with admin rights and run javaws "jnlpfilename.jnlp". That will start the console and now let you mount the USB drive to it, instead of giving the lame error message: "VM Device is not valid, please click "Refresh" button"

Side note: Is this driver problem expected to happen in the STABLE train? I thought I could do this upgrade with low risk because it's the STABLE train. Was I wrong about that or was this a major mistake?

 

[Scharbag]

Now I've gotten an email from someone asking how *I* will be upgrading my system to v20. Here's how I will be doing it (I'm ultra-conservative though).

1. Shutdown my server
2. Remove enough drives that the zpool can't mount (or simply remove all of the disks temporarily).
3. Bootup FreeNAS. It'll be really unhappy that the zpool doesn't exist. Ignore it.
4. Do the upgrade to 9.3.1.
5. After the upgrade finishes and the reboots are done shutdown again.
6. Bootup using either a DOS disk or the UEFI shell and flash the P20 firmware 20.00.04 (or higher).
7. Shutdown the server again.
8. Plug all your disks in and poweron the server. If you didn't screw something up you should now be on P20 firmware and P20 drivers and never had any data at risk during the upgrade process.

Great advice and exactly how I just completed the upgrade. I used the UEFI shell to update to V20.00.04.00 IT. Lucky for me, I have a case that has hot swap drive bays, easy to remove (Norco 4U 4220).

Cheers,

 

[Scareh]

@jkh @cyberjock just out of curiosity:
the p20 firmware is being used for months allready in beta you say but:

I have heard that any version prior to 20.00.04 should not be used. They have a fatal flaw that can create problems, even for IT mode stuff.

so which firmware was being used in those months of testing? And seeing how it made it into production now, i guess nothing special happened?

 

[Bergsport]

How about this for a strange one. Updated my M1015 using the UEFI bios on an X9-SCM. Then upgraded the Freenas version.

But now for some reason Freenas cannot see 4x Seagate Pipeline 512Gb drives, yet I have 6x WD Green 4Tb drives that can be seen and work fine. The only way I can access the 4x 512Gb drives is to plug them directly into the motherboard.

Has anyone seen this or have any thoughts as to why this might be?

Cheers