SOLVED Dell Perc H200 card

[RegularJoe]

Hi All,

I have a new error message that did not happen on FreeNAS 9.2.1.8 but is happening on FreeNAS 9.3. I know(thinks) that I have the latest H200 IR firmware on my Dell Perc card. I have recently downloaded the firmware from Dell as it would not support 4 TB drives in the Dell R710 that I also have in the lab. I am not defining a RAID set so the drives are presented to BSD as SATA disks.

Firmware version 7 does not match driver version 16 for /dev/mps0

I am trying to use the Perc in the storage slot so I have other slots for other cards. To do that I have to keep Dell firmware on it or at POST the BIOS says non dell card in storage slot, system halted. :-(

Dell PE R610, Perc H200, 8 gigs ram, 6- ibm 1tb 2.5" drives

 

[cyberjock]

The error is because the LSI driver should *always* match the firmware, period. Failure to do so can result in sudden data loss and other unrecoverable problems.

Please search the forums for "perc" as you will find that you should not be using that controller under any circumstances with FreeNAS and ZFS.

 

[mjws00]

I think that H200 is just a SAS2008 (ala servethehome). It isn't one of the scary Percs. But it looks like your board locks out your storage slot if you crossflash. So you're kinda hooped. You had the same mismatch and potential issue under 9.2.1.8 they just didn't mention it. It's too bad Dell decided to be pricks on that one.

That card will actually run nicely as a cross-flashed 9211-8 with p16 (right IT firmware version) in a non storage pci-e slot. Here is a walkthrough make sure and use p16 if you go that route.

 

[cyberjock]

The H200 is a SAS2008 rebranded?

/me goes to Google

 

[mjws00]

I left you a link. Note the mps driver.

 

[Ericloewe]

The H200 is a SAS2008 rebranded?

/me goes to Google

I'm just as surprised, but it's obviously using mps, so it's got to be a 2008 or a 2308.

Hi All,

I have a new error message that did not happen on FreeNAS 9.2.1.8 but is happening on FreeNAS 9.3. I know(thinks) that I have the latest H200 IR firmware on my Dell Perc card. I have recently downloaded the firmware from Dell as it would not support 4 TB drives in the Dell R710 that I also have in the lab. I am not defining a RAID set so the drives are presented to BSD as SATA disks.

Firmware version 7 does not match driver version 16 for /dev/mps0

I am trying to use the Perc in the storage slot so I have other slots for other cards. To do that I have to keep Dell firmware on it or at POST the BIOS says non dell card in storage slot, system halted. :-(

Dell PE R610, Perc H200, 8 gigs ram, 6- ibm 1tb 2.5" drives

Shady business practices to the rescue (of the advice of staying well away)! P7 is positively ancient. Any chance Dell has a P16 IT (better in this case than IR) update?
If not, your only solution is to get rid of the Dell server (which I imagine would be painful), as mismatched drivers and firmware tend to cause trouble, especially if we're dealing with such a large jump.

 

[cyberjock]

I did see the mps0 message and I figured it was an anomaly in the WebGUI message and was in error. But it seems it's some proprietary dell thing that is a SAS2008.

Ericloewe pretty much has it right. If there's no way to reflash it to the correct firmware you should write that controller off. Of course, in your situation I think this also means you have to write off the whole server if I understand the whole situation.

This whole thing with this server makes me just cringe at the thought of how proprietary it is. This is a great example of why I've never been a fan of buying boxed servers from Dell, HP, etc.

 

[mjws00]

Guys. The server has a storage riser. That is the only slot that looks for Dell firmware. The card itself will cross flash to a p16 lsi 9211-8 and run perfectly in any of the pcie slots. Or on any other server. Dell just did a quick check via bios on the riser so they can sell and verify storage options. If you consider it an extra slot... it's a feature ;)

 

[RegularJoe]

Well I was hoping to use the storage slot with a cross flash Perc H200, but I guess Dell is not playing nice, hence the reason why I am moving all our servers from Dell to HP or Generic Supermicro.

I have done a LOT of cross flashing with this card, so I guess it is a cross flash and put it in a PCI slot. The Dell storage slot is just a waste of time and money. There are NO dell cards worth a darn that fit in that slot. Good to know that the firmware I should inject is P16 as the latest firmware for that card at LSI is P20! ;) What is the command to see what firmware is on a LSI card and what driver is in use? I have two older HP DL380 G6 boxes running older versions of FreeNAS and LSI 9211-8i cards.

I really think iX Systems should sell JBOD shelves that we can buy without the fear the backplane firmware is going to kick our butt at some time. I also think they should sell the LSI SAS switch

With VMware there is NO reason to keep buying Dell as they offer little to no management and are a pain in the butt for the SMB market.

IMHO SMB servers ALWAYS have a good hardware RAID card with a darn buzzer that will beep like hell till the failed drive is replaced. The number 3 issues at SMB is a failed drive in a crummy server with software RAID or a PERC that has no buzzer. #1 and #2 are viruses/malware and the Windows/Admin tag team.

 

[mjws00]

Should be able to see version with 'dmesg | grep mps'

 

[cyberjock]

Should be able to see version with 'dmesg | grep mps'

or "sas2flash -listall"

 

[Borja Marcos]

(although this is an off topic in this area…)

The Dell branded H200 cards can be repurposed to IT firmware. Sas2flash will complain that it can't replace IR firmware with IT firmware, but there was a version which, apparently, had a useful bug/feature: it omits/ignores the checking. Once you have flashed the card with the IT version, you can use the more modern sas2flash versions to keep using IT firmware without problems.

This process was described in a somewhat religious way here,

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=1045376

The key to success is to use precisely the mentioned version, although the author doesn't explain why, I wonder if he just was lucky when he tried.


** This release package contains the files necessary to flash the Dell
** 6GBPSAS Adapter with:
** Package version -------------- 07.03.05.00
** Firmware Version ------------- 07.15.08.00
** Option BIOS Version ---------- 7.11.10.00-Dellized_24
** Boot services Driver Version - 7.02.03.00
** NVDATA Version --------------- Version 19
**

Once exorcised of the "dellized" firmware you can keep updating with firmware downloaded from the LSI website without trouble.

 

[jgreco]

That's a nice find, thanks for the contribution.