Did I cross Flash my H200 incorrectly??

[Logikgear]

So I picked up an H200 to install in my Dell R710 in the storage slot. I have flashed it several times with the same result. After the Cross flash, the ports have swapped. I still have port A on the card plugged into port A on the backplane of the 2.5" bays and the same with Ports B. But, now when you go into the SAS utility the drives in Bays 0,1,2,3 list in the utility as connected to 4,5,6,7 I was thinking, Okay, "this is an easy fix, just swap the cables." Well, the server doesn't like that. When I swap the cables I get the following:

error during post
Error: SAS Cable A or SAS integrated Controller is missing.

Error in the iDRAC interface
The storage SAS A cable is not connected, or is improperly connected.

If I swap the cables back then everything is fine error wise. I have done the following to achieve the crossflash. The first time used the dell server itself. Then I took the card to work and used a UEFI test bench. all with the same results.

First in the Dell R710: h200 in normal pci slot

• sas2flsh.exe -c 0 -list Write down SAS address.
• sas2flsh.exe -o -e 6

power off server. wait 30sec, power on

• sas2flsh.exe -o -f h200i.fw
• sas2flsh.exe -o -b mptsas2.rom
• sas2flsh.exe -o -sasadd 500xxxxxxxxxxxxx

power off server. move h200 to integrated pci slot

• sas2flsh.exe -o -f 2118p7.bin, Reboot
• sas2flsh.exe -o -f 2118it.bin.

After this it worked in the storage slot but the bays were swapped.

On a test bench at work and with different tools:

From EFI shell:

• sas2flash.efi -c 0 -list (to get my card's SAS address as it will be erased)

From FreeDOS:

• megarec -readsbr 0 backup.sbr
• megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
• megarec -cleanflash 0

Back in the EFI shell:

• sas2flash.efi -o -f H200I.FW
• sas2flash.efi -o -b mptsas2.rom
• sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118p7.bin
• sas2flash_p19.efi -o -f 2118it.bin
• sas2flash_p19.efi -o -sasadd 5xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (to restore my card's SAS address)

This all only matters because for now I'm using two of the bays for boot drives in FreeNAS and I want them in the correct numbered bays. Mainly just for my OCD. But if this is how the flash should be then I'll just have to deal with it for now. Thanks everyone.

 

[Chris Moore]

Without trying to follow through all those steps, can you just show us the output of the sas2flash -list command?

It should look kind of like this:

Code:

root@Emily-NAS:/tmp # sas2flash -list
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: SAS2308_2(D1)

        Controller Number              : 0
        Controller                     : SAS2308_2(D1)
        PCI Address                    : 00:03:00:00
        SAS Address                    : 500605b-0-09ef-7220
        NVDATA Version (Default)       : 14.01.00.06
        NVDATA Version (Persistent)    : 14.01.00.06
        Firmware Product ID            : 0x2214 (IT)
        Firmware Version               : 20.00.07.00
        NVDATA Vendor                  : LSI
        NVDATA Product ID              : SAS9207-8i
        BIOS Version                   : N/A
        UEFI BSD Version               : N/A
        FCODE Version                  : N/A
        Board Name                     : SAS9207-8i
        Board Assembly                 : H3-25412-00J
        Board Tracer Number            : SV45308383

        Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
        Exiting SAS2Flash.

 

[Chris Moore]

You might also want to check this video:

How to fix: "Invalid PCIe card found in the Internal Storage slot!" error in Dell PowerEdge R710
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0AEHVdc_go

 

[Logikgear]

Without trying to follow through all those steps, can you just show us the output of the sas2flash -list command?

Here is the output

Code:

root@freenastest[~]# sas2flash -list
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)

        Controller Number              : 0
        Controller                     : SAS2008(B2)
        PCI Address                    : 00:03:00:00
        SAS Address                    : 5d4ae52-0-7295-8400
        NVDATA Version (Default)       : 14.01.00.08
        NVDATA Version (Persistent)    : 14.01.00.08
        Firmware Product ID            : 0x2213 (IT)
        Firmware Version               : 20.00.07.00
        NVDATA Vendor                  : LSI
        NVDATA Product ID              : SAS9211-8i
        BIOS Version                   : 07.11.10.00
        UEFI BSD Version               : N/A
        FCODE Version                  : N/A
        Board Name                     : PERC H200I
        Board Assembly                 : N/A
        Board Tracer Number            : N/A

        Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
        Exiting SAS2Flash.

You might also want to check this video:

How to fix: "Invalid PCIe card found in the Internal Storage slot!" error in Dell PowerEdge R710
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0AEHVdc_go

I saw this video and looked into the tools he was using. Someone asked in the comments about them and his response was

Art of Server
if you do a search for lsirec, you'll find a project on github. it also includes the sbrtool. you'll need to compile the code and i think its mainly for Linux only so you'll need to have Linux OS to do it this way.

Saying that I would need to compile the code pushed me away from this due to not knowing how to do that.

That all being said. it works and FreeNAS sees the drives. the bay locations are just wrong.

 

[Chris Moore]

Here is the output

Looks good.

the bay locations are just wrong.

You might be able to swap the two cables, but the drive port number is dictated by the wiring harness, not the SAS controller.

 

[Logikgear]

You might be able to swap the two cables, but the drive port number is dictated by the wiring harness, not the SAS controller.

That is the problem. At the moment everything is connected as it should be Port A on the backplane connected to Port A on the card as well as Port B on the backplane connected to Port B on the card. The Boot/iDRAC is happy. But Bays 0,1,2,3 list in the SAS utility as connected to 4,5,6,7 and Bays 4,5,6,7 list as 0,1,2,3 So I was thinking, Okay, "this is an easy fix, just swap the cables." Well, the server doesn't like that.
When I swap the cables I get the following:

error during post ( just on the screen during HBA boot)
Error: SAS Cable A or SAS integrated Controller is missing.

Error in the iDRAC interface & on LCD the read out
The storage SAS A cable is not connected or is improperly connected.

Which is what had to lead me to believe that something went wrong with the flash or this is how it should be. I guess I'm more wondering if this is what everyone sees that has flashed an H200 to keep it in the storage slot.

 

[Chris Moore]

Which is what had to lead me to believe that something went wrong with the flash or this is how it should be. I guess I'm more wondering if this is what everyone sees that has flashed an H200 to keep it in the storage slot.

I think this is what the fix (in the video) is about. The iDRAC doesn't know how to deal with not having a card in the storage slot and it can't deal with a card in the storage slot that doesn't have the correct setting. If I were using a Dell PowerEdge R710 chassis, I would get a card from the guy on the video.