SOLVED HP220 HBA not booting

[Agino55]

Hi there!

This is my second thread on the HBA HP220 and the problems I am encountering.
Bit of background: I am super new to everything so I am trying my best in learning so apologies in advance for "easy questions".

I have recently purchased a HPE server dl360 gen9 for a fresh install of TrueNAS Scale.
Full details of the server specs at the end.
Before installing it I made some research and understood that I cannot use the HW RAID so I bought off ebay a HBA HP H220 LSI 2308 6G PCIe x8 (link for ebay for reference: https://www.ebay.it/itm/374044269341?hash=item5716c69b1d:g:XtEAAOSwXZpiaPWc).
I also went into the BIOS of the server and deactivated secure boot.

I used a bootable USB (tried both with Rufus and Balena) and went through the installation process with no problems for TrueNAS Scale.
Once I rebooted the system the server does not find a bootable drive.
It finds it just in legacy mode.

I tried a fresh install of Ubuntu and again after the installation reboot the server cannot find a bootable drive.

I then tried to connect the cables to the embedded storage controller (should be this HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i ) which is in AHCI mode and it could finally find the boot drive in BIOS mode.

Now, I would prefer to use the HP220 I think because I am not sure if the embedded storage controller is good for Truenas, but it seems that I am missing something.

I am thinking that I need to flash the HP220 even though the ebay listing said it came flashed in IT mode.

Basically I am lost and I now have lost so many days trying to figure this out.
I would be so grateful if someone could give me any direction.

Thanks you in advance
Here all my HW specs
My HW:

Description:	HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 V4 Rack Server (SFF chassis)
Processors:	2x Intel Xeon E5-2680v4 14-Core 2.40 GHz (28-Threads, 3.30 GHz Turbo, 35 MB Cache)
Memory:	32 GB DDR4 RAM (2x 16 GB modules installed, upgradable, max. 24x modules possible)
Storage controller (AROC): (REMOVED)	HPE Smart Array P440ar with 2GB cache (12G SAS, 6G SATA, RAID or HBA-Mode) - without battery pack
Storage controller (Embedded):	HPE Dynamic Smart Array B140i (6G SATA, Software-RAID)
Disk bays (front):	1x standard 8-bay hot plug 2.5" SFF Smart Carrier (SC) cage (SAS/SATA)
Installed disks:	1x 250 GB SSD
Power supply:	2x 500 Watt redundant power supplies
Cooling:	7x redundant chassis fans (Standard version)
Riser Cage #1:	Primary Riser Card (x16/x8) with following slots:
HERE is where I plugged the HP220	1x PCIe Gen3 x16 - (full height, 3/4 length)
	1x PCIe Gen3 x8 - (half height, half length)
Riser Cage #2:	not included, optionally possible
FlexibleLOM Slot:	free, max. 1x adapter possible
Connectivity (Standard):	4x 1G RJ45 network ports
	1x iLO RJ45 remote port
	1x VGA
	1x MicroSD slot internal
	3x USB Type-A 3.0 external
	2x USB Type-A 3.0 internal
Form factor:	19" Rack x 1U
Depth:	698mm
Weight:	14kg
Remote management:	HPE iLO 4 remote management (Standard version)

 

[Ericloewe]

What's the output of sas2flash -listall?

 

[Agino55]

I have been trying all day to use a bootable usb in MSDOS or FreeDOS while following the guide on this forum on how to flash cards but for some reason I still can't run the sas2flash command (sas2flash is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file).

During the legacy boot however I got a glimpse of the stats of my HBA card (attached screenshot below).

I am utter lost because I can't seem to figure out how to run the sas2flash command.

Any recommendations?

And again many thanks for the help and interest

 

[Ericloewe]

Due to filename restrictions on DOS systems, the executable is called sas2flsh (no a) so that it fits in 8 characters. Of course, doing this in DOS is needlessly painful, since you could instead use any of:

• TrueNAS (sas2flash and sas3flash are packaged with TrueNAS)
• EFI shell
• Vanilla FreeBSD
• Most Linux distros
• Windows

 

[Agino55]

Due to filename restrictions on DOS systems, the executable is called sas2flsh (no a) so that it fits in 8 characters. Of course, doing this in DOS is needlessly painful, since you could instead use any of:

• TrueNAS (sas2flash and sas3flash are packaged with TrueNAS)
• EFI shell
• Vanilla FreeBSD
• Most Linux distros
• Windows

Thank you! This really helped!

I booted up the TrueNAS Scale in legacy BIOS and run the command sas2flash -listall. Below the results.
Any idea on what to do now?
The system still does not want to boot in UEFI (both with TrueNAS and Ubuntu so is not a problem of TrueNAS) must be something regarding the HBA I've installed.
Let me know and thank you again for all the interest!

root@truenas[~]# sas2flash -listall LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18) Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2308_2(D1) Num Board Name FW Ver NVDATA x86-BIOS ----------------------------------------------------------------- 0 H220 20.00.06.00 14.01.00.06 07.39.02.00 Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash.

 

[Ericloewe]

Well, a few things:

• The controller is generally fine and seems to be working normally
• The firmware is slightly outdated, you'll want to update to 20.00.07
• At the same time, you'll want to flash at least the UEFI extension ROM, and either clear or update the BIOS extension ROM (to make sure it matches the latest firmware)

After the firmware and option ROM are in place, you should be able to configure the controller (with the few options there are) from the system firmware setup menu and the system firmware should be able to see the disks attached to it.

 

[Agino55]

Thank you Ericloewe and special thanks to The Art of Server who guided me step by step on setting up everything and solving this problem.
The problem was indeed that the UEFI BSD version was missing hence it just booted on legacy BIOS and not in UEFI.

For anyone encountering the same issues just run the "sas2flsh.exe -c 0 list" on FreeDOS or similar. If the voice under UEFI BSD version is "N/A" then you will need to flash the correct rom file.

If you wanna avoid all these issues altogether then I highly recommend buying your HBAs through " the art of server" ebay shop. All his cards are already flashed with the latest firmware and fully updates BIOS and UEFI ROM.

If anyone is encountering the same issues DM me and I'll gladly explain in more details how I was able to solve mine.

Thanks everyone again.
GINO