BUILD My Socket 2011v3 Build

[ian351c]

@SweetAndLow: Looks like as of 9.3 Linux jails have been deprecated in favor of Virtualbox. Not sure how I feel about that, since I never knew what I was missing, but there it is.

 

[Ericloewe]

It's said that Linux jails were not very good in practice.

 

[marbus90]

It's said that Linux jails were not very good in practice.

Dat understatement.

 

[SweetAndLow]

@SweetAndLow: Looks like as of 9.3 Linux jails have been deprecated in favor of Virtualbox. Not sure how I feel about that, since I never knew what I was missing, but there it is.

I'm not sure what you are talking about, I said I used a freeBSD jail to do the install, not a linux jail. Also there is still a crashplan plugin in 9.3. You can even do kldload linux.so in 9.3

 

[cyberjock]

Crashplan was a linux jail. ;)

 

[ian351c]

Sorry for the confusion. I understood that when you build a jail and load the linux module that makes it a "linux jail"... There used to be a template for that, but it no longer exists in 9.3. But if you are having success with using linux compatibility in a jail in 9.3 I'd love to hear about it. Did you do anything special?

 

[Glorious1]

I discovered that you can do all this via UEFI boot shell as documented here. There are a few differences though. So here is my recipe:

• Step 1 - Download version 16 of both the UEFI Flashing tool and the DOS/Windows Package containing the flash ROM image from LSI Support.
  • Make sure it's v16 because that's the version of the driver FreeNAS 9.2/9.3 use and the firmware should match the driver.
• Step 2 - Decompress them onto a USB Stick
• Step 3 - Boot to UEFI shell on my SuperMicro motherboard
• Step 4 - Navigate to the folder with the flashing tools and ROM like so:
  • fso:
  • cd foldername
• Step 5 - Erase and Flash the M-1015
  • sas2flash.efi -o -e 7
  • sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin (Append -b mptsas2.rom if you want a boot ROM, but you don't need it)
• Step 6 - Reboot and profit!

I'm trying this and getting nowhere. I'm in the UEFI shell, but when I type "fso:", it responds "Invalid mapping name - 'fso:'"
If I type "ls", I get "Cannot open current directory - No Mapping"
"cd" results in "Cannot find mapped device"

In any case, I wouldn't know how to specify the USB drive in this UEFI shell. It's an unfriendly environment. Would appreciate any help!

Edit: finally figured out that's a zero, not an 'O'. They look identical in the default font on this forum.

Edit 2: When I issued the first command - Ugh - I got this ???:

There IS a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i 6 GB/s 8-port SATA+SAS RAID Controller installed. And if I boot into FreeNAS, it has no problem mounting my healthy pool on drives that are all plugged into the Controller. So what gives?

 

[Glorious1]

I tried it in DOS and got the exact same error:

But the LSI BIOS is loading:

I'm pretty much out of ideas now and google is not helping. I find other people who had the problem, but no resolution, except one guy who did it in DOS after UEFI and then it worked. I need help!

 

[mjws00]

You could try a different version of sas2flash. Maybe p20? Hard to say what else is up.

 

[Glorious1]

Thanks. I've read several times that it's important to use P16 because that matches the driver in FreeNAS. But maybe that applies to the firmware only, not to sas2flash?

 

[mjws00]

Correct. Firmware matters, not software version to flash. Not sure it will work... but you have to find something. You could throw it in a different box as well, sometimes that is quicker than fighting it.

 

[Glorious1]

Tried with the P20 sas2flash.efi also. No luck. Also tried it with the SAS-SATA cables pulled off the LSI board, with both versions of sas2flash. Nothing. Unfortunately I don't know of any box I could put the board in to flash it. And I only have 5 days to return the board if I decide it's not working. Also tried disabling all SATA on the mainboard in BIOS first. Crap.

Could there be some kind of EFI driver I need to connect or something?

Is the board powered directly through the PCIe slot? I didn't see any way to connect power from the PSU, and the instructions don't mention providing power.

Finally, I just noticed the box and instructions don't say IBM M1015, which everyone talks about, anywhere on them. Is that a problem? It does have the LSI SAS 2008 controller.

 

[mjws00]

Is it actually an lsi card? Or is it oem?

 

[Glorious1]

Oh man, I'm screwed. Did I get the wrong board? From LSI support:

You can not flash IT firmware on the 9240-8i. If the plan is to use
the drives as JBOD, the 9240-8i supports JBOD.

You need to go into the WeBBIOS via CTRL+H keys. All new disks
should be detected as JBOD .If the drives are detected as Unconfigured
Good Drives, you can convert them into JBOD.

Use storcli to check for status

http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/RAID Controllers/RAID Controllers Common Files/1.13.06_StorCLI_u1.zip

storcli show
storcli /c0 show all
storcli help

storcli reference manual

http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/RAID Controllers/RAID Controllers Common Files/StorCLI_RefMan_revf.pdf

Thank you

And yet the board (yes it's real LSI) has the SAS2008 controller, which the sas2flash reference guide specifically says it supports.

 

[mjws00]

Does megarec under dos see it? Ignore lsi lots of folks have crossflashed a 9240.

 

[Glorious1]

Yes, megarec -adpList seems to show it:

 

[mjws00]

Ok. So you will wipe it with megarec under dos. Then write the p16 firmware out with uefi using sas2flash. Roughly follow this guide... but use p16 when reflashing.

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...80-raid-controller-model-lsi-sas9240-8i.8632/

 

[Glorious1]

mjws00, thank you so much. You saved my bacon. I don't know how you guys figure this stuff out, but thanks for sharing it. I can't believe all those contortions worked.

Only problem is, now I get no serial numbers in "View Disks". I think another person had this problem. As I recall he reinstalled FreeNAS to fix it. I just updated through the GUI (Dec. 20 update) and it did not fix it.

For posterity, and anyone else that has this trouble, here is what I did, combining mjws00's advice with the post that he referenced:

1. Items needed: DOS-bootable USB flash drive with MEGAREC.EXE and its dependency DOS4GW.EXE, EMPTY.BIN, sas2flash.efi, and the firmware version P16 of 2118it.bin.
   
2. Put the files on the DOS USB drive and boot the server with it.
   
3. Save original sbr (serial boot rom) by typing: megarec -readsbr 0 backup.sbr (put this backup in a safe place once you're done with the whole process).
4. Write an empty sbr file to controller: megarec -writesbr 0 empty.bin
5. Erase controller flash: megarec -cleanflash 0
6. Reboot into UEFI Shell (through F11 Boot menu).
7. In the SuperMicro UEFI Shell, you can see devices with map. Adding -b to most commands stops from scrolling off the screen.
8. fs0: takes you to the first filesystem (should be flash drive). Now ls will work to see files.
9. Erase the firmware and bios (not sure this is needed since I did it with megarec, but it didn't hurt): sas2flash.efi -o -e 6
10. This will say the controller is not operational, then ask for a firmware version, this is the file 2118it.bin. The erasure takes time.
11. Flash the controller to the new firmware: sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin
12. Put SAS address in where 500605b********* is the code on the green sticker on your card (no hyphens or spaces):
    sas2flash.efi -o -sasadd 500605b*********
13. Verify success with: sas2flash.efi –list
    
14. In the list will be a Firmware product ID. If that ends with (IT), you should be good.

 

[Ericloewe]

A simple reboot has been useful in showing the serial numbers, IIRC.

 

[Glorious1]

A simple reboot has been useful in showing the serial numbers, IIRC.

It rebooted after the FreeNAS update, but I just rebooted again for good measure. Still no serials.