New FreeNAS box - SuperMicro with LSI 2308, 9.3 OS, Firmware Warning

[Scott E.]

We just installed a brand new FreeNAS box from a VAR consisting of a SuperMicro box with pre-installed FreeNAS 9.3.

While viewing the GUI configuration screen we received an alert popup:

Alert System
WARNING: Firmware version 19 does not match driver version for /dev/mps0

Is this alert something we should be concerned about, or can we safely treat it as simply informational?

The system currently, though brand new, appears to work perfectly.

lspci reveals:

03:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2308 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 (rev 05)

If the alert is something to be concerned about, what is the best course of action?

Thanks.

Scott

 

[BigDave]

The alert is letting you know that the firmware of your controller
does not match your Freenas driver.
There have been some people who have had trouble when running
mismatched firmware with the driver provided in the OS.
You should flash the controller with matching firmware asap
to avoid trouble.
Please post your system specs and freenas version to receive the best advice.

 

[Ericloewe]

We just installed a brand new FreeNAS box from a VAR consisting of a SuperMicro box with pre-installed FreeNAS 9.3.

While viewing the GUI configuration screen we received an alert popup:

Alert System
WARNING: Firmware version 19 does not match driver version for /dev/mps0

Is this alert something we should be concerned about, or can we safely treat it as simply informational?

The system currently, though brand new, appears to work perfectly.

lspci reveals:

03:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2308 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 (rev 05)

If the alert is something to be concerned about, what is the best course of action?

Thanks.

Scott

No warning is simply informational.

Officially, nothing changed between P16 and P20 for IT mode.

In practice, we see a gradient of nastiness from "none" at P16 to "WTF! I just lost my #@%'«?& pool!" at P20.

tl;dr: Flash the controller to P16


Also, stupid google is making our life harder, the first hit at forums.freenas.org leads to the thread cyberjock closed due to the abundance of threads like these.

 

[cdgonzalez]

Ericloewe "Also, stupid google is making our life harder, the first hit at forums.freenas.org leads to the thread cyberjock closed due to the abundance of threads like these."

The first hit I get 99% of the time is cyberjock's "I've already answered this a million times do a search" when I attempt to search something. (via Google)

 

[Scott E.]

If the warning shows I need to update my driver to match the firmware, how do I go about doing so? Does it mean an OS update? If yes, what would be the safest way to do so? If another method, how and what?

Thanks.

 

[cyberjock]

It doesn't.. it shows you need to downgrade your firmware to match the driver. ;)

 

[depasseg]

If only there was an FAQ link in that alert message.....

 

[cyberjock]

They still wouldn't read it. There's 50 damn threads on this topic and the OP clearly didn't try to search.

 

[depasseg]

There's a search function on the forum?

 

[cyberjock]

Yep.. top right corner.

It's almost useless because people create threads without searching.

If you are a responsible forum user and use the search button, when you search for a given term and there's 50 threads on the topic, the first 20 may be useless. So you give up and post a thread because you figure there is no answer here.

It's why I've pretty much stopped posting except for the most advanced questions. Just not worth my time to answer a question that has been answered a dozen or more times and is now lost in the riff-raff.

 

[depasseg]

sorry, I should have put "joking" in my search question.

 

[Scott E.]

I have been searching quite a bit f0r answers but no hits found the link noted above.
So, getting more specific - there are several hits I've found saying to downgrade the firmware, but nothing specific as to which firmware to downgrade to that is most appropriate for my version: FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p8 (FREENAS.amd64) #2 r275790+6365d9c

Thanks.

 

[Ericloewe]

I have been searching quite a bit f0r answers but no hits found the link noted above.
So, getting more specific - there are several hits I've found saying to downgrade the firmware, but nothing specific as to which firmware to downgrade to that is most appropriate for my version: FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p8 (FREENAS.amd64) #2 r275790+6365d9c

Thanks.

P16, as stated right in the beginning of the manual.

 

[Scott E.]

For our SuperMicro box, what is the most recommended way to downgrade the flash?
I've read people have installed FreeDOS on a bootable USB stick?

What are the trusted places to get the needed software to make this work for us?

How have people successfully flashed the firmware?

Thanks.

 

[Ericloewe]

For our SuperMicro box, what is the most recommended way to downgrade the flash?
I've read people have installed FreeDOS on a bootable USB stick?

What are the trusted places to get the needed software to make this work for us?

How have people successfully flashed the firmware?

Thanks.

megarec in DOS to clear the ROM (shouldn't be necessary), EFI flashing tool.

 

[Scott E.]

FreeNAS documentation notes sas2flash as a utility for firmware flashing.

A more fundamental question - according to the freenas docs - "An alert will also be generated when the LSI HBA firmware version does not match the driver version. To resolve this alert, download the IT (integrated target) firmware, not the IR (integrated RAID) firmware, from the LSI website."

Based on that quote, is there a chart saying _which_ firmware version I should use for my LSI 2308?

Also, as LSI has reconfigured their web site to when the freenas docs were produced, the LSI site seems more restrictive in properly selecting my card.

So first and foremost, which firmware version and how to know? Is there a chart?

Second, best path to getting the correct firmware?

Thanks!

Scott

 

[Jailer]

See the attached file. The instruction listed are for an X9 series board but the procedure is the same. There is a url in the file for the firmware but you'll have to dig around on the site to find the phase 16 IT firmware.

 

[Scott E.]

So from the instructions and everything else, from those with experience, can the FreeNAS sas2firmware flash utility do the job, or must the update be done at the console and/or via a DOS flash drive (USB stick)?

Thanks again.

 

[Ericloewe]

All LSI SAS2 controllers should be flashed to P16 IT mode.

 

[Scott E.]

No argument that controllers should be flashed, but I ask if it can safely be flashed with FreeNAS's sas2flash utility, or must it be flashed with DOS?