LSI 2108 based card cross flashing (Dell H700, LSI 9260, IBM M5015, Intel RS2BL080)

[Nizzen]

I just updated the firmware trough storagemanager. So maybe it is not full LSI.. But good enough for me :p

1 VS 2r0 64k stripe

[Computurd]

i cant believe you are using anything that doesnt say Areca on it

[Nizzen]

There is a difference in testing and using

The IBM is just for benchmark comparison

[mattkosem]

You're not going to make an M1015 a full 9240-8i no matter how much you play around with SBR files and flashing.

Care to elaborate? By my eye they're physically identical.

--Matt

[DJ_Datte]

Care to elaborate? By my eye they're physically identical.

--Matt

You can try, but I believe the card is either a 9220i (IR) or if you want IT firmware, then it's a 9210 (as opposed to the 9211/9240 cards).

[DEFLORATOR]

Hi all!
Very informative thread indeed. Few questions though:
I'm going to purchase Intel RS25DB080 (OEM LSI 9265-8i). Can anyone please share SBR file from the original LSI 9265-8i for me? (e-mail: vasiluzhaev AT gmail.com) Many thanks in advance.
And does Megarec work with RS25DB080/9265-8i? After all, they are 2nd Gen PCI-E 2.0 controllers and different from 9260.
What do you think about the method described in here:
http://www.servethehome.com/flashing...irmware-guide/
Seems that SASFlash utility doesn'e exist for 9265...

[mattkosem]

To play devil's advocate for a sec, saying you'd "love to make it a full 9240-8i" to me sounds like you want the feature set of a retail 9240-8i without paying for it, since the RAID5 functionality present on a retail 9240 is a paid upgrade on the M1015 as you know. Also that they look identical doesn't mean anything. The fact is you can cross-flash SBD and rom files between different variations of SAS2008/SAS2108 cards, but feature set does not follow. And the reason for that is LSI isn't interested undermining their OEM relationships, nor opening a counterfeit market on ebay with people trying to pass off OEM cards as retail. Yes there was a time when cross flashing feature sets on previous generations of LSI cards was possible, but no longer.

Don't sweat it, the RAID5 implementation on a 9240 is horrible anyway, and anyone that needs a solid RAID5 or RAID6 array should be looking at the SAS2108/SAS2208 based cards.

I'm looking for more strip size options. Couldn't care less about raid5.

--Matt

[abig]

HI,
I have this card http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0776.html that I think is base on lsi 9212-4i4e, can I flash LSI new BIOS/firmware on it to make it identified as LSI 9212-4i4e with IR mode ? I want to use it as raid controller and not as target mode HBA.
do I need SBR file for it ? can someone upload it to here?
Thanks

[pajda]

Seems it doesnt work anymore with the newest firmware - 12.12.0-0073 (APP-2.120.183-1415).

[coolamasta]

Hi guys, has anyone had any luck flashing a IBM Serveraid M5014 (256mb cache) to an LSI 9260?

Can it even be done with this card as the LSI 9260 has 512mb cache and this one only has 256mb?

Any help much appreciated

[mobilenvidia]

The M5014/M5015 and M5025 all use the same Firmware, so yes it's very possible.

[coolamasta]

Awesome thanks for that bud, will take some brave pills and give it a go on the weekend

[coolamasta]

I managed to find some time to have a play tonight, I have done the first few commands and made a backup.sbr of my M5014 but then the next step to flash I thought, hold on what SBR am I flashing it with?

I need an LSI 9260 SBR file don't I but I have no idea where to get it? The SBR BIN files in that first post zip file are named after the original Raid cards such as the M5015, bit confused now lol help!

Once I have done the SBR bit then I just download the latest LSI Firmware for the 9260 and flash it with that I assume?

Cheers for the help

[mobilenvidia]

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...irmware-files/

Have look there, I've got various SBR's in the zip file.

Megarec -cleanflash 0
reboot
Megarec -m0flash 0 xxxxxx.rom (flash FW of choice)
Megarec -writesbr 0 sbryyy.bin (flash SBR of choice)
Reboot and done

Speaking of which, if someone has an Intel SBR (SAS2108) I would really appreciate it and can add it.
Also any one with a SUN/Oracle version of the SAS2108 controller that SBR would be nice too.

[coolamasta]

Awesome thanks mobilenvidia, is the "sbrlsi.bin" the 9260 SBR file as there is nothing with 9260 in there? Cheers bud

[mobilenvidia]

Yip the sbrlsi.bin is shared by the LSI9260, LSI9280 and LSI9261
So that SBR will happily work with any SAS2108 controller (LSI or not)

The IBM SBR is for the M5014, M5015 and M5025 and again any SAS2108 controller but it takes eons to boot with this

Dell SBR allows you to boot with its own BIOS (CTRL+C at boot)

[coolamasta]

Great thanks so I can just load the sbrlsi.bin, reboot then flash with latest LSI 9260 firmware and jobs a good un? Cheers muchly for the help

[mobilenvidia]

This order:

Megarec -cleanflash 0 (Wipes the FW and BIOS clean, resets SBR to OEM version)
reboot
Megarec -m0flash 0 xxxxxx.rom (flash FW of choice)
Megarec -writesbr 0 sbryyy.bin (flash SBR of choice)
Reboot and done

You will have to do the above if you want to get back to an older FW as the new FW doesn't always allow the SBR to be changed or going back to an older version

[coolamasta]

Thanks again mate, that is in a different order to what the OP put in the first post as he says to install SBR, reboot then install new FW, which is the best order to use? Cheers

[mobilenvidia]

Best order is the one that works

[coolamasta]

Lol very true, suppose if you and the OP have both had success in both orders then will just have to try 1 and go from there, going to go for it tonight, will report back to confirm

[RADCOM]

I have the IBM 1015 I think the firmware is LSI 9240-8i but how do I get the LSi software, the IBM virtual drive nonsense is doing my head in?
update...flashed to 9211 and that seems to have done it :-)

[Ar2r4eg]

Hi
I can't download any attached file in this thread Plz can anyone download two sbr file for lsi and ibm in begin od this thread and sent me it wia email (ar2r4eg@gmail.com).
thx

[pajda]

Hi
I can't download any attached file in this thread Plz can anyone download two sbr file for lsi and ibm in begin od this thread and sent me it wia email (ar2r4eg@gmail.com).
thx

Go here
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/top...irmware-files/

[ramiunx]

Thanks to mobilenvidia, I cross-flashed my M5015 into a LSI9260-8i. I didn't have any problem using sbr9260.bin either. This significantly shortened the card initiation time which was painfully slow. I even tried the latest LSI9260 firmware (found on their website) but, it brought back the slow boot initiation time so moved back to the mobilenvidia's version.

Now, my problem was slow write performance of my two 128GB Crucial m4 in Raid 0. I tried various test to find the fastest performance I could. These seem the optimal settings for me:

Raid controller: SAS9260-8i (after cross-flashing the firmware on an M5015).
2 x Crucial M4 128GB in Raid 0 (disks secure erased and Windows 8 clean installed)
Stripe size: 32k
Read: Normal
Disk Cache: Enabled
I/O: Cached
Default Write: Always Write Back

Here is the result:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raminol...57630070096636

However, this is still quite weaker than the result, mobilenvidia published here:

http://forums.servethehome.com/showt...15-experiences

"Quick Performance tests
2x OCZ Solid3 60GB SSD's in RAID0, with settings recommended for SSD's
ATTO result 840MB/s write, 1000MB/s read.
About double what each drive is supposed to do as per OCZ specs, makes me very happy


RAID0 with read ahead on, write through, cached IO
ATTO 830MB/s write, 2,600MB/s read

RAID0 with read ahead on, write back, cached IO
ATTO 830MB/s write (lots faster in small size files then Write through) read speed is around 1600MB/s
Speeds are all over the place with write back on"

Do you think the difference is only about the different SSD's being used or, other reasons may also have contributed to the performance difference?