lab-docu/docs/H310.md

H310 Mini IT Mode Flashing

Instructions for flashing the H310 Mini Mono. Full credits for this guide go to fourlynx and his original H310 Mini guide. As we were working on these H710 guides together and building a convenient live ISO, we figured we might as well add an easy H310 mini script to it.

Linux Time

Boot into the Linux ISO from the ZIP. Use the following credentials to login: user/live

We highly recommend SSH'ing to the live ISO so you can copy/paste commands and not have to use the iDRAC virtual console. To do so, run the following to find the IP of the install:

ipinfo

It should spit out an IP. SSH to it, using the same user/live credentials. This is not required and you can continue on using the iDRAC (or physical) console, but it will be slightly more inconvenient.

Flashing IT Firmware

Now, still in Linux, we need to change to the root user:

sudo su -

Now we need to note down the SAS address of the adapter so we can program it back later. Run the following and save the output somewhere:

sas-h310

Once you have the address saved, run the flashing script. This will program the appropriate IT mode SBR, then flash the card with IT firmware:

H310

It should automatically do everything required to flash the card. If you don't get any unexpected errors and it completes, we need to reboot and program the SAS address back to finish. See the following note.

Note: For some reason, the very first boot after crossflashing the card will cause a kernel panic - I believe it's iDRAC not letting go of something (I was able to see the card put in a fault state via the debug UART when this happens). This only happens the first reboot after crossflashing. When you boot back into the live ISO and get the panic, either let it reboot itself, or use iDRAC to force a reboot. After that boot back into the live ISO again and all will be well.

Programming SAS Address Back

Now rebooted back into the live Linux image, just run the following commands, filling in the example address with your own, that you noted down earlier:

sudo su -
setsas 500605b123456777

It should succeed without errors. That's it! You can run the following command to get some info about your new card. You should be able to see your SAS address and the same firmware version:

info

        Controller Number              : 0
        Controller                     : SAS2008(B2)
        PCI Address                    : 00:02:00:00
        SAS Address                    : 5b8ca3a-0-f37a-4500
        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                   : N/A
        UEFI BSD Version               : N/A
        FCODE Version                  : N/A
        Board Name                     : SAS9211-8i
        Board Assembly                 : N/A
        Board Tracer Number            : N/A

Unless you also need to flash boot images for booting off the card, you can now ditch all the live images and reboot back into your normal system, and enjoy your IT mode card.

Optional: Boot Images

Note: flashing these can add up to 2 minutes to server boot time if you have a lot of drives. Be sure you need them!

If you need to boot from drives connected to this adapter, you'll need to flash a boot image to it. Otherwise, skip it. This is what gives you the "press blahblah to enter the LSI boot configuration utility" text when the server boots. To flash the regular BIOS boot image:

flashboot /root/Bootloaders/mptsas2.rom

If you want to UEFI boot from drives connected to this adapter, you need to flash the UEFI boot image (the card can have both UEFI and BIOS boot images flashed):

flashboot /root/Bootloaders/x64sas2.rom

You can now ditch the live images and boot back into your normal system.

Optional: (Dell) Modify RACADM

Warning: Use this at your own risk. Modifying thermal settings can create unforseen circumstances. If you are running your server in a warm environment, it is probably best to leave this alone.

The LSI firmware is not supported by Dell. This causes the iDRAC to no longer keep track of the drive temperatures. In response, the iDRAC will throw error PCI3018 in the Lifecycle Log and set the fans to a static speed of about 30%.

To correct this, you can disable the "ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse" feature by using RACADM. The easiest way to do this is to connect to the iDRAC using an SSH client. Once connected, run this command:

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 0

If you need to revert, run this command instead:

racadm set system.thermalsettings.ThirdPartyPCIFanResponse 1

Note: This information was collected from the Dell iDRAC9 User's Guide which can be referenced here: https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/idrac9-lifecycle-controller-v33-series_users-guide6_en-us.pdf . The relevant information can be found near the bottom of page 57.

Optional: Reverting

If for some reason you need to revert back to the stock Dell PERC firmware, that's easy. Boot into the FreeDOS live image, and run the following command:

310REVRT

That's it! When it finishes, just reboot back to your normal system with the reboot command.

Note: This uses the unmodified latest Dell firmware 20.13.3-0001,A11 extracted from the update EXE found here.