How to flash HP Z840 Z820 to IT mode firmware | for ZFS Unraid TrueNAS IT mode
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- In this video I'm going to show you how to flash the onboard LSI RAID controller of the HP Z840 and Z820 workstation to LSI IT mode firmware. By converting this LSI SAS2308 controller to an HBA SAS controller, you can then use the HP Z840 and Z820 workstations as servers for software RAID (mdraid), ZFS, unraid, TrueNAS / FreeNAS, Storage Spaces, etc.
The files used in this video can be downloaded from broadcom.com here:
www.broadcom.c...
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Have now moved my ZFS-pool to the on-board SAS controller, running in IT-mode. Works great. Many thanks!
Were you previously using an add-on HBA SAS controller?
@@ArtofServer Yes, a small IBM H1110-card in slot 1, but as I (so-far) only have one processor in the system I need that port for an upcoming NVME-drive upgrade. So this solved that issue.
Instructions worked great. I was able to flash the controller on my "new" Z840 to IT mode without any issues. Also took care of updating the system bios thanks to your other video. Thanks for all of the information you provide.
Glad it helped
Hi , can you supply urls to downloads while is fresh in your mind. thanks in advamce
Thanks, nice to know this as I've been watching for used Z840 systems. So far only managed to snag a Z420 for $75 but it doesn't have integrated SAS.
I saw a well spec'd one go for $600 a few days ago. Keep an eye out... They are nice deals for what you get. Thanks for watching!
Great video, good to see you doing more video on the excellent HP Z840. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! :-)
Great content as allways, bLinux. Keep up the good work.
Thanks!
Worked a treat. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
For the Broadcom files:
Installer_P20_for_UEFI.zip => sas2flash.efi
9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip => 9207-8.bin and mptsas2.rom
Not sure where to get X64SAS2.ROM from though.
*** Make sure you don't wear a small straw hat when flashing -- it causes great issues ***
Thanks for contributing! :-)
I got it working. Thank you for your help.
Glad this helped!
Perfect Workstation
More videos to come on this machine.. stay tuned! :-)
👍👍
Hope this helped! :-)
For the life of me I am unable to find the X64SAS2.ROM file in Broadcom's site. I read all of the comments and am still confused, any help would be greatly appreciated.
www.broadcom.com/support/download-search?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Host+Bus+Adapters&pn=SAS+9207-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter&pa=BIOS&po=&dk=&pl=&l=false
Download the UEFI_BSD_P20.zip file. It should be inside that zip file.
@@ArtofServer Thank you! you are a life saver
@@ArtofServer Please pin this!
Cool , but I have a corrupted AMT/ME chip of this motherboard 。Can it refreshed by the similar method ?? Ple help .
sorry, no idea about that one...
Hi. Thanks for this YT channel, I have learnt a big deal from your Videos. About this one, I have the same server & LSI and I want to give Unraid a try. Could you please tell once flashed with IT mode, can IR mode be brought back on HP z820 perhaps with the same set of commands but in reverse order ?? and off course with IR firmware.
Great video. One question though, where did you get the X64SAS2.ROM from? Is this flashing for the onboard controller? Thanks.
Thanks. yes, the firmware and ROM files are from broadcom.com for the LSI SAS2308 SAS controller chip, which is the onboard controller in the HP Z840 (and Z820).
@@ArtofServer Which archive on the Broadcom site contains X64SAS2.ROM? Because I couldn't find it.
Thank you. I was able to change the controller bios to IT mode. I still am not able to see the drives in bios or Proxmox that connect to the white adapters below the case. I resorted to getting a separate sata card, but wonder what I did wrong.
Glad this was useful. If you're having problems with your HBA controller, checkout my troubleshooting videos in this playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PL28eVGz5vFQ9cGBGhFzCtHqQ-TtXBZV6m.html
I would recommend starting with the 13 reasons why, but checkout the other titles too. Hope that helps!
Great Video! Question, when downloading the files from the Broadcom site (9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows), the ZIP doesn't contain the X64SAS2.ROM file. Where is this found?
And of course right after I typed this, I found where the BIOS files are stored on the Broadcom site. Only different I noticed is your file X64SAS2.ROM is 3/5/2015 at 6:52am and on the site it's 3/4/2015 at 11:52pm. Hopefully not an issue. Thanks again for the great content!
Glad you were able to find the files you needed. :-) Happy to know you enjoyed this vid and thank you for watching!
@Art of Server - Do you have any issues with the P20 version of the firmware? I've heard people sticking to P19 due to issues with P20
No, the issue is not with P20 of the firmware. The problem is usually a BIOS conflict with some Proliant servers. Of course, HPE won't fix the problem.
Hi can you make a special tutorial for HP z Central installation..thanks
Thanks so much for this tutorial. I just got one of these machines for like $120. Dual CPUs and 64GB of RAM. Can we use a windows installer for the LSI ROM? I just bought one of these and am thinking about putting in a small drive and installing windows on it. When I revert back to Unraid, I'll pull the small drive and set it up as full unraid. I'm really wary of using FreeBSD to flash it. Any thoughts?
The LSI firmware flashing process was all done with FreeDOS, not FreeBSD. Unfortunately, you will need to use either the DOS or UEFI version of the sas2flash program because the Windows or Linux versions do not support certain functions that are used in this video.
@@ArtofServer Thanks for writing back! Sorry for the miscommunication about FreeDOS/BSD. Can one use the LSI SAS controller without the IT flash and still achieve an array/pool with Unraid? Or, is this the only way to utilize all 8 of the SATA/SAS ports at the bottom of the mobo?
@@ArtofServer Quick question about the sas2flash.exe version. Do you use the dos version or the x64 version?
Do you just install freeDos into a usb and drop the files into any folder within the usb that contains freeDos? Also, by flashing the controller to IT, will this take care of all the connectors. The 2-port 6 GB/s Intel SATA RAID controller, the secondary 4-port 6 GB/S Intel SATA RAID controller (sSATA), and the 8-port 6 GB/S LSI SAS RAID controller?
Yes, install freedos on USB flash drive. Put the files you need on that flash drive, but i recommend organizing it in a folder. the LSI IT mode firmware is only for the onboard SAS2308 SAS controller, not any of the embedded SATA stuff...
@@ArtofServer awesome thank you. I have one more question. Do you think all the other onboard controllers will be good for promox and truenas core? The reason I ask is because I want to add two more ssd’s and I don’t know if it will be a problem with proxmox or truenas. Do you know if I will have to do any firmware updates to the other controllers. I just bought a z840 and I want to be prepared before I purchase any drives.
I have couple of questions does this apply to Z620 as well? I'm planning to get one and install proxmox do i need to do that to pass the drives through in proxmox or pass the controller itself to some VM that runs unraid? and is this required if i want to create ZFS volume in proxmox?
I recommend that you consider the Z820 instead because it has more capacity and a built-in storage controller. The Z620 does not, and this video doesn't apply.
@@ArtofServer Thanks It's good point I'll consider that can you advice in proxmox can i pass through the whole controller or create ZFS pool in proxmox without these steps? can i avoid doing firmware flashing?I'm really not expert in this and i dunno what to do if i mess things up i can pretty much mess with the controller firmware
I've been trying to do this, but I'm stuck at the weirdest point. I cannot for the life of me get the z820 to boot into freedos. The USB works, I tested it on other machines, but for some reason my z820 will only get to a black screen. Is there some bios setting to flip between efi and legacy that I need to change?
yeah, if your FreeDOS is setup to boot UEFI, but the Z820 is booting legacy BIOS, that's definitely not going to work. Make sure your FreeDOS USB is setup to boot legacy BIOS /MBR mode.
@@ArtofServer it's definitely in legacy Bios mode. At least when I go to the boot menu on the z820 it only shows as a legacy option
yeah, sorry, then i'm not sure. i didn't have any issues booting my FreeDOS USB drive.
love your videos. i recently purchased an hp z820 x2 Xeon 2.60 E5- 2670 16 corers, i would like to add a 10gb RJ45 NIC. what would you recomend. THANK YOU.
Thank you for watching! I recommend researching what your OS supports best. Any PCIe 10Gb NIC should work, ut you should choose one that is well supported by your OS and has mature drivers, etc.
@@ArtofServer I'm running widows 10 pro 64 bit. THANK. YOU.
very helpful video, just about to flash the 2308 in my z820, however, from the linked files, I do not have the x64sas2.rom file. Could you point me in the right direction t find this eufi rom file?
Never mind, just fond the x64sas2.rom file, should have read all the comments.
I'm off to flash my controller to IT mode ready for a FreeNAS install
Glad this was helpful 🐱. And glad you found the file you needed.
I wanted to revisit this video but it seems to have been taken down.
The video is still here, or you wouldn't be able to comment on it. Maybe just a temporary glitch on UA-cam?
@@ArtofServer ok, yes. It is here now. They have to watch your channel more often 😂
how did I miss this one?
Lol.. it's the Algo.
Thanks for the info! But I tried this, and TrueNAS still won't boot. It gets stuck at "ata3" and never passes it no matter what config changes I make in the BIOS.
P.S. I'm using a z820.
Sorry to hear that. But I don't know what "stuck at ata3" means... that sounds somewhat like you're already booting the OS kernel? if so, the problem might be diagnosed further within the OS. Can you boot into single user mode and examine the logs for details? I recommend you ask this question at the TrueNAS forum.
@@ArtofServer I figured it out. It's actually a FreeBSD problem related to the USB controller. I switched to the rear USB ports, and everything works fine.
@@ArtofServer But thanks! 🙂
@@ArtofServer It was getting stuck after checking the 2nd channel of the SATA controller, hence ata3. Turns out that was a red herring, and it was actually the USB port that was the problem.
Hey... me again. I ran into an issue... I was following this guide, and I was able to flash one of my two hp z820 workstations into IT mode.
However on my second z820, which has the older generation mobo. I am getting an nvdata error
ERROR: NUDATA Image does not match Controller Chip Revisionf
NUDATA Chip Revision Range: Ox5 to 0x5
Control ler Chip Revision: Ox3
I'm trying to flash the 9207-8.bin to it
I found an IR firmware on the z820 support and downloads page. Under win 7 x64 os.
I'll look at trying to find IT firmware in the future
In the boot menu, I saw "Legasy - NVMe Slot 1". Can you run NVMe drive on Z820?
This video was a Z840. On the Z840, yes you can use NVMe drives. On the Z820... It's complicated. As data drive is no problem as it would just be a PCIe device. But NVMe boot drive is yes and no; only certain drives will work and I'll be making a video about this topic in the future.
@@ArtofServer I run Windos 11 on Samsung PM981a with HP Z Turbo Drive G2, with help from Clover
@@ArtofServer Awating for this video
@@ArtofServer One more idea for next video "How to update ME firmware fm 7.x to 8.x"
Good job man! But can you share the USB files?
Thanks! They are all available from broadcom.com.
@@ArtofServer Thank you for the video! I'm having a hard time navigating the site to find the correct file(s) to download. Can you help us a bit more with an exact file name and tools if not included in the firmware file. A URL to the correct download would be very helpful and much appreciated.
@@GumShoeNoir sure, I'll do that later when I have some time
@@GumShoeNoir The files can be found here: www.broadcom.com/support/download-search?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Host+Bus+Adapters&pn=SAS+9207-8i+Host+Bus+Adapter&pa=Firmware&po=&dk=&pl=
@@ArtofServerServer Maybee I've been staring at this too long, but I'm not finding the x64sas2.rom file. Wait, is this it in the UEFI_BSD .zip - a little confusing for me... wondering why a copy of it isn't in the 9207_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows package??
Is it possible to reverse the process and return to raid version?
I'm sure it is. I have not had a reason to do that, but it should be possible.
@@ArtofServer I did the e 7 erase and i'm not able to get back to raid. i always get the Fault "Chip is in RESET state Attempting Host Boot... ERROR: No NVSRAM Present ! NVSRAM is Required for IR Firmware. ERROR: Firmware Host Boot Failed!
nive vib
Thanks!
Why IT mode? the drive controllers do raid well and are fast.
Like the title says, this is for people who want to use ZFS, UNRAID, TrueNAS, storage spaces, etc.
@@ArtofServer yes I like your latest video.. I'm fascinated with an actual raid controller because I never could afford one back in the day and had to use the excellent software raid from ten years ago, but now they are affordable
@@ArtofServer I don't like zfs because it was so buggy and slow
@@ArtofServer you should investigate some old school performant setups. One of my favorite was ext3 on a raid array with journal=data and the journal on a separate drive.. it's so cool because all the writes are extremely fast because it goes to the journal drive sequentially and files can be read and written at the same time. It's really good performance. I think it is degraded if you use ext4 but ext3 is fantastic
Actually, before ZFS, I use to performance tune storage systems using mdadm RAID and XFS, which is much faster than any of the ext* filesystems. For raw performance, I believe that combination is still pretty formidable, and will beat ZFS. It just doesn't have all the other features and architectural benefits of COW.
Love this guide - exactly what I need for an overly complex and poorly documented LSI config. Unfortunately I've burned several hours with different combinations of FreeDOS/rEFInd/Linux images and attempts that are getting me nowhere. Does anybody just have a complete raw IMG or dump of a file I can write to a USB stick for this? Sounds like it should be so simple but it's not my day.
Also can't get it to erase or flash under Linux (with or without the modules loaded)
Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2308_1(D1)
Executing Operation: Erase Flash
Erasing Flash Region...
ERROR: Erase Flash Operation Failed!
Resetting Adapter...
Reset Successful!
Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
Exiting SAS2Flash.
For the sas2flash program, you need to use the DOS or UEFI version to have the erase functionality. It's not enabled in the Linux or Windows version.
@@ArtofServer OK thank you! Super frustrating. I blew about 16 hours on this with about a dozen variants of FreeDOS. In the end UEFI wouldn't work so I switched back to Legacy BIOS. That constantly just booted to a blank screen. First I unplugged all 8xHDs and 2xNVMe and even realized the primary GPU wasn't working (both GPUs new with UEFI support). Finally I did a CMOS reset and it would recognize FreeDOS images. My 1.3 wouldn't work, with screen jitters and crashes, so I went back to a version of 1.2 like you used. Relieved to finally have all 4xSATA and 4xSAS (3.5" 4x2.5 bay) drives recognized by Linux. Thanks again for the guide as I couldn't do any of this by HP/LSI docs alone. I've loved my Z600 and Z640 but the move to a Z840 has been nothing but trouble.
I tried this on a HP Z820, using a Rufus created FreeDos thumb drive. I downloaded the necessary .bin and .rom files and deleted the existing firmware. When I went to flash the new firmware, I received the following error:
...
Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2308_1(C1)
...
ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Chip Revision!
NVDATA Chip Revision Range: 0x5 to 0x5
Controller Chip Revision: 0x3
ERROR: No compatible NVDATA image found!
Any ideas what went wrong? I even went and tried it with an older version of SAS2Flash. The only thing I did different was boot directly to the FreeDos thumb, then ran sas2flsh.exe. Thanks...
That's very strange. What version of sas2flash were you using? Also, I've never seen a SS2308 with Rev "C1" before... I've only ever seen B0 and D1.
@@ArtofServer I tried with the newest version of sas2flsh for DOS. Now I am creating a Win10 boot thumb and will try with the newest sas2flash for 64bit. As a side note, I bought this machine probably 8 or so years ago for $1500, along with a couple of monitors that had DOD stickers on them. Perhaps this is a special build and/or bad machine... Will let you know how the Win10 goes.
Win10 using the command prompt from the boot thumb could not find any SAS devices using SAS2Flash...
Finally got something to work by using the most recent 9205-8e.bin flash (P20), plus the bios mptsas2.rom and x64sas2.rom. It was a little hard to find this update, but I found it at docs.broadcom.com/docs/9205_8e_Package_P20_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip. This is actually a flash for the earlier card, as was mentioned by this link: www.willglynn.com/2014/11/10/lsi-sas-firmware-nonsense/
Have the same issue. LSI SAS: SAS2308_1(C1) C1????