LSI firmware version and truenas - general question

[jcizzo]

hey folks!

I bit the bullet and bought a couple of IT-mode flashed SATA cards based upon the LSI chipset (i believe both are 92xx series).

noodling around the forums on other topics, i sorta got the impression that certain versions of the IT mode firmware are only compatible with certain versions of truenas (numeric versions, not core vs scale). is this true? or, once it works, it works, no matter what version of firmware, it'll work with any version of truenas (from this point going forward, i'm not concerned about the old freenas as i've never used it).

Thanks!

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

I don't know that it is that particular, but I will leave that statement to others. The firmware on the 9200's hasn't been updated in a while, so I would say use the most current version which is 20.00.07.00. Here is what the LSI HBA's look like in my FreeNAS.

Code:

root@freenas2:/mnt/MIRROR-I/CIFS-I/elliot # sas2flash -listall
LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2013.03.01)
Copyright (c) 2008-2013 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved

        Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2308_2(D1)

Num   Ctlr            FW Ver        NVDATA        x86-BIOS         PCI Addr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

0  SAS2308_2(D1)   20.00.07.00    14.01.00.06    07.39.02.00     00:02:00:00

        Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
        Exiting SAS2Flash.
root@freenas2:/mnt/MIRROR-I/CIFS-I/elliot # sas3flash -listall
Avago Technologies SAS3 Flash Utility
Version 16.00.00.00 (2017.05.02)
Copyright 2008-2017 Avago Technologies. All rights reserved.

        Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3108_1(C0)

Num   Ctlr            FW Ver        NVDATA        x86-BIOS         PCI Addr
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

0  SAS3108_1(C0)  13.00.08.00    0b.02.00.10    08.37.00.00     00:03:00:00
1  SAS3008(C0)  16.00.01.00    0e.01.00.08    08.37.00.00     00:86:00:00

        Finished Processing Commands Successfully.
        Exiting SAS3Flash.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes, at this point you want the latest, which is 20.00.07.00.

 

[jgreco]

certain versions of the IT mode firmware are only compatible with certain versions of truenas (numeric versions, not core vs scale). is this true?

This is correct; you need the firmware and the driver version to be compatible.

The current SAS 6Gbps IT driver needs firmware 20.00.07.00. If you were to go back to an earlier FreeNAS from maybe five years ago, you would need to downgrade to probably a phase 16 firmware of some sort.

The current SAS 12Gbps IT firmware is 16.00.12.00.

Failing to make the firmware and driver match may not be fatal, but it's a bad idea to run old firmware, because the existence of new firmware probably indicates someone already identified a problem significant enough for LSI to release a fix.

LSI isn't really expected to be releasing new firmware for the old 6Gbps cards as they are end-of-sale and I believe also end-of-support. They might do so if there was some particularly egregious compatibility issue.

I would also not expect a ton of 12Gbps IT firmware updates, mainly because SAS is a very mature and stable technology. This isn't ten years ago when firmware updates were coming out every six months or so.

 

[jgreco]

Oh and I meant to expand on that caution as follows: The HBA is a small computer. The firmware on the card and the driver on the host need to speak the same exact language in order to work correctly; here in Milwaukee, we call water fountains "bubblers" for historical reasons, but this would confuse people from outside the region. So the driver and firmware need to be matched so they "speak" the same language. On the other side, the firmware also has to speak SAS and SATA to the drives, so when a new drive comes along that speaks a slightly unusual dialect, this can be adjusted for in the card firmware, but that ALSO may change the dialect being used to chat between the driver and firmware. It's best to keep it all in line with what the host driver expects.

 

[Ericloewe]

we call water fountains "bubblers"

Do you also ask for five bees for a quarter?

 

[Elliot Dierksen]

The current SAS 12Gbps IT firmware is 16.00.12.00.

Where the heck is the .12 firmware? I have googled and searched all over the Broadcom site, and 16.00.01.00 was the newest I could find for my 9300-8e.

 

[jgreco]

Go read my "What's all the noise about HBA's" resource and follow the link.

 

[jcizzo]

i was looking over my firmware and it turns out to have been flashed with the latest. so this is good! less for me to worry about until i get to understand this world better.

Thanks for your enlightenment!