H710 mini with IT mode firmware

[@rdsii64]

I just checked your Ebay store. Flashed card are way cheaper than I expected. While I'm waiting for my R720XD to arrive, I'll grab a flashed H710 and a 10GE nic while I'm at it. My homelab is about to get some upgrades!

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for checking out my store! :-) Be sure to watch the video I linked in your other comment. Make sure you actually need an HBA or keep the existing RAID controller. Also, if you decide on HBA choice, watch this video to help you make the right HBA choice for your needs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWLEqKGje7xmodk

[@chrismoore9997]

Really good work. Thanks for all your efforts!

[@ArtofServer]

Thank you for watching!

[@BretBowlby]

fohdeesha.com/docs/perc/

[@mikealgarvin8122]

Thanks for all your time and effort, just got one on your eBay.

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for supporting my store!

[@HuskyMedia]

Thanks for the video. Just purchased from your ebay store. I will be looking forward to installing in my R720XD

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for supporting me through my ebay store! :-)

[@HuskyMedia]

Art of Server no problem. I’m glad you sell these cards flashed because I want to get my r720xd online with freeNAS ASAP. I was wondering if you’ve done any speed testing with read and write file transfers with that r720xd and that card on a FreeBSD setup. How do you run your r720xd? What’s OS?

[@LordDevi]

Do you know of a good way to remove the "Battery failed" warning on the front panel of dell's after flashing the card to LSI? You have to remove the battery to do this process, but the dell thinks this is a failure and starts flashing lights and warnings about it.

[@ArtofServer]

The BMC/iDRAC SEL (system event log) might have recorded the battery fault event. I would try to clear the SEL and see if the message goes away. Once flashed to IT mode, it should not issue that warning to the system again.

[@LordDevi]

@@ArtofServer Thank you. =) You were right, it seems the warning has disappeared after the flashing process was completed. (Not immediately though, which was part of the confusion.)

[@rdsii64]

I just bought a Dell R720XD. If I don't plan to run a linux based OS do I have to worry about this.

[@ArtofServer]

That really depends on whether you want hardware RAID to manage your storage, or if you want to use an HBA and manage the storage in software. I have a video discussing this question here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnbFgqKerpupbrc

[@rdsii64]

@@ArtofServer I just put in my flashed H710 and my 10Gig Nic, all from your site. All I'm waiting on now is for my storage to arrive and this puppy is going in the rack.

[@ArtofServer]

@@rdsii64 Sweeeeeet! Thanks for supporting my store! :-)

[@marcotidu9802]

I have a H710P (YTF8R) inside a Dell R520, is it possible to change the firmware to IT mode?

[@ArtofServer]

I've never tried that one specific part number. A friend of mine brought over a H710p mini with different part number and I was able to cross-flash that to IT mode firmware. There is a chance it could be done.

[@marcotidu9802]

@@ArtofServer Can you supply me with information, on how to do the firmware update? I'm willing to take the risk..

[@ArtofServer]

@@marcotidu9802 Sorry, not at this time. If the hints I provided in these videos is not enough, it's not likely you can easily do it - it's not like running a few commands with standard utilities.

[@dorinxtg]

Great work, man!

[@asociatiamontanavidraru275]

Hello. Please help me with an advice. I have a Perc H710 PCIe (512mb cash+battery) in a PET620 server. It is possible to have HBA with new firmware ? I can see you are talking only about mini Perc used for R series.

[@ArtofServer]

It might be possible to flash the H710 PCIe card to IT mode as well, but I haven't tried it so I don't know first hand.

[@darb1977]

Can this ne done on an h730?

[@ArtofServer]

not that i know of. H730 is based on LSI SAS3108 controller chip, and I don't think there's IT mode firmware that will run on it. at least not that I know of at this time.

[@TheBimmerGarage]

Will your H710 mini also work with my R720XD that has 24 slots, I plan on using conventional Raid 1 with dedicated hotspare for OS and pass the rest through to FreeNAS for my pools, this will be used in a Hyper V cluster with 2 PE R720's as the Hypervisor's and 10GB connections (iscsi) to the FreeNAS. I will a Database VM with mild I/O and exchange/Azure mixed AD vm's

[@TheBimmerGarage]

well I ordered 2 from your store =)

[@ArtofServer]

It will work with the 24/SFF backplane R720XD, but this doesn't support RAID in hardware. And if you are talking about PCIe passthrough to a VM running freenas, you can't split off a few drives just for the host OS and the rest for the VM. Might have to rethink your plan.

[@stanlanier560]

I have swapped in a couple flashed H710 mini into a couple of my servers but the queue depth still reports 32 on each drive. How do I get the full potential of this card in linux? The queue depth should be around 1000 with the H710 mini flashed to IT mode.

[@ArtofServer]

I'm not sure what you're looking at, but mine shows over 8000: [ 3.952210] mpt2sas_cm0: Current Controller Queue Depth(8056),Max Controller Queue Depth(8192)

[@stanlanier560]

@@ArtofServer what command give you this output? And the driver on mine is mpt3sas

[@stanlanier560]

root@prox1:~# lsscsi -l [0:0:0:0] disk ATA Samsung SSD 860 1B6Q /dev/sdb state=running queue_depth=32 scsi_level=7 type=0 device_blocked=0 timeout=30 [0:0:1:0] disk ATA MZ-5EA1000-0D3 7D3Q /dev/sdc state=running queue_depth=32 scsi_level=7 type=0 device_blocked=0 timeout=30 [0:0:2:0] disk ATA MZ-5EA1000-0D3 7D3Q /dev/sdd state=running queue_depth=32 scsi_level=7 type=0 device_blocked=0 timeout=30 [0:0:3:0] disk ATA Samsung SSD 860 1B6Q /dev/sde

[@ArtofServer]

@@stanlanier560 those are driver messages from the kernel logs.

[@ArtofServer]

@@stanlanier560 those are queue depths for the individual drives, not the controller.

[@gimmegaming5345]

I may have missed it but have you tested can it actually perform at pcie 3 speeds rather than just showing it in firmware?

[@ArtofServer]

lspci does show it links at PCIe 3.0, so not just in firmware.

[@timconnors]

Did you ever end up writing up procedures of how to flash reliably? I just got a Dell R520 with a H710 mini mono -- it appears to be the 5CT6D based on the hardware inventory that dell's service tag brings up. Replacing that card with an PCI card and replacing all the cables and paying for shipping to Australia is turning out to be a very uneconomical exercise. I'd rather just be able to flash the card that's in there (turns out you can't just buy a $15 H310 069C8J: that's for a blade M520 and has the motherboard plug around the wrong way for a R520)

[@ArtofServer]

no, i don't have a step-by-step guide published yet. you can buy one pre-flashed at my eBay store by following the link in the description area.

[@brucet3270]

@@ArtofServer Maybe accept our cards as trade in toward a flashed unit?

[@ArtofServer]

@@brucet3270 did that a few times, and there were complications. It ended up taking a lot of time.

[@brucet3270]

@@ArtofServer I understand, just thought I would ask.

[@themorleyc]

Would it be a similar process for a H730?

[@ArtofServer]

No, I don't currently have a process for the H730 mini for flash to IT mode. However, there's already an IT mode mini monolithic option for the 13th gen Dell servers like this H330/HBA330: ebay.to/2W8X9YQ

[@MrCharlesLau]

@ArtofServer Would you mind to help me flash my H710 as I buying one from you? this way could save some shipping and time. I tried flashing but my R720 won't see the card. It seems won't load. after boot into the deesh-linux, I run "info" and LSI Corporation SAS 2 Flash Utility says: No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available!...

[@ArtofServer]

Sorry, I don't know what happened to your flashing efforts. You might consider contacting Fodeesha instead since he's the one who created that process. Fodeesha's flashing process is very different than mine, but should achieve the same results if done correctly and without other problems.

[@brucet3270]

how much would you charge to flash our cards?

[@ArtofServer]

If you actually have some you want help with, just reach out to me directly.

[@brucet3270]

@@ArtofServer I have a bid in on one right now, I will keep this in mind if and when I actually get it Currently have a sff R710 and a lff R420.Bidding on the R720XD and will sell the R420.

[@brucet3270]

I have to stop looking. Saw a R840 and thought OMG 4 cpus!!!

[@ArtofServer]

@@brucet3270 LOL@4 CPUs

[@brucet3270]

@@ArtofServer outbid, anther time

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

y tho

[@ArtofServer]

because many people like to use an HBA IT mode controller, and Dell never offered one for this generation of server. For more about RAID vs HBA, see this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnbFgqKerpupbrc thanks for watching!

[@SpazHeadSlotVideos]

great video again! Any chance I could pay you to buy a Dell PERC H200 for M610 Blade Servers SAS RAID PCIe Controller X905N 0X905N. Ebay item # 312583016852. and have you test and flash it to IT Mode and to test it on a Dell r410. I've read online that some say it will work, but no one can confirm when i asked them. and if it works i would pay you for your time and to ship it to me. please let me know. could be another great video for you. Thanks

[@ArtofServer]

Lol... Have you been spying on me? I just picked up a stack of servers including a R410 in order to test exactly the H200 modular you mentioned! I'm still waiting on the shipment to arrive...

[@SpazHeadSlotVideos]

@@ArtofServer LOL for real, i just got an R410 off ebay and am waiting for it as well! This will be awesome if you can get it to work. Cant wait for the video!

[@ArtofServer]

@SpazHead Slot Videos I just tested a H200 MCRJM, which is an alternate part number to the same X905N that you mentioned. I tested in a R410, but unfortunately bad news. I had 2 problems: 1) Although the card form factor is exactly the same as the SAS 6i/R integrated card, it doesn't actually fit. The H200 MCRJM has a few SMD components that get in the way of the retention plastic bracket. I was able to modify the bracket to make it fit though, so it is not impossible, but requires modifications. 2) the bigger problem is that the R410 will not boot with the H200 MCRJM. Strange thing is, it doesn't show the "Invalid PCIe card found in internal storage slot" error that we usually see. Instead, it passes the "configuring memory" and show the Dell logo from the BIOS POST stage, but then ends up with "System halted" with "PCIe training error: internal RAID slot" or something like that. I haven't figured a way to workaround this yet, but then I haven't tried too hard either. Anyway, I thought you'd want to know. It could also be that the H200 MCRJM cards (I got 2) are both defective, but I have no way to test them as I don't have the M610 blade servers.

[@SpazHeadSlotVideos]

@@ArtofServer Damn that sucks, still crossing my fingers that you'll get it working some day. Thanks for letting me know. Keep up the great videos

[@ArtofServer]

@@SpazHeadSlotVideos If you ever have any H200 X905N cards, it would help if i had more samples to play with. It could be that the H200 MCRJM cards I have are defective.

[@ummm_ok]

OHHHH YEAAAAH