Flashing IT firmware on a LSI 9211-8i HBA from a USB stick

Recently I needed to test different firmware versions on some LSI 9211-8i PCI-E 8x SAS 6Gbps HBA's for work. Updating the firmware seemed like a momentus pain afer reviewing the plethra of guides online. Here is my simplifyed version:

Step 1: Download the HP Flash Utility and MS-DOS system files

LINK

Step 2: Install the HP Flash Utility and extract the MS-DOS system files


Step 3: Download the latest LSI firmware: 9211_8i_Package_P16_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows

LINK

Step 4: Extract the LSI firmware zip.

 Step 5: Follow the great guide from the link in Step 1 on Seven Forums for creating your dos bootable USB thumb drive.

Step 6: Copy the following files from the LSI firmware package to your thumb drive.

2118it.bin - Under Firmware\HBA_9211_8I_IT
sas2flsh.exe - Under sas2flash_dos_rel
mptsas2.rom - Under sasbios_rel

Step 7: Plug your USB stick into the system you are flashing the 9211-8i controller in and boot off the thumb drive.

*IMPORTANT: DO NOT TRY TO FLASH MORE THEN (1) HBA CARD AT A TIME. Remove any additional controllers and repeat the next steps. You could perminatly brick multiple cards!*

Step 8: View the installed cards using # sas2flsh -listall

(Please ignore the onboard LSI 2308 controller)

 

Step 9: Delete the existing firmware # sas2flsh -o -e 6

Step 10: Update the firmware and bios # sas2flsh -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom

 All done!

 

There, that was not too bad. You can check the update by running # sas2flsh -listall and power cycle the machine- don't forget to remove the USB stick.

 

Marc