Boot failure after installing LSI 9201-16e

I have installed an IT mode LSI 9201-16e in my Dell R720 server to attach external disk shelves to it.

The server already has an IT mode LSI 9211-8i card installed in it with 2 boot SSDs attached to it, that were previously working fine and had no issues booting pre- LSI 9201-16e being installed.

After installing the 9201-16e, during the boot process I get the following messages:

boot failed: linux boot manager
boot failed: linux boot manager
boot failed: windows boot manager

I have already successfully erased the BIOS image from the 9201-16e card to prevent the system from trying to boot from it.

I have also went in to the Avago Configuration Utility (via ctrl-c hotkey) for the LSI 9211-8i, changed the boot order to the correct one, and disabled boot all together on the 9201-16e. I still cannot get my SSDs to boot.

When I remove the 9201-16e card, the boot sequence works fine and OS successfully boots. What could be the issue here?

I’m assuming you’re not trying to connect the boot drives to the 9201-16e card, correct? If you’re just seating the card (with no drives connected) then it’s likely just an issue with your boot sequence. You can adjust the order by going into BIOS change moving 9211-8i higher in the UEFI boot settings.

You can test this theory by hitting F11 on boot and selecting the 9211 card.

Correct

The UEFI boot settings on the dell does not show the cards at all. The boot settings only shows “Unavailable: linux boot manager” and network PXE boot. I don’t see a way to adjust SAS card boot order.

That being said, I have already gone into the SAS config utility separately and adjusted the boot order of the SAS cards to the correct sequence.

The boot order inside the card’s config is only meant for attached drives. Even if you could specify another device to hand off the boot to it would just add another point of failure point. If this is a production machine don’t do it.

I have a few other ideas, but I’m hesitant to suggest anything more until I know what this machine is being used for.

Also how do the messages on boot relate to your current configuration? You’re not running dual linux/win boot are you? Could these be a foreign config stored on the card from the previous owner?

If that was the case, why is there a GUI to edit the boot order of the SAS controllers and not the drives?

I have an existing FreeNAS/TrueNAS server that I’m trying to migrate to run under a VM. As part of that process, I want to passthrough the 9201-16e to the VM I’m going to install the TrueNAS image on. I would like to keep the integrated 9211-8i to use for the host OS (proxmox). I do not want to boot anything off the 9201-16e, just need it for data drives.

These do seem to be leftover EFI installs from the previous owner of the 9201-16e.

Couldn’t know for sure without seeing it, but I have a hunch. I think the card might have an old EFI boot entry that could be taking preference over TrueNAS if it’s using legacy BIOS . Speculating the server is entering UEFI mode once it detects the boot entry on the 9201. Could be completely wrong but I’d look at it from this angle first.

To fix it I have a couple of suggestions but honestly I’m just giving you homework. I don’t know if either of these steps will resolve it but it’s what I’d try first if I was troubleshooting.

Update the R720 BIOS/firmware - This could allow the the 9211 boot option to magically appear in the F11 menu. Or worse case scenario you’ll just get the latest device firmware and Intel CPU microcode fixes. Download the bootable ISO, burn, and update:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000178586/update-poweredge-servers-with-platform-specific-bootable-iso

Reset the LSI card - Seat in a Windows machine, download the most recent firmware (IT mode link included below), update, and do a factory reset on card. (Read included guide before issuing command)
sas2flash –reset
https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/12350418

Edit: Changed wording of “EFI boot partition” to “EFI boot entry” to sound a little more intelligible

Did you ever find a solution to this? I am having the same problem on my r720xd, and i have updated bios/firmware and reset the LSI card and still get the same result

@OCBallin

Yes, I ended up using the refind utility to boot into EFI shell and erased absolutely everything off of it, and even erased BIOS off the card as I didn’t need to boot off of it.

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