Trying to dumb down an LSI 5015 into an HBA for JBOD, software RAID, or make the Hardware RAID work

I have an IBM SystemX 3200 m3 that I’ve been using as an NAS. I have Windows Server 2016 running on it, and I had 4x 146GB SAS’s running in RAID 1.

It’s been working very well for me.

I decided to upgrade the drives, so I picked up a 4-pack of (refurb) 600gb Hitachi SAS 15k’s. However, in the RAID bios, trying to set up the new drives, they show as “unconfigured good, unsupported”. No amount of using the wizard allowed me to create a new virtual drive.

HDD Information
IBM p/n 46X0886
Hitachi 3.5" 600GB 15K RPM 64MB 6Gbp SAS Hard Drive
Hitachi p/n HUS156060VLS600

A bit of internet searching led me to tales of cross-flashing the BIOS from another controller, but it all felt a bit over my head.

So, I figured, why not just go JBOD, and do software RAID?

So I get into the pre-boot CLI, and give it a go.

$ AdpGetProp enablejbod -aALL

Adapter 0: JBOD: Disabled
Exit Code = 0x0

OK…Then

$ AdpSetProp EnableJBOD 1 -aALL

Adapter 0: Set JBOD to Enable success.
Exit Code = 0x0

So far so good…

I ran a list command to get the enclosure number and drive identifier. Then went to the “make good” step.

$ PDMakeGood -PhysDrv[252:0, 252:1, 252:2, 252:3] -Force -a0

Adapter: 0: Failed to change PD state at EnclId-252 SlotId-0.
Exit Code = 0x1

I’m not sure if that means they’re still not good, or they were already good.

In any case, I pressed on to try and JBOD them.

$ PDMakeJBOD -PhysDrv [252:0, 252:1, 252:2, 252:3] -a0

Adapter: 0: Failed to change PD state at EnclId-252 SlotId-0.
Exit Code = 0x1

So I’m stuck, no JBOD, no hardware RAID, drives not showing up in Windows, not sure what to try next.

Can you throw the full output of -PDList -aALL in here?

I’m not familiar at all with that hardware, but has it been flashed to have the latest firmware, and can it really just switch modes via command line?

My only experience with this sort of thing is with LSI 9211-8i based raid cards on ebay, which are flashed with IT-mode firmware, becoming HBA/JBOD cards.

I’ll transcribe one of the outputs here, since I can’t seem to figure out how to copy/paste text from the pre-boot CLI

Enclosure Devide ID: 252
Slot Number: 0
Enclosure position: 0
Device Id: 17
Sequence number: 1
Media Error Count: 0
Other Error Count: 0
Last Predictive Failure Event Seq Number: 0
PD Type: SAS
Raw Size: 547.733 GB [0x44777b89 Sectors]
Non Coerced Size: 547.233 GB [0x44677b89 Sectors]
Coerced Size: 546.685 GB [0x4455f000 Sectors]
Emulated Drive: No
Firmware state: Unconfigured(good), Spun Up
SAS Address(0) 0x5000cca041a3ad0d
SAS Address(1) 0x0
Connected Port Number: 3(path0)
Inquiry Data : NETAPP x412_HVIPC560A15NA03CZXX0HDN
FDE Capable: Not Capable
FDE Enable: Disable
Secured: Unsecured
Needs EKM Attention: No
Foreign State: None
Device Speed: 6.0Gb/s
Link Speed: 6.0Gb/s
Media Type: Hard Disk Device
Drive: Not Supported
Drive Temperature :0C (32F)

The other three outputs are the same, except for the slot number, device id SAS Address(0), and Inquiry Data

I’m no expert in firmware, but before I installed the OS, I went to IBM, got the firmware tool (some kind of bootable USB that actually worked really well) and installed every firmware update available for my server. That was a few months ago by now. Whether that included anything for the 5015, i dunno?

https://nguvu.org/freenas/Convert-LSI-HBA-card-to-IT-mode/

cant remember which guide i used and will look when i get home but one of these should help

That was the bit i was looking for. You’re going to end up having to flash firmware somewhere. Netapp drives are black listed by LSI by default, so you’re either going to have to flash stock hitachi firmware, or find a firmware hack for the 5015 to allow those drives.

2 Likes

Oh wow, I wasn’t even aware of that sort of bullshit. This isn’t even my problem, but this is good to know, thanks.

Thanks @reikoshea interesting datum.

Every answer I find for this, so far, (flashing the drives) involves needing Linux sg-utils. I’m totally Linux illeterate, and I’m still wounded from Linux kicking my ass…on this machine…trying to set up a Samba file server or a NextCloud server…I just…could…not…do it.

Sounds like a great learning experience. Maybe at the end of this you and linux could be holding hands dancing through fields of poppy.

http://www.doki-doki.net/~lamune/computers/blocksize/

Is this the solution I need?

And can I do it in a Virtual Box?

That’d definitely be step 1. If it works that way then you’re golden. If that doesn’t work, then tracking down the consumer firmware for that drive is a bit more tricky…

And yes, you can do it in virtual box.