lenovo_430-x_hba_firmware_BIOS_update.md

Lenovo 430-x HBA Firmware/BIOS Update

What?

Guide on how to update the firmware and BIOS of a Lenovo ThinkSystem 430-x SAS/SATA 12Gb HBA.

References

• Broadcom Support Download Search
• STORCLI SAS3.5 P31
• STORCLI Documentation
• Lenovo Support Search
• Lenovo Storage Host Bus Adapter HBA Windows Firmware

Steps

1. Download the latest STORCLI utility for LSI SAS3.5 Controllers per the reference above.
2. Download the latest HBA (Windows) driver package per the reference above.
3. Extract the packages to a folder on your local (Windows) machine.
4. Copy the relevant files to a FAT32 formatted USB, for example:
   • storcli.efi
   • 16i_24_00_07_00.fw
   • mpt35sas_x64_24_00_05_00.rom
   • mpt35sas_legacy_9_47_03_00.rom
5. Boot to the USB via EFI shell.
6. Identify the relevant (cX) HBA:

   storcli.efi show all

7. Confirm the relevant HBA:

   storcli.efi /c0 show

8. Backup STORCLI output to the USB:

   storcli.efi /c0 show all > backup\output.txt

9. Backup current controller bios, firmware etc. to the USB:

   storcli.efi /c0 get bios file=backup\bios
   storcli.efi /c0 get firmware file=backup\firmware
   storcli.efi /c0 get mpb file=backup\mpb
   storcli.efi /c0 get fwbackup file=backup\fwbackup
   storcli.efi /c0 get nvdata file=backup\nvdata
   storcli.efi /c0 get flash file=backup\flash

10. Update the firmware:

    storcli.efi /c0 download file=16i_24_00_07_00.fw

11. Update the EFI BIOS:

    storcli.efi /c0 download efibios file=mpt35sas_x64_24_00_05_00.rom

12. Update the BIOS:

    storcli.efi /c0 download bios file=mpt35sas_legacy_9_47_03_00.rom

13. Check HBA versions have updated:

    storcli.efi /c0 show

14. Power cycle the machine.

@webermar

Yeah sadly they do not work. I tried with a similar board. I don't know what it is, but something special is with the official cables, that generic cables and adapter/boards don't have. Maybe just some rearranged pins of the PCIe lanes? Would be nice if someone can reverse engineer this.

Hmm snap! How about a combination of a "special" SFF8643-to-U.2 and a U.2-to-M.2 adapter?
Edit: Found one that was used in a LTT video: https://www.startech.com/en-ch/hdd/u2m2e125

But yeah, buying a regular and a special to-U.2 cable and comparing them shouldn't be that hard I guess..

@webermar

Yeah sadly they do not work. I tried with a similar board. I don't know what it is, but something special is with the official cables, that generic cables and adapter/boards don't have. Maybe just some rearranged pins of the PCIe lanes? Would be nice if someone can reverse engineer this.

Hmm snap! How about a combination of a "special" SFF8643-to-U.2 and a U.2-to-M.2 adapter? Edit: Found one that was used in a LTT video: https://www.startech.com/en-ch/hdd/u2m2e125

But yeah, buying a regular and a special to-U.2 cable and comparing them shouldn't be that hard I guess..

Yeah, funny this is exactly the Adapter I used (in combination with a generic cable).

Yeah, funny this is exactly the Adapter I used (in combination with a generic cable).

Okay - I‘ll give it a try with the special cable and report :)

Yeah, funny this is exactly the Adapter I used (in combination with a generic cable).

Okay - I‘ll give it a try with the special cable and report :)

Can you please share the link to the special cable to connect to nvme?

If I do not want nvme support in that case lenovo 430-8i will work fine with ASUS motherboard and seagate sata hard drives with original lenovo firmware?

@Eagle248 No, in that case you don't have to do anything. SAS and SATA are always supported. The link to the cable was posted many times here already: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/4000758187693.html?gatewayAdapt=bra2deu

@webermar So I bought the adapter cable from Ali and the startech U.2-to-M.2 adapter (from Reichelt), cross-flashed my Lenovo HBA to the newest Broadcom mixed-mode firmware (now showing NVMe as supported mode in storcli) - and NO LUCK with an M.2 NVMe drive :( It simply isn't detected/listed during boot.

Any idea how I can debug this or what else could be going wrong in the U2/M2 adapter? Otherwise I'll have to quit this exercise, buying U.2 drives is pointless as they are stupidly expensive, even used ones on ebay.

@glaserf thank you very much for testing! I got mine from Reichelt, too, I wonder if they have high return rates of this adapter because of this! :D
That's sad to hear, but I stumbled upon the same topic over at servethehome which finally answers the question: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/broadcom-9500-8i-nvme-u-2-u-3-tri-mode.39426/
Basically, the Ali cable isn't genuine, they did it with u.2 adapters and this is also what I thought what the problem is, because u.2 and m.2 don't differ in protocol, u.2 only provides more lanes (AFAIK!).

In short for all others still reading along:
In the end, it isn't worth it connecting nvme drives with those hbas/raid controllers. Use bifurcation cards with power loss protection drives instead.

@webermar Thanks for the link - but I still don't get the explanation part why the Ali adapters don't work to be honest.. What do you mean by "they did with with u.2 adapters" (who is "they", Ali or Broadcom)?

@webermar Thanks for the link - but I still don't get the explanation part why the Ali adapters don't work to be honest.. What do you mean by "they did with with u.2 adapters" (who is "they", Ali or Broadcom)?

Yeah nobody else knows what is special about that cable, too. From images we can infer that it has no active components but they way it connects to the controller must be special.
The people at servthehome did it with u.2 to m.2 adapters. So for me, that confirms the cable is the critical part.

If you look at it it seems there are only genuine cables which connect 2x SAS8643 to 2x U.2. I would speculate that this is for some reason...
https://www.genuinemodules.de/05-50065-00

@webermar Thanks for the link - but I still don't get the explanation part why the Ali adapters don't work to be honest.. What do you mean by "they did with with u.2 adapters" (who is "they", Ali or Broadcom)?

Yeah nobody else knows what is special about that cable, too. From images we can infer that it has no active components but they way it connects to the controller must be special. The people at servthehome did it with u.2 to m.2 adapters. So for me, that confirms the cable is the critical part.

Ah okay, got it. Yeah indeed no active components neither in the cable nor the U2/M2 adapter. What all threads in this regard seem to agree on is that the "secret sauce" really is Broadcom somehow mapping NVMe on a connector that can also do SAS/SATA (SFF-8643). For this to work they had to get creative in the pinout, and the special cable "undoes" this. I suspect that this is also the reason that there is no single-SFF-8643 to single-U.2 cable, but only dual-to-dual and each U.2 gets some signals from both of the SFF-8643 connectors.

However, that still does not explain why this darn cable from Ali does not work even though it claims to be Broadcom compatible/special, or why this setup as a whole does not work.
I found this cable from Amazon which looks different compared to the Ali one (and is even cheaper), reluctant to give it a try: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JM1H18S

@webermar

If you look at it it seems there are only genuine cables which connect 2x SAS8643 to 2x U.2. I would speculate that this is for some reason... https://www.genuinemodules.de/05-50065-00

Damn.. there's also this https://www.genuinemodules.de/05-50061-00 which further cements our suspicion about the 2x 8643 being necessary. And now I really wonder if these cables work with what I originally had in mind (see above).

Well, what should I say?

It bloody works - finally!

Turns out, the cable from Ali was dodgy - who would've thought! Not sure if only mine or they don't work in general, either way it is straight going back and my money refunded.
The cable from Amazon just works, is cheaper, and in general looks like its built with higher quality.

What a journey. Sadly, temperature reporting for the NVMe drive connected to the HBA does not work, as has been mentioned here and elsewhere already. Apart from that, it absolutely fits my use case, given the PCIe limitations of my MoBo/platform.

@webermar

although the HBA seems to be working fine, (I did some speed tests in Windows) I am not able to boot into the HBA BIOS. Have tried changing many settings in host BIOS to accomadate legacy/EFI/CSM etc. and the most I'm seeing is a "Broadcom MPT35 HBA BIOS" splash screen on boot, where it "initializes" and then checks for disks attached to the HBA, but It never shows the option to load the BIOS with "Ctrl + C". It just finishes checking for disks and then the server boots into the OS. Anyways..

@CodeRipley Did you ever figure this out? I just performed the cross-flash and am having the same issue not being able to get into the card's BIOS setup screens.

Wait, the card does have a BIOS setup menu? I thought more than showing the detected disks is anyways not possible.

@glaserf @cannondale0815

From Broadcom 9400 series or newer the card setup is accessed through motherboard BIOS.

@glaserf @cannondale0815

From Broadcom 9400 series or newer the card setup is accessed through motherboard BIOS.

What Firmware did you use/flash?

It does not make sense to have a bootable card BIOS, because it is a HBA, not a RAID card. But it can be possible with correct firmware.
Keep in mind that configuration can be done with the storcli utility.

I purchased one of these Lenovo 430-16i cards on eBay and now wait its delivery. However now I have a concern that it won't work at all, i.e. not be recognised, by my HP ML10 v2 server, which has no UEFI, but only a legacy BIOS. Has anyone ever tried a 9400-16i PCIe card on a system that only has a Legacy BIOS? Should I order a 9305-16i instead, which supposedly is supported by Legacy BIOS?

I figured out why I couldn't access the BIOS settings of the 9400 card. This page here pointed me in the right direction. I basically needed to disable Secure Boot and set the "Launch Storage OpROM policy" in my SuperMicro BIOS to UEFI only. From the next reboot onwards, I now have an "Avago" section under "Advanced" in my SuperMicro BIOS.

Differently put, the 9400 series behaves differently from the 9300. Whereas the older cards had their settings accessible via Ctrl+C at boot, the newer 9400 series integrates their settings into the motherboards BIOS via UEFI (and do not have the settings pages for legacy BIOS anymore).

I purchased one of these Lenove 430-16i cards on eBay and now wait its delivery. However now I have a concern that it won't work at all, i.e. not be recognised, by my HP ML10 v2 server, which has no UEFI, but only a legacy BIOS. Has anyone ever tried a 9400-16i PCIe card on a system that only has a Legacy BIOS? Should I order a 9305-16i instead, which supposedly is supported by Legacy BIOS?

It'll work fine, but you won't have access to the settings. Which isn't really needed anyway. At boot, you will still see a list of the drives it detected.

I purchased one of these Lenovo 430-16i cards on eBay and now wait its delivery. However now I have a concern that it won't work at all, i.e. not be recognised, by my HP ML10 v2 server, which has no UEFI, but only a legacy BIOS. Has anyone ever tried a 9400-16i PCIe card on a system that only has a Legacy BIOS? Should I order a 9305-16i instead, which supposedly is supported by Legacy BIOS?

It'll work fine, but you won't have access to the settings. Which isn't really needed anyway. At boot, you will still see a list of the drives it detected.

Have you got this 9400-16i (or its Lenovo counterpart) running on an (older) server that hasn't got UEFI? It goes against everything I'm reading about it. As the BIOS doesn't recognise the card, it won't recognise the disks either, as such it is impossible to forward the disk information on to the OS (that being Linux or whatever).

I purchased one of these Lenovo 430-16i cards on eBay and now wait its delivery. However now I have a concern that it won't work at all, i.e. not be recognised, by my HP ML10 v2 server, which has no UEFI, but only a legacy BIOS. Has anyone ever tried a 9400-16i PCIe card on a system that only has a Legacy BIOS? Should I order a 9305-16i instead, which supposedly is supported by Legacy BIOS?

It'll work fine, but you won't have access to the settings. Which isn't really needed anyway. At boot, you will still see a list of the drives it detected.

Have you got this 9400-16i (or its Lenovo counterpart) running on an (older) server that hasn't got UEFI? It goes against everything I'm reading about it. As the BIOS doesn't recognise the card, it won't recognise the disks either, as such it is impossible to forward the disk information on to the OS (that being Linux or whatever).

My server had UEFI disabled and was set to Legacy Only, yet the card still worked, and it still shows a list of drives it detects at boot time in Legacy Mode. Also see this link here for details on the 9400 series and UEFI vs. Legacy.

And yes, I have the 430-16i with the latest Lenovo firmware that is linked in the original post. I also inbetween cross-flashed it to the latest Broadcom/LSI firmware of the 9400, which also worked, but then I realized that the Lenovo firmware is newer, so I went back to the Lenovo firmware.

Anyway, it will work in Legacy, but you won't be able to to change any settings. Which isn't really much of an issue. Even though I do have access to the UEFI Advanced menu of this card, I gave it a glance and there's nothing I have changed in terms of the default settings.

Thx!

i'll be able to flash my recently brought 430-16i (with very old FW 11.x delivered) to latest 24.x via EFI Shell with an old X9SCA-F Supermicro Board

another Asus P8Z77-V LK Board was unable to flash