Dell PowerEdge RAID Controller 5 Series Firmware Update Package Version: 5.1.1-0050 Criticality: Recommended TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Performing the Firmware Upgrade 3.0 Important Information 4.0 Fixes/Enhancements 5.0 Known Limitations 6.0 History 1.0 Introduction ================ This is a firmware update release for the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 5 Series. Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.1.1-0050 5.1.1-0040 Firmware 1.03.40-0232 1.03.10-0216 BIOS MT28 MT28 Ctrl-R 1.04-017A 1.04-017A MPT 00.10.47.00-IT 00.10.47.00-IT 2.0 Performing the Firmware Upgrade =================================== Web pack: --------- Download 1. Click Download Now, to download the file. 2. When the File Download window appears, click Save this program to disk and click OK. The Save In: window appears. 3. From the "Save As" field, click the down arrow then click to select Desktop and click Save. The file will download to your desktop. 4. If the Download Complete window appears, click Close. The file icon appears on your desktop. Hard Drive Floppy Disk Creation 1. Get 2 blank, formatted floppy disks. 2. Double-click the new icon (it looks like a floppy diskette) on the desktop. The Self-Extractor window appears. 3. Click the 'Continue' button on the self-extractor window after inserting one of the formatted floppies. 4. The utility prompts the user to insert the second floppy diskette after it completes writing on the first floppy. 5. Remove the first floppy and insert the second floppy diskette. 6. Press 'Continue' button. 7. After all the files have been copied to the last floppy disk, press the 'Finish' button to close the Self-Extracter window Install 1. Insert the first (or the only) disk of the set into the Floppy drive. 2. Click Start, click Shutdown, click Restart, and then click OK. 3. Follow the on-screen instructions. Zip pack: --------- Download 1. Click the Download Now link to download the file. 2. When the File Download window appears, click Save to save the file to your hard drive. Extract Files 1. Browse to the location where you downloaded the file and double-click the new file to unzip the download package 2. Click Continue. 3. Specify the location to unzip the files. 4. Click on the OK button to extract files. After the files are extracted the message all files were successfully unzipped will appear. 5. Click the OK button to exit from the installer. Installation 1. Copy extracted files to bootable media. 2. Reboot system to bootable media. 3. Execute update.bat to perform flash. 4. After flash is complete, remove bootable media. 5. Reboot system for changes to take effect. Windows Update Package: ----------------------- Download 1. Click the "Download Now" link to download the file. 2. When the File Download window appears, click "Save" to save the file to your hard drive. Installation 1. Browse to the location where you downloaded the file and double-click the new file. 2. Read over the release information presented in the dialog window. 3. Download and install any prerequisites identified in the dialog window before proceeding. 4. Click the "Install" button. 5. Follow the remaining prompts to perform the update. Linux Update Package: --------------------- Download 1. Click the "Download Now" link to download the file. 2. When the File Download window appears, click "Save" to save the file to your hard drive. Installation 1. Read over the release information presented by executing the "./FRMW_LX_RXXXXXX.BIN --version" command from the shell. 2. Download and install any prerequisites identified in the above step before proceeding. 3. Run the update by executing "./FRMW_LX_RXXXXXX.BIN" from the shell. 4. Follow the remaining prompts to perform the update. GnuPG Signature of Dell Update Package Instructions for FRMW_LX_RXXXXXX.BIN: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Download 1. Click the "Download Now" link to download the file. 2. When the "File Download" window appears, click "Save" to save the file to your hard drive. Installation 1. Import the Dell public key. (You only need to do this once on your system.) 2. Verify the Dell Update Package by using its signature file, FRMW_LX_RXXXXXX.BIN. 3.0 Important Information ========================= 1. When viewing SATA physical disk properties from Ctrl-R or other management applications, the Vendor Identification will be translated as "ATA". 2. If all physical disks making up a virtual disk are removed from the system or enclosure, the RAID controller will delete the virtual disk. If the disks are later re-inserted, they will be marked foreign and can be imported using a management application. 3. If the cable connecting a PERC 5/E to an enclosure is removed, the RAID controller will immediately delete all virtual disks on that enclosure. To recover, power down the server and ensure all cables in the configuration are securely connected. When the server is powered on, the RAID controller will detect the disks as foreign and the configuration can be imported with a management application. 4. Physical disks determined to contain a foreign configuration are not available for configuration as a new dedicated or global hotspare, or as a member of a new virtual disk. The foreign configuration must be imported or cleared from the physical disk before it may be used as a hotspare or member of a virtual disk. Physical disks with a foreign configuration will not appear on the Create New VD screen in Ctrl-R. 5. Prior to performing a virtual disk migration, the source system must be powered off before removal of the physical disks to preserve the correct virtual disk state. This is not required for the target system and the physical disks may be inserted while the system is powered on or off. 6. This version of firmware will not ensure complete compatibility with an older version of the management application, OpenManage 5.0 or 5.1. OpenManage 5.2 or greater is recommended. 7. It is recommended that the customer upgrade the management application and device driver to the latest version available from Dell at the time of installation of this firmware. 8. The firmware restricts the importing of virtual disks that are undergoing RAID level migration or Capacity Expansion. Do not interrupt virtual disks that are performing either of these operations because it will disable the ability to import the virtual disk and the data will be unavailable. Dell recommends that the user perform a data backup before starting these operations. 9. Foreign dedicated hot spares are now imported as global hot spares. 4.0 Fixes/Enhancements ====================== 1. This firmware update addresses a false ROMB battery voltage error that may be generated following a battery charge and/or a battery learn cycle that occurs on 90 day intervals. 5.0 Known Limitations ===================== None. 6.0 History =========== Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.1.1-0040 5.0.3-0001 Firmware 1.03.10-0216 1.00.02-0163 BIOS MT28 MT23 Ctrl-R 1.04-017A 1.02-007 MPT 00.10.47.00-IT 00.06.71.00-IT 1. The firmware has enhanced capabilities to recovering configurations in the event of an accidental cable pull or power outage of your storage. 2. The controller has improved hard drive error handling and addressed issues known to cause problems with hard drive discovery. 3. Fixed a data integrity issue that may occur if the system is rebooted during a background initialization or consistency check. 4. Improved cache throttling algorithm to prevent excessive cache maintenance overhead when processing large amounts of I/O. This helped to reduce megasas resets in Linux and Event 129s in Windows. 5. CTRL-R has added a page to view foreign configurations when detected on the controller. 6. Improved Patrol Read algorithm for SATA drives. 7. Added Support for Forced Write Back (WB) policy in CTRL-R to force write back in the case of a bad battery or the absence of a battery. 8. Increased performance of background initialization (BGI). 9. CTRL-R allows users to create dedicated hot spare(s) while creating virtual disks. 10. All the RAID levels have the default write policy set to write back, where previous versions set the default write policy to write through.. 11. CTRL-R has improved capabilities to report controller operations. 12. Added Patrol read check point feature to allow it to resume from the last known point in the event of a reboot. 13. Improved CTRL-R Interface to block options that can not be invoked, such as rebuilding a physical disk that is online. 14. Debug logs are now preserved through warm boots. These logs can be extracted using OMSA 5.2 or higher. 15. The drives are now enumerated by enclosure number : slot number. For example, 01:10, means Enclosure 1 : Slot 10. 16. Fixed an issue when attempting to import foreign configurations on a system that already contains 64 virtual disks. The maximum number of virtual disks is still 64, but the firmware will handle this case correctly and will block the import. 17. Added the ability to preserve the hard disk bad block table on SATA drives during foreign configuration imports. 18. Fixed an issue where rebuild would not start on sliced virtual disks in the event of deletion of any virtual disk from the same disk group. 19. Fixed an issue where the cache policy was not reverting to the virtual disks original settings after an RLM/CE process is terminated by the user. 20. Added the ability to terminate BGI to start other operations. 21. Fixed an issue where drives would show up as foreign even after the foreign configuration was cleared. 22. Fixed the issue where foreign configuration would be cleared when performing a reset configuration operation on the controller. 23. Improved detection and alerting of bad PHYs. 24. Added BIOS message when controller encounters a single bit error over flow condition. 25. The controller event log will synchronize its time with the system on regular intervals on systems running OpenManage 5.2 or greater. 26. Added message during POST to indicate when the battery voltage is low. 27. CTRL-R screen automatically refreshes upon any status or configuration change. 28. Hard drive SMART alerts are issued only once every 24 hours per hard drive. Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.0.3-0001 5.0.2-0003 Firmware 1.00.02-0163 1.00.02-0157 BIOS MT23 MT23 Ctrl-R 1.02-007 1.02-007 MPT 00.06.71.00-IT 00.06.71.00-IT 1. Addresses potential issue with PERC 5 controllers where systems with multiple virtual disks on the same controller receiving different I/O workloads could become unresponsive. 2. Addresses an issue when a disk is taking longer than normal to repair a bad block following a Patrol Read cycle could cause the controller to get hung. Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.0.2-0003 5.0.2-0001 Firmware 1.00.02-0157 1.00.01-0107 BIOS MT23 MT23 Ctrl-R 1.02-007 1.02-007 MPT 00.06.71.00-IT 00.06.71.00-IT 1. Battery status initialized if the battery is good in the initialization routine. 2. The battery status was not initialized between init and the first battery monitoring, and if OMSS queries in between, it was getting an uninitialized state. Battery status is now initialized if the battery is good in the init routine. Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.0.2.0001 5.0.1-0030 Firmware 1.00.01-0107 1.00.00-0088 BIOS MT23 MT23 Ctrl-R 1.02-007 1.02-007 MPT 00.06.70.00-IT 00.06.71.00-IT 1. Addressed intermittent false battery error that may erroneously appear after reboot even though the battery is OK and does not need to be replaced. 2. Support added for SATA hard drives when used in platform flex bay. Component Current Version Previous Version Package 5.0.1-0030 5.0.1-0026 Firmware 1.00.00-0088 1.00.00-0081 SASBIOS MT23 MT23 Ctrl-R 1.02-007 1.02-007 MPT 00.06.70.00-IT 00.06.40.00-IT