Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4/DC and 4/SC Firmware Update Version: 3.41 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Performing the Firmware Upgrade 3.0 Fixes or Enhancements 4.0 Important Information 5.0 Change History 1.0 Introduction This firmware update delivers bug fixes and enhancements for the PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller 4/DC and 4/SC. 2.0 Performing the Firmware Upgrade Note: Before upgrading the firmware please verify that your firmware is at 3.28. Dell Webpack: This program creates a bootable diskette to upgrade the firmware of the controllers. You will need a formatted 3 1/2 inch floppy diskette for the following procedure. 1) Download the file to a directory on your hard drive. The file downloaded is a self extracting executable. 2) Insert a blank diskette into the system's diskette drive. 3) Double click on the file that you downloaded and follow the instructions on the screen to extract the files to the diskette. 4) Insert the diskette into the system with the RAID controller for which you want to update the firmware and reboot the system. 5) Follow the instructions on the screen to update the firmware. NOTICE: pflash.exe will be executed automatically and will report existing code level and prompt you to reconfirm before starting the firmware upgrade process. To perform this process in non-interactive mode please execute, pflash /? and read about possible command line switches. 6) Remove the diskette and reboot the system. Dell Update Package Instructions: Download 1. Click the "Download Now" link to download the file. 2. If the Export Compliance Disclaimer window appears, click the "I agree" link to accept the agreement. 3. 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. Install any necessary Embedded Systems Management firmware prior to this BIOS update. 5. Click the Install button. 6. Follow the remaining prompts to perform the update. The Update Package can also be used with Dell OpenManage Server Administrator. See the Dell Update Package User's Guide for more information. 3.0 Fixes or Enhancements Component Current Version Previous Version Firmware 3.41 3.28 BIOS 1.06 1.05 Ctrl-M U812 5.62 Boot Block 1.7.1Dell 1.6.7Dell MPT SCSI FW 01.03.11.05-IT 01.03.06.00-IT Firmware Enhancements 1. Improved I/O performance. 2. Improved hard drive status logic when virtual disks are spanned across channels. 3. Firmware will automatically change cache settings to WriteThru when a battery problem is detected to preserve data. If WriteBack was originally selected, firmware will switch back once battery problem has been corrected. 4. In the Rebuild function of CRTL-M, a new status called “INCON” will be displayed after a rebuild operation completes if any unrecoverable errors are found in any of the hard disk drives. To identify the location of the error and if any data was present, run a check disk from the O/S (e.g. chkdsk in windows). Note: Dell recommends that a check disk or consistency check should be run after any RAID rebuild operation is completed by the controller. Firmware Bug Fixes 1. When multiple hard drive media errors are encountered, array rebuild operation will complete. 2. Consistency checks are aborted after reboot in cluster or stand alone mode. User must restart consistency check manually if needed. 3. Manual initialization calls will be rejected if a background initialization or consistency check is in progress on the logical drive. 4. Address potential controller lock-ups that could occur during either degraded, rebuilding or multiple drive pull and reinsert scenarios. 5. Addressed potential controller freezing during driver failure on possible Raid configurations. 4.0 Important Information Firmware upgrade while controller is doing background I/O task Firmware upgrade process will fail if any background I/O task (i.e. RAID-5 background consistency check or power on auto-resume rebuild and reconstruction) is being performed. The program will stop at the "Flash Download" screen with the following message: "Consistency Check of logical drive(s) in progress for adapter-X. Failed Writing Image on Adapter X with Baseport ...". Firmware and configuration on the adapter will not be modified by the program. A reboot can be performed to return to the Operating System. Wait until the background task completes before updating the firmware. Universal CRTL-M: Multiple adapters can be configured from CRTL-M, but currently selected adapter should be verified before performing any configuration changes using the Select Adapter option. Drive Migration: When hard drives are moved from one controller to another, the target controller configuration must be cleared to ensure a configuration mismatch does not occur. FlexRAID: FlexRAID Virtual Sizing is no longer supported by the current firmware (v.3.41) and should be disabled prior to firmware flash. This can be performed from CRTL-M by accessing Objects -> Logical drive -> View/Update Parameters -> FlexRAID Virtual Sizing and will need to be performed for each logical drive present. 5.0 Change History Change from 3.18 to 3.28 Firmware Enhancements 1) Added additional debug capability Firmware Bug Fixes 1) Fixed issue where misbehaving drive may cause Blue screen 2) Changed request sense length to reduce CRC errors from drives 3) Fixed issue where misbehaving drive would cause the system to hang 4) Fixed NVRAM issue related to downgrading firmware 5) Fixed issue where BGI would run during an NVRAM mismatch. 6) Firmware now checks for additional hot spares if first rebuild fails. 7) Fixed a problem where the controller would negotiate to ASYNC during clustering if node went offline while rebuild was occurring. 8) Fixed a problem where the firmware would continuously respond to an auto request sense failure from a failing hard drive 9) Fixed a conflict with Direct I/O, No Read-Ahead, and Write-Through cache parameters and platforms with more than 4 GB of system memory. Version 3.18 1) Initial release of PERC 4/SC firmware