perc 5/i firware PE2950 ubuntu

[Michael_Christensen2 at Dell.com]

Message: 7
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 21:45:36 -0600
From: Ben Nickell <twinprism at athena.physics.isu.edu>
Subject: perc 5/i firware PE2950 ubuntu
To: linux-poweredge at dell.com
Message-ID: <48324960.7000109 at physics.isu.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I have been running Ubuntu on it for quite some time.  The only problem 
I have is from time to time the first RAID drive forgets it's RAID 
configuration, putting all the file systems into read-only mode and 
requiring me to reboot and import foreign config.

I would like to:

a:  Update the BIOS of the PERC 5/i controller
b:  Update firmware on Hard Drives
c:  Monitor RAID arrays for problems.

Problems I've run into trying update the PERC firmware from a floppy 
drive is it is too large to fit on a floppy.

I have been reading on the available options for Dell PERC 5/i 
controller on Ubuntu but I was hoping someone could save me some time 
and point me to the easiest method.

Is there a version of linflash and/or megamon I can use for PERC 5/i on 
Ubuntu? (currently 7.04 but I'd like to upgrade to 8.04 after I get this

taken care of)

Should I try the OMSA from that sara deb repository?  Would that do what

I want?  (never used OMSA before)

Any suggestions to help a Linux on Dell n00b like me get started?

Thanks in advance,
Ben Nickell


Hi Ben,

There is a floppy version of the firmware update available, but it
requires access to a Windows machine and two floppy disks
http://ftp.us.dell.com/SAS-RAID/BR168188.exe

If you don't have access to either of those, you could try the guide
listed below:


The Linux updates Dell provides, only work 100% in RedHat and Suse, so
unless you want to use the floppy or Windows version, you need to boot
into something based on one of those distributions.

1) download a Linux live-CD based on RedHat/Suse (or Centos - see link)
2) download the controller firmware and stick it on a USB stick (see
link)
3) boot the live-CD
4) insert the USB stick once the OS is completely "loaded" (you may need
to mount the USB stick manually)
5) copy the controller bin file to /tmp 
6) launch a console, go to /tmp and do "./FRMW_LX_R168188.BIN" and
follow the instructions


http://linux.dell.com/files/openmanage-contributions/omsa-54-live/
http://ftp.us.dell.com/SAS-RAID/FRMW_LX_R168188.BIN


//Michael