PERC H200I IT mode on a Dell R710

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You’re at the end of a boring rabbit hole because of a PERC H200I in a Dell R710. Getting the controller into IT mode stands between you and the greater project you wanted to finish before the weekend is over. Like me you’ve probably checked the awesome Fohdeesha Docs without luck. I’ve been on your side-quest, and oh do I have a bootable ISO for you! I’ve scraped together the tools and firmware you’ll need to flash a PERC H200I into IT mode. I flashed mine on a Dell R710 but it may work for you on another machine. Thanks to Justin Schmitt and tylersprice for the instructions and files.

Flashing instructions

  1. Place the H200I into a regular PCIe slot in your Dell R710. That’s right, move it out of the integrated slot and into one of the generic PCIe slots.

  2. Download the FreeDOS based ISO and boot off it. I believe UEFI and FreeDOS are incompatible so boot using legacy mode configured in your BIOS. Once you’ve landed in a DOS prompt, follow the instructions below.

  3. Boot into the FreeDOS ISO and navigate to the CD.

R:\>d:
D:\>
  1. Record the SAS address of your controller. You’ll need it later to configure back onto your PERC H200.
D:\>cd PERC_H20
D:\PERC_H20>sas2flsh.exe -c 0 -list

Write down the SAS address.

  1. Erase the controller firmware and BIOS.
D:\PERC_H20>sas2flsh.exe -o -e 6

  1. Power off the server, count to 10 and then turn it back on and boot into the ISO again.

  2. Flash the rom and firmware.

R:\>d:
D:\>cd PERC_H20
D:\PERC_H20>sas2flsh.exe -o -b h200i.rom -f h200i.fw

This may produce a checksum error, but apparently that’s OK. The error is ‘ERROR: BIOS Image Checksum Failed: 00000074’

  1. Configure the original SAS address you took note of earlier.
D:\PERC_H20>sas2flsh.exe -o -sasadd xxx (where xxx is your SAS address from step 3)
  1. Power off the server and move the H200I to the integrated PCIe slot.
  1. Power on and boot into the ISO, then flash 2118p7.bin This step might ask the question ‘Product ID and Vendor ID do not match. Would you like to flash anyway [y/n]?’ Choose y
R:\>d:
D:\>cd PERC_H20
D:\PERC_H20>sas2flsh.exe -o -f 2118p7.bin
  1. Reboot back into the ISO and install the boot utilities. These are the utilities you access by pressing CTRL+C at boot.
R:\>d:
D:\>cd PERC_H20 
D:\PERC_H20>s2fp19.exe -o -b mptsas2.rom -f 2118it.bin
  1. Check that everything is in order. The Firmware Product ID should be 0x2213 (IT) or similar
D:\PERC_H20>s2fp19.exe -c 0 -list
  1. Reboot and enjoy your PERC200 in IT mode!