Dell’s meagre Ubuntu support doesn’t make firmware updates easy. Their monstrous OMSA doesn’t do it, and their RedHat packages are pretty hideous even on RedHat! Here’s a solution running on Ubuntu Lucid 10.04.
Dell PERC 6/i Adapter Restart required. When selecting a device driver update be sure to select the one that is appropriate for your operating system. I have a used T300 with a perc 6 that I purchased recently. I swapped the OEM drives with 3 new 2TB Hitachi enterprise drives and installed the OS etc. After 2 weeks of smooth sailing, I got the dreaded amber light on the panel, indicating an HDD fault.
The PERC 6/i controller is a rebadged LSI, so I grabbed the latest MegaCli tool from LSI’s site to do the flash update with since Dell’s tools are hopeless. This is supplied as an rpm, so it’s a bit of a pain to set up on Ubuntu.
I preferred to put them in /usr/local instead of /opt so I don’t need to mess with the system PATH.
Now that we have the tools, here’s a firmware update procedure that works on Ubuntu. It’s a bit odd as it grabs the Windows version of the update, however that’s actually the easiest one to get the ROM image out of since you can just unzip the exe!
Before the update:
Applying the update:
After reboot:
When it’s easier to to use the Windows version on Linux, you know they’re doing something horribly wrong.
The Dell RedHat package that’s supposed to do this is a disaster. It encodes an update script and the binary ROM image into a shar archive (I’d not seen one of those for about 20 years!). The only time I tried running it on RedHat it spewed a load of errors and did an immediate, unprompted reboot. That’s professional software from Dell that is.
Rant
It has to be said that updating any kind of firmware on pretty much any platform is almost universally hideous. Nobody seems willing to take the plunge and make it a pleasant, simple, reliable experience, which is crazy when you consider that it’s often a Very Bad Thing™ if it goes wrong. We’re all saddled with ancient crappy BIOSes that should have been replaced decades ago and stupid floppy-based updaters. The server market is just solid with fat, complacent incumbents; we need someone to ‘do an Apple’ and turn the whole thing upside down.
Category: Controller
Manufacturer: Dell
Caution Level: Intermediate
Download File Size: 0.99
Operating System: Windows
Latest Version / Release Date: 6.4 / 01 Jul 2008
Windows device driver information for DELL PERC 6/i Integrated RAID Controller
The Dell PERC 6/i Integrated RAID Controller generally prides for its outstanding performance with its simplified management that has increased reliability and fault tolerance. This product from Dell supports Serial ATA (SATA) devices. There are two controllers that compose this device, and both are PCI Express (PCIe)-based. First, the PERC 6/E adaptor is able to support Dell Power Vault expansion enclosure. Second, the PERC 6/I is able to support the Dell Precision workstations and the internal storage of Dell PowerEdge servers. Though each PERC 6 controller has a cache memory of 256Mb double data rate, the performance can still be enhanced to as much as 512Mb. During power failure, a reliable battery pack up unit is available in each PERC 6 controller to protect data in the controller cache. Also, the PERC 6 controllers have a wide range of compatible/support-able RAID levels, specifically the 0, 1, 5, 5 50, and 60.
Outdated Drivers?
Unless you update your drivers regularly you may face hardware performance issues.
To check your drivers you should manually verify every device on your system for driver updates
Dell Perc 6/i Driver
The Dell PERC 6/i Integrated RAID Controller also offers a 256Mb error correcting code (ECC) battery back-up. It also has SAS connectors inside that individually contains up to 24 Gb/s per controller total bandwidth. On the other hand, a total bandwidth of 4 Gb/s is available at the PCI-Express host interface. The Dell PERC 6/i Integrated RAID Controller also offers the LSI 1078 SAS and SATA RAID-on-chip devises. Generally, PERC 6 controllers are famous for the repair technologies as well as advanced media error monitoring systems which are highly efficient against data loss as well as safe data retrieval. The PERC 6 controllers also have the ability to detect and rebuild physical discs in an automatic rate whenever an applicable hot spare is found or when a new drive is placed in the slot where the failed drive is originally located. It is highly recommended you run a free registry scan for Windows and DELL PERC 6/i Integrated RAID Controller errors before installing any driver updates.