LSI Fibre Channel Card

Question

Level 1

5 points

LSI Fibre Channel Card

Hi,

I have a fibre card bought from Apple when the Mac Pro was bought and I'm having great dificulty upgrading the Firmware on it.

Vendor: LSILogic
Product: LSI7204EP
Revision: Firmware 1.3.14.0

I'm running Leopard, and everytime I try to run the Fibre Channel Utility it tells me that some .kext file needs updating first, but when I search for said file, nothing gets returned. I can't remember the exact error.

I've tried the LSI website, but it tried to get me to update the firmware using their LSI Util which seems Command Line driven, which I don't fully understand.

I've browsed t'internet for hours trying to find a solution, but nothing seems to be about...

Any help grateful.

Regards,

Dan

15" MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 8, 2009 7:29 AM

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Answer 1

Duo

Level 2

475 points

Jan 8, 2009 4:29 PM in response to DanSinclair

Any chance of getting the full error message verbatim?

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Answer 2

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 9, 2009 12:52 AM in response to Duo

I'll see what I can get hold of...

Regards,

Dan

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Answer 3

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 14, 2009 9:43 AM in response to Duo

The error says:

"This application requires version 1.1.0 or later of AppleLSIFusionMPT.kext. Please make sure you have installed the newest driver and try again."

But when I try a newer version of the application, I get the same message. Therefore, I can't update the firmware... unless there's another way of course (which I'm hoping there is!).

Regards,

Dan

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Answer 4

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2009 2:55 AM in response to DanSinclair

I'm still having issues with this so any advice is grateful!!

It's ok to write/capture a video file to the SAN that it's connected to, but reading from it is really slow and I get dropped frames.

Please help!!

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Answer 5

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2009 7:09 AM in response to DanSinclair

I've just found out that this only started to happen when the Mac Pro was upgraded to Leopard...if this helps!

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Answer 6

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jan 22, 2009 7:21 AM in response to DanSinclair

I sort of thought it might be a Leopard related issue. Though it has been a year, others like ATTO have posted warnings or tips. Some controllers work with 10.5.2 or later but not 10.5.0 or 10.5.1 (for good reason).

Imagine the person with a Mac Pro 2008 that doesn't have the luxury of falling back to 10.4.x. 😟

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Answer 7

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 22, 2009 7:24 AM in response to The hatter

I'm thinking that way too...**** you brilliant Leopard!!

Do you think there is anyone at Apple who know's what I'm on about when I explain this issue...NO!!

Come on Apple, sort it out!

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jan 22, 2009 8:29 AM in response to DanSinclair

If Apple would nail down and specify what and how devices mount, communicate, what protocols to use - and not keep changing the rules or name of the game....

The only place I've found help has been ATTO, SoftRAID and FirmTek. And all of them are located close enough to the mothership they are in shouting distance. All have good people working on drivers, firmware and support if you ask.

http://www.attotech.com/troublemac.html
http://www.softraid.com/

Sometimes a 'small' "dot dot one" update can wipe out and undo all your work.

Quad-channel FC? won't work up to spec in a 2008 Mac Pro. You almost need to use two 4x dual-channel cards instead. Ain't enough lanes and bandwidth.

Your best option may be once the "Early 2010 Mac Pro" unfortunately, to fix the sins of the past.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20090111225651243
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/datacorruption.html

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Answer 9

DanSinclair Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 30, 2009 2:36 AM in response to DanSinclair

Ok, I've been running tests all morning on the RAID, and found that it is not the cause of the issues. I'm thinking it's now either the Fibre Card, or the Optic Fibre Cable going from the Mac to the RAID.

Has no one else had this issue?

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Answer 10

Mar 6, 2009 8:47 PM in response to DanSinclair

Yes I have just now run into this trouble. The Fibre Channel Utility app does not work in Leopard. The only way I can see to update the firmware of the card is to install it in a PC and use the LSI Windows tools to do the update.

My problem is that I have a Rorke RAID that will not connect to this card in my 4 core Xserve. Neither optical or copper connections will work. I have tested all port on the 4 channel card and they work with other RAIDs. I have another Xserve with the 2 channel Apple Fibre card and the Rorke RAID connects without a problem.

I can only assume the firmware is out of date. I was hoping to do the update to fix the connection problem. Putting the card in a PC to do the update makes me nervous.

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Answer 11

Mar 6, 2009 9:00 PM in response to WelshDog2

One thing I have just learned: Apparently there is a Fibre Channel preference pane in Leopard for Xserves and Mac Pros that appears when a card is present. I am not at work now so I can't check this. Fibre Channel utility is only for Tiger.

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Answer 12

Apr 2, 2009 8:53 AM in response to WelshDog2

I was looking for something else, but I can confirm that the Fibre Channel preference pane is visible when the Fibre Channel Card is installed. I was looking for a way to rescan for new LUNS. I have an Xserve connected to a SAN and I would like to add a new LUN to the Xserve without rebooting. So far no joy.

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