Is a BIOS Update available for SUN Ultra 40 M2?
 

I have a standard SUN Ultra 40 M2 running Linux CentOS 6.7. I want to update the drive to a RAID system using multiple 4TB Seagate drives. This SUN supports up to 8 separate internal drives. Unfortunately, the SUN BIOS limits storage recognition to ~ 2.2 TB so I cannot get the full value from the multiple 4 TB drives. I have had no success reaching Oracle about a BIOS upgrade so I'm wondering if anybody has a contact or knows if there is an upgrade to the SUN BIOS that overcomes this 2+ TB limitation. I appreciate any leads/help provided. Best wishes ... Keith.

Hi Keith...

I'm not sure about the drive support you mentioned but in terms of downloading a BIOS update, from what I see here, that might be available at this site. :)

Regards...

Well, you can sign up for an Oracle account, but two things come to mind:

• Unless you have a business-partner, you're not going to be able to access the BIOS downloads on the site, and...
• ...if you DO have a business partner and this system is under support, calling them would be your best bet, rather than going to Oracle's site directly

From what I can see, the last BIOS update for that box was some time ago...the release notes on the system only mention RHEL 5...which is MANY years old at this point. You *MAY* be able to get something here: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/sy...sp-138416.html Do you have a Sun/Oracle vendor who can help you? If not, signing up for an account on Oracle's website and emailing them may be your only option.

..but your system is not listed. Wrong BIOS will brick the system. That said...what kind of drive controller is in there right now, and have you considered just shoving a more up-to-date controller in, which will have the BIOS to support larger drives? Chances are, you may not be able to update the SYSTEM BIOS, but you may be able to sidestep it with a different controller.

ardvark71: the OP posted specifically: "I have had no success reaching Oracle about a BIOS upgrade".

Handing them a web link from seven years ago (which assumed that you [B]HAD downloaded the BIOS image from Sun/Oracle to start with), isn't a good thing, nor is then advising them to go to Oracle and download something which they already told you they couldn't do. You removed their post from the zero-reply list and provided no real assistance to them.

I see references to a version 1.25, so yes, there were updates. I doubt they allow you to boot from GPT, but I could be wrong.

Coreboot is another option you may want to consider: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...40-M2-Coreboot

Trust me, you don't want a response from them unless you have a support contract. Otherwise, some really low-level tech support drone is just going to copy/paste a blurb(s) about buying a contract. I used to work for Sun and they always took support contract certification very seriously, to the point where they even had some employees whose sole purpose was to verify contracts. From what I remember though, at least Sun had some online resources/downloads for people who bought the hardware second hand. Oracle is 1,000x worse. Oh well, I guess it's more about keeping the stockholders happy than the customers..

We did a little more testing, and it appears to be a limitation on the part of the hard drive controller. So we have given up on a firmware/software patch as the fix and will focus on a newer controller which we hope should allow us to use the entire disk size. Thanks for your help ... sorry for any inconvenience.

Coreboot may be of some help. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...40-M2-Coreboot

I get the feeling I almost bought one of those systems. Where did you see that the drive controller was the limit for the 2.2Tb?

Some known limit about onboard and pxi-x at same time may fail.

I think that should have been a Ultra320.

You're welcome, no inconvenience here. :)

If you would, please mark this thread as "SOLVED" by clicking on "Thread Tools" directly above your initial post. Thanks!

Regards...

I wanted to confirm that the PCI controller that came with the SUN Ultra 40 M2 was in fact the reason for the SUN seeing only 2.1 TB of the 4 TB drive in the RAID system. We swapped the controller with a newer version [(IO Crest 4 Port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x 2 HyperDuo Raid Controller Card Components SI-PEX40057, Green] and the SUN now seems the full 4TB storage in each of the hard drives. I just wanted to pass this along to others that might be having the problem we encountered. Best wishes ....

Thanks for the update. :)