Monday, May 26, 2014

Upgrading the firmware on a 3ware 6950SE

When I was working on a file-server which had a 3ware 6950SE raid-controller I was struggling to find some decent information about how to flash this card to a newer (4Tb supporting hard-drive) firmware from within windows. So why not bundle all the stuff together for everyone who has the same issue!

First we have the tool 3DM2 Management Utility with this tool you can easily login to your 3ware controller and set up loads of stuff. One of those things is upgrading the firmware. If you know how to use a browser, you can do this!

The mirror is my own FTP, so no weird repackages or other crap, just the original files!

Download the new firmware LSI/3ware | Mirror
Download and install the tool. (needs Java!) LSI/3ware | Mirror
Download Driver for Windows 7/server 2008r2 x64  LSI/3ware | Mirror

Run the Tool from this short-cut.
It will open (a new tab) in your browser.
https://localhost:888/




Login with the administrator account. the standard password is 3ware






Now you hover over the tab Management and click on Maintenance


At the bottom you see a box where you can upload the firmware.



Browse and select the firmware called prom0006.img and click open. After that, click "Begin Update"




You will be prompted with a warning screen, read it and take actions if needed. The next screen showing you your current firmware and the new firmware.
Read the last row, it will tell you weather you can continue or not. (you might need to install an older firmware version first before you can upgrade to the latest version).

Unfortunately I did not make a screen-shot of this point, so please if you did send it to me so I can add it!

Upgrading takes 1 or 2 minutes and might freeze your screen. Don't start clicking everywhere, just wait.



now we repeat this step and upload the file prom0008.img



This time you will not be prompted with anything. after a minute you can reboot, use alt+3 to enter your raid-controller config and create your new raid array!

Congrats, you can now use 4Tb disks on your 6950SE!

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5 comments:

  1. JonMarch 15, 2016 at 8:18 PM

    Thanks for the write up--this was very helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 28, 2017 at 10:02 AM

    Halo Yannick,
    I would like to use your guide to solve my problem, but the link to the fles are not working now. Could you restore them, please? Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YannickMay 28, 2017 at 10:13 AM

      I can't look into that today, but I'll check it out for you if I can find it and fix it!

      Delete
    2. JMoffaSeptember 17, 2019 at 6:41 AM

      Were you able to fix the links please? Many thanks.

      Delete
  3. UnknownJune 11, 2018 at 7:58 AM

    Hey Yannick,

    Thanks a lot for your informative post. I just used it to succesfully update my 3ware 9650se firmware so it can take some new 6TB seagate ironwolf drives. It works perfectly. I had tried updating by USB with no success so I was very grateful to find your post.

    Thanks again,
    Adam

    ReplyDelete

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