Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 2.3 / IPMI 3.88 released, how to upgrade with ease!

Step-by-step walk through video!

So far, I don't have any detailed information about this 2.3 BIOS release. The first I heard of it was yesterday, from TinkerTry commenter jrp here:

BIOS 2.3 is now available (2.2 seems to have been skipped). I don't know what the changes are, presumably security. BMC is still at 3.88.

Supermicro restricts me from publishing their BIOS release notes, unfortunately. If I run into issues, or others leave comments to report their issues, I'll update this article accordingly.

Initial testing of BIOS 2.3 has gone well so far for me on my Xeon D-1541 SuperServer.

Well over a year of testing of IPMI 3.88 has gone well so far too, see also Release Notes.

Wiredzone no longer ships Bundles, but you can upgrade to BIOS 2.3 and IPMI 3.88 yourself.

Here's the current Supermicro Xeon D-1500 systems with X10SDV motherboards with RJ45 10GbE, in form factors suited for home and small business (single PSU), eligible for these new releases:

• SYS-5028D-TN4T Xeon D-1540/1541/1567 Minitower / X10SDV-TLN4F(-12C) motherboard
• SYS-5018D-FN4T Xeon D-1540/1541 1U / X10SDV-8C-TLN4F motherboard
• SYS-E200-8D Xeon D-1528 Mini 1U / X10SDV-6C-TLN4F motherboard

Note, back on BIOS 2.1, the Flex ATX E300-8D with the X10SDV-TP8F motherboard started having the same release numbers, but may have a different file to download. I don't own a Flex ATX system to test, so my focus is on the SYS-5028D-TN4T with its X10SDV-TLN4F motherboard used in all Bundles.

Latest BIOS and IPMI Versions

Last updated Nov 22 2021

Here's Supermicro's Disclaimer:

Please do not download / upgrade the BIOS/Firmware UNLESS your system has a BIOS/firmware-related issue. Flashing the wrong BIOS/firmware can cause irreparable damage to the system.

Here's a copy of TinkerTry's Disclaimer, exactly as posted below every article:

Disclaimer

Emphasis is on home test labs, not production environments. No free technical support is implied or promised, and all best-effort advice volunteered by the author or commenters are on a use-at-your-own risk basis. Properly caring for your data is your responsibility. TinkerTry bears no responsibility for data loss. It is up to you to follow all local laws and software EULAs.

This all boils down to you needing to contact Supermicro's SuperServer Technical Support if something goes wrong, with no guarantees that they can help you if you bricked your system. I would add that you should be sure to run your SuperServer off an uninterruptable power supply during any firmware upgrades, and be sure you use a stable network connection, or a known-good USB flash drive for bootable media.

Backstory

Right here at TinkerTry, there's full release notes that go all the way back to the beginning. It would be even better if Supermicro published them themselves, but having them here is a good start. Just one of those little victories, trying to help everybody out there, and I'm so very glad I'm able to share these notes with everybody here:

BIOS 2.3 Known Issues

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV BIOS Release Notes Changelog

IPMI 3.88 Known Issues

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV IPMI Release Notes Changelog

IPMI 3.88 RELEASE NOTES (Jun 09 2017)

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV IPMI Release Notes Changelog

Download BIOS and IPMI updates, the easy way

• BIOS 2.3 BIOS_X10SDV-TLNF_20210604_2.3_STDsp.zip from:
  supermicro.com/about/policies/disclaimer.cfm?SoftwareItemID=14565

• IPMI 3.88 REDFISH_X10_388_20200221_unsigned.zip from:
  supermicro.com/about/policies/disclaimer.cfm?SoftwareItemID=11653

BIOS 2.3 Upgrade Procedure - Using Web UI IPMI and $25 Supermicro Update Manager

BIOS 2.3 Upgrade Procedure - Bootable Media

There is a way to upgrade the BIOS over IPMI that I describe here and show on video here, but it may require waiting a day or two for a license key from $25 Supermicro Update Manager, unless you bought it already.

Then there's the old school safest way to upgrade your BIOS(s), anytime:

1. make sure your SuperServer is on UPS-protected power
2. power on or reboot your SuperServer, then enter the BIOS setup by pressing Del when prompted
3. document all your BIOS settings that aren't default, in case they're lost, see also Recommended BIOS Settings for Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T
4. to (temporarily) turn UEFI OFF, going into the BIOS's Boot tab, and choosing Legacy mode
5. to turn CSM ON (Compatibility Support Mode) to On (it's on by default), see details here
6. create a bootable USB flash drive on another Windows workstation using Rufus
7. extract all BIOS_X10SDV-TLNF_20210604_2.3_STDsp.zip files to the root directory of the USB drive, which includes the BIOS image itself named X10SDVF1.604
8. properly eject the USB drive using the Windows Taskbar Safely Remove... icon.
9. insert the USB drive into any available USB port on your SuperServer
10. power up or reboot, and get ready to press that F11 key to choose alternative boot device, then choose the USB drive from the list
11. Using either a locally attached keyboard and mouse, or over iKVM, at the DOS command line, type:
    FLASH X10SDVF1.604 (you can use type-ahead to auto-complete)
12. wait until it's done, takes about 5 minutes, it will tell you when it's done
13. unplug the power cord from the SuperServer for about 15 seconds
14. remove the USB flash drive
15. plug the power cord back into your SuperServer
16. power on your SuperServer
17. you will notice it boots, finishes POST but doesn't prompt you to press any buttons, then it auto-reboots again, this is normal
18. press Del to enter the BIOS setup again, you will see you've been reset to factory default BIOS settings. Switch back to UEFI mode, and turn CSM back to off if you like, see the rest of the Recommended BIOS Settings and differences between UEFI and BIOS
19. reboot, make sure your default boot device comes up, you're done!
20. if you encounter issues, you can go back to the prior BIOS level 1.1c, found here.

IPMI 3.88 Upgrade Procedure

1. on another PC, use a browser and type in the IP address of your BMC/IPMI/iKVM management interface in the URL area
2. login, default is ADMIN/ADMIN
3. you should gracefully shut down any OS you may have running on this system, and leave it powered off, or use iKVM's Power Off button
4. under Maintenance, IPMI Configuration, you may wish to use the Save IPMI Configuration feature to save a config file for possible restore later, since you are about to lose all of your IPMI configuration settings

   

5. under Maintenance, Firmware Update, select the Enter Update Mode button and follow the instructions, using the IPMI file downloaded called REDFISH_X10_386_20191115_unsigned.zip that you extracted, choosing REDFISH_X10_386_20191115_unsigned.bin inside the extraction folder, then make sure to Un-check both checkboxes when prompted to preserve your configuration, as seen pictured at right. Keeping your certificate or not is up to you, I went with unchecking all 3 boxes. If you don't uncheck those first two, you may get voltage alerts or critical sensor error / 5V Dual warnings in VMware ESXi, or other problems, which folks resolved by reflashing to the same level again, making sure to uncheck the boxes this time.
6. wait until it's done with the IPMI upgrade, takes about 5 minutes, when done, it will prompt you to wait another minute, click OK and wait some more as it says "Rebooting..." and once the IPMI Web Interface starts to respond to login again, you can continue
7. unplug the power cord from the SuperServer for at least 15 seconds (optional but recommended, more difficult if you're remote, I realize)
8. plug the power cord back in to your SuperServer
9. power on your SuperServer, wait a minute for IPMI to boot up
10. on another PC, use a browser and type in the IP address of your BMC/IPMI/iKVM management interface in the URL area
11. optional - under Maintenance, IPMI Configuration, you may wish to use the Reload IPMI Configuration feature to choose your saved file, and restore it

Notice that this same page used to mention the series of Xeon D systems and motherboards that the BIOS release applies to:

Intel® Xeon® processor D-1518/1528/1520/1521/1540/1541; Single socket FCBGA 1667

Intel® Xeon® processor D-1537/1557/1587, Single socket FCBGA 1667; 8/12/16-Core, 16/24/32 Threads, 35/45/65W

Video

This video shows the bootable media technique for firmware flashing.

My Nov 22 2016 video How to map a network share to boot from ISO, moving Supermicro Java iKVM to browser-only HTML5 iKVM is now obsolete, the ability to mount a network share has been broken by changes in Windows.

See also at TinkerTry

• Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 2.1 / IPMI 3.86 released, how to upgrade with ease!
  Jan 21 2020

• Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.2a / IPMI 3.58 released
  Jul 26 2017

• New Supermicro BIOS 1.1c and IPMI 3.46 for Xeon D SuperServers features HTML5 iKVM
  Jan 27 2017

• Samsung 960 PRO/EVO/SM961 M.2 NVMe SSD disappearance workaround is to power cycle, boot from NVMe problems also reported, firmware 2B7QCXE7 appears to fix EVO
  Jan 02 2017

• How to map a network share to boot from ISO, moving Supermicro Java iKVM to browser-only HTML5 iKVM
  Nov 22 2016

• Bug in some Intel Broadwell CPUs (Xeon D-1500 and Xeon E5/E7 v4) can result in VMware ESXi 5.5/6.0 PSODs, VMware KB 2146388 explains BIOS fix needed (FIX released Sep 14 2016)
  Aug 26 2016

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D-1500 BIOS 1.1b released, IPMI 3.31 released, heralding the arrival of HTML5 iKVM
  Aug 08 2016

• Supermicro Redfish API in IPMI firmware 3.3 also supports HTML5 UI
  Jun 04 2016

• How to enable higher Windows VGA resolutions on both your monitor and your Supermicro Remote Console
  Mar 23 2016 updated Oct 27 2106

• Supermicro's beloved iKVM Console Redirection is dumping problem-ridden Java for HTML5, yay!
  Mar 08 2016

• First Look - SR-IOV support in Intel Xeon D-1541
  Feb 11 2016

• Recommended BIOS Settings for Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T
  Jan 15 2016

• Supermicro's beloved iKVM Console Redirection is dumping problem-ridden Java for HTML5, yay!
  Mar 08 2016

See also

• ESXi host fails with PSOD when using Intel Xeon Processor E5 v4, E7 v4, and D-1500 families {2146388}
  kb.vmware.com/kb/2146388
  This issue was resolved with BIOS 1.1c, and carried over into BIOS 1.2.