New Supermicro BIOS 1.2 and (under validation) IPMI 3.52 for Xeon D SuperServers released Spring 2017

Posted by Paul Braren on May 2 2017 (updated on May 14 2017) in
  • CPU
  • HomeLab
  • HomeServer
  • ESXi

    • Looking to ignore release notes and disclaimers/warnings to get right to the downloads and detailed upgrade procedures? Jump below.

    I've now TinkerTry'd both of these releases. Preliminary, they seem to work well with my ESXi 6.5.0d, and my Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe 1TB and Samsung 960 PRO M.2 NVMe 2TB SSDs, with no disappearance. RAM now recognized at 2400MHz properly, and Firefox is working with iKVM/HTML5. The entire upgrade process was recorded, along with observing these fixes. I followed the exact upgrade procedures documented below, but getting the video ready to publish will take time. Done! See below.

    May 03 Update 2 - I received unofficial clarification from Supermicro - "The 3.52 Firmware has not yet completed validation on X10SDV platform so for this mainboard it is not an official release." I added "under validation" to article title.

    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 April 2017 BIOS and March 2017 IPMI releases:

    Note, the Flex ATX E300-8D with the X10SDV-TP8F motherboard has not received a new BIOS, its releases have historically arrived months later, don't own one to test.

    Latest BIOS and IPMI Versions

    Last updated May 02 2017

    SYS-5028D-TN4T
    Mini Tower
    Mini ITX
    		 SYS-5018D-FN4T
    1U
    Mini ITX
    		 SYS-E200-8D
    Mini 1U
    Mini ITX
    		 SYS-E300-8D
    Mini 1U
    Flex ATX
    BIOS Apr 21 2017 / 1.2 Apr 21 2017 / 1.2 Apr 21 2017 / 1.2 Nov 21 2016 / 1.0b
    IPMI Mar 03 2017 / 3.52 Mar 03 2017 / 3.52 Mar 03 2017 / 3.52 Mar 03 2017 / 3.52
    superservers-ready-for-bios-upgrades.JPG
    I'll take one of each, please! First step, update the BIOS and IPMI firmware to the latest release. For all SuperServer Bundle customers, Wiredzone handles these upgrades for you, along with the DIMM install and 4 hour burn-in test.

    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

    We've waited a long time for a new BIOS to address 2400MHz recognition issues, and a new 3.x release of IPMI for the Xeon D. The original IPMI had some rough edges that we documented here at TinkerTry, that I collected and reported to Supermicro. Now v2 of a 3.x series of IPMI/BMC is finally here in 3.52. Even better, for the first time ever, there's full release notes that go all the way back to the beginning:

    BIOS 1.2 Known Issues

    BIOS 1.2 RELEASE NOTES (Apr 21 2017)

    IPMI 3.52 Known Issues

    IPMI 3.52 RELEASE NOTES (Mar 03 2017)

    Download

    Download BIOS and IPMI updates, the easy way

    FlashBIOS

    BIOS 1.2 Upgrade Procedure

    There is a way to upgrade the BIOS over IPMI that I describe here, but it may require waiting for a trial license key for Supermicro Update Manager. So instead, I present to you 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. make you have (temporarily) turned UEFI OFF, going into the BIOS's Boot tab, and choosing Legacy mode
    5. make you have (temporarily) turned CSM ON (Compatibility Support Mode) to On, see details here
    6. create a bootable USB flash drive on another Windows workstation using Rufus
    7. extract all X10SDVF7_421.zip files to the root directory of the USB drive, which includes the BIOS image itself named X10SDVF7.421
    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 X10SDVF7.421 (you can use type-ahead to auto-complete)
    12. wait until it's done, takes about 5 minutes, it will tell you when its 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 in to 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 come up, you're done!
    20. if you encounter issues, you can go back to the prior BIOS level 1.1c, found here.
    How to upgrade to Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.1c using Rufus & bootable DOS USB drive, procedure for going to BIOS 1.2 should be similar.
    FlashIPMI

    IPMI 3.52 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 loose all of your IPMI configuration settings
      uncheck-IPMI-preserve-boxes-with-callout-cropped
    5. under Maintenance, Firmware Update, select the Enter Update Mode button and follow the instructions, using the IPMI file downloaded REDFISH_X10_352.bin, then make sure to Un-check Both Boxes 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

    Video - BIOS 1.2 and IPMI Upgrade 3.52

    I've added some testing in here, finding out that it appears 2400MHz memory is now properly supported, and iKVM/HTML5 works fine from Firefox.

    Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D-1500 BIOS 1.2 and IPMI 3.52 Upgradeapolooza. Recorded on May 3 2017.

    Video - IPMI 3.46 Features and Known Issues

    This shows you around the features of the 3.46 IPMI version.

    Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E200-8D iKVM/HTML5 testing of IPMI 3.46

    Video - New iKVM/HTML5 removes your need for Java

    With Supermicro iKVM/HTML5 Remote Console, avoid Java by booting from a network share ISO

    Optional - Download BIOS and IPMI updates, the Supermicro ways

    Method 1 - Start with the Product Page

    You are actually supposed to first find the product for your Embedded/IoT Solution here:

    or your X10 IPC & Embedded motherboard here:

    then Ctrl+F to seek out those BIOS and IPMI download links, which will make you read this End User License Agreement before allowing you to download.

    Method 2 - Start with the Support page

    Another way is at supermicro.com, jump into Support > BIOS & IPMI Downloads > Intel here:

    In the box where it says Enter Model Search Text, type X10SDV then click Search, it should look a lot like this:

    Supermicro-download-page-for-X10SDV

    Notice it mentions the series of Xeon D systems and motherboards that this BIOS 1.1c 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

    See also at TinkerTry

    supermicro-superserver-redfish-api-cropped
    How to upgrade to Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.1c over the IPMI Web UI

    See also

    TinkerTry - PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency and more, including virtualization. My opinions here, not my employer's.

    Paul Braren, MCSE in 1998, VCP #2681 in 2005, vExpert 2014 to 2024, Veeam Vanguard Emeritus, 2015 to 2019.

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    After 6 successful years testing then shipping well over 1,000 Xeon D Bundles, Wiredzone had to stop selling them in mid-2021 due to cost, supply, and logistics challenges. So far, Xeon D-1700/2700 (Ice Lake D) was a minor refresh for 2023, with Xeon D-1800/2800 (Granite Rapids D) refresh looking a little better for 2024. More cores, but still just PCIe Gen4 and DDR4. Looking ahead, I'm glad it's Pat Gelsinger at Intel's helm. I'm also grateful to have had the honor of working at VMware when Pat was the CIO there. I'll leave it at that, given the whole Broadcom thing.

    Easily update VMware ESXi at TinkerTry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi