Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.2a / IPMI 3.58 released

Looking to ignore release notes and disclaimers/warnings to get right to the downloads and detailed upgrade procedures, even though I haven't tested them yet? There's no big fix or issue we're trying to resolve here, but if you're still in a hurry to try anyway, jump below.

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 July BIOS and May 2017 IPMI 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, 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 Jul 26 2017

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, which the 1.2 release resolved for the Xeon D-1541. This is good! We also found some rough edges in IPMI 3.46's HTML5 iKVM that we documented here at TinkerTry, that I collected and reported to Supermicro. Hoping 3.5x versions exhibit more refinement. Right here at TinkerTry, there's now full release notes that go all the way back to the beginning, one of those little victories, so glad I get to share these with everybody:

BIOS 1.2a Known Issues

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV BIOS Release Notes Changelog

BIOS 1.2a RELEASE NOTES (Jul 06 2017)

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV BIOS Release Notes Changelog

IPMI 3.58 Known Issues

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV IPMI Release Notes Changelog

IPMI 3.58 RELEASE NOTES (Jun 09 2017)

• Supermicro SuperServer Xeon D / X10SDV IPMI Release Notes Changelog

Download BIOS and IPMI updates, the easy way

• BIOS 1.2a X10SDVF7_706.zip from:
  supermicro.com/support/resources/getfile.aspx?ID=4113
  (see also End User License Agreement)

• IPMI 3.58 REDFISH_X10_358.zip from:
  supermicro.com/support/resources/getfile.aspx?ID=4105
  (see also End User License Agreement)
  Note that this is coming from this Supermicro IPMI site:
  supermicro.com/support/bios/firmware0.aspx
  X10SRW-F IPMI_10DRD-i/L(N)(T) R 3.58 REDFISH_X10_358.zip IPMI Firmware
  which does not yet list this download for the X10SRW-F products, only 3.46 is.

BIOS 1.2a 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. 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 X10SDVF7_706.zip files to the root directory of the USB drive, which includes the BIOS image itself named X10SDVF7_706
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_706 (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 3.58 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 REDFISH_X10_352.bin, 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

Video - BIOS 1.2a and IPMI Upgrade 3.58

I've added some testing in here, finding out that it appears 2400MHz memory is now properly supported (only Xeon D-1541 supports that speed), and iKVM/HTML5 works fine from Firefox.

Video - IPMI 3.46 Features and Known Issues

This shows you around the features of the 3.46 IPMI version. I have not recorded with a 3.5x version, still awaiting validated status.

Video - New iKVM/HTML5 removes your need for Java

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:

• supermicro.com/products/embedded/embedded_server.cfm

or your X10 IPC & Embedded motherboard here:

• supermicro.com/products/embedded/embedded_motherboard.cfm

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:

• supermicro.com/ResourceApps/BIOS_IPMI_Intel.html

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

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

Jul 27 2017 Update

2400MHz Speed Clarification

The only Xeon D CPU released last year that supports 2400MHz speeds is the Xeon D-1541, see validation of this in Intel's Product Brief. Thank you for spotting this newly revised update to the brief, reported by Bryce Wilkins right here at TinkerTry. Keeping this minor issue in perspective, 2400MHz is easier to find and cheaper to acquire, so the argument that you're not getting what you paid for is weakened somewhat, see also this excellent article about how little most workloads would ever notice this difference in speed.

I've successfully updated my SYS-5028D-TN4T system based on the Xeon D-1567, see new screenshot atop this article. Testing is still underway, but so far, it's looking to work OK. I did have to set up VT-d passthrough under ESXi 6.5.0d all over again for my Windows 10 VM, but that's normal behavior.

I did spot 2 new settings in the BIOS:

• SMCBiosActionFlag [0]
• SumBbsSupportFlag 48

as seen pictured on the first two rows below, with no explanatory help text at top-right. Googling for either term comes up with nothing. The BIOS release notes don't include these new terms either, and the instruction manual hasn't been updated since it was published on Feb 22 2016.

Sep 01 2017

Thanks to this comment by jrp, I've been notified that 3.58 is now released on the usual product page IPMI download links for each of the X10SDV products.

I've appropriately now changed the article title from:
Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.2a / IPMI 3.46 released, 3.58 being validated
to:
Supermicro Xeon D SuperServer BIOS 1.2a / IPMI 3.58 released

I have also now move the comments below from the beginning of this article, kept here as an archive:

TinkerTry commenter Bryce Wilkins has tried 1.2a, with no signficant issues reported.

I asked "is 3.58 safe to use on Mini-ITX X10 Xeon D systems now?" and received unofficial clarification from Supermicro - "It is safe to use but the Firmware is not officially validated on X10SDV boards yet so this is still at own risk."

Earlier, I had also received unofficial clarification from Supermicro about 3.52 - "The 3.52 Firmware has not yet completed validation on X10SDV platform so for this mainboard it is not an official release."

See also at TinkerTry

• 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

• Order a TinkerTry'd Supermicro SuperServer Bundle - powerful and efficient home virtualization lab solutions

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.