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Can I flash the firmware of the onboard PERC H730 mini (rebranded LSI) in a Dell R530 server?

Right now, I have it in pass-through mode, which works fine, but FreeBSD doesn't get any SMART data. With normal expansion card controllers, I would flash IT mode firmware, but I'm unsure if this is even possible with this particular controller, as it appears to be on the mainboard itself.

Crazor
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PERC H730 natively supports non-RAID/passthrough mode, so you don't need to reflash it to have direct access to disks.

shodanshok
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  • Yeah that's what I meant by JBOD mode. It works fine indeed, but there is no SMART info available on FreeBSD. A ton of forum entries point to having to flash the firmware to enable this. – Crazor Jun 12 '18 at 05:55
  • @crazor did you solve this? For my own sake could you please link to an example forum post? – TJ Zimmerman Apr 19 '20 at 06:50
  • Nope, I didn't. There doesn't seem to be a way with this controller. Even though FreeBSD/ZFS seem to run great with JBOD mode, the lack of SMART data is a big no-no. Stay away from this controller if you don't want to use it's native RAID functionality! Data WILL be lost! (Don't ask me how I know that) – Crazor Apr 21 '20 at 07:47