Below is the video tutorial on how to flash your LSI SAS Controller into IT mode for use by FreeNAS/ZFS! The video below assumes you’ve already made a bootable FreeDOS USB or ISO and have inserted the boot media into your server. If you’re not sure how to create the required ISO/USB bootable media skip past the video to see how to create the bootable media.

LSI SAS2FLSH Flash Firmware and BIOS Syntax

sas2flsh.exe -f 9201_16I.BIN -b mptsas2.rom

Creating the Bootable Media

1. Download FDOEMCD, here.
2. Download the latest (as of this writing) IT mode firmware, here. Look for the IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip firmware package to download.
3. Extract FDOEMCD to its own separate directory.
4. Copy the following files from the LSI firmware package to the CDROOT folder that was extracted from the FDOEMCD.zip file.
   
   Note: the following firmware is based upon the model of SAS HBA controller you have. In my example, I am flashing a 9201-16i SAS/SATA HBA Controller.
   
   9201-16i.bin – Under Firmware\HBA_9201_16i_IT directory
   sas2flsh.exe – Under sas2flash_dos_rel directory
   mptsas2.rom – Under sasbios_rel directory
   
5. Run makeiso.bat from the root of FDOEMCD folder.
6. Use the created file fdoem.iso to either remotely mount an ISO image or use Rufus to create a bootable USB.