Updating Supermicro BPN-SAS3-826EL1 Backplane Firmware

Previously, I used the BPN-SAS2-826EL1 backplane, but it was quickly saturated: only 4 lanes of SAS2 bandwidth (24Gbps), so just a handful of SSDs could bottleneck the entire system. The BPN-SAS3-826EL1 is a significant upgrade, offering two SAS3 ports, doubling the speed per lane (SAS3 vs SAS2) and the number of ports. The total bandwidth is now 96 Gbps instead of 24 Gbps. (Note: it does consume about 9 watts more power.)

Updating the firmware is straightforward, but there are a few important details to get right.

Getting the Firmware

Supermicro doesn’t publish the firmware for this backplane on their website. You have to email their support to request it. To save you the trouble, I’m sharing the firmware here: Download firmware.

Beware: Official Instructions Can Brick Your Backplane

The official Supermicro instructions have an issue that can brick your backplane. I received the wrong manual from support just today, so it seems they’re still not aware. For more details, see this video.

Tools You’ll Need

Download the latest expander tool from Supermicro:
CLIXTL7.10.C_Linux.zip

Unzip it and make the tool executable:

unzip CLIXTL7.10.C_Linux.zip
chmod +x CLIXTL

Move the CLIXTL binary and the firmware files (BPN-SAS3-826EL-PRI_16_11.bin and SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw) into a folder. I recommend using a folder with a short path.

Note: You will need root privileges to use the CLIXTL tool.

Step 1: Get Your SAS Address

You’ll need the SAS address of your backplane. To get info about backplane, run:

./CLIXTL -i

Note down the SAS address and the current firmware version.

Step 2: Update Regions 1, 2, and 3

To update regions 1, 2, and 3, use:

./CLIXTL -a usc -t <SAS_ADDRESS> -d /absolute/path/to/firmware

• Replace <SAS_ADDRESS> with your expander's SAS address.
• The -d argument must be an absolute path to the directory containing the firmware files (not the files themselves).

Step 3: Verify the Update

Reset backplane and check the firmware versions in all regions:

./CLIXTL -t <SAS_ADDRESS> -r
./CLIXTL -i

Regions 1 and 2 should now show version 66.16.11.00. Region 3 will show 16.11.

Step 4: Update Region 0

Update region 0 with:

./CLIXTL -f 0 -t <SAS_ADDRESS> -d /absolute/path/to/firmware/SAS3-EXPFW_66.16.11.00.fw

This time, specify the full path to the firmware file.

Step 5: Verify and Reboot

Verify region 0 is updated:

./CLIXTL -t <SAS_ADDRESS> -r
sudo ./CLIXTL -i

Region 0 should now show the new version as well.

It’s recommended to reboot your system after the update.