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14 Replies Last post: Dec 11, 2008 1:16 AM by underwater  

Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing? posted: Aug 20, 2008 6:35 AM

Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
Now that VMWare has made ESXi available as a free download, I decided that I wanted to try it out on a server that we have that's at the end of it's lease cycle. It's a Dual Core 2.8 Ghz system with 1 G of Memory and an SATA RAID controller currently set to do a RAID 1 of the 2, 70 Gig drives in the system. My problem is that the RAID keeps failing. In 2 days, the RAID has failed 4 or 5 times even after Hard Drive replacement. I don't think that it's the physical HD's or the RAID controller. This system has been running with no problems for nearly 3 years. It seems that something about ESXi is causing the RAID to go totally wonkey. Any suggestions?

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

1. Aug 20, 2008 7:44 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru
Dave.Mishchen…
8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
What model of RAID controller does ESXi recognize the system as having?

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

2. Aug 20, 2008 7:51 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008

How/where would I go to find that information?

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

3. Aug 20, 2008 7:53 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru
Dave.Mishchen…
8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
In the VI client, select the host and then go to the Configuration tab. Then select storage adapters.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

4. Aug 20, 2008 8:24 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
How/where would I go to find that information?

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. -
Epictetus

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

5. Aug 20, 2008 8:35 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
It says "CERC SATA RAID 2 PCI SATA 6ch (DellCosair)" It sounds like what it is to me. In the RAID controller BIOS it's called a "Dell CERC STATA 1.5/6"

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

6. Aug 20, 2008 9:09 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru
Dave.Mishchen…
8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
I don't beleive that controller is supported so it may be an issue that the driver has problems with the card. Have you tried running the HDs without RAID to see if you can run without errors that way?

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

7. Aug 20, 2008 9:14 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
No, I've not done that. Thought about it but not actually done it. Would you want me to test it with no Mirroring or Striping, just 2 seperate drives? I've tested the hardware against all the Dell diagnostic tests and they hardware itself passes all tests.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

8. Aug 20, 2008 9:17 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru
Dave.Mishchen…
8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
I'd try it as 2 seperate drives.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

9. Aug 20, 2008 9:19 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
Ok, I'll give it a try, however those drives only run off the controller card so if the issue is ESXi is having problems with that controller card, I doubt I'll see much difference.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

10. Aug 20, 2008 11:09 AM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008

Tried as 2 seperate drives and now rather then the RAID breaking, my VMware client hangs and I've got to reboot the server, just like it did before when the RAID would die, except now after a reboot all is ok. All I have to do is keep rebooting the server every 5 min or so, depending on what I'm doing in the VMWare client. I'd like to try this stuff out on something more compatable I guess. At the moment I'd have a hard time selling my company on the benifits of the software.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

11. Aug 20, 2008 12:04 PM in response to: irbk
Click to view Dave.Mishchenko's profile Guru
Dave.Mishchen…
8,974 posts since
Nov 15, 2005
I have a list of whiteboxes that people have tested here - http://www.vm-help.com/. The 830 has been tested - perhaps you might want to PM the guy. It may be the controller or perhaps BIOS / firmware level?

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

12. Aug 20, 2008 12:13 PM in response to: Dave.Mishchen…
Click to view irbk's profile Novice
irbk
9 posts since
Aug 19, 2008
Yep, the 830 is in that list but I don't see it listed with a RAID adapter, so it could still be the RAID adapter issue. Oh well. Thanks for your help!

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

13. Aug 21, 2008 7:32 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view alvinswim's profile Hot Shot
alvinswim
229 posts since
Feb 13, 2006

I have the Same model on a CERC running on a PE750. it works fine, I would be inclined to have dell change out the CERC for you. I've had similar troubles in the past with these RAID cards in various operating systems. Currently my 2 test machines run ESX fine.

good luck.

Re: Dell PowerEdge 830, testing ESXi and RAID keeps failing?

14. Dec 11, 2008 1:16 AM in response to: irbk
Click to view underwater's profile Lurker
underwater
1 posts since
Dec 11, 2008

Although this tread is some month old, I want to reply to irbk as I had the same problems. The machine was Dell PE 850 but the RAID Controller is the same (CERC SATA RAID 2 PCI SATA 6ch (DellCosair)). The RAID Controller itself started to report problems, the machine crashed and was unable to boot. Suprisingly the Dell test tools could not find any problem with the controller or the disks.

Dell support asked me to update the controller BIOS to version 4.1.0.7419, A17 (the controller was still running the default version 4.1.0.7417).

After the BIOS update all the problems where gone....

Regards

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