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The-Kevster
Contributor
Contributor

SATA Support Clear as Mud!?

From the updated I/O sheet this is what's mentioned on supported SATA controllers....

Supported SAS/SATA Dual Controllers

ESX Server 3.5 supports selected SATA devices connected to dual SAS/SATA controllers. This support is limited to ESX Server 3.5. It is not included with ESX Server 3.0.x.

The supported dual SAS/SATA controllers are:

  • mptscsi_2xx (PCIE) ‐ LSI1078*

  • mptscsi_pcie ‐ LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)*

  • mptscsi_pcix ‐ LSI1068 (SAS 5)*

  • aacraid_esx30 ‐ IBM serveraid 8k SAS controller*

  • cciss ‐ Smart Array P400/256 controller*

So what is the best PCIE card for me to put into my S5000PAL server that will use the above driver, if only someone could make a list :smileygrin:

Thanks,

Kev

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roodyg
Contributor
Contributor

Ok, here is another one that works with ESX 3.5 (update 3 if that matters)...

ASrock A780FULLDISPLAYPORT 780G

I did have to go through this messy process:

1) configure the sata drive as ACHI in the Bios

2) try to install, it will fail,

3) reboot and change the BIOS setting from ACHI to Non-Raid

4) the SATA drive will be seen as an IDE drive and allow you to install.

5) You won't need to do anything else, the drive will mount fine even with an IDE CD/DVD rom attached

The system uses an Athlon X2 5000 dual core chip, a 160GB Western Digital SATA drive and has 8 GB of ram. I also had to add an Intel GigE card because the MB has a realtek onboard.

All told the system came in at about $350 US. I've already built a VM using NAS storage and an NAS ISO Image, and am installing a Windows Server on it.

Happy Days.

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baljitbasra
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I also just bought a HP Proliant Ml115 G4 Quad Core Opteron but having difficult detecting the SATA Drive.

I installed ESX (not esxi) v3.5 update 3 and then copied the esx-sata-ml115.sh script using veam into /tmp and executed it but it failed.

I don't have /mnt/eroot. All i have under /nmt is cdrom.

What am i doing wrong. I also run the script in maintenance mode and normal mode.

TIA

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

I hope you have time to help with a litle troubleshooting ?

I have recently purchased 2 HP ML115G5s with 8GB Ram, they are superb little boxes and happily run ESXi from a USB key, I have however discovered that the disk performance is pretty poor, my assumption is that this may be to do with driver support etc ?

I have been looking for a way to get the 'full fat' version of ESX working, although as you know it installs we cannot however see the internal SATA controller.

It is at this point that I discovered a few scripts that should work but were designed for Update 1 and 2, I would love to be able to get Update3 working and as such have been trying ot get your script to work ...

I have moved the script to the local hardrive, changed permissions and executed, the script runs fine until the following section

echo "subtr lines: $lines"

I get something on teh screen that reads subtr 56 and then it just hangs, any thoughts on what might be going wrong ?

I am using the latest Update 3 Build and running the script whilst logged physically into the Service Console

Thanks

#/bin/bash

  1. original author: Reinhard Partmann

  1. author: Kashif Ali

  1. date created: 2007-12-17

  1. date modified: 2008-12-03

  1. version: 0.2a

#

  1. Version history

#

  1. version 0.2: Initial version by Reinhard Partmann

  1. version 0.2a: Changed the XML file settings by Pascal de Wild

  1. version 0.3: Updated script for ML115 G5 Opteron Quad Core, also updated for ESX 3.5.0_Update_3-123630

  1. Also now created variables for values that will probably change during update releases.

#

#

      1. Variable for HD and Partitions ###

HD="hda"

BOOT=1

ROOT=5

      1. INIT IMAGE NAMES ####

INITRD_IMAGE="initrd-2.4.21-57.ELvmnix.img"

COPY_INITRD_IMAGE="initrd-2.4.21-57.ELvmnix.img.gz"

echo "creating directories..."

mkdir -p /mnt/eboot

mkdir -p /mnt/eroot

echo "mounting.."

mount /dev/$HD$BOOT /mnt/eboot

mount /dev/$HD$ROOT /mnt/eroot

mount \

grep $HD

echo "copying original initrd file..."

mkdir -p /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted

cp /mnt/eboot/$INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

echo "unpacking & mounting original initrd file..."

gunzip -f $COPY_INITRD_IMAGE

mount $INITRD_IMAGE extracted -t ext2 -o loop

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted/etc/vmware

echo "changing simple.map..."

echo "10de:037f 0000:0000 sata_nv.o" >> simple.map

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/

umount extracted

echo "replacing original initrd file..."

gzip --best $INITRD_IMAGE

mv /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/

  1. Use /bin/cp to stop asking about overwriting (backup old initrd)

/bin/cp /mnt/eboot/$INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/BACKUP-$INITRD_IMAGE

/bin/cp /mnt/eboot/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/INITRD_IMAGE

echo "patching xml files"

cd /mnt/eroot/etc/vmware/pciid

lines=`wc -l sata_nv.xml \

awk ' { print $1 } '`

echo "lines: $lines"

(( lines -= 2))

echo "subtr lines: $lines"

mv sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.org

head -$lines > sata_nv.xml

echo " <device id=\"037f\">" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <vmware label=\"scsi\">" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <driver>sata_nv</driver>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </vmware>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <name>MCP55 SATA Controller</name>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </device>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </vendor>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo "</pcitable>" >> sata_nv.xml

touch /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "#!/bin/bash" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "esxcfg-pciid" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "sleep 5" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "rm /etc/rc3.d/S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

chmod a+x /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

cd /mnt/eroot/etc/rc3.d/

ln -s ../init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "cleanup..."

cd /

rm -f -r /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

umount /mnt/eboot

umount /mnt/eroot

rm -f -r /mnt/eboot

rm -f -r /mnt/eroot

BoB

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baljitbasra
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same issue and was going to install ESXi instead on the USB but i really want to get ESX installed.

I don't understand how got it working using that script.

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

He didn't, there are a few mistakes (bugs), I now have it fixed and working, give me 30 minutes and i'll post the updated script.

This may be pointless though, I now have the controller detected and can see my storage but I get a major offline error basically as soon as you start accessing the disk it goes offline and ESX hangs

#/bin/bash

#

  1. original author: Reinhard Partmann

  1. author: Kashif Ali

  1. author: bbobb7

  1. date created: 2007-12-17

  1. date modified: 2009-01-22

  1. version: 0.3a

#

  1. Version history

#

  1. version 0.2: Initial version by Reinhard Partmann

  1. version 0.2a: Changed the XML file settings by Pascal de Wild

  1. version 0.3: Updated script for ML115 G5 Opteron Quad Core, also updated for ESX 3.5.0_Update_3-123630

  1. Also now created variables for values that will probably change during update releases.

  1. version 0.3a: Fixed bugs, Missing $, head now works & echo of bash, added simple instructions, reminder

  1. to reboot twice.

#

######################

#

  1. Instructions for Use

  1. 1. Install ESX Server 3.5 Update 3 - Build 123630

  1. 2. From Console, Navigate to the ssh folder, cd /etc/ssh

  1. 3. Open the sshd_config file with a text editor, eg: vi or nano.

  1. 4. Go to the line where it says PermitRootLogin no (about line 32) and change the no to yes

  1. 5. Save the file and restart the sshd service: service sshd restart

  1. 6. Download WinSCP -

  1. 7. Start Winscp and connect to ESX IP Address, username root, password (whatever you set)

  1. 8. Copy esx-sata-ml115_3a.sh to /tmp directory

  1. 9. Download PuTTy -

  1. 10. Start PuTTy and connect to ESX IP Address, username root, password (whatever you set)

  1. 11. Enter cd /tmp

  1. 12. Enter chmod a+x esx-sata-ml115_3a.sh

  1. 13. Enter ./esx-sata-ml115_3a.sh

  1. 14. When ready reboot ESX Server

  1. 15. Connect VI Client to ESX Server check for Storage Adapter

  1. 16. Reboot Again if Adapter not available.

  1. 17. Enjoy .....

      1. Variable for HD and Partitions ###

HD="hda"

BOOT=1

ROOT=5

      1. INIT IMAGE NAMES ####

INITRD_IMAGE="initrd-2.4.21-57.ELvmnix.img"

COPY_INITRD_IMAGE="initrd-2.4.21-57.ELvmnix.img.gz"

echo "creating directories..."

mkdir -p /mnt/eboot

mkdir -p /mnt/eroot

echo "mounting.."

mount /dev/$HD$BOOT /mnt/eboot

mount /dev/$HD$ROOT /mnt/eroot

mount \

grep $HD

echo "copying original initrd file..."

mkdir -p /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted

cp /mnt/eboot/$INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

echo "unpacking & mounting original initrd file..."

gunzip -f $COPY_INITRD_IMAGE

mount $INITRD_IMAGE extracted -t ext2 -o loop

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/extracted/etc/vmware

echo "changing simple.map..."

echo "10de:037f 0000:0000 sata_nv.o" >> simple.map

cd /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/

umount extracted

echo "replacing original initrd file..."

gzip --best $INITRD_IMAGE

mv /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/

  1. Use /bin/cp to stop asking about overwriting (backup old initrd)

/bin/cp /mnt/eboot/$INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/BACKUP-$INITRD_IMAGE

/bin/cp /mnt/eboot/$COPY_INITRD_IMAGE /mnt/eboot/$INITRD_IMAGE

echo "patching xml files"

cd /mnt/eroot/etc/vmware/pciid

lines=`wc -l sata_nv.xml \

awk ' { print $1 } '`

echo "lines: $lines"

(( lines -= 2))

echo "subtr lines: $lines"

mv sata_nv.xml sata_nv.xml.old

head -$lines sata_nv.xml.old > sata_nv.xml

echo " <device id=\"037f\">" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <vmware label=\"scsi\">" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <driver>sata_nv</driver>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </vmware>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " <name>MCP55 SATA Controller</name>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </device>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo " </vendor>" >> sata_nv.xml

echo "</pcitable>" >> sata_nv.xml

touch /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo '#!/bin/bash' >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "esxcfg-pciid" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "sleep 5" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "rm /etc/rc3.d/S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot" >> /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

chmod a+x /mnt/eroot/etc/init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

cd /mnt/eroot/etc/rc3.d/

ln -s ../init.d/rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot S99rp-esxcfg-pciid-boot

echo "cleanup..."

cd /

rm -f -r /mnt/eroot/tmp/initrd

umount /mnt/eboot

umount /mnt/eroot

rm -f -r /mnt/eboot

rm -f -r /mnt/eroot

echo "Please Reboot Twice..."

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baljitbasra
Contributor
Contributor

What do you think could be the issue with the disk going offline?

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

I wish I knew, I tried a brand new disk with a new VMFS, this lasted about 20 minutes before falling offline, my guess is that we may not have the right driver ?

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has ESX Update 3 running on their ML115 G5 from local disk (non-raid) ...

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baljitbasra
Contributor
Contributor

I've been searching long and hard and found no one. People are mainly using ESXi on USB stick, but then they are suffering from poor disk IO. I also really want to get this to work as the server is just sitting there.

Do you think it's worth just installing version ESX v 3.5. Not 3.5 u1, u2, or u3?

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

I have a ML115 G1. I only run 3.5. I tried installing 3.5 u2 but I get the offline too.

I think they have changed the driver or something in the build. The reason why I think this is :-

- In 3.5 build when installing it creates VMFS on the SATA disk. When it reboots after install you get "Mount Root Failed"

- In update 2 it does not allow you to create VMFS. However it does boot up successfully after install with no errors.

Maybe in the later builds it is detecting the controller as an IDE controller. Maybe we should look for the reference of the controller in other controller files and remove them. 037f for example.

Just a thought

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

Looks like this may be a lot cause, I might just pull the disks and run a storage server instead, probably OpenFiler or FreeNAS, what I dont understand though is why the disk would work briefly ? longest I have managed is about 20 minutes, it could be some sort of timeout issue ? cache issue ?

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

could be, but the disks work just fine when used as a VMFS datastore with ESXi ?

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

it aint the disks. If it was you would get the same results with non update 3. I have even tried 2 discs one which isn't a seagate. Same with both

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bbobb7
Contributor
Contributor

So we have 2 problems

ML115G with ESXi - SATA recognised for VMFS but poor performance

ML115G with ESX - SATA recognised after hack and great performance, but causes SCSI errors and eventually hangs ...

If we could fix either problem I would be a very happy bunny ...

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baljitbasra
Contributor
Contributor

Would ESX 3.5 (Not U1 -U3) work?

Also come across this site -

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Stive
Contributor
Contributor

Ich bin zur Zeit nicht im Hause. Anfragen bitte an Helpdesk Network (helpdesk@pc-ware.ch) weiterleiten!

Besten Dank

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WieslawDalmer
Contributor
Contributor

Esx 3.5 on Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H - sata ICH10 works

- in bios set Sata as AHCI

- add:

<device id="3a22">

<vmware label="scsi">

<driver>ahci</driver>

</vmware>

<name>82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller</name>

</device>

to the file /etc/vmware/pciid/ahci.xml

exectuce command esxcfg-pciid, then restart ESX server.

New disks should be accesible from ESX.

How to find device_id ???, best way is to use linux with updated pci.ids - http://pciids.sourceforge.net/

Regards,

Wieslaw

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devzero
Expert
Expert

anybody successfully running ESX3.5 (not ESXi) on Shuttle SG45H7 barebone (http://global.shuttle.com/product_detail_spec.jsp?PI=1131# ) ?

as asus asus p3-p5g33 isn`t available anymore (wanted that because of http://www.thincomputing.net/articles/my-ultimate-esx-whitebox-small-aesthetically-pleasing-and-unde... i`m desparately seeking for another neat barebone which supports at least 8gb and quad cpu.

unfortunately, it`s damn hard to find one.

most barebones only have 2 slots for ram and for those with more, i have a hard time finding information if esx will run on that.

SG45H7 looks like a promising replacement, even better: you can have 16gb ram in that box.

maybe somebody has a recommendation for another small ESX box with at least 8gb ram and quad cpu ?

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Grimfish
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Devzero,

I think by looking at the shuttle it will work but with a few exceptions. The Intel ICH10 controller is ESX compatible so SATA disks will work however, the NIC is a Marvell so it will need disabling in bios. Also it is likely that the IDE devices are not connected to the Intel chip either so you will need a SATA DVD drive for the install of ESX, you can leave it in there but it takes up a SATA port for an additional disk.

Lastly the RAID feature of the Intel ICH10 is FAKE raid so it will not work in ESX. It will only show as JBOD.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

Grimmy

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meisterw
Contributor
Contributor

Hi WieslawDalmer

I have now the Gigavyte EG45M-DS2H too, but the how u can install ESX(i) on it?

My esxi installation hangs, where i can choose "repair""install""ESC"

The Full ESX cant detect the Storage.

regards

meisterw

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