Adaptec CIM and server health

[matthewk]

ESXi looks interesting, but I'm very concerned with monitoring my RAID array. Since there's no Service Console, I can't install Adaptec Storage Manager (ASM). Does the current revision of ESXi support monitoring Adaptec 5 series SAS cards? If not, what comparable card would have support?

Just to clarify, I'm not asking about driver support - the 5 series is on the HCL - I'm concerned with monitoring in case a drive needs replacement.

[krynos]

I have installed the driver and the CIM on a VMWare ESXi 4.1 (4.1.0.update1-348481).

The driver did load properly, the package for the CIM did install,

unfortunately the remote arcconf  doesn't work.

I get the following:

./arcconf GETVERSION
CIM Exception: *** Provider arc_cli::arcCLIProvider(204038) exiting due to a SIGSEGV signal.

No matter what I do, with the Windows or Linux client, I get the same error.

The server is a SunFire X4150 with SUN-STK-INT (in the docs it's a Adaptec ASR-5805/Voodoo80).

In the ESXi logs I see:

Oct 27 19:53:09 vmkernel: 1:04:47:35.925 cpu2:204642)User: 2428: wantCoreDump : sfcb-arc_cli -enabled : 0
/var/log # esxupdate query
---------Bulletin ID--------- -----Installed----- -------------Summary-------------
ESXi410-Update01              2011-10-25T19:05:24 VMware ESXi 4.1 Complete Update 1
ESXi410-201107401-BG          2011-10-25T19:05:49 Updates Firmware
ESXi410-201107402-BG          2011-10-25T19:05:49 Updates VMware Tools
VMW_ARC_CLI_1.0-ESX-4.1.0-1.0 2011-10-26T14:22:19 ARC CLI provider: ESX release
/var/log # uname -a
VMkernel SERVERNAME.domain.com 4.1.0 #1 SMP Release build-433742 Jun 20 2011 21:44:01 x86_64 unknown

Also is there any way to install the packages thru vSphere even if there is no signature.

Thanks

[nowwhatnapster]

This thread is exactly what i was looking for. I have an Adaptec 5405 and ESXi 4.1. Loading into bios to modify/monitor the controller is just plain stupid.

I just need a little direction to get me going. I understand I need to install the driver and CIM on the ESXi machine, but I have no idea where I am supposed to input all these commands I see posted on this thread and in the pdf guide. Is it done from the VMware vSphere CLI or the vSphere Management Assistant?

Thanks for your time.

[DionRow]

Postponed again til December...  maybe a Christmas gift?    D

[gresearch]

From Customer Service @ Adaptec re - vSphere 5.0

Supposedly...

Series 6 Driver & CIM: December 14th (Wednesday).

Series 5 Driver & CIM: Unknown due to "some issue with linux and will be ready when they get to it."

Continuing on with the wait and see game...

[VladimirLizal]

I installed aacraid_vmware_drivers_1.1.7-28700 and cim_vmware_v7_30_18837 on my ESXi 5.0 box (booting from USB flash). In the cim_... package there is also RemoteArcconf for Linux and Windows. I got it working on my Windows 7 desktop. Then I tried to deploy vMA 5.0, it would be nice to have the array management on the vMA, because it must be deployed anyway for Powerchute. The Linux version has e-mail capability which Windows version does not. I even got test e-mail from the arcaend (the notofication daemon). However, I am trying to get the arcconf working, at first I am doing

sudo /usr/RemoteArcconf/arcconf SETVMCREDENTIAL <my-esxi-ip> 5989 vi-admin <my-viadmin-password>,

but then trying to (sudo) execute arcconf gets

CIM Exception: HTTP Error (401 Unauthorized)..

I suspect the disabled root on vMA being the cause of the problem, but I am not sure. Anybody success with that?

[VladimirLizal]

Finally, I got it working. My mistake in previous post was that

***wrong*** sudo /usr/RemoteArcconf/arcconf SETVMCREDENTIAL <my-esxi-ip> 5989 vi-admin <my-viadmin-password>

should be not vMA, but ESXi login credentials:

sudo /usr/RemoteArcconf/arcconf SETVMCREDENTIAL <my-esxi-ip> 5989 esxi-user esxi-password

The Linux version even know how to send notification mails. The daemon runs as the ARCAEND service.

sudo /usr/RemoteArcconf/arcconf getconfig 1 LD
Controllers found: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 0
   Logical device name                      : ARRAY_RAID_1
   RAID level                               : 1
   Status of logical device                 : Optimal
   Size                                     : 953334 MB
   Read-cache mode                          : Enabled
   Write-cache mode                         : Enabled (write-back)
   Write-cache setting                      : Enabled (write-back)
   Partitioned                              : Yes
   Protected by Hot-Spare                   : No
   Bootable                                 : Yes
   Failed stripes                           : No
   Power settings                           : Disabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Logical device segment information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Segment 0                                : Present (Controller:1,Connector:0,Device:1) S13PJ1MS703600
   Segment 1                                : Present (Controller:1,Connector:0,Device:0) S13PJQSSA03477

Command completed successfully.

[pumpal]

ESXi 4.1 . After some time, the remote arcconf stops detecting the controller and starts telling 'Controllers found: 0' .

If that happens, there is no need to restart the whole ESX.

Restarting sfcbd (from the ESXi's CLI) is sufficient :

~ # /etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog restart

Worked for me, give it a try.

Here is also my cron script that emails me daily the controller status:

echo ==================================================================
cd / && /usr/local/RemoteArcconf/arcconf GETCONFIG 1 1>/tmp/astat.tmp && /usr/local/RemoteArcconf/arcconf GETSTATUS 1 1>>/tmp/astat.tmp
grep "Controller Model" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "Controller Status" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "Current" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "Spinup limit internal" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "Defunct" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "state" /tmp/astat.tmp
grep "S.M.A.R.T. warnings" /tmp/astat.tmp
echo ==================================================================
exit 0

I have that as a script, ran as a cronjob on the remote machine I use to check the controller from (can be any existing OS, not necesarrily a VM on the same ESX!).

Greets.

[gadina]

~ # /etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog restart

Confirm, it's working in my ESXi 4.1 !

Thak you !

But there is new driver that may have fix for this issue:

Adaptec Support Team:

We do have a newer driver set and CIM that was released for the 6X series, the drivers should be backwards compatible with the 2405:
Here is a link to the ESXi driver revision 28700.
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/speed/raid/aac/linux/aacraid_vmware_drivers_1_1_7-28700_tgz.htm

Here is a link to the ESXi CIM revision 7.30.18837.
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/speed/raid/storage_manager/cim_vmware_v7_30_18837_zip.htm

[pumpal]

Thanks for the info gadina!

As my server in question is in production and otherwise then the above

problem has been working pretty stable, I'll wait for somebody's

feedback on that new version from Adaptec before trying it out.

Anyone using it already?

Thanks.

[joeb740354]

I just gave aacraid_vmware_drivers_1.1.7-28700.tgz a try.  Just after I installed it, the vmfs datastore disappeared.  I had to reinstall ESXi 5.0 from iso to bring back the datastore.

I also tried installing the new Adaptec CIM Provider v7.30.18837 for VMware. I got the vib installed in esxi and the remoteconf tool installed in windows, but when I would run the tool to list the controllers (arcconf getversion), it would report zero controllers. (This is probably to be expected because it probably requires the updated driver.

[poto]

I also saw vmfs datastore disappear after update to Adaptec driver v 1.1.7-28700 on esxi 5.0.  Rescanning for controllers and datastores in the host configuration tab of vsphere client rediscovered the filesystems intact.  I'm not sure of the cause, but the controller device now appears as "AACRAID".

2405 firmware updated v5.2.0-18937, remote arcconf runs fine from win7 client.

A bit overdue, but better late than never...

C:\Windows\system32>arcconf getconfig 1 al
Controllers found: 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Controller information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Controller Status                        : Optimal
   Channel description                      : SAS/SATA
   Controller Model                         : Adaptec 2405
   Controller Serial Number                 : 9C19111119F
   Physical Slot                            : 1
   Temperature                              : 40 C/ 104 F (Normal)
   Installed memory                         : 128 MB
   Copyback                                 : Disabled
   Background consistency check             : Enabled
   Automatic Failover                       : Enabled
   Global task priority                     : High
   Performance Mode                         : Default/Dynamic
   Stayawake period                         : Disabled
   Spinup limit internal drives             : 0
   Spinup limit external drives             : 0
   Defunct disk drive count                 : 0
   Logical devices/Failed/Degraded          : 1/0/0
   SSDs assigned to MaxCache pool           : 0
   Maximum SSDs allowed in MaxCache pool    : 8
   MaxCache Read Cache Pool Size            : 0.000 GB
   MaxCache flush and fetch rate            : 0
   MaxCache Read, Write Balance Factor      : 3,1
   NCQ status                               : Enabled
   Statistics data collection mode          : Enabled
   --------------------------------------------------------
   Controller Version Information
   --------------------------------------------------------
   BIOS                                     : 5.2-0 (18937)
   Firmware                                 : 5.2-0 (18937)
   Driver                                   : 1.1-7 (28700)
   Boot Flash                               : 5.2-0 (18937)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device information
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Logical device number 0
   Logical device name                      : Raid_10
   RAID level                               : 10
   Status of logical device                 : Optimal
   Size                                     : 952310 MB
   Stripe-unit size                         : 256 KB
   Read-cache mode                          : Enabled
   MaxCache preferred read cache setting    : Disabled
   MaxCache read cache setting              : Disabled
   Write-cache mode                         : Enabled (write-back)
   Write-cache setting                      : Enabled (write-back)
   Partitioned                              : Yes
   Protected by Hot-Spare                   : No
   Bootable                                 : Yes
   Failed stripes                           : No
   Power settings                           : Disabled
   --------------------------------------------------------

[VladimirLizal]

The datastore virtually disappears after driver update. However, fix is easy: Add storage, disk/LUN, VMFS already exist – keep existing signature, assign new signature, format disk? Answer Keep existing signature and you have your datastore back, intact.

[kozis]

I have a Adaptec 2405 in VMware ESXi 5.0. I installed a new driver accraid (6 Feb 2012) including CIM provider. I think this is instaled okay. I can not connect from the quest machine via remote arcconf. I tried both Windows and Linux, but the result is the same. Could not connect to CIM provider with error:

-----------

CIM Exception: HTTP Error (401 Unauthorized)..
Invalid ESX server credentials are provided. Please reset the server credentials.

-----------

I used credentials:
arcconf SETVMCREDENTIAL <my ESXi IP> 5989 root <my root password on ESXi>

but any arcconf command followed the error.

What is wrong?

Can you help me, please?

(sorry for my english )

[Carko]

Hey,

does anyone have an idea if there is any driver I can install for 2820SA controller to be able to use CIM providers in ESXi 5.0?

I was eagerly awaiting the driver release for "Series 2, 5, 5Z and Q" but now it seems they completely forgot about the entire SATAII series :smileycry:

[joeb740354]

I would suggest you check the 5989 port is open on the ESX host. You can ping the esx host ip from the arcconf remote machine right?

[kozis]

Yes, ping to ESXi is OK and port 5989 is open. If I close 5989 port on ESXi, I get an error (after timeout):

----

Got CIM Exception while trying to connect to the host (172.16.2.1): "Cannot connect to 172.16.2.1:5989. Connection failed."

----

I think that the CIM server responds, but i do not understand bad credentials. This is really OK.

I am frustrated

[VladimirLizal]

The file VMCIMOMConfig.txt which contains encrypted credentials is by default in /usr/RemoteArcconf. However, if you

sudo /usr/RemoteAcrcconf/arcconf, it does not know stored credentials because working directory is now /home/vi-admin

therefore you should eiher create symlink in /home/vi-admin, or

sudo /usr/RemoteArcconf/arcconf .... and by this recreate VMCIMOMConfig.txt in /home/vi-admin

[kozis]

Thanks for your answer.

Unfortunately this is not the problem. I create the credentials file (VMCIMOMConfig.txt) via sudo command (sudo /usr/RemoteAcrcconf/arcconf SETVM...). This is OK, and the credentials file is created in my home directory. RemoteArcconf is instaled on Linux CentOS 6.2.

On a Windows 7 PC is credentials files still located in "C:\Program Files\Adaptec\RemoteArcconf\" and arcconf comand must be run as Administrator too. But ends with the same error.

[kozis]

Problem solved. The error was in the ESXi password or use way the ESXi pasword of arcconf.

If i used in the ESXi password with uppercase 'K', then remote arcconf does not work. I changed the ESXi password (without the uppercase 'K'), including arcconf credentials and everything works OK.

It's a very interesting bug that is very difficult to find. I don't tried the funcionality with other uppercase chars.

I'm glad it works 🙂

[DerekFlint]

Anyone else here using a 4800SAS card? I'm running one on ESXi 5 and it works fine, but would really like to be able to monitor it, It's not listed as a supported adapter in Adaptec's release notes for these newer driver versions, so if anyone has tried them and it works, please post to let us know. Thank you!!.