Correct.  ESX regular, nor ESX debug will come up.

I just tried it with one drive to rule out any variables. I still get the "Mounting root failed"    At that the maintenance shell you get, a cat /proc/partitions shows no disks at all.

Of course the Service Console works just fine.

Poking around in the logs under /log the vmklog.drivers, make it look like the device driver just simply doesn't see the disks.   The 'phy stat' messages look 'odd'.

0:00:00:11.482 cpu1:1034)<6>ata1: no device found (phy stat ffffffff)

vs

0:00:00:11.908 cpu1:1034)<6>ata3: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

I'm guessing its a bug in the particular version of sata_nv.o w/ ESX, however, I've yet to try re-compiling the module from the GPL'ed source w/ a few more debug messages in it....

What other details would you like? 

Thanks, 

David

Here you go...

The thing that gets me is if I put any other disks in the system, they'll show up, its just the boot disk.   <shrug>

I suppose I could just deal with the loss, but who really wants to waste 250Gb in that fashion....

David

hi,

afaik is thin not possible until VMware will bring drivers which have

the RAID support built in.

This Controller i think is a kind of SOFTWARE RAID.

hth,

Reinhard.

>Reinhard Partmann,

>A new message was posted in the thread "SATA Support Clear as Mud!?":

>http://communities.vmware.com/message/915901

>Author  : llaubacher

>Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/llaubacher

>Message:

jssoeldn wrote:

Neither an old 3ware 8006-2LP nor a brand new 9650SE-2LP seem to work.

I guess we're out of luck.

I hope this isn't a repeat...but 3ware 9650SE-2LP is now supported according to http://www.3ware.com/KB/article.aspx?id=14922

9650SE series products - While not officially tested with the 9650SE, the 9.5.0.2 code set should work okay with VMware ESX Server v3.5 (kernel 2.4.21-47.EL).  VMware 3.02 Update 1 and VMware 3.5 Update 2 are supported with the 9.5.1 code set.

9690SA series products - VMware ESX Server v3.5 (kernel 2.4.21-47.EL) are supported with the 9.5.0.2 code set.  VMware 3.02 Update 1 and VMware 3.5 Update 2 are supported with the 9.5.1 code set.  It is not possible to upgrade from VMware 3.5 Update 1 to VMware 3.5 Update 2.  If you want to use VMware 3.5 Update 2 you must install it fresh.

None of the VMware support is VMware certified.  VMware 3.5 Update 2 certified support will be available in the future.

For VMware ESXi Server v3.5 Update 2 support, see KB article 15416 http://www.3ware.com/kb/article.aspx?id=15416 .

Virgil

Message was edited by: virgilwashere to include VI3.5 U2 information

Ok, so Ive read through this forum and googled like you wouldnt believe and I still have the same problem. Everytime I install ESX 3.5 I inevitably come to the same problem.

"Mounting root failed. Dropping into basic maintenance shell.

.

.

sh: can't access tty; job control turned off "

Now Ive gone through, run the script provided in page 3,  followed another guys steps;

Modify /etc/vmware/pciid/megaraid2.xml In the file you need to reflect you PCI card ID, in my case 0409, so i just changed the 0408 id to 0409 after the file is modified, run the command esxcfg-pciid run esxcfg-boot -p run esxcfg-boot -b reboot your server

(my device ID, as far as I know is 0604, which I replaced in those steps)

and still I come up to the same mounting root failed.

Another thing that may be of interest is everytime I choose to restart in the Service Console, at the very end it says "Kernel Panic". Now maybe my main problem is that I dont know much about linux, Im admittedly a windows user, but I know that cant be good. Now maybe its something I have inside my system that is not correct, so I will list my hardware configuration from top to bottom. I would really appreciate any help or suggestions, Im trying to evaluate ESX server for my business as opposed to using VM Server, but if this keeps up, Im not wasting $1800 on a license for ESX. So here is what Im working with.

Supermicro X7DAE Rev 2.0

2 Intel 5140 Xeon CPU's

6GB Kingston FB-DIMM 667MHz

LSI MegaRAID 300-8x

-->5 WD Raptors - RAID 5

ATi RagePRO 16MB

LG DVD-RW

Ive tried to find a list of supported hardware, but there isnt one to really check against. If anyone knows something Im missing, Im all ears.

Welcome to the VMware forums.  Here is the link for support SCSI / SAS controllers - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf.  And for supported systems - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_systems_guide.pdf.  ESX supports a limited hardware set and it's best to stick with it for a production server.  Page 22 of the 1st document lists the dual mode SAS/SATA controllers. 

Modify /etc/vmware/pciid/megaraid2.xml In the file you need to reflect you PCI card ID, in my case 0409, so i just changed the 0408 id to 0409 after the file is modified, run the command esxcfg-pciid run esxcfg-boot -p run esxcfg-boot -b reboot your server

(my device ID, as far as I know is 0604, which I replaced in those steps)

So is your device ID 409  or 604?

As far as I can tell, the device ID is 0604 when I looked with lspcid. Is that how I am supposed to find out or is there a different way?

As well, I noticed that the MegaRAID 150 was on the list, and the card Im using is a MegaRAID 300, and it shows the drives as SCA, so it seems to present them as scsi drives, so why does it not work?