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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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DeeJ
Contributor
Contributor

Hello All,

The following is my experience in installing an inexpensive VMware solution using a HP A6330f desktop

Please understand, that until this morning, I have not looked at linux since I took the VMware ESX 1

(VCP 1 certification track two years ago) and I really struggled with it then and I am not so smart with the CLI so....

If I have done something that is not necessary or wrong please correct it in a follow-up post, this is what I did to make it work, I tried all the scripts but those just kept failing to solve my problem since the sda2 root was locked???. Logging into troubleshooting console and editing the files directly seemed to make more sense to me anyway once I solved that edit mystery.

If I could also point out that I had virtually no help outside of the 14 pages on this topic. I could award each author of each post a partial point if I knew how but thanks to all and I know that I am not saying anything new on this post, but the request was made to speak-up about what products worked etc. .

1. 60 day license

1. HP A6330f AMD 64X2 with NVIDIA chipset MCP61 $450

1. 4 GB memory added $89

SATA support and NIC card support for A6330 server AKA Asus M2N68-LA

1. Downloaded and installed the ESX 3.5 software following onscreen prompts. Get the "cannot find root" error at the reboot.

2. Booted the server to the service console and logged on as Root using build password

3 Ran the commands for lspci -v -n |less to figure out the PCI ID I needed to add for the PMC61 chipset. Documented this information for PCI items 7 and 8

4. Spent 11 hours trying the scripts and figuring out what everyone means by saying edit in Linux...

5 Hint: edit: when you are in the ESX Troubleshooting console, Edit means type VI . use esc then :q to quit, type :wq to save and :wq! to save and overwrite read only and :q! to quit or cancel without saving

6. Edited simple.map - #vi etc/vmware/simple.map to include support for nVidia by adding

10de.03ef 0000:0000 forcedeth.o

10de:03f6 0000:0000 sata_nv.o

(these may not be necessary, but I added them anyway!)

7. Then I edited #[http://vi etc/vmware/pciid/forcedeth.xml|http://vi etc/vmware/pciid/forcedeth.xml] with these lines added at the top in numerical sequence- The nVidia driver was already supported so that is why this worked I guess, the HP site says this is a RealTek NIC card, but ASUS says nVidia.... (I retyped the entire device group for one device but you could just change one of the groups to your pciid for your device.)

<device id="03ef">

<vmware label="nic">

<driver>forcedeth</driver>

</vmware>

<name>nVidia NForce Network Controller</name>

<table file="pcitable" module="ignore" />

<table file="pcitable.Linux" module="forcedeth">

<desc>nVidia|NForce Network Controller</desc>

</table>

</device>

8. Edited the #[http://vi /etc/vmware/pciid/sata_nv.xml|http://vi /etc/vmware/pciid/sata_nv.xml] file and added an entry for 03f6, changing the controller name from MCP55 nVidia... to MCP61 nVidia...

<device id="03f6">

<vmware label="scsi">

<driver>sata_nv</driver>

</vmware>

<name>MCP61 SATA Controller</name>

</device>

9. Run the esxcfg-pciid

10. Restarted the server

results: Server comes up and mounts the root and the NIC now works fine.

attachments

lspci-v.txt

lspci-v-n.txt

Thank you all for your help

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OmarKitchlew
Contributor
Contributor

Hi rpartmann, I have a SATA 300 TX4 302, PCI, 32 bit, but have not been able to get it to work. Did you use this controller for the base OS install as well, or only for the VMFS? Please let me know.

Thanks.

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rpartmann
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

i was using the Promise Sata 300 TX4,PCI, 32bit, as boot & additional

controller.

Both worked fine and out of the box.

could you send me a pm or attach files to the post,

to avoid too long posts, with the output of

lspci -vnn

and

lspci -v

bye r.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.
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OmarKitchlew
Contributor
Contributor

My challenge has been installing the product itself. I installed VMware ESX 2.5x and 3.x on 30-40 servers for different clients, never set it up on a home PC. I am getting through though, found out the hard way that I must use a USB CD drive (doesnt make sense why), and that I had to replace the network card with an INTEL Pro, which allows the setup to go forward. Now, I am getting a different error, which could have something to do with the hard drive, or the Processor id. I have to investigate, and then move forward.

Thank you for your responce.

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gogram
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Supated,

I have just got a ML110 too. I have had no trouble installing ESX on to one of the disks (after getting a Intel NIC!). Under VIC it is only showing the 2 port SATA controller for the CDROM drive and not the 4 port where I have my 2 x 250Gb installed.

How do I get the 4 port added and use one of the drives for VMFS?

Thanks in advance

Giles

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rpartmann
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

not sure if that helps.

-


replace with -


>>> -


replace with -


>>> ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.
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supahted
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Gogram,

I did the following to install ESX on the HP ML 110 G5

1. Goto BIOS en reset all BIOS settings to default (F9). Enable Intel VT support for the CPU.

2. Install ESX

3. After the install is ready, reboot and goto BIOS. Set SATA mode to: SATA but do not enable SATA RAID!

4. You know should be able to format your SATA harddisk as a VMFS volume in the VI client

In VirtualCenter I see both controllers and I have two harddisks and one CDRom attached. All are working. See picture below.

blog: http://vknowledge.wordpress.com/
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gogram
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the info (again!)

I have been working on this server in the early hours so did not read the "change BIOS to SATA" correctly.

All working!

Cheers

Giles

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OmarKitchlew
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Ok, this is what happened. The problem was with the NIC, I bought and installed an INTEL NIC, and the installation went fine. I only hooked up one hard drive, to the mother board, and also left the SATA 300 TX controller in the computer. The system came up fine, didnt have to edit any file. I was also able to create a VMFS partition on the SATA drive hooked up to the onboard controller.

I then added two more SATA hard drives to the motherboard controller, and they too worked fine, no issues, no files edited. I then returned the SATA 300 TX controller, and was issued a refund. Everything worked fine for 1 week, but then, I had an electrical failure, after the server came back up, it halted during boot up after the message, "Updating ESXUPDATE Database", and then nothing happens.

I reinstalled ESX several times, even formatted the hard drive, disconnected all other hard drives, but cannot get past this message. It always stops after "Updating ESXUPDATE Database". I am almost driven to go back and buy back the SATA 300 TX controller, but this would be 120$ down the drain, since I dont really need it.

Please help.

Thanks.

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OmarKitchlew
Contributor
Contributor

The problem is resolved. The issue was that I hooked up a LTP printer on the ESX host, in order to connect it to one of the VMs. This did not allow the server to boot properly. As soon as I unhooked the printer cable, everything was ok. By the way, the mother board I used is ASUS P5K-VM. It cost only 114$. The onboard SATA controller, ICH9 works like a charm.

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Nomisdk
Contributor
Contributor

I got the sata controller on Asus P5N32-E SLI working after changing the following:

Edited the file /etc/vmware/pciid/sata_nv.xml

Changed the last id to: 037f

And the name changed to MCP55 SATA Controller.

Then i did run the esxcfg-pciid

Rebooted, and it started like a dream Smiley Happy

The 2 onboard network cards did work out of the box Smiley Happy

(Some Nvidia network card)

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

Just to let you guys know. I reinstalled my ML115 with update 2 tonight. All boots fine now without editing the file Smiley Happy No mounting root failed.

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

doh. Maybe I was too quick to post.

It didn't come up with the error but no VMFS no more. Smiley Sad

Trying patch now

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

Didn't run the patch. Just did the above about the esxcfg-pciid.

VMFS seen now. Phew

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blackforce
Contributor
Contributor

again seems like I was premature with my conclusions.

It allows me to create VMFS. However I keep getting errors like the picture below

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jonasb
Contributor
Contributor

Now when ESXi is free, have anyone successfully installed it on a ML115? I got normalt 3.5 running but when trying to install ESXi (3.5 Update 2) it simply tells me no supported HW found when booting of the installation CD.

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

If you're getting mounting root problems with ESX 3.5 on the host, then it's a bit harder to fix with ESXi as the installer in running the ESXi vmkernel and not Linux as with the ESX regular install. You would either have to modify oem.tgz on the CD before the install or install ESXi onto a USB flash drive and run it from there (and then modify oem.tgz). Take a look at this thread - http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&objectType=2&objectID=1006219 at what you could do.

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Alginon
Contributor
Contributor

Can you help. Have downloaded ESX3i and tried to install it on a Dell Precision 350 with a Silicon SATA 3124 4 port card. The installer sees the 3 x 250GB disks indevidually rather than as a RAID 5 set. I have tried to install on just disk 0 (no RAID set) and it will not boot.

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KingDaveRa
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all,

I've managed to install ESXi 3.5 onto a whitebox PC. It's an ASRock AM2nF3-VSTA motherboard, which uses an nVidia nForce 3 controller. There's two disks in there - a 160GB Seagate, and an 80GB seagate. I've found copying files onto this box to be horrendously slow though. I've got an Intel Gig-e card in there, and I copied the ftp binary from one of our other ESX 3.5 boxen onto it. I'm pulling files from my own desk PC (also on Gig-e) which is hosting them with Filezilla.

When copying to the 160GB drive (which also contains the boot partition) it goes about 9Mbs. Not amazingly fast, but quick enough. When copying to the 80GB drive, however, I'm lucky to get 2Mbs! Copying 8GB files at this speed is NOT fun!!! The drives are set up with busmaster enabled in BIOS (made no difference either way), so I'm not really sure what it is.

I've had a look around here, and not found much about the issue. It's probably pretty unique to be honest. Just wondering if anybody has any pointers or other ideas?

Previously, the same box was running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, and VMWare Server 2 beta, and worked OK, so it looks like a software issue, but I could be wrong.

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excelsi
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi reinhard,

after a fresh install of ESX 3.5 and updating it with the Patch 02 from VMware Patches

follwing error appeared at executing gosata.sh (version 0.61):

root@localhost esxup# ./gosata.sh

: command not found7:

: command not found8:

'/gosata.sh: line 56: syntax error near unexpected token `{

'/gosata.sh: line 56: `{

Anything for help?

If i execute the script direct after the installation without updating there are no problems, but then i have to excute it after the update again.

The reason for direct updating and then executing the script are some strange problems after all, if i take the other way.

Thanks in adavance!

Michael

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