Updating SAS 6ir drivers in VMWare

[Col_Flashman]

Hello

I installed Dell Open Manage 5.4 on some new M600 Blades that I am currently setting up. However, Dell OM is in a warning state concerning the version of SAS 6ir driver I am running. This is the message it gives:

The current driver version 2.06.48 (mptlinux) is older than the required driver version 4.00.00.00 (mptlinux) for a controller of model 0x1F0F: Controller 0 (SAS 6/iR Integrated)

I notice the kernel module for ESX loads mpt2.xx version. I have no intention of attempting to change this but I am wondering if I was to boot the server into Console Mode only and upgraded to version 4.00, would this work and would it be OK in term of stability etc...?

I rely on these tools for monitoring and I would like to eliminate this warning state if possible.

[weinstein5]

The first step would be to check the HCL vmware maintains - if they are there with that version I see no problems -

[Col_Flashman]

Absolutely, all equipment is on the HCL.

However, I would really like to remove this error condition if at all possible as previously stated. I like clean, tight machines.

So I'm wondering if updating the drivers in Console Mode only would help.

[Col_Flashman]

Bump

[Tecnotest]

I am getting a very similar warning on a PowerEdge 2950: The current driver version 2.06.48 (mptlinux) is older than the required driver version 2.06.48.02 (mptlinux) for a controller of model 0x1F04: Controller 1 (SAS 5/E).

Anyone else is getting the same error?

[mcowger]

Known issue, and one that only Dell can fix. I've filed a bug report for this back in OM 5.3, but it hasn't been fixed yet.

--Matt

[Col_Flashman]

I've gone to some lengths to answer this question:

I logged a called with VMWare under our Enterprise agreement and they told me to blame Dell.

I spoke to a senior engineer I ran into at Dell HQ, he told me he knows about it and he hates it. He's waiting for somebody to sort it out.

I even went to so far as to manually update this driver in a pre-prod ESX machine and blew it up.

I hate it because it ruins my nice clean alert logs in IT Assistant. Anyway, we need to live with it for now.

[GabrielTFI]

I have the same issues with PowerEdge 2950, when I saw the two KBs below I updated ESX to 3.5Update2 (that includes those two updates), but nothing changed.

Then I opened a case at Dell and they suggested me to upgrade the driver:

Is it reliable to install drivers that are not part of the original ESX package? If I install it, will my ESX fall out of support/certification?

Thanks - Gabriele.

[mcowger]

As usual, Dell tech support told you something wrong, stupid, and dangerous. DONT do what they asked, if you are even able to build it at all, it likely wont work, an even if it did, you'd end up in a wildly unsupported configuration, just for something that is a cosmetic concern.

I went through many levels of Dell support about this, and there is NO way around it. Including executive level escalation and escalation through our TAM. You simply MUST wait for them to fix it.

--Matt

[balacs]

I spoke to a senior engineer I ran into at Dell HQ, he told me he knows about it and he hates it. He's waiting for somebody to sort it out.

Yes, this is a know issue and we are working to fix it. I will update this thread as soon as we release the fix.

Bala

Dell Inc

[newguy]

I'm now having RAID failures with the 4 new Dell 1950's we just purchased with this RAID card. The problem is the same accross all 4 servers out of the box. RAID1 and 1 drive has failed across all 4 servers. ESX version 3.5 Update1... Dell please fix this...

In DELL OMSA I see the driver is out of date error as well as the failed hard drive... HELP!!!

[newguy]

Just got off the phone with Dell support and they said this card is not supported by VMware. It is the PERC 6 that is supported not the SAS 6.

[hazxxx]

I have been reading everywhere trying to find a solution to this problem. I have a R900 hooked upto a MD3000 through a SAS 5/e card. I dont know if this is any help to anyone but i got ESX 3.5 to reconise all the drives/ raid arrays. First thing i did was install ESX 3.5.......nothing special there after i looked in openmanage and saw that the driver was out of date. So i installed RedHat5 (CentOS) and used the CD that came with my MD3000 to install the SAS 5/e drivers and the MD software. Through the MD software i could see all the drives and create my raid arrays. Once i have finished creating my raid arrays i re-installed ESX and the arrays were found!. During this whole process there was no updating of drivers or anything like that.

[anthonycsheehy]

The "installing_dell_openmanage_on_esx.pdf" found at http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/solutions/installing_dell_openmanage_on_esx.pdf reports that "The 2.06.48 driver is the correct driver version for ESX 3.0.2 Update 1 and ESX 3.5. The minimum required driver version communicated by OM is for Linux distributions. This message may be safely ignored." This is under known issues.

Therefore the answer is to do nothing and live with it. It is not a fault (because VMWare runs on Linux and Open manage has correctly determined the OS and the minimum requirement for Linux is 4.00.00) so Dell are not going to fix it in the short term.