ESX 4 and Perc 5i issues

[dustynz]

I have the following issue.

I have a Asus P6T with an Intel Core 7 processor. I also have a Perc5i card with a 400 gig 15k Sas drive attached. I also have a sata drive attached to the motherboard.

I have installed ESX 4 and all is working fine except when I go to use the SAS drive.

Initially it could not even import the disk however after flashing to the latest LSI firmware the drive imports okay however when I try to use the disk (eg create vm) it generates the following errors

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:37:54.535 cpu5:4110)WARNING: Fil3: 10730: Found invalid object on 4a9dc053-f7274fae-dd5f-0007e918a05c <FD c0 r0> expected <FD c80 r13>

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:37:54.535 cpu5:4110)FSS: 662: Failed to get object f530 28 2 4a9dc053 f7274fae 700dd5f 5ca018e9 3401404 e 0 0 0 0 0 :Not found

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:37:54.535 cpu0:4096)VMNIX: VMKFS: 2521: status = -2

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:37:54.549 cpu3:4110)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type 281018370

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:37:54.549 cpu3:4110)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type 0

Sep 3 07:19:29 esx02 last message repeated 5 times

Sep 3 07:19:42 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:07.311 cpu4:4112)WARNING: Fil3: 10730: Found invalid object on 4a9dc053-f7274fae-dd5f-0007e918a05c <FD c0 r0> expected <FD c80 r14>

Sep 3 07:19:42 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:07.311 cpu4:4112)FSS: 662: Failed to get object f530 28 3 4a9dc053 f7274fae 700dd5f 5ca018e9 3801404 f 0 0 0 0 0 :Not found

Sep 3 07:19:42 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:07.374 cpu5:4110)World: vm 4601: 1098: Starting world vmware-vmx with flags 4

Sep 3 07:19:44 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:09.982 cpu3:4111)WARNING: Fil3: 10730: Found invalid object on 4a9dc053-f7274fae-dd5f-0007e918a05c <FD c0 r0> expected <FD c80 r16>

Sep 3 07:19:44 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:09.982 cpu3:4111)FSS: 662: Failed to get object f530 28 3 4a9dc053 f7274fae 700dd5f 5ca018e9 4001404 11 0 0 0 0 0 :Not found

Sep 3 07:19:59 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:24.436 cpu1:4109)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type 0

Sep 3 07:19:59 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:24.437 cpu1:4109)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type 0

Sep 3 07:19:59 esx02 last message repeated 3 times

Sep 3 07:20:01 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:26.360 cpu1:4110)WARNING: Fil3: 10730: Found invalid object on 4a9dc053-f7274fae-dd5f-0007e918a05c <FD c0 r0> expected <FD c80 r15>

Sep 3 07:20:01 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:26.360 cpu1:4110)FSS: 662: Failed to get object f530 28 3 4a9dc053 f7274fae 700dd5f 5ca018e9 3c01404 10 0 0 0 0 0 :Not found

Sep 3 07:20:01 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:26.360 cpu0:4096)VMNIX: VMKFS: 2521: status = -2

Sep 3 07:20:05 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:30.959 cpu5:4109)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type -1174114336

Sep 3 07:20:05 esx02 vmkernel: 0:22:38:30.959 cpu5:4109)WARNING: Fil3: 4153: Unknown object type 0

It works find under server 2008. Is there a setting I can try?

[J1mbo]

A quick Google suggests the pin mod might be required to run the Perc 5i in that board.

I'm running ESXi 4 with the Perc 5i with Dell firmware 5.1.1-0040 () with no problems. Also does the card have adequate cooling, it needs a fan or bigger heatsink unless there is direct airflow over the board.

BTW have you created a LUN on the Perc in it's BIOS setup?

HTH

[dustynz]

Usually if the card is initiates and the system boots then it is not needed.

I have however since modded the two pins (Cut) and changed the PCI slot.

Also fitted a CPU heatsync and forced air. Heatsync is warm to touch. Gets hot without fan. Cooling working good.

Works fine in Server 2008. ESX can import the disk but a few storage refresh's the drive comes and goes. If I try to copy anything to the drive it bombs.

ESX errors within seconds.

[J1mbo]

Does the card's health show up OK in vSphere Client?

[dustynz]

Health is all fine.

Under storage it has

Controller 0 (Perc 5/i integrated)

Battery

Drive 0 on con 0

Raid 0 SAS400 Log Volume

anpther 7 ports.

All green ticks.

[J1mbo]

Sorry, can't think of anything else of this other than giving Dell's firmware a whirl.

[mrsulu]

dustynz,

Did you ever get the P6T and the Perc 5/i working?

If so, what finally fixed it?

Thanks in advance for any info.

dw.

[Dean_Holland]

ESX can import the disk but a few storage refresh's the drive comes and goes. If I try to copy anything to the drive it bombs.

ESX errors within seconds.

Did you ever find a workaround for this? I'm getting the same issue on an Intel DQ45CB motherboard with a PERC 5/i (firmware 5.2.2-0072).

[dustynz]

Unfortunitley no.

I have tried different discs. Sata, 2.5" SAS and 3.5 SAS.

All have the same issue. Also had a funny issue where occasionly the card would loose its configs.

It does seem stable in windows. Been using it as a windows 7 desktop machine for about a month now.

I have purchased a second card and will do some testing with that in the next few weeks.

[J1mbo]

Anyone tried Dell firmware 5.1.1-0040 ()?

Please award points to any useful answer.

[Dean_Holland]

Yes. I tried 5.1.1-0040, 5.2.2-0072, LSI firmware and Intel firmware - all with the same result.

[microkid]

Same problems here. I had an Intel DG33TL mobo and upgraded it to a DQ45CB. Then trouble began. The Perc 5/i would be found (sometimes) but it could not be used. I could not create a vmdk on it.

Tried VMdirectpath. This seemed to work. Throughput in Windows was very fast, but I noticed file corruption. Files copied from a backup disk resulted in corrupt files.

I have no idea what's the cause of all this. The difference between the mobo's are marginal, except for vt-d support. But I can't get the ESXi server stable now. Think I swap back to the DG33TL.

[kjmoran]

Same problems here with Dell 410 server and Perc5 card/SAS Array MD1000. I notice the problem when create a datastore on the array. I can get the datastore added but whenever I write to it it will eventually error out and drop the LUN from the server. A rescan sometimes brings it back. Eventually the array gets marked as corrupt and the only way to get it back is to rebuild the array (3 hours) then it all fails again. All kind of MegaRaid SCSI Errors in the logs...

Vmware ESXi 4.0

Perc 5/E

HW Firmware 1.03-50.0461

Cntlr Version1.04-19a

Bios Version Mt28-9

[jacklty]

I have the same issue with my Perc 5i and RAID5 with 4 SATA drives. It keeps dropping new datastore I create. If I am lucky enough, it will have it long enough for initialize a new virtual machine, but it will say the datastore is corrupted when I try to install OS on it. At the end, I switch back to ESXi 3.5 U4 and I see all the datastores that ESXi 4 created .

On VMware compatible page, I found 2 entries for this card.

PERC 5i - http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?device_cat=io&device_id=9084

Dell PERC 5i Adapter - http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?device_cat=io&device_id=1037

PERC 5i only work on ESXi 3.x and Dell PERC 5i Adapter shows ESXi 4 on the list, but the driver is different from ESXi 3.x

Do anyone know there are 2 different models on PERC 5/i card?

Lam

System Config:

Intel Xeon L5520

12GB DDR3 Ram

Tyan S7010 motherboard

Dell Perc 5i (256MB + Battery) with 4 WD SATA drives

[Dean_Holland]

My card has the same PCI IDs as your second link, and it is in the HCL for ESXi 4. Moot point as I went back to Ubuntu/KVM for virtualisation at the moment.

Dean

[microkid]

Ok. update : I disabled vt-d in the bios and now the card is running fine. Shame that this card is not working properly with vt-d enabled, it was a very nice feature. But alas, all is working fine again now here, and faster than ever

[dustynz2]

I can confirm the disabling the VT-D setting in bios resolves this issue.

I have just successfully imported a VM onto the following

Asus P6T MB

Intel i7 920 Proc

12GB DDR3 ram

Perc5i with FW 5.1.1.040

3 x 2.5 SAS 140GB Drives

All working.

I actually gave up on this and got the machine running with and old Q6600 MB and CPU.

Running out of resources caused the re-investigation

Thanks microkid.

PS. I can't award points as my prev account is locked to an email which cannot be changed. Sigh.

[Sarel]

Two years later and this issue still exists.

I have a PowerEdge T110 that is having the exact same issue. It was working well for a week using the onboard controller and VT-d enabled. I connected drives to the PERC 5/i today and started having this issue. I'll try disabling VT-d and see if that resolves it.

[Sarel]

Disabling VT-d resolved it, but I need to run 64 bit machines.

I've now downgraded to 3.5 and I can use the PERC 5/i with VT-d enabled.

This is on a Dell PowerEdge T110. I thought 3.5 would not work with the integrated SATA controller but it does! Maybe it's because I am using the version with Dell customizations, but I thought that only included OpenManage, not additional drivers. Must be because it's 3.5 update 5.

The only pain is that I'll have to use VMWare Converter to convert all my machines over from hardware version 7 to version 4.

Thanks for all the information about this!

[mvrk]

I've tried Dell Perc 5/i on both ESXi 4 / 5 and it hangs at boot (Loading scheduler...)

Maybe it doesn't like my motherboard? Anyone tried this card on a non dell machine?