VMware Cloud Community
zeevik
Contributor
Contributor

ESX 4.0 installed on Intel DQ45ek with SATA drive but no networking (and a "scsi" issue)

Trying to Install ESX 4.0 on Intel DQ45ek board with SATA drive.

ESX installation identifies the onboard Gigabit Ethernet card 82567LM-3, but does not idenfoty the link(installation shows no link, ethtool shows no link), although successfully connected to a GbE switch (same result for 10/100 switch).

Miitool shows the driver is e1000e.

Do I need a custom driver ? Any other solution / configuration ?

I added another Intel GbE PCI card (82541PI) which was working fine on 3.5 ESX host, but installation does not detect it, nor the ESX shell after reboot.

In addition, when shutting down the ESX host, (shell shutdown, reboot or halt), shutdown starts, but gets stuck at the following message:

"Syncronizing SCSI cache for disk sda"

And shutdown is not completed.

Any help will be highly appreciated,

Zeevik.

Reply
0 Kudos
19 Replies
Datto
Expert
Expert

See if there's a System BIOS upgrade for your motherboard.

Datto

Reply
0 Kudos
zeevik
Contributor
Contributor

BIOS was just updated to latest - CB0083 (Rev. 0083, released 5/13/2009).

No change. Smiley Sad

any help will be appreciated .

Thanks,

Zeevik.

Reply
0 Kudos
jccasey
Contributor
Contributor

I'm having the same "hang on shutdown/reboot" issue. Intel DQ45CB / Core2Quad 8400. on shutdown displays the same "scsi synchronization" message, but never completes.

Updated latest BIOS Rev 85, dated 6/10/2009.

Also, installing esx using the onboard NIC does not work. ESX recognizes the NIC and loads the drivers. The NIC link light is on, but no traffic can pass.

I ended up disabling the on board NIC and adding a PCI Intel NIC.

Reply
0 Kudos
zeevik
Contributor
Contributor

And the PCI nic works fine ?

for me, also PCI nic was not working.

On the installation process, when chossing management interface, the ESX did not see any nic (onboard, pci, pci-e) with link.

Reply
0 Kudos
jccasey
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, the PCI NIC is an old Intel 10/100 FA111. I suspect all of these problems have to do with VMware's device drivers not handling edge cases of new HW functionality.

If you use an old intel NIC, you should be fine. The SATA "scsi synchronization hang" is a more troubling case. Maybe they are not handling the sata sync command correctly in their drivers.

Reply
0 Kudos
zeevik
Contributor
Contributor

As far as I read and investigated, the problem is the e1000e.o driver.

To run this board with ESXi 3.5, there is a 3rd party e1000e.o driver which solves all issues.

ESX 4.0 has e1000e.o driver, but probably no updated enough (and using the ESXi 3.5 e1000e.o driver is not working as well).

Reply
0 Kudos
3apa3a_b_ta3e
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Same issues with Intel DG35EC, but IMHO "shutdown issue" has nothing to do with SCSI because i seen it both with ServiceConsole on ICH10 and Adaptec 2405 RAID installation. ESX and ESXi build 164009, now i`m downloading lastest ESXi build to try it.

ESXi build 171294 working great, but i want to try ESX because of simple local RAID-card monitoring and usb-UPS support.

Message was edited by: 3apa3a.b.ta3e

Reply
0 Kudos
davercyclone
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Guys,

There is a fix to the network issue, I had this in my 4-box testing environment...from the console as root enter:

esxcfg-module -s IntMode=0,0,0,0 e1000e

I believe there is a switch on the NIC driver that needs to be reset? Anyway, once you have entered this, reboot and all should be working fine. Note, install as normal (even with is showing 'disconnected') and run this once installed.

Hope this helps, I am not having any luck with the shutdown issue though.

Reply
0 Kudos
DAPBENJAMIN
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Did you ever solve the "reboot hang" problem?

Regards,

Darren

Reply
0 Kudos
jccasey
Contributor
Contributor

Probably. But I haven't needed to reboot that machine since this happened... keeping my fingers crossed.

Is there a resolution?

John Casey

email: john.a@casey.net

mobile: 415.215.0854

Reply
0 Kudos
DAPBENJAMIN
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Still searching for one!

Regards,

Darren

Reply
0 Kudos
qyest
Contributor
Contributor

Had the SCSI issue last week after upgrading to 4.0 U1; never had this happen before on 3.5 nor on 4.0 (non-U1).

System applied the U1 update and then said a reboot was required. With host still in maintenance mode I clicked reboot in the VI client... but on shutdown I can see on system console that "synchronizing SCSI cache for disk sd?" msgs displays and then gets hung up with timeouts. System never reboots. Had to hard boot it, and then all was fine. Error did not appear again when I rebooted it a second time.

This happened to all 3 of our servers, updated with latest BIOS (one system even had a new mainboard). Anyone else experience this?

At first I thought this was related to U1, but on second thought, it must have been from the original 4.0 update. I can confirm, then, that U1 did fix this issue.

Message was edited by: qyest

Reply
0 Kudos
DAPBENJAMIN
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Update 1 has fixed ALL of the machines I had this "scsi hang" on.

Regards,

Darren

Reply
0 Kudos
efacchin
Contributor
Contributor

Had the SCSI issue last week after upgrading to 4.0 U1; never had this happen before on 3.5 nor on 4.0 (non-U1).

........

</div>

I have the same issue after upgrading to 4.0 U1 last week. In 3.5 and

4.0 it never happened.

Reply
0 Kudos
tjcooper
Contributor
Contributor

FYI - I am experiencing the same issue on a HP DL380 G6 on ESX 4 U1.

Reply
0 Kudos
mikeh19d
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the same exact issue regarding the "Synchronizing SCSI cache for disk.." I am running VMware on a HP BL480p U1. Has there a fix for this yet?

Reply
0 Kudos
andrew1344
Contributor
Contributor

Has anyone found an answer to the "hang problem"?

Reply
0 Kudos
egroeg1
Contributor
Contributor

Same problem for me, researching today, will update post if discover a fix.

  • My situation is:

  • HP DL 360 G6

  • ESX 4.0.0 build: 171294

  • DotHill 2332 iSCSI 24 disk array

  • Network cards for iSCSI, I have used: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5709

  • I have also tested with Intel 82571EB (same issue)

Attached is the screen image of ESX Host when shutting down. Shutdown command was sent by vSphere Client GUI and all guest vms were powered off.

" Synchronizing SCSI cache for disk sdX " message continues and I have to hold down power button to kill server.

Reply
0 Kudos
dkraut
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Had the same issue here while upgrading from ESX 4.0 to 4.0 Update 1. Was wondering why the server never rebooted. Luckily, I had remote access to the console and saw that it was stuck in a never ending "synchronizing SCSI cache for disk" loop. I manually powered off and rebooted and all is well.

Reply
0 Kudos