How to use MegaRAID Storage Manager and ESXi 5.5 (I tried many things!)

[inivanoff1]

Hello, community members,

It is a second day I am trying to merry my ESXi 5.5 host (on a Fujitsu RX100 S8 server with LSI MegaRAID SAS controller) and MegaRAID Storage Manager (which is installed on a Windows PC on the same local network).

I have installed SMIS provider and driver:

lsiprovider	500.04.V0.54-0004	LSI	VMwareAccepted	2015-03-30
scsi-megaraid-sas	6.606.06.00-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820	LSI	VMwareCertified	2015-03-31

I have tried the multicast to unicast proxy as a Windows service (from http://kb.stonegroup.co.uk/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=199)

I have tried the troubleshooting options from here: http://kb.stonegroup.co.uk/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=195

- CIM server is running

- I see the health status of the controller in vSphere

- acceptance level is VMwareAccepted

- I have tried to disable the firewall in the ESXi and in Windows (for the test)

and the result is always the same:

My ESXI 5.5 host is found as 127.0.0.1 and for all issues in the net users are talking about a 0.0.0.0 problem, but my seems to be different?

Can someone tell me an easy and normal way to run the MegaRAID Storage manager and to login to my ESXi?

[cykVM · Accepted solution]

A wiki of a german server manufacturer (only available in german: MegaRAID Storage Manager für VMware ESXi 5.5 Server – Thomas-Krenn-Wiki) suggests to edit the local hosts file of the admin workstation to present IP/hostname of the ESXi host.

Maybe that's worth a try?

If you follow the screenshots (below the "MegaRAID Storage manager ausführen" topic) given in above wiki it might also help to do initial host configuration inside Storage Manager by clicking on "Configure Host..." button on the right and selecting "Display all the ESXi-CIMOM servers in the network of local server." [4th option] and afterwards "Save settings".

Hope that helps.

cykVM

[cykVM]

P.S. Is the IP address in you screenshot (IP Address: x.x.1.137) the IP of the local admin workstation or of the ESXi host you want to manage? The IP address field should be filled with the admin workstation's IP address and not with the ESXi's IP.

Further troubleshooting hints: http://mycusthelp.info/LSI/_cs/AnswerDetail.aspx?inc=7968

[inivanoff1]

*.*.*.137 is the IP of the Windows machine on which the MSM is running.

*.*.*.114 is the IP of the ESxi host in my case, but it does not appear (it appears as 127.0.0.1, localhost). Now I am going to try editing the hosts files and I will write again if everything is OK.

[JarryG]

Just a side-note: it is not obligatory to run MegaRAID Storage Manager at all, because you can handle everything (creating/monitoring arrays, changing settings, etc) with command-line utilities (storcli/megacli) running directly on ESXi. You can start them from cron every "x" minutes to check if arrays/drives are healthy and have it pre-configured to send you email in case anything suspicious is detected. I personally consider this way even safer, as it does not depend on VM running (and MSM running in VM all the time)...

[cykVM]

The admin workstation needs to be able to resolve the ESXi's hostname either by DNS or hosts file.

[inivanoff1]

@cykVM, thank you for the german reference. There are many useful articles from there, but I hadn't find exactly that german article. It resolved my problem!

@JarryG, thank you, too. I am using MegaCLI on the command line and everything works fine, but I want a tools for remote access if the ESXi can't boot for some reasons (and I want to have access to the RAID configuration).

[cykVM]

inivanoff1 schrieb:

@cykVM, thank you for the german reference. There are many useful articles from there, but I hadn't find exactly that german article. It resolved my problem!

Just to be clear on that: editing the hostfile and adding the ESXi hostname/IP solved your issue?

@JarryG, thank you, too. I am using MegaCLI on the command line and everything works fine, but I want a tools for remote access if the ESXi can't boot for some reasons (and I want to have access to the RAID configuration).

If the ESXi host PSOD or does not boot the CIM provider (lsiprovider) will not be running and MSM will have no access to the controller's config/status. At least that's what I would expect...

[inivanoff1]

@cykVM,

Yes, editing the hosts file solved the problem.

Now I am going to try to configure my RAID without ESXi booted, but you are maybe right, because the CIM provider will not be available...

[cykVM]

Maybe there's a way to integrate MSM into a bootable USB key with either Windows or Linux on it. A bootable Linux LIve CD might work, too.

[JarryG]

I am using MegaCLI on the command line and everything works fine, but I want a tools for remote access if the ESXi can't boot for some reasons (and I want to have access to the RAID configuration).

I suppose you have LSI-controller directly in your ESXi-server. But then if that particular ESXi-host can not boot (but can at least power-on), you have the only way to access LSI-controller, and that is by using KVM-module & WebBIOS.

[inivanoff1]

Mhm, yes... Thank you, guys!

[econcepts1337]

If you are getting 127.0.0.1 as the CIMOM server in MegaRaid Storage Manager in ESXI 5.5 or 6 (yes 6 works as well - use the VMW-ESX-6.0.0-lsi_mr3-6.611.05.00-3645680.zip driver for SAS-9260xx-xx)

Every time I build a new server I come back to this so this time I am adding the trick to the thread my self (for the me that finds it again later) I know the thread is old.

127.0.0.1 means that the esxi server is identifying itself as localhost - just login to the vsphere client, goto configuration, software, dns and routing, properties, and change the host name to something better than "localhost"

if its greyed out, select "use the following DNS server address and it will then let you change the hostname as well. You will have to shutdown and restart the esxi server for MSM to see the change.

Remember, you also have to edit your hosts file and put the SAME host that you used in the above along with its IP address for this to work.

That's it, as long as health status shows the "storage" option in the vpphere client this should be good.

[forevergroup]

Sounds tricky... does ServerView RAID Manager fit your requirements instead?

Dave @ Forever Group