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AlexJoda
Contributor
Contributor

HP Smart Array controller Health Status with non HP Server and ESXi 5

For the upgrade to VSphere 5 of our existing HP Prolient servers we wanted to use newer Supermicro Units but stay with the Hp Smart Array P410i controllers and disks we had before. For this task we could only use the standard VSphere 5 installation ISO and not the HP version of it. As a result there was not health status from the P410i controller any more which is not acceptable for a production server.

Because the Smart Array controllers were also sold separatly we could not imagine that there might be a problem to install CIM providers for this controller, but this was wrong. The CIM providres are only available as part of the "HP ESXi Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi 5.0" which contains also other HP specific drivers (eg. Ilo drivers) which may be problematic on non HP hardware (PSOD). Because of this HP blocks the installation with the hint "BIOS vendor HP ist required but host BIOS vendor is....".

In the ESXi 4.x Version this was not that problem because you only have to edit the vmware.xml file inside the metadata.zip archiv (delete the unused vib sections and the hwPlatform lines) but with ESXi 5 we have a new format for the offline bundles and VIB files. The VIB files are now complete installers based on Debian .deb packages only renamed to .vib. Because of this we can extract the hp offilne bundle zip archiv and move the hp-smx-provider-500.02.10.13.44-434156.vib out of it. This is the Smart Array provider and the only file we need.

This file can be extracted with 7Zip, which recognizes it as a Debian Archiv (deb). Inside this archiv is a descriptor.xml file which has to be modified to avoid the "BIOS vendor..." error.  The following lines have to be deleted:

<hwplatform vendor="HP"/>

<hwplatform vendor="Hewlett-Packard Company"/>

<hwplatform vendor="Hewlett-Packard"/>

<hwplatform vendor="hp"/>

After that we have to pack the .vib file again. This can be done on a Linux or Mac OX (with Toolbox) System. Copy the 3 files from the .vib archiv to a folder inside the Linux disk (eg. tmp) for example with a tool like WinSCP. On the Linux console (Putty) walk to the folder with the 3 files and type in the folling command:

ar -r smx.deb descriptor.xml sig.pkcs7 hp-smx-provider

it is very important to use this exact order of the files ! Copy back and rename the smx.deb file to hp-smx-provider-500.02.10.13.44-434156.vib. Afterwards copy the file to the ESXi Server and install it with esxcli from the SSH console:

esxcli software vib install -f -v /vmfs/volumes/4ee96bcd-e80a45de-88f0-00259061b367/smx/hp-smx-provider-500.02.10.13.44-434156.vib

Reboot and you are done !

9 Replies
blckgrffn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Great, great, great post!  This is exactly what I needed for my P410 and whitebox "server."

For others out there, if you hit an error like:

('Hewlett-Packard_bootbank_hp-smx-provider_500.02.10.70.51-434156', 'Invalid PKCS7 digest.')
That means you need to put the -f flag in there (force) to overcome the error.

If you don't have an actual HP server, you can find the files needed by googling:
hp-esxi5.0uX-bundle-1.0-20.zip (7.3 MB)
I think browsed version history and plucked the latest version (as seen in the smx version listed above.)
Thanks again and good luck to others who may need this information Smiley Happy
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rbos3
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hiya! Some months ago I spent time finding a solution for my whitebox and be able to install the HPSA driver to monitor my disk health 🙂

Is it possible someone packages this driver and remove the HP hardware check?

This, for the latest release of ESXi 5.1

Thanks alot!

René

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sbhaugen
Contributor
Contributor

Worked perfectly.

Thank you!

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rbos3
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm bumping my old post; can someone help? The Offline bundles from HP available for vSphere 5.1 contain a driver/bios vendor check and won't allow me to install the bundles without HP hardware.

--- If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks! Visit my blog at http://snowvm.com ---
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gratch
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Alex,

I just followed your instructions on ESXi 5.1 with bundle version 1.4.5 (http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware-esxi/driver_version.html). My experience had two minor differences: the volume name and I didn't have to reboot.

In short, I'm trying to say that your instructions were excellent and that this was a VERY helpful post for me.  I want to send thanks from me and all the folks that are going to get this link. Well done!

Dave

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Still works for vSphere 5.1 for me as well.

As Dave mentioned, I did not have to reboot, but I did have to refresh the sensors.

Absolutely brilliant!

Thanks,

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Digitalcheffe
Contributor
Contributor

Figured I would update,

This also works for VMware 5.5 with HP ESXI Offline Bundle for VMware vShere 5.5

Extract and look for hp-smx-provider*.vib file. Extract with 7zip and modify with the descriptor xml file.

Use this post, and modify command for hp-smx-file

The author also throws in a utility for the ar command in his post found here

Read the post and you should be fine, once all said and done refresh/reset sensors. My reset of sensors failed the first time but was fine the second

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Rocky1972
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Anyone get the HP P400 controller working in ESX 6.5 ?

When yes please any help would be nice.

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ManuelG
Contributor
Contributor

I have the p400 working on ESXi 6.0 but since you ask for version 6.5 I figure it stopped working when you upgraded from 6.0 to 6.5?

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