Qlogic Netxtreme II iScsi Adapter missing

[ryedaleit]

Newbie question.

We've just purchased 2 (seemingly identical)  Dell R710 power edge servers and installed ESXi 6.5. We are new to VM and are trying to make LUNS available from our Dell MD3220 Storage array.

When managing "Sever A" in vShpere Web Client I can see 4 x Qlogic Netxtreme II iScsi adapters, which I've configured ready. However the only iscsi adapter I see in server B is one "iscsi Software Adapter"

How/where do I install or enable Qlogic iscsi adapters on Server B? What do I need to download, how do I install? Are they really missing or are they just disabled etc.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

NS

[SureshKumarMuth]

Looks like a driver issue for me on server B which doesnt show the qlogic cards. Have you used the same image for deploying the ESXi server ?

Can you take ssh session to the esxi host B and run the following commands and post output

lspci | grep -i hba

esxcfg-scsidevs -a

esxcli software vib list |grep -i qla

[ryedaleit]

[root@XXXX:~] Ispci|grep -i hba

-sh: Ispci: not found

[root@XXXX:~] esxcfg-scsidevs -a

vmhba0  megaraid_sas      link-n/a  unknown.vmhba0                          (0000:03:00.0) LSI / Symbios Logic Dell PERC 6/i Integrated

vmhba1  vmkata            link-n/a  sata.vmhba1                             (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

vmhba64 vmkata            link-n/a  sata.vmhba64                            (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

vmhba65 iscsi_vmk         online    iscsi.vmhba65                           iSCSI Software Adapter

[root@XXXX:~] esxcli software vib list | grep -i qla

ima-qla4xxx                    2.02.18-1vmw.650.0.0.4564106          VMW     VMwareCertified   2018-01-25

scsi-qla4xxx                   5.01.03.2-7vmw.650.0.0.4564106        VMW     VMwareCertified   2018-01-25

[ryedaleit]

sorry, yes we did use the same image to deploy both servers

[SureshKumarMuth]

Can you run the commands on working server and compare, I can see qlogic driver is installed, if the outputs are same, check if the hardware (SCSI adapter ) is connected properly and ensure it is working fine. Meanwhile, I will check what else we can test here.

[ryedaleit]

Hi the following command on the working Server has all the Qlogic adapters, the first and last cmd are the same output

[root@RYEXXXX:~] esxcfg-scsidevs -a

vmhba0  megaraid_sas      link-n/a  unknown.vmhba0                          (0000:03:00.0) LSI / Symbios Logic Dell PERC 6/i Integrated

vmhba1  vmkata            link-n/a  sata.vmhba1                             (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

vmhba64 vmkata            link-n/a  sata.vmhba64                            (0000:00:1f.2) Intel Corporation 2 port SATA IDE Controller (ICH9)

vmhba32 bnx2i             unbound   iscsi.vmhba32                           QLogic NetXtreme II iSCSI Adapter

vmhba33 bnx2i             online    iscsi.vmhba33                           QLogic NetXtreme II iSCSI Adapter

vmhba34 bnx2i             online    iscsi.vmhba34                           QLogic NetXtreme II iSCSI Adapter

vmhba35 bnx2i             unbound   iscsi.vmhba35                           QLogic NetXtreme II iSCSI Adapter

[ryedaleit]

Hi did you manage to test anything? I still can't get the 4 Qlogic adapter to show in Server B

Thanks in anticipation.

[SureshKumarMuth]

Since the server is not detecting the card , we can check the following options

Connect the HBA to working host and check if that is getting detected, in that case we can confirm that the hardware is fine then we can proceed with reimaging the OS. If not, then it is the problem with the card which has to be replaced.

[ryedaleit]

Hi just wanted to put a closure on this issue.

Turns out our 'identical' Dell R710's were not that identical. Server 'B' was missing an iSCSI hardware key. See picture below. This plugs into the Motherboard and apparently enables iscsi capability for the on board NIC's

At time of writing we are requesting the key from our supplier. It remains to be proven that this key will enable the 4 iSCSI adapters in VCenter however all the evidence points to this being the crucial missing piece in the investigation.

[rpmurph83]

Any chance you have a picture of where this key was installed on the motherboard?