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ChristTheGreat
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vsphere 6.7 LSI raid card, can't get drive status

Hi!

I have this server setup at home:

SuperMicro X10SLL-F

Intel Xeon E3-1241 v3

32GB 3CC 1600

LSI 8708EM2

2x Velociraptor 10k 300gb RAID 1

4x WD Red 2TB Raid 5

I was running Vsphere 6.0 since a long time, and I decided to go over 6.7. Installation worked fine, I have access to everything, all is working... Except 2 things:

1. I can't get my LSI 8708EM2 (detected as a 1078) to show drive status

2. Can't get my Storage Manager to access disk info or rebuild raid.

When I was on vSphere 6.0, I was able to see my drive status (and veeam one could alert me), and with my WIndows VM, I had LSI MSM and I was able to configure the raid card.

So what I did:

Install SAS driver I was using in version 6 --> not working

Installed the SMIS I had  --> not working

Installed lastest SMIS  --> not working

Disabled the Firewall --> not working

I have no idea what else I can do. I know it's an old card, but I got it for cheap. Any idea how can I get this fixed?

Thanks

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afikzach
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does someone has any update on this...?

i looking for days about solution for this issue

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pzwahlen
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Hi,

Since the release of 6.7u3, Broadcom apparently have flagged the existing provider for both 6.5 and 6.7 (I think it was only flagged for 6.5 before that).

I have installed the provider on a 6.7u3 (where it was previously failing with 6.7u2) and what I can say is:

- It doesn't seem to crash anymore (no core dumps)

- LSA can talk to it

However, as my server has no IPMI whatsoever, I still don't get any health information in the web UI but that might be normal.

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KrAlIg
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KrAlIg
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KrAlIg
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Here is the logical config

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pzwahlen
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As far as I can tell, the smis provider seems to work better with 6.7 u3

- the provider doesn't crash on ESXi

- the ESXi web ui shows storage information

However, so far this information doesn't show up in vCenter so I still don't know if a disk failure would get detected via vCenter alerts.

Cheers!

pzwahlen
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Oh, and LSA can talk to the host!

I have even been able to add multiple ESXi to a single LSA, which I think was an issue a couple months ago.

Cheers!

TKnijn
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Does it also communicate with MSM again?

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KrAlIg
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Nope

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TKnijn
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That's too bad... Stuck on 6.5 then...

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KrAlIg
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6.5 U2 works with MSM

6.5 U3  you have to use LSA instead of MSM

6.7 until U3 doesn't works with LSI provider at all

6.7 U3 works with LSA

I don't see the reason being stuck on 6.5 U2

TKnijn
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And, just to be sure, this is with the latest smis-provider (mr7.9 - 00.73.00.02)?

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KrAlIg
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yes

clifford64
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I must be doing something wrong.

I have installed the SMIS provider as stated.

I tried grabbing the latest version of LSA I could find, 4.012.000.000 and it picks up my esxi server intially during discovery, but then when I try to login to it with root, I am told that the user account does not have write permission. After restarting the computer with LSA installed, it no longer picks up my esxi server through discovery and I cannot find a way to manually add the server by ip.

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KrAlIg
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Try to turn off  the firewall.

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clifford64
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I did try turning off the firewall and that didn't work.

I was able to get it working by using version 5.x of LSA. It then allowed  me to login to my esxi server and change the settings of the controller.

I played around with it for a little bit, but it seems like they have a lot more they need to improve upon because I could not do nearly as much as you can with MSM and storcli.

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yzsz
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The storage monitor of the WebUI of my 6.7 U3 server doesn't work still, but the LSA works pretty fine with U3. And I really don't know what wrong it is after many attempts to try to update both of the driver & SMIS provider were all failed. I even had my 6.7U3 re-installed.

FYI, mine is MegaRAID 9260-8i.

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karl3
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Hi,

I am having the same issues with my LSI Controller (9266-8i) and the latest ESXi Version that worked for me was 6.5 Update2 .


May I ask you how you have managed to see Controller/HDD Infos in ESXi Environment?

I have used the lateset SMIS Provider Latest SMIS Providers from Broadcom Site but I still cannot see anything in VMWare Console.

Is there a Workaround or am I doing something wrong.

I am using a LSI 9266-8i Controller in my Homelab Server.

Thank you

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yzsz
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Hi karl3,

To my experience, for those legacy products like my 9260-8i, you may NOT be able to see any Controller/HDD info via the WebUI (refer to my screenshot). BUT, you may alternatively use LSA(LSI Storage Authority) instead, the substiution of MSM, to remotely manage/monitor your RAID controller, provided your ESXi server is 6.7 Update3(or above).

This is so far I can do after many attempts to try to make it work were all failed. Hope VMware will resolve this problem at the next release/patch.

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freeloader3
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Hi, yzsz

Tell me please, wich version of LSA is work for you?

I have ESXi 6.7U3 and try many versions of LSA, but cant login to host with error "getClass: classname VMware_UserAuthorizationService not found" in syslog.

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