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iojik
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ESXi 5.0 / 3ware 9690SA-8i

Raid controller is no longer supported?

it was supported in 4.x but not in 5.x?

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SolarBean
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Thanks to this post here and a few others, I made some progress but I'm still somewhat stuck.

  1. I was able to download the appropriate driver for my 3Ware 9690SA-4I from http://kb.lsi.com/KnowledgebaseArticle15753.aspx#vmware
  2. I put the host in maintenance mode
  3. I enabled ssh via firewall in vSphere client - Configuration tab, security profile, and then select properties on services, start and emable it automatically.
  4. Download putty
  5. Connect to server via ssh
  6. Then I ran the command on the server "esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/4eb24bb5-9fc66561-e9a8-8c89a5614d30/scsi-3w-9xxx-3.26.08.036-1OEM.500.0.0.406165.x86_64.vib --no-sig-check" based on where I uploaded the file to.
  7. I rebooted
  8. Then I exited maintenance mode

Now the controller shows up but it only shows my 2.04TB array as a 4.00 gb. I can't figure out what is mising to make it see the whole array. When I try to add storage, it tells me only have 4.00 gb and it will delete the entire array. I can't have that as I have guests that I need to turn on from my 3.5 installation.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance for your help and time.

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tjn
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Does your controller have new enough firmware to support disks over 2 TB?

I don't know 9690, but at least 9650 requires rather new firmware to support disks this big.

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SolarBean
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I've figured out that because my raid size was 2.04TB, it's larger than the 2.0TB limit and ESXi can't read it. Sadly, I created this LUN and used it without an issue in ESX 3.5 but they put in a hard limit and I happy to be right over the limit preventing me from accessing my data on the drive.Smiley Sad

I do have the older hardware that I'll spin back up, attached a stand alone 1.5TB SATA disk and then migrate the VM's over. Then I'll blast away the 2.04 and make one that is slightly smaller. I really would love to get around this instead of this but I don't have more time to burn as my VM's have been down a few days already because of this upgrade.

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justinfielding
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I thought the new version of VMFS with ESXi5 supports larger LUNs but the datastore needs to be created fresh (e.g. you can't upgrade it).  I just exported my VMs to OVF's, plan to splat my ESXi 4.1 box and run a fresh install with a new datastore.  Will report back.

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justinfielding
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Working fine, new data-store over 2TB recognised (don't need to have auto-carving enabled in 3ware BIOS).  Still states tha maximum VMDK filesize is 2TB.  Just importing my OVF's but all seems in order, the VIB loaded fine using the cli command mentioned earlier in the thread.

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serenity2011101
Contributor
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PLEASE HELP!!! It looks as if they have taken down the link to download the 5.0 driver.  Can you someone please post it for me?  I badly need this as soon as possible.  You will make my day!  Email it if you can.  mike@serenity-networks.com   Thanks!

A+, Network+, Security+, CEH, ECSA, CHFI, LPT, Sun Solaris Certified Network Administrator, (Expired) VCP-4.0 (hope to have it again when money grows on trees and I can afford an extortion class) =^)
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svarco82
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The driver still seems to be available on the direct download link: ftp://tsupport:tsupport@ftp0.lsil.com/private/3Ware/kbarticledrivers/scsi-3w-9xxx-3.26.08.036-1OEM.5...tsupport@ftp0.lsil.com/private/3Ware/kbarticledrivers/scsi-3w-9xxx-3.26.08.036-1OEM.500.0.0.406165.x86_64.vib Smiley Happy

Your welcome.

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teledataconsult
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Uggg.

I had this working with  ESXi 5.0 on my 3ware 9650.

I forgot that this host was the one with the 3ware controller, and ran the updates.

the support for the controller dissappeared.  I attempted to reinstall:

esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/scsi-3w-9xxx-3.26.08.036-1OEM.500.0.0.406165.x86_64.vib --no-sig-check -f

and got this:

Installation Result
   Message: Host is not changed.
   Reboot Required: false
   VIBs Installed:
   VIBs Removed:
   VIBs Skipped: LSI_bootbank_scsi-3w-9xxx_3.26.08.036-1OEM.500.0.0.406165

Guess I need to re-install the vanilla ESXi 5 and NOT update it.....

bleh

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JustinF
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They seem to have removed the ESXi 5 drivers, what gives?

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tjn
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So they have :disappointed_face:

I gave up waiting for the 3ware drivers, and purchased a couple of pieces of Areca ARC-1213-4i cards (there is also 1223-8i). So far I'm happy with that decision. That card has drivers, but also an ethernet management interface, which I find valuable. RAID alone in worthless, unless you know about its health, and 3ware drivers alone wouldn't tell if the disk set is redundant etc.

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JustinF
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Worked great for me.  I only looked again as I'm thinking of swapping my HP Microserver chassis for a Dell T110II to give it come extra grunt.

You can check the RAID status using a bash script checking the output of tw_cli.

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teledataconsult
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What build of vSphere 5.0 are you running?

The GA required a manual install of the driver from LSI (3ware)

LSI then pulled those drivers from their website and posted: "Note: 3ware drivers for ESXi 5.0 are not yet available but are in the process of being developed."

If you ran their drivers with the GA of vSPhere 5 you were fine.

But if you run the latest patches/updates the RAID controller would no longer be recognized, and you couldn't install the manual driver...

Unless a recent VMware patch changed this???

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JustinF
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Pretty sure I'm running the general release.  Haven't installed any VMware updates - it works fine so I've had no need.  Weird that they'd pull the drivers like that.

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JustinF
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Still working fine.  Just loaded the driver on my new T110.  The server wont allow the card to run it's BIOS based setup program (PMM memory error) so I had to configure a new array via tw_cli but all working apart from that.

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JustinF
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It looks like I need to install a patch for Windows 8 support Smiley Sad

Bit concerned I might loose my datastore.  If the patch causes the 3ware driver to drop out can I still recover the datastore?  Worst case if I had to re-install ESXi from scratch would it detect the old datastore and all data remain intact?  Is it possible to export a config for the host so that I can recover/roll-back easily?

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svarco82
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I the RAID-Set on the controller is still ok, don't worry. Even after a new installation of ESXi, it automatically detects the datastores and you can add them back in a minute - provided that you install ESXi itself on another disk then the datastore is.

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sconsulting
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Contributor

Is there now built in support for the 3ware 9699SA-8i controller in the newly released Vsphere Update 1??

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_esxi50_u1_rel_notes.html

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tjn
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Probably no built-in 3ware support yet, since release notes mention only the new MegaRAID driver.

Anyway, LSI website has 3ware drivers again, for 9650 and 9690, both ESXi5.0 and ESXi5.0u1. Not (yet?) 9750 driver for ESXi5.0u1.

http://kb.lsi.com/KnowledgebaseArticle15753.aspx#vmware

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sconsulting
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What would be the easiest procedure to upgrade from ESXI 4.1 to 5.1 with the 3ware 9690SA-8i controller?  I have two Datastores on the controller, including the ESXI OS.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Kind regards,

R

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tjn
Contributor
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The easiest, the safest, and the best are not necessarily the same way... the latter two depend on what is important on your system, and what your system is like.

Maybe the easiest: download the ESXi Customizer (http://v-front.blogspot.com/p/esxi-customizer.html) and build a new 5.0u1 install media with 3ware support included. And then run the upgrade and wish for good luck...

Then a safer way: I don't know how many disks you have in your system, or if you have a spare controller etc. But I always try to make a test run first, if possible... Since ESXi4 install only takes minutes to run, I would make an temporary 4.x install first on spare disks (borrow the controller from old system if don't have a spare, and if you can allow some more downtime to play safer) and try that upgrade first. If it goes ok, only then the real upgrade run...

A simple special case: if you have only raid1 (mirror), run the system down first, remove a half of the mirror (a "backup") and upgrade only a degraded system. If it works, then rebuild the mirror. If it doesn't, then return back to old disks...

ESXi5 supports new version of vmfs file system, I think it may be upgraded too, but not all new features will be available that way, if I remember correctly. So, I also would consider installing a new system onto new disks (maybe just one datastore might be now enough, since the size limits are much bigger) and then somehow (scp?) move the data from the old disks...

If you happen to choose to use bigger disks than before, and they exceed 2TB, make sure to check the firmware version of your controller, and upgrade if an upgrade is available. Older versions may not support >2TB.

Btw, if you find out there are any working management tools for 3ware controllers in ESXi5, pls tell about it... Though I'm a long-time 3ware user/fan, I decided to switch over to Areca controllers in ESXi since there was no way to manage / monitor the raid sets in a running 3ware/ESXi system (it used to work only in the controller bios). Areca has nice (and not more expensive than 3ware) controllers that have ethernet port for management.

--

TiN

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