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iojik
Contributor
Contributor

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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hakkern
Contributor
Contributor

its ok.. i will find out my self;)

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tjn
Contributor
Contributor

Hard to say anything for your motherboard need, I don't know your requirements. For small systems I use Intel S1200BTS boards, it's a low-cost server board that is also in the list for ESXi5 supported hardware. One CPU socket, including E3 Xeons, and 4 memory slots. If you need multiple CPUs or better memory upgradeability, then this is not what you need.

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hakkern
Contributor
Contributor

it only a home system ... home server system but i like to add machines to expore the features..  as part of my study i like to see this how they work.

Im currently bidding on this item Areca ARC-1220 on ebay.. i think this raid controller will work fine for me fore now.

i dont bother have to use so mutch money on a home server system.. but i still have som requriements sutch as raid 5 and manby som more opetuneties. ive seartched a lot since last time i posted here.. when i was dealing whit my old card.. i also flashed the mainboard bios and the firware for the raid card.. Smiley Happy  no change..

i got a lot of help here an ive decided to get a new card.. i also will buy a new motherbord in time..


my specs are now..


Arima motherboard NM46X  12 Gb om Ecc DDRII mem..

5 * 1 TB black editions in raid 5 ..

And 2 * dual cores..  2 socets..

Rest of the system is standard Smiley Wink

i want fast drives and i want raid 5. my home server dosent use all of the machines power..i allso will add more drives.. soon:)

regrats håkon

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reesewon
Contributor
Contributor

Do you know if tw_cli works in 5.0 u1?  I am trying and all I am getting is:

-sh: tw_cli: Permission denied

I really would like to monitor my raid, as it seems that the 3ware driver doesn't have ANY vCenter monitoring for the array...

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sconsulting
Contributor
Contributor

reesewon schrieb:

Do you know if tw_cli works in 5.0 u1?  I am trying and all I am getting is:

-sh: tw_cli: Permission denied

I really would like to monitor my raid, as it seems that the 3ware driver doesn't have ANY vCenter monitoring for the array...

Yes, tw_cli works fine in 5.0 u1 - eventually you don't have any execute permission set on tw_cli? The file owner/group should be root and chmod to 0700 at least .

Hope this helps.

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reesewon
Contributor
Contributor

I performed:

chown root tw_cli

chmod 0700 tw_cli

and it still gives the same error.  I must be missing something?

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sconsulting
Contributor
Contributor

reesewon schrieb:

I performed:

chown root tw_cli

chmod 0700 tw_cli

and it still gives the same error.  I must be missing something?

Try chown root:root tw_cli - if that doesn't work try chmod 777 tw_cli.  Where is your tw_cli located?  I put it on one of the datastores and it works fine there.  Please find attached the tw_cli which works on my Vsphere 5 U1 host (use at your own risk).

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reesewon
Contributor
Contributor

I tried that file, put it into the root of the local storage datastore, and ran the chown root:root and chmod 777 on it and I still get the permission denied.  Does it have anything to do with the fact that the system is running in a vCenter?  Or am I supposed to enable some mode to allow these commands to be run?

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sconsulting
Contributor
Contributor

You have to enable SSH on the host and then connect directly via SSH (I use PUTTY) to execute tw_cli.  At least that's how I do it.

There's even a Nagios checking script to automatically monitor the Raid Array:

http://www.shuse.de/wordpress/vmware-esxi-4-uberwachen-eines-3ware-raid-controllers-mit-nagios/

It's in German but Google Translate should help you :slightly_smiling_face:  I haven't had time to try this script yet.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Romeo

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varesa
Contributor
Contributor

I have installed a fresh ESXi 5.1 and on it the 3w-9xxx driver. The vSphere client sees the controller fine.

I pushed the tw_cli to the server, and created a raid 1 array:

/c9 add type=raid1 disk=0-1 noscan

It also finds the array. The problem comes when I try to create a datastore on it. The "Add Storage"-wizard show it as "Local AMCC Disk" with the correct size. I select the disk, and the a VMFS version. After pressing next on the VMFS selection screen, I show this error:

Call "HostDatastoreSystem.QueryVmfsDatastoreCreateOptions" for object "ha-datastoresystem" on ESXi "192.168.0.190" failed.

Then it just sits there with the "Next >" button grayed out. It also says on the "Review the current disk layout:" screen, that the disk is blank, and Available: --.

Should the disk be formated first somehow, if so, how do I do that on the ESXi?

EDIT: I was able to solve this problem by creating a MBR partition table on the raid array using ssh to the console

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Greg07755
Contributor
Contributor

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?dlg=esxi50&baseCode=dHRAYnQldGViZHAlZA==

Give that a try... Had the same issue trying to get the file however found this finally.  Still working on the process myself.

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Box293
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Anyone reading this thread should check out ESXi-Customizer.

http://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer.html

I had a custom ISO with the 3Ware 9750 controller VIB created in a matter of minutes, it was so simple. Just point and click.

VCP3 & VCP4 32846 VSP4 VTSP4
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