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marklphillips
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 7.0 installer not detecting LSI 9240-8i RAID controller

Hi All

According to the ESXi 7.0 hardware compatibility list, the LSI 9240-8i RAID controller is supported natively.

However, when installing with the standard ESXi 7.0 ISO, the installer fails to detect the controller and reports unsupported hardware found.

The server is a Lenovo TS140, with onboard SATA disabled.

I am able to access the 9240's web bios to configure the virtual drives, etc.

Windows 10 will install on the same box and detect the controller with no issues.

Am I missing something obvious?

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marklphillips
Contributor
Contributor

Does anyone have any ideas?

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Try getting the device IDs as mentioned in this KB article: VMware Knowledge Base

Then check those against the HCL (link in the KB) - it may be that your particular derivative of the card is not supported.


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marklphillips
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the reply.

Yep, it is supported according to the HCL. Here is the output of vmkchdev -l

0000:01:00.0 1000:0073 1000:9240 vmkernel vmhba0

                       VID:DID SVID:SSID

Here is the HCL page

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=12371&releasei...

I've just tried installing ESXi 6.7U3 with the custom Lenovo ISO (which includes the Megaraid driver by default) and it picks up the card with no problems.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

In the absence of a custom ISO from Lenovo, this might help: Installation Instructions for VMware ESXi 7.x on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers - GB


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
GawainXX
Contributor
Contributor

Have you been able to upgrade the system to 7.0?

I purchased a 9240-8i in hopes of being able to upgrade to 7.0 but am running into the same issue where it's "Unsupported" although the ID's match the HCL entry for 7.0

1000:0073, 1000:9240

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marklphillips
Contributor
Contributor

No, I haven't tried since I got 6.7u3 running.

Are you using a Lenovo server?

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ESXiClash
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I Hope you got the Drivers from VMware Site which meets the Firmware of your Controller and after installing the required Drivers do check if the module is loaded or not

esxcfg-module -q check if Required Module is loaded or not. At times there would be different Module could be loaded you might need to disable to run the correct module.

you can use esxcfg-module -e or esxcfg-module -d . After Enabling/disabling module you need to restart the Server.

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GawainXX
Contributor
Contributor

Well I did a bit of digging, and it's not detecting because there aren't actually entries in LSI_MR3 for the 9240-8i

According to the KB page, it should be a "VMware Inbox, Native" driver and come bundled with 7.0

My test install of 7.0b reported the version that's supposedly required "7.712.50.00-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807"

VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search

Digging through LSI_MR3.map and lsi_mr3.ids I do not see it listed, The only thing remotely close is the Perc H310

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000005f10281f4e......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000007310281f4e......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000007310281f50......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000007310281f51......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000007310281f52......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=1000007310281f53......,driver=lsi_mr3

regtype=native,bus=pci,id=100000ce..............,driver=lsi_mr3

I'd expect to see 1000007310009240 in there.

I wonder what would happen if I forcefully added the HWids into the LSI_MR3 tables, using the following guide as a reference....

https://polarclouds.co.uk/esxi7-missing-percs/

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GawainXX
Contributor
Contributor

I tried adding it to the LSI_MR3 and no dice.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's either falsely marked as compatible or there was some sort of retraction from lsi_mr3 at some point?

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AveryFreeman
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I had a very similar set of symptoms with an Adaptec SmartHBA 2100.  It was advertised as being compatible with native 7.0 drivers, but I couldn't get ESXi to recognize it as an HBA.  It would show up in lspci, but that's it.

I upgraded the firmware for the HBA and it started working fine after that. Have you tried updating the firmware yet?

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