ESXi cannot detect disks.

[itinferv]

Hi, I'm running esxi 6 and having trouble detecting disks. esx just can't see them at all whereas a ubuntu live disk can. I have an ssd and 2 hdd's connected through an adaptec 6405 raid contoller card in their own individual JBOD's, this is a configuration that works on two of our other servers. I have tried re-initialising disk and rebuilding partition table in gparted but nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

Raid controller is on HCL http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=20867&deviceCat...

Driver is installed

[brunofernandez1]

try this on the command line:

esxcli storage core device list

Or this one

esxcli storage core path list

With the command you should at least see the disks.

Maybe you can post the output?

Regards

Bruno

[itinferv]

Hi Bruno,

Here are the outputs, only the USB drive that esxi is installed is visible.

[root@localhost:~] esxcli storage core device list

mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)

   Has Settable Display Name: false

   Size: 7388

   Device Type: Direct-Access

   Multipath Plugin: NMP

   Devfs Path: /vmfs/devices/disks/mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   Vendor: Kingston

   Model: DataTraveler 2.0

   Revision: 1.00

   SCSI Level: 2

   Is Pseudo: false

   Status: on

   Is RDM Capable: false

   Is Local: true

   Is Removable: true

   Is SSD: false

   Is VVOL PE: false

   Is Offline: false

   Is Perennially Reserved: false

   Queue Full Sample Size: 0

   Queue Full Threshold: 0

   Thin Provisioning Status: unknown

   Attached Filters:

   VAAI Status: unsupported

   Other UIDs: vml.0000000000766d68626133323a303a30

   Is Shared Clusterwide: false

   Is Local SAS Device: false

   Is SAS: false

   Is USB: true

   Is Boot USB Device: true

   Is Boot Device: true

   Device Max Queue Depth: 1

   No of outstanding IOs with competing worlds: 32

   Drive Type: unknown

   RAID Level: unknown

   Number of Physical Drives: unknown

   Protection Enabled: false

   PI Activated: false

   PI Type: 0

   PI Protection Mask: NO PROTECTION

   Supported Guard Types: NO GUARD SUPPORT

   DIX Enabled: false

   DIX Guard Type: NO GUARD SUPPORT

   Emulated DIX/DIF Enabled: false

[root@localhost:~] esxcli storage core path list

usb.vmhba32-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   UID: usb.vmhba32-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)

   Adapter: vmhba32

   Channel: 0

   Target: 0

   LUN: 0

   Plugin: NMP

   State: active

   Transport: usb

   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba32

   Target Identifier: usb.0:0

   Adapter Transport Details: Unavailable or path is unclaimed

   Target Transport Details: Unavailable or path is unclaimed

   Maximum IO Size: 122880

[RichardBush]

You can use this Link to confirm if exsi is detecting the adapter:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100391...

and this link should help you confirm the drivers used are correct:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103467...

Rich

[brunofernandez1]

as you see your controller and disks are not recognized with esxi.

maybe you have to install the drivers:

Adaptec - VMware ESXi 5

[itinferv]

I can see the pci slot is detected with this - lspci -vvv

0000:05:00.0 RAID bus controller Mass storage controller: Adaptec Series 6 Entry Level - ASR-6405E - 4 internal 6G SAS ports

         Class 0104: 9005:028b

esxcli software vib list | egrep raid shows -

scsi-aacraid                   1.1.5.1-9vmw.600.0.0.2494585          VMware  VMwareCertified   2015-03-20

I will install the latest version of the driver see if that helps

[itinferv]

if I could unzip the tar package without an invalid tar magic error

[brunofernandez1]

probally you will have to give a "force" parameter or something similar because those drivers are for 5.x and not for 6.0

if this helped you, dont forget mark the question as resolved 😉

[RichardBush · Accepted solution]

Here is the card on HAL: VMware Compatibility Guide: I/O Device Search

Here is the ex 6 version https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-PMC-AACRAID-62140709&productId=490

R

[itinferv]

Thanks, this driver fixed the problem