HP CIM storage providers using DL185

[beovax]

Bit of a long shot here, we have a DL185 server which we have succesfully installed ESX4 with no problems and ESX4i with no problems. I know this isnt on the supported hardware list. We are using HP P600 raid controller and supported NIC's and CPU's.

We really want to ber able to see the health of the storage using the default CIM providers using the VI client. We downloaded the HP version of esx4i today, all works well ofr 5 min, we can open the VI client and see the storage health all ok. We then get a purple screen of death.

Is there away of manually importing just the HP CIM providers for the storage into a vanilla ESX4 or 4i insrtalaltion? we can install the array managment utilities into esx4 but this isnt as tidy, just using the VI client which we are in and out off all day.

Cheers

Michael

[DSTAVERT]

It was reported that it may be the LACK of the ILO card that causes the PSOD. You can add the ILO card You may be able to adapt something for the DL385 with ESX but it certainly would not be supported

[beovax]

Thank you for the reply - is it possible to get ESXi to ignore the missing ilo? The DL185 is running a ilo100i but this inst a true HP server, just one they have rebadged from my understanding.

Or if possible is it possible to add the HP stroage CIM providers to a vanilla ESX or ESXi host?

Cheers

Michael

[DSTAVERT · Accepted solution]

No matter what you do you risk destabilizing the server. I don't know what the ILO 100 card supports but the 300 series card does allow you to query the ILO card directly for vario9us things. Have a look at this link for an[ILO script|http://vmprofessional.com/index.php?content=vmpimlscan].

[beovax]

problem is the ilo100 doesnt show any information on the disk subsytem - not very impressive

I guess the only hope is to pray that vmware will add the storage CIM providers for the HP arrays as they have with the dell perc controllers

[jiths]

The ILO is for monitoring server hardware health. It works based on IPMI implementation of HP. If I remember correctly HP IPMI just gets the information of the disk's presence, failure & removal, but not details of the RAID configuration.HP Managent agents / HP CIM providers gets the RAID information from the storage driver. The PSOD may have relation with iLO, I don't think the stoarge information has a relation. I recommend you to upgrade all the server firmware (BIOS,ILO & if possible storage/NIC fw also)& give a try.

[beovax]

If I login to the ILO via the webinterface it doesnt show any details of the Raid or disks - seems the ILO 100 isnt a full HP ILO card. I have the latest firmware isntalled for all components.

As you say I think the casue of the PSOD is the missing ILO which would normally be there on the supported hardware. If I am quick I can login via the VI client and can see disk info via the health status.

Would be really handy to see the HP disk information on a vanilla esx install via the VI client ( Vanilla ESX installs not PSOD)

[jiths]

The iLO will not give RAID/Smart Array information on any server.I crossed on HP DL380G5 servers, but it is having iLO 2 integrated hardware. Can you please take the screenshot of the PSOD and attach, may be one can help you.

[beovax]

Here it is PF Exception(14) in world 9164:sfcbd ip 0x41803402121e addr 0X10

I have attached a screenshot

[vsu]

PSOD backtrace points to an SMBIOS interface module, apparently provided by HP.

You could try to check for a BIOS update - such crash may be caused by some bogus data provided by an out-of-date BIOS.

[beovax]

I am running all the latest firmware. Maybe HP have purposely put something in there to stop their distrution of ESX running on non supported hardware?

If only I could twist VMwares arm to add the storage CIM providers to their ESXi or ESX versions.......

[Capitano]

Just installed the HP offline bundle 1.1 on top of vanilla ESXi 4 build 181792 with the exact same results.

Please post here if you find a solution for this.

[beovax]

Has anything chaged on this front? The only reason I am using full blown ESX on my DL185 is to monitor the raid card using the hp tools - would be very handy if esxi showed the raid card satus for HP raid cards, liek it does for the percs

[DSTAVERT]

Have a look at this post. http://communities.vmware.com/message/1389352#1389352

It is a work around for ML110 but I believe it should work for any of the 100 series. Looks like a bit of a pain.

[beovax]

You are a star! Thank you