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VMWare_Workst10
Contributor
Contributor

Issue with MCP55 and ESXi 5.5: harddisky are not recognized

Hi

I have this problem and I already read many things about this issue. I have a motherboard with an NVidia MCP55 SATA controller.

I managed to install VMare ESXi on this board. lspci -p shows:

0000:00:04.0 10de:036e 10f1:2912 255/   / @ V vmklinux_9   vmhba0
0000:00:05.0 10de:037f 10f1:2912  11/ 11/0x2d A V sata_nv  vmhba1
0000:00:05.1 10de:037f 10f1:2912  10/ 10/0x2b B V sata_nv  vmhba2
0000:00:05.2 10de:037f 10f1:2912   5/  5/0x2e C V sata_nv  vmhba3

So the controller is recognized correcly. The problem is, that harddisks which are connected are not recognized by VMWare. How can I make VMWare to recognize all connected disks and not only some sometimes?

Any ideas are very well appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Neo

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10 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal

When you click add storage in configuration, do you see any disk showing up over there?

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VMWare_Workst10
Contributor
Contributor

That's the "sometimes" part.

I did a couple of tests with up to three connected harddisks. The add storage shows exactly what storage adapter also shows.

I could never see more than one additional harddisk (in add storage). In storage adapter I can always see the bootdisk and sometimes I can see one additional device (which can be added with add storage).

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

This may happen due to an unsupported driver version or due to an faulty hardware(i dont this this is a fault hardware)

Check the adapter driver version and see if it matches with the below list, to check the dirver version refer VMware KB: Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x

VMware Compatibility Guide: I/O Device Search

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VMWare_Workst10
Contributor
Contributor

Hallo AT10

The hardware should not be faulty. the board, controller and harddisks are working reliable with Windows OS. I also tested the harddisks with another computer and Ubuntu Linux. Still no problem there.

About the driver versions:

The installed driver is sata_nv, Version: 3.5-4vmw. According to the Compatibility Guide it should be sata_nv version 3.5-3vmw.

I'm even more confused. The recommended version is older than the installed version? How is that possible? And how do I get this older version? Does it make sense to downgrade?

Regards

Neo

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Worth trying to downgrade, considering the fact those HDD are detected fine in windows and Linux. BTW i tried to find the driver but i couldn't.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

You know what you got some bad news

VMware KB: Devices deprecated and unsupported in ESXi 5.5

Looks like your device is listed here

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VMWare_Workst10
Contributor
Contributor

I guess your refer to this entry:

10de:036eNVidia NForce MCP55 IDE/PATA Controller

That should be no problem as long as the SATA controller 10de:037f is not affected.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I got it what you are saying. Did you give a try by downgrading the driver version?

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VMWare_Workst10
Contributor
Contributor

Hello AT10

I downloaded ESXi 5.0 with this old driver and tested it. I got the same behaviour. So no solution there at all. I also tested some other harddisks (I have a couple of harddisks at home). The only pattern I can see is, that the driver can only see 2 devices at a time (the controller according to the BIOS sees every harddisk). And the driver cannot see any SDDs. I installed ESXi 5.5 on another computer on a SSD. When I put this SSD into my computer with this MCP55 it can boot from this SDD. Curious, but not understandable for me.

Regards

Neo

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tris0h0h7
Contributor
Contributor

Did you manage to resolve this? I'm facing the same issue

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