LSI provider not working under ESXi 6

[aecro]

Hey,

has anyone got the LSI SMIS provider working with ESXi 6? The LSI support site only lists downloads for 5.0 and 5.x. I tried both, but when I try to discover the host with MegaRAID Storage Manager, I'm unable to find it.

Maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks,

aecro

[SG1234]

is the storage manager running on a different machine ? if so , are you able to ping  the ESXi hosts from it..

[aecro]

Yeah, I tried it from my PC and a virtual machine on the host. Both are able to ping the host but can't discover it in MSM.

[JarryG · Accepted solution]

I opened this case with LSI-support and basically got this info: SMIS-provider will be released "in about one month". I have impression LSI simply "missed" release of ESXi 6.0. Support-technician was very surprised when I told him 6.0 was already released about month ago...

[aecro]

Thanks! I guess I have to wait then..

[aknine]

I have try to install  LSI SMIS Provider MR 6.7 for ESXi 5.5 on ESXi 6.0, it can be located from other MegaRAID client, and you can watch and configure RAID from client.

But alert function won't work.

[5mall5nail5]

So it does work for you?

[5mall5nail5]

So, in case someone comes across this in the future.  I upgraded my ESXi 5.5 Update 2 host to vSphere 6 and the LSI provider works still.  I did not do a vSphere 6 fresh install, just an upgrade.

[DrHouseMD]

Any update on this, estimated release date, etc.? Can't find new or updated SMIS providers on lsi.com yet. Since my hosts are in production environment, I don't want to try the older ones without to know it definitely will work since every downtime is critical.

Current information would be nice to know, thanks in advance!

[JarryG]

I have re-opened my service-request with AVAGO/LSI concerning this and I'm still waiting for reaction...

Edit: Still no clear answer from AVAGO/LSI. Support-technician just promissed to inform me as soon as there is definite schedule for releasing SMIS-provider for EXSi 6.0. But apparently it is not planned yet, and he did not want to repeat "in about one month" again...

[DrHouseMD]

It's a bit disappointing that LSI/AVAGO still did nothing (?) concerning this as I'm sure many people and/or companies might use vSphere with LSI RAID hardware. Actually, I do not have any possibility to check whether one of my SSDs might be failing or not at this moment until they release SMIS providers for vSphere 6, right? Or are there any workarounds to get current RAID information? Did not find anything on the internet so far. :smileyplain:

Upgrade from 5.5 to 6.0 broke the functionality of SMIS providers in my cases (two hosts, same result) so I uninstalled affected VIBs. Users say SMIS providers continue to work after upgrading in their cases. I didn't want to try to reinstall the current available SMIS providers officially released for 5.5 on my 6.0 hosts as I'm not sure they will work or even cause critical system failures which would be the worst case. Are there any experiences about this? Unfortunately, I don't have a test system with LSI RAID hardware.

Thanks JarryG for contacting AVAGO/LSI again concerning this topic and providing current information.

[Bleeder]

Strange, VMware lists the LSI provider as compatible with 6.0 here: VMware Compatibility Guide - CIM Providers

[r2504]

Should we contact LSI with more people asking this question... the SMIS is still not available for ESXi 6.0

[r2504]

Since it is a test install I gave the LSI SMIS Provider MR 6.7 for ESXi 5.5 a try... and it worked :smileycool:

The only thing needed was starting the CIM server and MSM found the ESXi host (doesn't mention OS or health) but once logged in I could fully manage my LSI 9266-8i without any problem (I even upgraded its firmware this way).

In the vSphere client I now also see the full storage details (Configuration / Health status) including battery status.

Just hope the e-mail alarms work fine when MSM is closed.

[peetz]

I can confirm this, but ...

after a while (between one and three days) the Storage Hardware Status in the legacy vSphere Client will only show the Controller status, but no longer the status of the physical and logical disks.

This can be fixed by restarting the CIM service on the ESXi host.

And what's even more annoying: If you manage the host via vCenter the Web Client will not show the hardware status at all ("No host data available.").

Do you also have these issues?

[Bleeder]

The CIM issue might be resolved by ESXi 6.0.0b.

VMware ESXi 6.0.0b Release Notes

[r2504]

In the mean while my CIM server stopped... but in the vSphere client I still see the health status just fine ?

Also in MSM I can still logon and see everything about my LSI-9266-8i ?

Strange is however that I don't see any history of messages in MSM but worse that I don't get any E-mails (test mail works fine) ?  This way I'm still blind about what is happening with my RAID controller.

Someone else informed me that the CIM server issue might be solved by 6.0.0b, however as a free home user I don't seem to be able to download this fix ?

[r2504]

Via download patches I could download ESXi600-201507001... but there's no trace of 6.0.0b yet ?

I did install ESXi600-201507001, but a esxcli system version get still displays ?

[root@esxi:~] esxcli system version get

   Product: VMware ESXi

   Version: 6.0.0

   Build: Releasebuild-2809209

   Update: 0

   Patch: 11

[peetz]

Hi Paul,

the ESXi600-201507001 patch bundle is ESXi 6.0.0b, and the b won't appear as part of the system version string, it's just a "marketing" release name.

I have also installed this patch 2 days ago, and the health status in the vSphere Client is still shown completely (but it's too early to tell is this is really fixed).

However, in the Web Client still no hardware health data is displayed (although I also updated the VCSA to 6.0.0b). So I cannot use vCenter alarms to warn me about a hardware issue.

I'm currently working on a PowerCLI script that I will schedule to run nightly on a Windows machine and will warn me via e-mail whenever an item in the storage hardware health section will turn from green to yellow or red.

Andreas

[r2504]

I'll leave my test server running as well... keep you posted on how it goes.

Unfortunately I don't have a web client as free home user, neither the alarms which could handle this... but I still wonder why I don't see anything in MSM ?

On my other server (non-ESXi) running a PERC controller I see the history fine in MSM and it sends out mails fine as well.  Why this doesn't work on the new server isn't entirely clear to me (unless he's only doing that for the local - virtualized ESXi - adapter which is useless) since I also have the MSM Framework running on both ?