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Flaeshi
Contributor
Contributor

Monitor LSI Raid / Show available CIM providers

Hello,

I have a host running on VMware ESXi 5.5.0, that I want to monitor. I can only access the host via SSH.

The host has a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-4i RAID-Controller, which I want to monitor.

I tried running the script from this Blog-post, to get the Information in CIM_StorageVolume: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2010/07/hardware-health-monitoring-via-cim-part-5.html

The script returns nothing when being executed by the monitoring server. Not even an error message. I also removed the line where it excludes instances, that have "None" as value, but there are still no entries.

I tried listing the entries in VMware_HypervisorSoftwareIdentity with this script, which worked fine.

I'd rather use the VMware CIM provider, than the LSI implementation, because it is not installed yet.

What am I doing wrong here? How can I access CIM_StorageVolume? Is there a way to check if this CIM provider is running after all?

I am very new to VMware and really appreciate your help!

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DavoudTeimouri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

What is your server vendor? HP, Dell, IBM?

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Davoud Teimouri - https://www.teimouri.net - Twitter: @davoud_teimouri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teimouri.net/
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JarryG
Expert
Expert

May I ask why you want to use CIM-provider from VMware? Because the one from LSI is newer and imho better. Together with LSI-tools (StorCLI/MegaCLI) it makes raid-monitoring very easy (interactively using ssh, or automatic per crontab).

VMware's CIM-provider is older, and it might simply not be supporting 9271-controller, which is quite new. I really recommend you download CIM from LSI-web, install it (with StorCLI) and use this way for monitoring LSI-raid. It is just a matter of minutes to set it up. And if something does not work as expected, LSI-support is quite good...

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! :winking_face:
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Flaeshi
Contributor
Contributor

I thought it would be easier using the VMware CIM-provider, because then I would not have to install anything on the VMware host. However, as the VMware CIM-provider doesn't seem to be supporting the 9271-controller I will try and install the LSI-CIM. Is this the right tool to install: VMWare SMIS Provider VIB - MR 5.6 ?

EDIT: The vendor is "Balios".

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JarryG
Expert
Expert

I recommend you install all three from LSI: driver (mostly newer than the one from VMware), cim-provider and storcli (just one binary and one library-file, somewhere in /opt). With this you have nearly complete monitoring solution...

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! :winking_face:
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Flaeshi
Contributor
Contributor

Actually, the VMware host will be monitored by Nagios. I am only missing the Health Status of the RAID system. Should I still install all three mentioned?

Thank you for your help! :slightly_smiling_face:

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JarryG
Expert
Expert

I recommend to install at least the first two: driver and SMIS-provider. The are mostly one or two versions newer, than the one included with ESXi. If you do not want to use LSI-tools for monitoring, it is not necessary to install them.

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! :winking_face:
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Flaeshi
Contributor
Contributor

OK, so after installing the driver and SMIS-provider, how can I access the information. Will it also be in the class CIM_StorageVolume. Can I use the script from the VMware Blog and run it with the LSI namespace (-n option)?

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JarryG
Expert
Expert

As I said, I'm using LSI-tools for monitoring. I do not know how that script works...

_____________________________________________ If you found my answer useful please do *not* mark it as "correct" or "helpful". It is hard to pretend being noob with all those points! :winking_face:
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Flaeshi
Contributor
Contributor

I installed the driver and the MegaRAID SMIS Provider, works perfectly now with the script from VMware Blog. Thank you!

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King_Robert
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Many LSI RAID controllers are supported for operation with VMware
ESX/ESXi by VMware
.[1] Using the CIM provider integrated into the

ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2, you can request status information regarding RAID

The required CIM provider will have to be installed on the ESXi 5.* host for

monitoring an LSI RAID controller.

Installing the CIM
Provider

Restriction (as of
April 20 2012):
The sensor for the battery will display the 'Battery
Status: Unknown' warning for systems that do not have iBBU. LSI is working on a
solution.
[3]

The VSphere
installation Bundle
for the CIM provider may either already be integrated
into an individualized ESXi image before the installation of the ESXi host or
installed after the installation of the ESXi host:


The ESXi host will have to be re-booted, if the installation is done after
the fact.

user@ubuntu-11-10:~$ esxcli -s 10.1.102.155 -u root software vib install -v http://IP/LSI_bootbank_LSIProvider_500.04.V0.24-261033.vib Enter password: Installation Result Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective. Reboot Required: true VIBs Installed: LSI_bootbank_LSIProvider_500.04.V0.24-261033 VIBs Removed: VIBs Skipped: 
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