No tape drive inside VM with ESXi 4.1?

[Primetime_de]

Hi,

I just noticed in my test lab that I can't add my tape drive (Tandberg LTO-3 on Adaptec 29320) to my VMs.

I speak about the "old" way, not pass-through.

In the storage adapter tab no device is recognized at the Adaptec controller.

With ESX 4.0U2 this works fine.

Can anyone confirm this?

Best regards,

Christian

[flynntof]

The LPE model is the low profile version of the card and suitable for the bus of the Dell 2900.

As for the rest of the config, just follow Nathan's instructions (I'm pretty sure that's where I got all the good oil in the first place)

Regrds

Paul

[Coinspinnr]

In VCenter or VSphere client verify that the tape drive path under storage adapters shows a dead path

To fix the dead path issue

Login as root at the console

Run the following command

esxcli nmp satp addrule --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="aic79xx" --description="Specific rule for Adaptec Card"

use “mptspi”  for the driver if it is an LSI Logic controller

If you are using a tape changer, In the Adaptec BIOS, you need to change the option to enable multiple LUN support for the SCSI ID of the changer in order for windows to recognize the tape drive and changer properly.

rescan your devices and you should now see the tape drive.

.In some cases, you may have to reboot the ESX Server

[MagSM]

I have been having a similar problem with a dead card which is the LSI20320IE - we managed to get the card working (seemingly) by using the following command:

esxcli nmp satp addrule --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="mptspi" --description="Specific rule for LSI Card", however the backup drive that is connected to this is still having problems.  It will handle differential backups fine, but when we try a full it fails at random points but never succesfully completes giving an unknown error in Backup Exec.

This is just in a stand alone server and not part of any SAN etc.

Does anyone have any ideas - maybe some BIOS config I should have set for the card?

Thanks,

[Coinspinnr]

If you are using a tape changer, make sure you have multiple lun support enabled in the bios on the scsi controller.

Also make the scsi ID of the device in your VM the same as the physical device and see if that helps.

[Coinspinnr]

Here is what I am currently using to get tape support to work

ESX 4.1 command

esxcli nmp satp addrule --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="aic79xx" --description="AHA 29320 LPE "

ESX 5.0 command
esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="aic79xx" --description="AHA 29320 LPE"

for an LSI Logic card#esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="mptspi" --description="LSI 53c1030 PCI-x Fusion-MPT Ultra320 SCSI"

If using a tape changer, make sure you enable Multiple LUN support on the SCSI controller for the SCSI ID the tape unit is on

[Dobrislav]

For ESXi 5.1 is the same command as for ESXi 5.0.

ESXi 5.0 command
esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="aic79xx" --description="AHA 29320 LPE"

ESXi 5.1 command

esxcli storage nmp satp rule add --satp VMW_SATP_LOCAL --driver="aic79xx" --description="AHA 29320 LPE"

To check the rules run the command:

esxcli storage nmp satp rule list |grep Adaptec