VMware Cloud Community
wysiwyg
Contributor
Contributor

Should I ignore and disable scsi driver warning or switch from Buslogic to LSI for my XP guests?

I currently have ESXI 4.0U2 (261974) installed.

I get an event when starting any of my Windows XP image and noticed them before U2 as well:

Message on xpclient: Your guest operating system is Windows XP and you have one or more virtual SCSI devices installed in your virtual machine. Please be aware that Windows XP does not support the BusLogic SCSI adapter that VMware ESX currently uses for its virtual SCSI devices. If you have not done so already, you will need to install our driver in the virtual machine. You can download the driver from our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/info?id=43"

First off, that link is rubbish. I found the KB Article Troubleshooting a Windows XP guest warning about BusLogic SCSI drivers (1007122) which gives instructions to either disable the warning by editing the.vmx file or downloading a copy of the VMWare SCSI Driver v1.2.0.4.

Second, my guests already have version 1.2.1.0 of the vmscsi.sys driver so I doubt downgrading it would be a good idea.

So, what should I do? Does anyone know what actually causes this event?

Should I disable the event or switch to the LSI Scsi driver?

Tags (4)
Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Have you installed the latest VMware tools on the XP guest? Was this VM converted from physical. Are you using a SCSI vmdk?

If you aren't using SCSI I would just disable in the VMX file.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
Reply
0 Kudos
wysiwyg
Contributor
Contributor

The latest tools are installed, 261974 for ESXI 4.0 U2. None are converted from physical machines. The guest boot drives are SCSI (BusLogic Parallel) and the guests seem to run fine except for the ESX events generated upon startup.

Reply
0 Kudos
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

just so you know. We use LSI on our XP guests and still get this message from time to time. We just ignore it.

wysiwyg
Contributor
Contributor

Which LSI driver did you use?

KB Article 2241 says to use LSI53C1030 SCSI (ESX 3.0) while KB Article 1007035 says to use the 1.20.18 WHQL version of the LSI20320-R controller for ESX 3.5.x. It looks like both drivers contain PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0030. I suppose1007035 is the more recent.

Reply
0 Kudos
wysiwyg
Contributor
Contributor

After I added the LSI Logic driver for the LSI20320-R v1.20.18 I got the same warning except for the LSILogic driver

Message on xpclient: Your guest operating system is Windows XP and you have one or more virtual SCSI devices installed in your virtual machine. Please be aware that Windows XP does not support the LSI Logic SCSI adapter that VMware ESX currently uses for its virtual SCSI devices. Select OK to continue, or Cancel to abort.

I edited the .vmx configuration files and added the following lines and the event stopped. What worked for "buslogic" also worked with "lsilogic".

lsilogic.noDriver = "FALSE"

buslogic.noDriver = "FALSE"

I've seen comments reporting on performance limitations of the default Buslogic driver so I'll try the LSI Logic driver in a couple of XP guests and see if it improves anything.

Reply
0 Kudos
TimMaher
Contributor
Contributor

That is absolutely the right answer and has helped me out of big hole.

I've got Fusion 4.x.x (Recently bought) and my XP machine kept generating thee errors.

The advice, from VMWare,  to download the new driver pack is total rubbish and XP wont install older drivers anyway.

Having shoved both of those lines into the vmx the XP guest boots perfectly well.

Thanks.

Tim

Reply
0 Kudos