Storage Addition Challenge

[heresnick]

Hello,

I am trying to show my company the benefit of utilizing VMware. I recently installed ESXi 5 on an HP ProLiant DL380 G7 (service tag 2M214102KB). The server currently has 6 SAS HDDs in a RAID 1 configuration ( orginally started with 4 in RAID 1). I need to add 2 more SAS HDDs (also RAID 1), but when I do, the sever does not boot up. It hangs after multiextent loaded successfully. If I remove the the last two drives I added, the system boots fine again. The RAID card is an HP Smart Array P410i which should more than handle the addition of the two drives (which is also the same RAID card that the other 6 drives are utilizing). I have tried using two different drives thinking that one or both could be bad. The RAID status is okay Ok and Healthy.

Is there something I am missing? Here is the log that I am seeing. Can someone shed some light on this for me?

[karthickvm]

It could be driver issue also, please try to install using HP ESXi image, you can get it from HP website.

[emma234]

Hi  heresnick ,

Welcome to communities.

It is most probably driver or BIOS problem .

Have you updated BIOS ? And please check if any updated released by HP for array .

"He Conquers, Who Conquers Himself."

[heresnick]

When I install the ESXi using HP's image, can I just install over top of the old as an upgrade without harming all the configuration and VMs that are already there?

Or do I need to move my VM's off the server first, then install ESXi cleanly again?

Also, I have NOT installed an updated bios. We bought the server last month and installed ESXi the next day, a bios update did not occur to me at the time. I will find out what bios is on and update if available.

[karthickvm]

Hello   heresnik,

When you install / upgrade using CD/DVD, the installtion wizard will scan the avaiable device / VMFS volume and give you following options.

1 .Install ESX , preserve VMFS volume (This will perform like fresh install and the VM files / data on VMFS will be unchanged).

2. Install ESX, overwrite VMFS (This will perform fresh installation , all the data / VM will be deleted)

3. Upgrade ESX, Preserve VMFS (This will perform upgradeand the VM files / data on VMFS will be unchanged)

4. Upgrade  ESX, overwrite VMFS (This will perform Upgrade , all the data / VM will be deleted)

Check what are the options you are getting and choose a appropriate one.

I would suggest to go with 3rd Option, which will preserve all your data as well as configuration.

[heresnick]

I feel we are getting closer.

First, the bios is already on the latest version, so good to go there. Everything is up to date at the moment.

Second, I went a slightly different route. I downloaded the HP ESXi 5.1 disk. Then attempted to perform an upgrade using the HP disk. Well, it all almost went well. After the install, it of course rebooted, then it began to load. Instead of hanging after multiextent loaded successfully, it hung on 'delta disk'. After letting it attempt to load for 20 minutes, I rebooted it, and it automatically rolled back to the orginal 5.0 install.

Also, when I attempted the upgrade to 5.1 (using the HP version), there were only 3 options for the update and option 1 was the one that perserved the data.

Should I try again using the HP ESXi 5.0, then after upgrade to 5.1 assuming that trying to install HP drivers and upgrade to 5.1 was doing too much at once? Or should I just give up on trying to upgrade and just copy my vmdk's off then perform a clean install to 5.1 with HP's disk?

[a_p_]

Try to add/configure the new disks using the ACU (Array Configuration Utility) on the SmartStart CD rather than using the controller's BIOS. Maybe this makes a difference.

André

[heresnick]

No dice. I have tried configuring the array using both methods.