Storage Sensor for LSI 9260-8i in ESX 5.5

[jgkurz]

Hi All,

I recently purchased a new RAID controller for my ESXi 5.5u2 host. I chose the LSI 9260-8i due to the positive reviews, price, and 5.5 compatibility. The main goal of the new RAID controller was to add visibility of the array within ESXi "Hardware Status" and to allow management from a VM via MegaRAID Storage Manager. I flashed the 9260 with the latest firmware then installed 5.5u2. The LSI RAID controller was found and both my disk units are available and function as expected.

Unfortunately, I still do not have a Storage Sensor in the Hardware Status tab. I have tried installed both the Legacy and Native drivers as well as the latest SMIS, all found HERE. I had success updating the Legacy driver but SMIS would not update.

Please respond if you have an LSI 9260 with ESXi 5.5. I'm curious in the Storage Sensor is visible for you.

THANK YOU!

[JarryG · Accepted solution]

What do you mean by "SMIS would not update"? I updated smis-provider with:

# esxcli software vib install -d "/path/VMW-ESX-5.x.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.54-0004-offline_bundle-2395881.zip"

...and everything went well. After reboot I can see health-status in hardware tab.

BTW you have ESXi 5.5, you are probably using VMW-ESX-5.5.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.54-0004-2371726.zip, listed as smis-provider for 5.5.

But did you try the other one, VMW-ESX-5.x.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.54-0004-2395881.zip, for 5.x?

And one more thing: does your controller report its healt-status at least using command-line tool (storcli, megacli)?

[jgkurz]

I think I see what the problem is. I used "esxcli software vib update -d " instead of "esxcli software vib install -d"

I did use the VMW-ESX-5.5.0-lsiprovider and not VMW-ESX-5.x.0-lsiprovider. It seemed like the better one to use since it said 5.5 vs 5.x.

I will check for status through the storcli or megacli.

Thanks for the very helpful guidance. I will report back with my findings.

[jgkurz]

Well I'm a little embarrassed but the problem was exactly what I guessed earlier. I used ""esxcli software vib update -d " instead of "esxcli software vib install -d". Everything is working great! THANK YOU!

Last question. I did not update the driver yet, only the SMIS. Here is what LSI lists. Which would you use? No idea what "Invader only" means.

-------------------------------

From LSI regarding 5.5 ESXi drivers

"The certified driver package 6.606.06.00.1 is downloadable from the vmware web site for

ESXi 5.x Legacy driver

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI5X-LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-66060600-1O...

ESXi 5.5 Legacy driver

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESX55-LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-660606001VMW&p...

ESXi 5.5 Native driver Invader only

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI55-LSI-MR3-66061000-1OEM&productId=353

Please download from this location. A free vmware.com account is required to login and download."

[JarryG]

I'm happy you solved your problem.

I do not know what "invader only" means either and if I do not know something, I do not use it. I'd recommend to stick with the legacy driver...

[mhughesnp]

The LSI documentation is pretty bad for some things and since the change to Avago has incorrect information and non-intuitive driver research.  Like this issue experienced in this thread.  If you were to search the Avago site for the LSI 9260-8i card and look at the latest drivers for ESXi 5.5 and 6.0 you will see the following text document,

"The certified driver package 6.609.08.00-1 legacy and 6.609.07.00-1 is downloadable from the vmware web site for

6.609.08.00-1

ESXi 5.5 Legacy driver

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI55-LSI-LSI-MR3-66090800-1OEM&productId...

ESXi 6.0 Legacy driver

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-LSI-LSI-MR3-66090800-1OEM&productId...

6.609.0700-1

ESXi 5.5 Native driver Invader only

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI55-LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-66090700-1OEM...

ESXi 6.0 Native driver Invader only

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI60-LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-66090700-1OEM...

Please download from this location. A free vmware.com account is required to login and download."

There are two things wrong with the text document. One is that they are obviously revered in their descriptions.  The SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS drivers are the legacy drivers and the LSI-MR3 drivers are the newer Native drivers.  Second is that you just searched for LSI 9260-8i drivers (a 2108 LSI Controller). Why are they giving you a link to a 3108 chip card?

Here are the LSI chip internal naming conventions I know of,

LSI  MegaRAID SAS-3 3108 [Invader]

LSI  MegaRAID SAS-3 3008 [Fury]

LSI  MegaRAID SAS 2208 [Thunderbolt]

LSI  MegaRAID SAS 2108 [Liberator

LSI  MegaRAID SAS 2008 [Falcon]

LSI  MegaRAID SAS 2004 [Spitfire]

LSI  MegaRAID SAS 1068 [Verde ZCR]

The latest 2108 Chip Driver I could find on the VMware website was megaraid_sas-6.602.55.00-1645739.zip using Google search, though the OEM legacy driver (OEM drivers always have the highest use precedence over Native and legacy - ESXi 5.5 introduces a new Native Device Driver Architecture Part 2 | virtuallyGhetto ) I am using is scsi-megaraid-sas: 6.603.55.00-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820.  I haven't tried the LSI-SCSI-MEGARAID-SAS-66090700-1OEM driver yet but it seems that there is no Native ESXi driver (not using a vmklinux shim module) for the LSI 2108 cards.

So it is a little bit of a pain in the butt to determine what the proper driver is.  If you try to use the Native driver with a 2108 LSI controller the datastores will not show up in vSphere. I think your advice of " if I do not know something, I do not use it." is a rather poignant in this case and great advice.

PS

The SMIS driver which provides the Storage health to ESXi via CIM is completely different from the controller driver.  The latest SMIS for the 9260-8i card does work well so far and is universal to many of the LSI controllers.  It is version 500.04.V0.57-0007.

~ # esxcli software vib list

Name                           Version                               Vendor  Acceptance Level  Install Date

-----------------------------  ------------------------------------  ------  ----------------  ------------

lsiprovider                    500.04.V0.57-0007                     LSI     VMwareAccepted    2015-11-10

scsi-megaraid-sas              6.603.55.00-1OEM.550.0.0.1331820      LSI     VMwareCertified   2014-05-10

[divadiow]

has anyone gotten any of these drivers to work in ESXi 6!? PERC 6/i here and joyless.

[divadiow]

scrap that. I got it working with VMW-ESX-5.x.0-lsiprovider-500.04.V0.57-0007-offline_bundle-3096039.zip in the latest SMIS download.

ESXi 6.0.0 with an 'old' 1078 based PERC6/i showing full stats

[AGMR]

For those trying to find just the SMIS instead of the full driver package go here MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i

Latest SMIS Provider

VMware ESX 5.5 and 6.0

03/22/2016