eSata drives not seen in VSphere

[micromax]

I'm having an issue that I've tried to figure out for a week now and am having no luck.

I have a HP DL380 G6 server with ESXI 5.5 that crashed with two of the raid drives failing, so I reinstalled ESXI and now can not get the previously working external ESATA drives to be recognised again.

fdisk sees the external drive OK, but no eSata drives show in the vSphere client.

fdisk -l =
Disk /dev/disks/naa.600508b1001030384130444235300600: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 267349 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/disks/naa.600508b1001030384130444235300600p1 1 121602 976759808 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/disks/naa.600508b1001030384130444235300600p2 121603 267349 1170711818+ fb VMFS

================================

I also followed the instructions at https://www.v-front.de/2013/11/how-to-make-your-unsupported-sata-ahci.html and the process seemed to complete OK, but the eSata drives still do not appear in my vSphere client. The ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller now shows up in the vShere client after implementing the following process, but no devices are shown under the related Storage Adaptors section.

~ # lspci -v | grep "Class 0106" -B 1
0000:0d:00.0 SATA controller Mass storage controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller
Class 0106: 1b21:0612

vmkload_mod ahci
esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
esxcli software vib install -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de -n sata-xahci

The above instructions worked fine with the ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller now seen in the vShere client.

=======================================

Note: The eSata drives worked fine before the system crash without any additional software drivers, etc.

I feel like I'm missing something very basic but would really appreciate any advice you may be able to provide.

Let me know if you need additional information.

Thanks in advance,
~ Neil

[scott28tt]

I’ve reported your thread so a moderator can move it to the area for ESXi.

[micromax]

Thanks Scott, but I have not yet had any responses to my issue.  Is there any other place where I can post and might get some advice on what I can do to solve this issue?

[batuhandemirdal]

Spoiler

Spoiler

Do you have any storage in your environment, all on their own local demi server?

[micromax]

Not sure what you mean by a "demi server" (maybe Media Server?) but the system has six 1TB drives in a raid array, plus a couple of external esata drives. The esata drives were visible before the server crashed, but I can not view them again in the new ESXI installation. Any suggestions?

[e_espinel · Accepted solution]

Hello.
What exact build of version 5.5 do you have installed?
In a SSH connection run the following commands and send your results:

Rescan All Storage Adapters

# esxcli storage core adapter rescan --all

this command does not show anything, it just rescans the devices

# esxcfg-scsidevs -c

# esxcli storage core device list

# esxcli storage core adapter list

# esxcli system module get -m vmw_ahci

# esxcli system module list |grep ahci

[micromax · Accepted solution]

Thanks for responding Enrique,

As mentioned in my other post regarding not being able to see the RAID array, on this system I had upgraded the system from 5.5 to ESXi version 6.0 in the hopes of it fixed the eSATA issue, and could then not see ANY storage devices including the RAID.

Seems like I've just now managed to solve the issue by adding the VIB file as explained in the article at https://www.v-front.de/2013/11/how-to-make-your-unsupported-sata-ahci.html

While the command suggested in the article - esxcli software vib install -d http://vibsdepot.v-front.de -n sata-xahci
did not work - with a 404 Not Found message on trying the command on ESXi 6.0

I was able to successfully download the related Offline .zip version of the VIB file from the same website and used the command
esxcli software vib install -d /opt/vib/sata-xahci-1.42-1-offline_bundle.zip
and to my surprise it magically worked!

Installation Result
Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective
VIBs Installed: VFrontDe_bootbank_sata-xahci_1.42-1

I now have a working system once again 🙂

Thanks for all your support in resolving this issue and the related issue with the RAID array Enrique. Your help is very much appreciated!

PS: I'm now running HPE Customized Image ESXi 6.0.0 Update 3 version 600.9.8.5 released on September 2018 and based on ESXi 6.0.0 Update 3 Vmkernel Release Build 9313334.  -- and wonder if there is any real advantage in updating the ESXi to the latest (Non HP) 6.0 version that you suggested in your last post in the other thread?

[e_espinel]

Hello.
I'm glad you managed to solve your problem.

About the updates, these packages not only include improvements or new versions of drivers of the operating system (ESXI), but also the security patches recommended to date.