installing Areca drivers fails

[ndhert]

I have ESXi4update01 on an USB memory stick (8 Gb), booted a PC with it,

can connect from vSphere to the IP of the ESXi4 server

Now I want to add the Areca drivers to the ESXi4 software on the stick.

The Readme.txt file of the Areca Driver Disk for VMware ESX(i) 4.X, says

...

8). key in "cd bin" on VMware vSphere CLI.

9). key in "perl vihostupdate.pl -server ESXi_4.X_IP_address -username root

-password "root's password"

-b CD/DVD_ROM_directory:\offline-bundle\offline-bundle.zip

--nosigcheck -i"

on VMware vSphere CLI

Did that in VMware vSphere CLI:

(replacing ESXi_4.X_IP_address with IP address,

root's password by root password of ESXi4 server (tried with or without surrounding ")

replaced CD/DVD_ROM_directory:\offline-bundle\offline-bundle.zip

with D:\offline-bundle\ARC-arcmsr-1.20.0x.15.vmk.90605.3-offline_bundle-197833.zip

since a file offline-bundle.zip does not exist on the driver disk, but an ARC-... zip file does exist.

After 50 seconds I get:

There was an error setting up ESXi installation destinationBootbank preparation

failed: /sbin/bootbankstage-install.sh -v prep returned (1)

what's wrong and how to remedy?

[DSTAVERT]

Try this download ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/AP_Drivers/VMware/

The drivers are packaged as an oem.tgz which can be just copied to replace the existing file. You will need to copy it to both bootbank and altbootbank

[ndhert]

I am lost...

What an where is the bootbank and altbootbank ?

Are there any clear instructions step by step about what to do exactly, such as the ones I used before (and with seem more recent?)

[DSTAVERT]

Sorry. I looked at the beta driver which is a simple file copy install.

I just downloaded the driver bundle CD and mounted it. I changed to the offline-bundle directory and ran the following:

vihostupdate --server 192.168.11.11 --nosigcheck -i -b ARC-arcmsr-1.20.0x.15.vmk.90605.3-offline_bundle-197833.zip

I was prompted for the username and password for the ESXi host.

Please wait patch installation is in progress ...

The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.

I used the vMA appliance so the command is vihostupdate not vihostupdate.pl They both work the same. In your case you will use the vihostupdate.pl

If you used Windows to run this then you might want to temporarily disable the firewall.

[ndhert]

OK, now it wanted to install, The only thing I changed was --server instead of -server and leaving out -user and -password so that

it prompts me, no idea why this worked and not the previous command..

The first time I rebooted, I got (after the grey progress bar and before the yellow-black screen)

Error while reading file: -3, sys.vgz

Not at the second reboot. Any idea what this was and why ?

[DSTAVERT]

I would reboot several times and verify it comes up correctly every time. If this will be a production server I would consider reinstalling.

Since you are installed to USB you will need to set your scratch location pointed to a datastore. vSphere Client / Configuration Tab / Software - Advanced Settings ScratchConfig.

Written like /scratch directory The brackets go around the datastore name. Directory is optional.

[ndhert]

Hi, installed ESXi4update01 + Areca RAID drivers again on another USB mem key, ok now.

Installing Areca RAID drivers is just an addition of a pool of available drivers besides the default included ?

Is that correct?

If I boot from that USB mem key, a test PC (with a simple SATA disk) where I already previously had installed several Virtual Machines, from an ESXi4 installation on the hard disk,

the booted USB mem key ESXi4 finds my datastore automatically, and if I browse the datastore, I see my Virtual Machine

directories and also some .iso files I uploaded there.

Also vSphere Client / Configuration Tab / Software - Advanced Settings ScratchConfig

already has a /vmfs/volumes/4b13da0d0..... filled in.

So it finds them automatically as it seems...

If one would boot a server with 2 Areca RAID volumes which now contain on the first volume an installed unix Operating System and on the second the /home file system of that O.S., how should these appear in Configuration / Storage - they are not vmfs volumes, but would/should it still be browsable ?