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ChristTheGreat
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vsphere 6.7 LSI raid card, can't get drive status

Hi!

I have this server setup at home:

SuperMicro X10SLL-F

Intel Xeon E3-1241 v3

32GB 3CC 1600

LSI 8708EM2

2x Velociraptor 10k 300gb RAID 1

4x WD Red 2TB Raid 5

I was running Vsphere 6.0 since a long time, and I decided to go over 6.7. Installation worked fine, I have access to everything, all is working... Except 2 things:

1. I can't get my LSI 8708EM2 (detected as a 1078) to show drive status

2. Can't get my Storage Manager to access disk info or rebuild raid.

When I was on vSphere 6.0, I was able to see my drive status (and veeam one could alert me), and with my WIndows VM, I had LSI MSM and I was able to configure the raid card.

So what I did:

Install SAS driver I was using in version 6 --> not working

Installed the SMIS I had  --> not working

Installed lastest SMIS  --> not working

Disabled the Firewall --> not working

I have no idea what else I can do. I know it's an old card, but I got it for cheap. Any idea how can I get this fixed?

Thanks

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vembutech1
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Below search shows, your LSI 8708EM2 model supports upto 6.5 U1. You may require to contact their support for details

VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search

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vembutech1
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Below search shows, your LSI 8708EM2 model supports upto 6.5 U1. You may require to contact their support for details

VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Search

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ChristTheGreat
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Thanks, I never thought about looking into the Compatibility Guide

The card is detected and I have all my datastore.

This is what I have installed on 6.7:

scsi-megaraid-sas              6.609.07.00-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585      Avago   VMw                                                                                                                                                             areCertified   2018-04-26

lsiprovider                    500.04.V0.66-0002                     LSI     VMw                                                                                                                                                             areAccepted    2018-04-26

for sure, I'll stick with my other USB key running 6.0. Still prefer to know if I have an hard drive dying 😕

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TimJones42
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I just ran into this problem after upgrading from 6.5 to 6.7. Messed around with different versions of the SMIS and lsi provider files, but ultimately I believe the issue is that the LSI Provider support has ended at 6.5 U2.  That really pisses me off.  My raid card reports supporting 6.7, so you think all good, right?  Nope, not if the LSI provider functionality is no longer supported.

Search "LSIprovider" on the compatibility check page to see the 6.5 U2. Search your raid card again, and see it probably says 6.7 supported.

Unfortunately, when I discovered this and found the instructions to rollback to previous version, both bootbanks say they are 6.7 and cannot be downgraded or reverted.  So now I'll have to reinstall ESXi 6.5 to get around this issue.

I really, really hate it when hardware and feature deprecation happens in a point release like this. Going to v7.0, I'd expect to drop legacy stuff.  Going from 6.5->6.7 just makes me look at the other hypervisor solutions in the future.

Edit: Just found an updated document (5/16/2018) showing 6.5 U2 as being latest for LSI provider. https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_cim_guide.pdf

Strangely, I found a Fling for ESXi compatibility checking.  It complained about my 10G nics possibly not being supported in 6.7 (but they still work), but the storage both reported compatible (the datastore works, but no hardware monitoring).

    - Storage Adapters:

     vmhba0 - 0000:00:1f.2: IO Device 'Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller' from Intel Corporation

     PCI ID: 8086:1C02:8086:7270        Driver: vmw_ahci 1.2.0-6vmw.670.0.0.8169922

     [OK]  Compatible: IO Device 'Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (PCIID:8086:1C02:8086:7270)' is compatible for ESX 6.7.0

          - More information: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=42116

     vmhba1 - 0000:01:00.0: IO Device 'MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller' from Avago (LSI / Symbios Logic)

     PCI ID: 1000:79:1000:9263  Driver: megaraid_sas Version 6.610.15.00

     [OK]  Compatible: IO Device 'MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller (PCIID:1000:79:1000:9263)' is compatible for ESX 6.7.0

          - More information: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=20583

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Marcusone
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Would/is it up to the vendor (i.e. Broadcom/Avago/LSI) to make a new lsiprovider (sims) driver?  Any way to find out if they are working on one?

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TimJones42
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LSI did put out a newer LSI provider.  Just with 3/4's of the supported hardware no longer

It probably is on LSI to update the driver, but when an existing driver just stops working on the same major ESXi release number, it's VMWare's fault.  The existing working 6.5 driver shouldn't be prevented from working on 6.7, lest it's VMWare making big changes breaking drivers.

Let's say you install Windows 10 and the driver works for several years just fine. Then you upgrade Windows 10 to an anniversary update and not only does the existing driver stop working, but it stops working for good.  Everyone gets rightfully mad at Microsoft. To be clear, this doesn't even really happen in Windows, you just rollback to the previous working driver and life continues on. Not in this ESXi case.

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peetz
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Greetings,

where are you looking for the drive status? The vCenter Web Client version 6.7 (both legacy Flash and HTML5) currently do not display the LSIprovider information.

However, if you look at the host directly (via embedded Host Client) the status may be shown there. Can you please check this?

- Andreas

Twitter: @VFrontDe, @ESXiPatches | https://esxi-patches.v-front.de | https://vibsdepot.v-front.de
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pharkas09
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I am in the same position and nothing good shows on the host web client either.

Under Monitor->Hardware->Storage it shows "LSI / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS GEN2 Controller" as well as a ton of other non-storage hardware components, but it it does not show the individual drives and all of them show "Status Unknown".

I have opened a support case with LSI/Avago/Broadcom.  Here is their response.

We are currently qualifying Esxi 6.7.

We are only providing software for 6.0 and 6.5

You already have the latest SMIS provider from Broadcom, 00.66.00.02

When software qualification is finished, a release will be provided by either VMware or Broadcom.

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gerome76
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I am using an older 9260-8i in my home lab.

For 6.5:

  • ESXi650-201803001: CIM works, lsiprovider works, MegaRAID discovery works
  • update-from-esxi6.5-6.5_update02: CIM works, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work
  • ESXi650-201806001: CIM broken, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work

For 6.7:

  • CIM broken, lsiprovider broken, MegaRAID discovery does not work

6.5 with ESXi650-201803001 is the latest version I can use.

swinster
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ChristTheGreat​ - Just out of interest, where do you manage to find the latest LSI SIMS? I have been having some odd issues with my 9260-8i, so over the weekend updated the server (a Dell T430) the 9260 firmware (albeit the newest is  3 years old), and re-install a fresh version to the Dell OEM ESXi. I installed v6.7 but of course now my MegaRAID Storage Management software cannot connect to the host. I've looked for the LSI SIMS, but can't seem to track them down on the Broadcom site.

BTW, have you ever managed to get and decent logging out the MSM?

gerome76
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The first version I used, was from the 6.5 I upgraded from. After it didn't work with 6.7 I checked Broadcom:

Broadcom Website > Support > Support Documents and Downloads

Product Group: Legacy Products

Product Family: Legacy RAID Controllers

Product Name: MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i

Asset Type: Management Software and Tools

Latest SMIS Providers VMware 6.0 and 6.5

MR 6.14, Version: 00.66.00.02, File Size: 31315 KB, Language: English

But it was the same version that was already installed and - as the website noticed - it is just for ESX versions up to 6.5.

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Alpha694
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Latest version of LSI SMIS provider is MR7.7 ver:00.71.00.04  09/17/2018 but still VMware 6.5 ONLY!

LSI (or Avago, or Broadcom), you are sleeping?

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olegfusion
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Any solution? same problem here...

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ctsherman
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I recently put in a support request to Broadcom re: the ESXi 6.7 support.  Apparently they're aiming for 6.7 support in the MR 7.8 release and targeting mid/late November.  Of course, targets can slip...and there's no mention of which components will be supported under MR 7.8 (MR 7.7 was officially aimed at SAS3-era components but seems to function on older parts)...but their statement is at least something more than "we're working on it."

Alpha694
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IMHO, using storcli is only good option at this time.

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ctsherman
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This ("use storcli") is actually Broadcom support's official suggestion, in the interim, so you've hit the nail on the head.  With the discovery of the data corruption bug in SEsparse simply waiting it out on an out-of-date build of ESXi is becoming more untenable by the day.

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MikeyByte
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ctsherman
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I haven't tried that NEC version, so far.  I have tried the newer Broadcom version 00.71.V0.04 (MR 7.7) and it does not work with any of the cards under 6.7, at least for standard LSI/Avago/Broadcom cards on standard systems (vs. any customized NEC cards on NEC systems).  I do know that MR 7.7 works on my current hardware, under 6.5, and I'm dealing with new-ish hardware here (9271i-8cc in the lab system, 9361-8i in the primary).  Neither system picks up anything under 6.7, however. 

With any luck MR 7.8 will be out soon and will hopefully still support the 92xx and 93xx series cards, at least (MR 7.7 officially supports 93xx and 94xx but 92xx works as well).  As for hardware older than those models, I guess we have to wait and find out (I'm hopefully that the software will function for the 2308 onboard chips as well as I have to support several installs that use this for raid1 boot devices).

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Geelenbert
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I'm trying to reproduce this setup.

I have LSI 9260-8i cards with the lastest firmware.

What exact versions are you using ? (SIMS, MSM etc?)

Currently i'm not getting it to work. I'm running ESXI 6.5 U1

  • VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update01-5969303.x86_64
  • lsiprovider    LSI Provider for ESX Server    500.04.V0.66-0002
  • Megaraid Storage Manager V15.03.01.00

The driver is working in Vmware, but the Megaraid Sotorage manager can't find it.

pastedImage_1.png

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Muckman
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What RAID Controllers / Health Status / Management systems DO work with ESXi 6.7? It's difficult to choose a RAID controller when you use the HCL only to find certain aspects are still unsupported by vSphere.