Which SCSI adapter with a virtual XP Pro on ESX3?

[jjonesjr]

Hi All,

I've just installed ESX 3 for the first time and am working on getting new templates made. I've started with XP Pro and ran into this little snag...

When I was creating a new virtual machine, I chose typical, windows xp pro from the list. It configured it with an LSI adapter. I told the floppy to use the scsi drivers flp that came with esx 3 and booted of the xp cd. I did the F6 thing to specify that I had additional drivers and then S, it found the floppy and the VMware drivers... but then it said it could not find any drives to install XP on....

So, I did it all again, but this time did a custom windows xp vm and specified the BusLogic controller... and did not use any drivers (no F6 action at the beginning of the install) and it worked just fine.

Is one better than another? beside that the BusLogic works, I mean!! Maybe I'm just overlooking something?

Thanks,

Jim

[Peter_vm]

Probably you are not using a proper Windows XP LSI driver floppy image, or made other mistake.

Thanks,

JimHi All,

I've just installed ESX 3 for the first time and am

working on getting new templates made. I've started

with XP Pro and ran into this little snag...

When I was creating a new virtual machine, I chose

typical, windows xp pro from the list. It configured

it with an LSI adapter. I told the floppy to use the

scsi drivers flp that came with esx 3 and booted of

the xp cd. I did the F6 thing to specify that I had

additional drivers and then S, it found the floppy

and the VMware drivers... but then it said it could

not find any drives to install XP on....

So, I did it all again, but this time did a custom

windows xp vm and specified the BusLogic

controller... and did not use any drivers (no F6

action at the beginning of the install) and it worked

just fine.

Is one better than another? beside that the BusLogic

works, I mean!! Maybe I'm just overlooking

something?

[ccarmich]

The problem is that it vi3 chooses the LSI controller by default and the SCSI driver on the box is a BusLogic. Just go to your VM settings, disk properties and change the controller to BusLogic.

[MechaNikos]

To answer your question (although quite a bit late):

Yes, one is better than the other. The LSI driver performs much better than the Buslogic one. The same applies to the network drivers; the vmxnet performs better than vlance, provided that you install vmware tools.

[johnjore]

hm... a test was done comparing the performance of the buslogic to lsilogic, and when a reg fix was applied to windows with the buslogic, the performance was almost identical...

However, lsilogic is the only supported card when using things like RDM in physical mode etc.

I build all my VMs with the lsi card for this reason, even Windows XP (Modified unattend installs with the "correct" lsi driver. Also, by building all VMs with the lsi card the vm will work on all products, Workstation, Server and ESX...

The rest is correct as far as i know, vmxnet performes better with lower overhead than the amd card.

JJ

Message was edited by:

johnjore

btw, if my memory serves me right, the reg fix was changing the queue depth of the card

[jftwp]

Okay, that said, I would like to 'convert' a Buslogic-based (single VMDK) virtual machine from using Buslogic to LSI. What are the steps I would need to take? Where can I obtain the latest/correct driver for the XP virtual machine BEFORE changing the Buslogic SCSI to LSI SCSI?

Thanks. Please list detailed steps if you would be so kind.

[RDPetruska]

0. Back up your vmx and vmdk first!

1. Go to Lsi's website and get the XP driver. Install it in your VM.

2. Shut down the vm.

3. Hand-edit the vmx file, and change the scsi0.virtualDev = "buslogic" to "lsilogic".

4. Hand-edit the vmdk file, and change the ddb.adaptertype = buslogic to lsilogic.

[tharrold]

Silly question, but if VMWare is going to emulate an LSI controller, and support it in their products, why don't they include the driver for us to use? Why do we have to dig it up from the LSI site. (or from a nice Forum user...)

Thanks,

-tjh

[TomHowarth]

not every driver is included in MS products either! but i do agree it would be more convieniant. then again once you have it, you've got it

[Carlos_A]

not every driver is included in MS products either!

but i do agree it would be more convieniant. then

again once you have it, you've got it

That is true about not every driver is included in MS Products. My guess is that they excluded a lot of scsi drivers with the thinking that XP users were not likely to have scsi disks but rather ide or sata.

MS did include the LSI driver in MS Windows Server 2003 where my thought is that the likelihood of having scsi disks is higher.

Or at the time the driver was not microsoft certified driver when XP shipped and therefore was not included.

But, I digress...

Anyway, after reading this thread, I thought OK great, get the LSI driver....

OK....now which LSI driver?

Hope the following helps future readers of this thread.....

According to this KB article http://kb.vmware.com/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/261/2241_f.SAL_Public.html

go to the LSI site and look for the LSI20320 scsi adaptor driver.

I used this driver and all is good.

Cheers,

Carlos

[Enigma]

I'm installing WinXP Pro in a VM on ESX 3 as I'm typing. I'm going to go ahead and use the newest v1.20.18 from LSI. I find it interesting they require a firmware update to the actual card before using this driver, so one wonders how well this will work in a VM. I'll let you know my general impressions once I'm complete.

LSI drivers:

http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/scsi_hbas/lsi20320r/index.html?remot...

[Enigma]

Welp, this newest drivers works very well! And this VM is being used by a bunch of developers with tons of dev apps on it, so it's hammering the interface pretty good with code conpiles, etc. Very stable, seems very fast even compared to the stock driver used in Windows Server 2003.

I am about to use this same driver on a WinXP Pro guest on a windows Vista host, so we'll see how that works too.

[sfont3n]

so how do i convert an xp vm using bus logic to lsi?

i downloaded the files from lsi but wehn i go to update driver it tells me no

[Troy_Clavell]

Taken from:

http://vmware-land.com/Vmware_Tips.html#VM3

How do I upgrade a existing virtual disk from BusLogic to LSI Logic?

If you upgraded a server from Win2000 to Win2003 it will usually blue

screen if you just change the SCSI controller. It will still try and

load the BusLogic driver and will not be able to boot. Use this

procedure to force it to load the LSI driver prior to changing the

controller type to LSI Logic

• Power off the VM you want to change controllers on

• Connect to the Service Console and edit the vmx file for the VM

• Add the following lines to the vmx file o scsi1.present = "true" o scsi1.virtualDev = "lsilogic"

• Power on the VM and it will discover the new SCSI card

• Power off the VM and edit the SCSI Controller settings, change the type to LSI Logic

• Power VM back on, answer Yes for the adapter change message

• Once it boots successfully shut the VM down again (it will have to LSI controllers at this point)

• Edit the vmx file and remove the lines you added above

• Power on the VM again and you will be all set

[sfont3n]

should the OS have the driver for this card?

once i remove the 2 lines you add to the vmx file, it goes back to bus logic

[TomHowarth]

No Windows XP and Vista do not come with the LSI driver as part of the standard install CD/ISO. you will need to download it from the LSI website or use the one I have kindly attached

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[sfont3n]

thanks

now should i run the xp vdi with lsi or bus?

[anicolai]

Hi

I cant't get the current LSI20320 driver on LSI's homepage to work with WindowsXP (SP2), current version is 1.26.05 (2007). Another user kindly attached a .flp image to this thread, it's an older version 1.9.11.0 (2003) and it works fine.

Here is how I convert an XP from buslogic to LSI Logic.

1) power down VM

2) add an extra harddrive vith a SCSI ID of 1:1, choosing 1:1 forces VM to generate a new virtual SCSI adapter

3) Change adapter type of new SCSI adapter to LSI

4) Power on your VM, answer yes to warnings about adapter type change

5) WindowsXP will detect the new adapter, install LSI driver 1.9.11 or other well known working version.

6) Chech with devicemanager that SCSI driver is loaded and OK, the LSI driver is now merged into WinXP's drivers

7) Power down VM

😎 Remove and delete the ekstra harddrive and it's virtual SCSI adapter

9) Change adaptertype for the Virtual SCSI adapter serving the original harddrive to LSI

10) Power ON VM, Plug'n Play will detect the hardwarechange and ask you to reboot once more

11) You're done

Good luck...