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rkreitz
Contributor
Contributor

Stuck at "Loading mptscsi_2xx driver..." during ESX 3.0.1 Install

Greetings,

I am attempting to install ESX 3.0.1-32039 on my Dell Precision 690.

Configuration:

Dual Intel Xeon 5160's

16GB RAM

SAS 5/iR controller (aka LSI Logic SAS1068 - both on the HCL)

1 x 300GB SAS HDD

2 x 750GB SATA HDD (on the SAS controller)

I get to the "Welcome to VMware ESX Server 3" page of the install and then get stuck at:

"Loading block driver - Loading mptscsi_2xx driver..."[/b]

I've tried different drive configurations:

\- Just the SATA drives (mirrored AND striped in a RAID configuration)

\- Just the SAS drive (non-RAID, since I only have one)

\- All drives (SATA in RAID configuration)

Each time, I get to the same point in the install... and it just hangs there. I would at least expect the install to give me some credible notification that something had failed, but that's not the case here.

As far as I can tell, my system configuration should satisfy the ESX requirments. I have the latest system BIOS and controller BIOS/firmware.

Dell only sanctifies the PowerEdge servers so there's not much help there.

I've scoured the message boards and nobody else seems to be getting stuck here. At worst, the ESX installer tells them that something went wrong. I don't even get a kernal panic.

Does anyone out there have any ideas how to get this thing rolling?

Thank you,

-Randy

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10 Replies
rkreitz
Contributor
Contributor

I finally got a kernel panic after 30 minutes:

Code: 81 b8 08 10 00 00 6e ad 87 4b 75 4b 8d 76 00 85 c0 74 e8 9c

Kernel panic: Fatal exception

In interrupt handler - not syncing

Does this lend a clue to anything?

-Randy

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PeterMoreton
Contributor
Contributor

I'm also loading VMWARE ESX 3 onto an Opteron system with an LSI Logic SCSI card, and my system has \*exactly* the same symptom: Hang in "Loading MPTSCSI_2XXX driver...." and eventually a kernel panic after half an hour or so with a "not syncing" error

It would be really helpful if someone had a fix for this..... I need to get ESX working!

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rkreitz
Contributor
Contributor

Peter,

What controller are you running? It looks like the integrated Dell SAS 5/iR controller in my machine is slightly different than that which VMware officially supports.

I'm considering bypassing the integrated controller altogether and buying into a SAN solution. I like iSCSI because it looks cheap compared to fibre channel, but I'm concerned about VMware's support here too.

Their SAN HCL says that they'll support their kernel-based software initiator for iSCSI devices, but I'm hesitant to spend another couple of grand without some additional confirmation.

-Randy

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PeterMoreton
Contributor
Contributor

Randy, I have tried the ADAPTEC 39160 and an LSI LOGIC 20320-LP. Both barf in my system, although there may be a BIOS issue; TYAN are looking into it at the moment.

Right now I've given up trying to get SCSI to work; at least until there is another iteration of the TYAN S2877 BIOS, and instead I'm trying to get ESX up using iSCSI storage. (Using W2K3/mySAN to create an iSCSI target)

One thing I'm learning is that ESX is nigh-on impossible to install if you don't have fully HCL compliant hardware.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

Hi Peter,

Nimdus MySAN will not work with VMWare ESX 3.x. As part of my comprehensive testing of various iSCSI targets, I have determined that MySAN does not support SCSI reservations. Testing with MySAN has confirmed that ESX will not be able to format VMFS volumes properly on this target.

This has been confirmed by Thomas Z. Isakovich of Nimdus Data Systems, who commented to me that:

"MySAN RC1 does not support SCSI Reserve and Release at this time.

However, stay tuned...."

I would imagine this functionality may be available in the released product.

Regards,

Paul L

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PeterMoreton
Contributor
Contributor

dang!

Do you know of a (freeware) iSCSI target that does work - Linux maybe?

thanks.

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Paul_Lalonde
Commander
Commander

Hi Peter,

Is this for testing / development or production use?

The only "free" iSCSI implementation I know of is the Linux iSCSI Enterprise Target (IET) available on SourceForge. There is a +resrel patch available on the IET development web site that provides the required SCSI RESERVE and RELEASE functionality to work with ESX Server.

Having said that, it would be much quicker (and easier) to get a NAS NFSv3 solution up and running. ESX 3.x works as well with NAS as it does with iSCSI. Just set up a Windows Server with Services for UNIX (free) or any Linux / BSD distribution with NFS support.

Hope this helps.

Paul

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PeterMoreton
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Paul. NFS it is then!

Actually, after a lot of faffing about with a Tyan S2877 opteron system, I found an old Intel 2.6Ghz P4 box that seems to be quite HCL compliant, and loads ESX running on an Adaptec 39160 SCSI card. This might be the quickest route to get some learning done.

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kratclif
Contributor
Contributor

Hi All,

I know this is really an old thread, but I haven't found anything else specifically related to the problems with the mptscsi_2xx driver on a Dell Precision 690 workstation. I would like to throw in just one thing in case other people are having this issue too... I had tried typing "esx text" at the boot menu but that didn't help.

I randomly typed "debug" at the boot menu for ESX 3.0 and it bypassed the problem with the mptscsi_2xx driver - which still scrolled by during the first part of the install, but kept on going.

Good luck to everyone else who tries this workstation!

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neilst
Contributor
Contributor

I had the same problem with an HP ProLiant ML150 G3 I was installing for a test lab. Using the 'debug' option as mentioned above allowed the install to proceed.

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