Anybody having experience with Areca Beta Drivers for ESX?

[CharlieBlank]

Hi,

I've just seen that Areca finally is working on releasing drivers for their storage cards -

Did anybody of you already try these drivers? What's your experience about stability and performance?

Thanks, Karlheinz

[D-OveRMinD]

I am trying to load them right now, but am getting errors on ESX setup. I have a feeling that the drivers were compiled for a different version of the kernel than what is shipped in Update 2 of ESX. I'm trying to find a work around.

[CharlieBlank]

Hi,

I was having good results in the meantime with using the Areca drivers with ESX 3.5 Update 1. Good performance. I was unable to go for a stability check for days -- but 48 hours - no problems.

As the kernel changed for the ESX 3.5 Update 2 - I didn't expect the drivers to work with that. So same findings as you have....

[_usr_local_dick]

I just tried installing 3.5U2 (latest timebomb-less build) onto a Supermicro box with an Areca ARC-1110 (PCI-X).

The Areca CD boots fine, but the ESX CD gives me lots of errors (Anaconda related).

3.5U1 does work fine.

Once that is running, I cannot upgrade to 3.5U2 either. I get similar errors. I have typed the exact error:

Traceback (most recnet call last):

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 805, in nextClicked

self.dispatch.gotoNext()

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 159, in gotoNext

self.moveStep()

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 227 in moveStep

rc = apply(func, self.bindArgs(arg))

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/upgrade.py", line 49, in findRootParts

id.rootParts = findExistingRoots(intf, id, chroot)

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/upgrade.py", line 78, in findExistingRoots

upgradeany = upgradeany)

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/partedUtils.py", line 631, in findExistingRootPartitions

elif (part.fs_type and

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 80, in getUsableLinuxFs

default = fileSystemTypeGetDefault()

File "/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 60, in fileSystemTypeGetDefault

raise ValueError, "You have neither ext3 or ext2 support in your kernel!"

ValueError: You have neither ext3 or ext2 support in your kernel!

Strangely enough, after switching to another console at this stage, I do see the Areca disk with fdisk....

[D-OveRMinD]

That's the exact same errors I was getting....it looks like the VMware kernel changed in Update2.

The Areca drivers were compiled for the older kernel, and ESX thinks it doesn't have support for the file system.

I am working on trying to compile the latest Areca drivers for the new ESX kernel, but it's been a bear so far.

[vanaxe]

I have the same issue with Update2 - Has any one tried ESXi with Areca ?

[D-OveRMinD]

So far as I have found, there is no easy way to inject the Areca drivers

into ESXi. The installer disk is looking for the full blown ESX

installer. I think I am gonna give Areca a call directly....all it

takes is a kernel update.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You could follow the process I have here to try it with ESXi - http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/customize_oem_tgz.php. From the VMware3.5_RPM.zip file on their site, you can extract the driver acrmsr.o and then modify the process I have to add that to oem.tgz as well. To add the driver you would need to insert the steps

3a 3) mkdir -p oem/mod

and then copy the acrmsr.o file to that folder. You would then add additonal steps to copy what steps 13 - 18 do.

If you just have this controller in the host, it would be easiest to boot ESXi from a USB flash drive and then modify oem.tgz on it. Or if you have a recognized IDE controller, you could intall to that. Steps for both those options can also be found on www.vm-help.com

[D-OveRMinD]

Alright, check it out guys. Areca just updated their FTP site a couple of days ago:

ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/RaidCards/AP_Drivers/VMware/

There are now ESX 3.5 and 3i installation disks. However, their Notice says that they have only tested it to work with the vanilla versions, not any of the updates. I would be willing to bet that up to Update 1 should work since there was no major kernel change until Update 2. I will be testing this today.

Looks like it's just a matter of time guys!

[D-OveRMinD]

Also of note,

Notes

2.1 This is the instruction for the installation of Areca RAID volume(s) as

(an) external storage(s) on VMware ESX Server 3i Installable platform.

2.2 Installing ESX Server 3i Installable onto an Areca volume

is unsupported due to lack of ESXi async driver

support during installation.

2.3 This is an unsupported trick by VMware and Areca Technology Corp.,

because officially VMware does not recommend customers this kind of

installation for ESX Server 3i Installable.

For future ESXi 4.0, VMware is providing a mechanism that would allow

async drivers to be loaded onto the ESXi platform.

2.4 The whole series of Areca ARC11XX/ARC12XX/ARC13XX/ARC16XX SATA/SAS RAID

controllers are all applicable to ESX Server 3i Installable.

2.5 Please check if your platform is listed on VMware ESXi 3.5 HCL.

Please refer to http://www.vmware.com/.

[tibyke]

i finally got esxi 3.5u2 working with areca 1120 pci-x on a tyan server.

wheny having tried installing with the iso image from areca ftp site, i got the same results and errors you mentioned above.

theny i tried something totally different:

1. exract VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-110271.i386.dd from the installation image

2. restore it to an usb stick: cat VMware-VMvisor-big-3.5.0_Update_2-110271.i386.dd

3. copy over oem.tgz to the appropriate location

4. boot the stick and see everything is fine, all the areca arrays are there and accessible

5. boot slax again, and copy over the usb stick to the areca array: cat /dev/sda > /dev/sdb

6. remove usb stick, boot areca array

7. boot screen: SHIFT + o to get the boot options, and add nousbboot shell

8. if it boots up, its fine

9. return to slax, and mount sda5, edit boot.cfg in /bootbank, and add the above two options to kernelopt

10. reboot and ejoy

t

[helmishariff]

I have successfully boot from usb. So, how to install to hard disk?

[Jirkaehm]

Hi I sucesfully installed vmware ESXi update 3 to raid5 volume on areca, everything seems to be working.

But I'm having some small problem, is there any way to monitor RAID5 volume?

There is nothing in health status.

Thank you for any help

[D-OveRMinD]

Did you actually install ESXi to the areca RAID itself, or did you inject drivers after the fact to use it as a VM storage volume? Did ESXi recognize the array when you booted from the install disk?

[Jirkaehm]

I actually installed ESXi to RAID on areca.

I modified installation cd and installation image to be able to do that.

Using this manual: http://www.grid.org/blog/cameron/updating-vmware-esxi-disk-dump-file

[powerneet]

Can somebody PLEASE oh PLEASE upload me a CD image of ESX 3.5U3 with support for ARECA 1222 support....... i don't understand all of your settings etc. If you mail me, i'll send you an FTP site if needed. Or upload to rapidshare.

[Jirkaehm]

http://rapidshare.com/files/203940638/VMware-VMvisor-InstallerCD-3.5.0_Update_3-123629.i386-arecadri...

http://rapidshare.com/files/203942028/VMware-VMvisor-InstallerCD-3.5.0_Update_3-123629.i386-arecadri...

Here you go. I'm not sure if that is right iso (I made several of those before I got it working, and I don't have anything to test it), so if it does'nt work I upload another

[powerneet]

Thanks, i'll try it. But i also need to embedd a realtek driver, so what did you modify ?

And which iso files do i really need. It is really a bunch of files, so unclear.

629.800.960 esx-3.5.0_Update_3-123630.iso

13.701.064 VMware-vcb-102898.exe

791.150.592 VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U3-English.iso

571.120.303 VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U3-English.zip

252.149.760 VMware-VMvisor-InstallerCD-3.5.0_Update_3-123629.i386.iso

Thanks for all your' information

[powerneet]

It looks you only inserted oem.tgz to the image ? Is it that simple ?

[Jirkaehm]

No oem.tgz it's only for installation CD, not for drivers ESX is using.

You need to also modify install.tgz file. I used this manual http://www.grid.org/blog/cameron/updating-vmware-esxi-disk-dump-file

It's going to be quite simmilar for another drivers.

But I would first try to install it and copy drivers to already installed system, I think that would be so much easier than modify iso file again.

And also why Realtek? Intel chip lan card's is'nt so expensive and work excellent...