ESX 3.5 U3 - storage problem

[tPops]

Hello!

I am setting up a new ESX environment in my lab, with the hopes of P2Ving my entire old stacks of blades/pizza boxes into a VM environment, like many of you have I'm sure. Initially, i'm just going to use local storage on servers, but may switch to a san later...(i have HBAs in all the servers)

Here's the servers:

6x DL380 G5 dual quad core 2.33 16gb memory

HP P400 Raid Controller

2x72gb mirror volume (where i installed ESX server)

6x146gb raid 5 volume (additional local datastore)

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I built out all servers in a nearly identical fashion (more on that later) but they are all set up w/ the same disk config etc. They are all configured consistently for network etc.

My issue is this: On all of the machines, the 72gb mirror (well, shows up at 68ish after formatting) and the bigger raid5 volume show up under storage adaptors (if i go to the p400 controller) so you can see both logical volumes. However, if you go to Storage, on 4 out of the 6 servers, only the smaller mirror shows up as a datastore. If i try to add a datastore, pick disk/lun type, and hit next, nothing shows up. I've tried rescanning both via the storage adaptors page, the storage page, and also via the CLI, to no avail.

My thoughts on why this is happening is this...when i first put together the hardware, i had inconsistent drive configurations...i didn't have enough 146gb drives to the 6x146 raid5 volume on each server, i had only 72gb drives there, or i simply hadn't defined the array at all, when i installed ESX 3.5 u3. I later shuffled around and got all servers to the hardware configuration above. Clearly, the ESX server can see the volume, or it wouldn't show up under Storage Adaptors, but for some reason won't let me assign it as an extent or as a new datastore.

I looked in the log files, and there is an error about partitionsvc re: unexpected size, run the diskpart utility w/ different flags, and various other things that are impossible given that there is no service console in U3 anymore. I read online in other forums that one person had this problem and his only resolution was to reinstall ESX server, which is totally an option right now (as i have no VMs running on these boxes yet) but it seems to me that this is something that should be fixable w/out a full rebuild.

Attached are screenshots of the storage adaptors and storage pages.

Any help is much appreciated! I am still in eval mode, so I don't have support yet...but we'll probbaly be buying the full blown enterprise for our production, and the standard for our lab environment here shortly, but I'd like to have this ironed out before that.

thanks!

[tPops]

oh quick note, the second 600+gb volume actually WORKS and was add-able on 2 out of the 6 boxes, but the others it does not...leading me to think it is not a controller issue.

[Craig_Baltzer · Accepted solution]

Are you connected directly to the ESX boxes with the VI client or are you connected to a VirtualCenter server? If you're connected through VirtualCenter try connecting directly to the ESX box itself, doing a re-scan, then trying to Add Storage again...

If that doesn't work login to the service console and run "fdisk -l" (that's lower case "L"). Take a look for your 600GB disk and see if there are any partitions already on it (they'll be listed under "Device" if they're there. If there are any existing partitions then try deleting them then do back to the VI Client connected directly to the ESX box itself, re-scan and try Add Storage again...

[tPops]

the problem is, there is no "remote cli" fdisk tool that ships w/ ESX cli tools that I'm aware of...or is there?

This is update 3 so it doesn't have a service console.

....

Ok, whoa...I logged directly into the server rather than through VC (using the VI client) and i was able to add the storage. WTF? I am using the newest version of the VIC, but it had this issue before I updated it as well.

I'll try this on the other servers and if it solves it, kudos to you sir!

[Craig_Baltzer]

Yup, strange it is; I banged into the "can't see it through VC but works fine when directly conencted" thing a while back after I'd deleted some datastores and then couldn't re-use the storage.

Are you running ESX 3.5 or ESXi 3.5? ESX 3.5 Update 3 definitely has a service console. ESXi 3.5 you need to go into the "unsupported" mode to get there (from the server console hit <Alt><F1> then type "unsupported" to get to the login prompt)

[hem-w]

Hi,

we have exactly the same problem on two ESX 3.5 running on HP Proliant Servers. New disk array and logical disks (with ACU, Controller is SmartArray P400) were created which are not seen under "Add storage..." dialog, but under storage adapters.

After connecting with VIC to the ESX directly we have no Problem.

Have already opened a call at HP support but no answer yet. Will drop a message here when I have a solution.

[hem-w]

I got following information from HP: At VMware this problem is known.

Bug ID: 328797

It should be fixed on the next release of VC. He asked to keep an eye on the updates. The only workaround is

to configure the storage from the VI Client connected directly to the ESX.

Hem