Emulex LP1150-E: LPFC_740 driver doesn't load after upgrade to ESX 3.5

[StPi]

Good morning folks,

I've got an IBM x3850 server with 2 Emulex LP1150-E HBAs which was running perfectly with ESX 3.02.

I then tried to upgrade to ESX 3.5 Update1 via CD.

After applying the upgrade the server restarted but it won't load the lpfc_740 HBA driver anymore!!!

Both HBAs are running the most current firmware 2.72a2.

I opened a case at VMware then.

The first recommendation was to upgrade the firmware of the HBAs.

After stating that the firmware is most current, I got an answer that there seems to be another customer who has the same problem with the same server and the same HBAs. It seems to be a problem with the firmware and I should DOWNGRADE the firmware, now.

I refused to do that because this is only the first one of 5 servers and I don't intend to downgrade all of them!

To be honest i hoped for a quick bugfix.

This was about a month ago now and the server still isn't running.

I asked VMware support for an update on this issue last thursday but they didn't answer by now.

Does anyone have similar problems or a hint how I can fix this issue???

An ESX server without SAN access isn't of much use.

Kind regards,

Stefan

[jklaus]

Hi Stefan,

Have you found a fix for this problem? I'm currently reinstalling an IBM x3650 server with ESX 3.5U2 but the install process locks up during the first text based portion ("Loading lpfc_740 driver..."). BIOS is upgraded to the latest version (1.10) but to no avail, and it's got 2 Emulex LP11000 HBAs onboard. Your post is the closest i could get to the problem, so perhaps you've figured it out

Thanks in advance!

Jon

[StPi]

Hi Jon,

yes, I finally got it running.

In our case it has been a problem with the controller firmware.

I upgraded the firmware some time ago with HBanywhere running on ESX and according to HBanywhere everything was ok and I was running the latest release.

Following a hint from VMware that there might be something wrong with the firmware I took the HBA out of the ESX server, put it into a Windows machine, reflashed it with the current firmware, put it back to the ESX server and... IT WORKED!!!

On another ESX server I tried to reflash the firmware again running the HBanywhere on ESX before upgrading to ESX 3.5.

After upgrading to 3.5 I ran into the same error - LPFC_740 won't load.

So I did the above procedure again: take HBA out of ESX machine - put it into Windows machine - flash firmware - put it back into ESX machine - boot.

What shall I say? It worked again.

So I did this with all of our 5 ESX servers and now they are all running ESX3.5.

I am not sure if it's the same problem as yours, because our upgrade installation itself went through but you may give it a try to reflash the controller firmware in a Windows machine with a locally installed HBanywhere.

Good Luck!

Stefan

[erickmiller]

We've run into this numerous times with HP Proliant machines with HP's branded version of the Emulex LPe1150 (HP FC2142SR). The latest firmware doesn't solve the problem. Basically, what happens is the driver loads and appears to hang during the text install of ESX, but I think it's actually trying to scan the fiber channel network for devices. Unfortunately, it seems like it hangs during this process.

We solved it by disabling the ports on the fiber channel switch connected to that server. The installation starts fine. Fiber channel ports can be re-enabled after the graphical "Welcome to the ESX Server 3.5 Installer" appears.

Eric K. Miller, Genesis Hosting Solutions, LLC

- Lease part of our ESX cluster!