SATA Support Clear as Mud!?

[The-Kevster]

From the updated I/O sheet this is what's mentioned on supported SATA controllers....

Supported SAS/SATA Dual Controllers

ESX Server 3.5 supports selected SATA devices connected to dual SAS/SATA controllers. This support is limited to ESX Server 3.5. It is not included with ESX Server 3.0.x.

The supported dual SAS/SATA controllers are:

• mptscsi_2xx (PCIE) ‐ LSI1078*

• mptscsi_pcie ‐ LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E)*

• mptscsi_pcix ‐ LSI1068 (SAS 5)*

• aacraid_esx30 ‐ IBM serveraid 8k SAS controller*

• cciss ‐ Smart Array P400/256 controller*

So what is the best PCIE card for me to put into my S5000PAL server that will use the above driver, if only someone could make a list :smileygrin:

Thanks,

Kev

[itpro_]

Hi rpartmann,

I don't see megaraid2.xml in /etc/vmware... actually, there is no folder pciid inside /etc/vmware/

or am I doing something wrong?!

[itpro_]

Well I didn't see the file from the diagnostic shell, but with live linux it worked. However, no matter what I enter, ESX doesn't work with Intel SCRS28X.

[rpartmann]

Hi,

strange it worked when i tested it... long time ago...

Intel SCRS28x / PCI-X 8xSATA Firmware rev. 814D RaidBIOS H431

http://www.intel.com/design/servers/raid/srcs28x/index.htm

/etc/vmware/pciid/megaraid2.xml

Reinhard Partmann,

>A new message was posted in the thread "SATA Support Clear as Mud!?":

>http://communities.vmware.com/message/1191792#1191792

>Author : itpro_

>Profile : http://communities.vmware.com/people/itpro_

>Message:

[jlemr]

I'm trying to install ESXi 3.5 on a supermicro P8SCI. SATA 80GB HD, no raid

I get the fatal 'no device' error.

If I alt-f1 to the console, and type lspci, it sees the controller, an intel IH6, but fdisk -l shows nothing. How can I get ESXi to see the drive if it sees the controller?

Thanks!

[randy_overton]

I bought the SATA300 TX4 (pci 32bit) you mentioned below and installed it but I get a kernel panic. Any ideas what might be happening. I assume it's hardware.

Thanks

Randy

[devzero]

>I assume it's hardware.

oh - all my sata controllers are hardware, btw

just kidding.

to be honest, to check if it`s hardware or software issue is easy - just install linux or windows and check if it runs there without problems.

if not, it`s most likely a hardware issue.

[YuvarajGopal]

hi Maish,

I am having the same hardware like you, but im having difficulties installing vmware esx, Seems like some hard disk issue.

I booted up with vmware esx CD, i just got the yellow screen after that got a message like "Unable to install" - seems like hard disk some RAID issue. I dont have the exact error in handy. But i can try again - if you get any clue.

Yuvaraj

[Stive]

Ich bin bis am 27.04.09 nicht im Hause. Anfragen bitte an Helpdesk Network (helpdesk@pc-ware.ch) weiterleiten!

Besten Dank

[maishsk]

I was installing ESX3i not the full version of ESX - Can you please post your error?

Maish

Systems Administrator & Virtualization Architect

[YuvarajGopal]

hi Maish

After i hit the Enter(Install) option in vmware ESX3I install CD - I got the following error message.

VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 Installer

-

---

Installation operation Failed!

The installation operation has encountered a fatal error:

Unable to find a supported device to write the VMware ESX Server 3i 3.5.0 image to.

The following system information will assist the VMware support team with your problem. Please record this information before proceeding.

System Information:

Manufacturer: IBM

Model: eserver xSeries 335

BIO Rev: http://T2E127AUS-11.08-

(Enter) Reboot

-

---

Yuvaraj

[dodgyd]

Grimfish

Many thanks for the info. I have just ordered 2 P5BV/SAS MBs for ESXi.

Cheers

[kriewald]

In der Zeit vom 27.04.2009 bis 11.05.2009 bin ich nicht im Hause. Ihre Mail wird nicht automatisch weitergeleitet.

In Angelegenheiten der Verwaltungs-IT wenden sie sich bitte an meine Vorgesetzte Frau Jentzen-Ang.

Die Bearbeitung aller Angelegenheiten des Personalrats erfolgt durch die stellvertretenden Vorsitzenden. Übersicht und Kontaktdaten finden sie hier: http://www.fh-hannover.de/pr/mitglieder/index.html

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Kai-Uwe Kriewald

[Grimfish]

Hi meisterw,

Have you tried the lastest ESXi version as VMware have only just released ICH10 chipset support in release ESXi Update 4. Also have a look at these sites as they offer some really good tips for getting ESXi to run on non HCL hardware. I recently installed ESXi on an AMD board with an nForce chipset that ESXi didn't see the storage on under normal circumstances. PM me if you need extra help on it. Here are the web pages I found very helpful.

How to install for USB (This saved me burning about 20 odd useless CD's)

This is the site that has many details about the whole process (scroll down a bit and have a good read)

This is the site to get the customized OEM.TGZ file. The people that wrote these files are pure genius (I am only spreading the word of their excellent work)

A useful tip if needed but the above should help most.

In short you boot from a USB drive with the custom OEM.TGZ file, this allows you to see the storage during the install process. When this completes I used a Ubuntu CD to boot and DELETED (yes delete first) then copied over the custom OEM.TGZ file to hypervison1 partion then rebooted again and presto!!! working ESXi

Good luck

Cheers

[Grimfish]

Hi dodgyd,

No Probs, just a quick tip the LSI controller only supports 2 LUNS (I only recently found this out while playing around and is a bit of a limitation). Also on the board are 12 SATA ports, I will assume you are fluent with hardware so I won't go into detail however, there are 2 sets of 4 ports that attach to the LSI controller the other 4 attach to the Intel ICHR7 controller. The ports that attach to the LSI controller are split into two groups (Primary and Secondary). Make sure your disk layout doesn't combine a single LUN ove the 2 LSI controller channels. This will result in a very slow disk performance in ESX.

e.g. SATA ports 0-3 set up as 1 LUN and SATA ports 4-7 set up as the second LUN. (Not sure how many disks you plan to use so this may not be an issue).

Also I am still investigating installing the ASUS web site LINUX drivers into ESX as this may include the support to enable the cache in the controller as this is not a BIOS setable item, I am hoping this will give even better performance in ESX. As far as I can see so far you only get this option when you install the LSI management software in a windows OS. Please feel free to PM me if you want more info.

All in all you will find it to be a very good MB. I have been plying with heaps of different stuf MS OS's, LINUX OS's, Citrix XEN Server and ESX and each time it performs nicely :).

Cheers

[lk5246]

did

Silicon Image 3114 work with raid with two hdd

[devzero]

sil3114 will not work with esx in raid mode and you cannot have vmfs on sil3114 attached disks

[blackforce]

I have tested vSphere 4 on a ML115 G1 and it works fine. Nice

[Erik_Bussink]

I have successfully installed VMware ESX 4.0.0 Build 164009 on a Shuttle SG45H7.

My Shuttle SG45H7 is configured with a Xeon 3350 (@2.66Ghz), 8GB (4x2GBKingston) and a SuperMicro AOC-SG-i4 4xGigabit PCIexpress card (4xIntel 82576). The SATA is configured as AHCI.

I installed VMware ESX 4.0.0 using the Text installer.

FYI: I have not tried the Shuttle SG45H7 with 4x4GB memory sticks, and some people are reporting issues with 16GB on the US Shuttle forum.

[AlbertChurba]

Erik,

Would you be kind enough to share how you were able to install the Quad Port 82576 network adapter in ESXi 4 build 164009?

I have tried the pci.ids and simple.map method (oem.tgz) but the network card does not function. I'm actually using the Intel card and not the Supermicro card if that makes a difference.

Product:

pci.ids entry (numerically inserted within the list):

8086 10e8 82576 Gigabit Network Connection

8086 a02c Gigabit ET Quad Port Server Adapter

simple.map entry (numerically inserted within the list):

8086:10e8 0000:0000 network igb.o

When I issue the lspci or lspci -n or lspci -v everything looks correct yet the card does not show up in vSphere nor function. When viewing the log it states the driver has not claimed any devices. Searching for a more recent driver, the sourceforge project has an updated driver 1.3.19.3 yet I am not skilled in complying a driver for use in ESXi.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Albert

[Dave_Mishchenko]

If you manually load the driver (vmkload_mod /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/ what sort of output do you get in /var/log/messages?