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Photubias
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nVidia MCP55 Pro SATA Controller

When using this Sata controller I can not see the attached disks in the Configuration tab of the ESX Server.

So ESX cannot address VMFS volumes through this adapter and prior to ESX Update 2 (build11081) you needed a manual adjustment to the sata_nv.xml-file before ESX would even mount disks with this chipset.

Why is this? Is there a solution?

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rpartmann
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Hi,

.) boot 3 option -> Serviceconsole only

.) cd /etc/vmware/pciid

.) vi sata_nv.xml

changed the last entry from 037e to 037f (this might be a different value

depends on your system..

use lspci and lspci

-vnn, to resolve)

:wq! == write and exit

.) esxcfg-pciid

.) esxcfg-boot -r

.) esxcfg-boot -b

.) reboot

.) esx is up and running

hope that helps,

Reinhard.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

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rpartmann
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Hi,

.) boot 3 option -> Serviceconsole only

.) cd /etc/vmware/pciid

.) vi sata_nv.xml

changed the last entry from 037e to 037f (this might be a different value

depends on your system..

use lspci and lspci

-vnn, to resolve)

:wq! == write and exit

.) esxcfg-pciid

.) esxcfg-boot -r

.) esxcfg-boot -b

.) reboot

.) esx is up and running

hope that helps,

Reinhard.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.
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Photubias
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Thanks for the quick & correct reply!

I had done something like that before to get ESX to start with the MCP55 Controller, but after doing that I noticed the 037f device I added wasn't there any more.

Appearantly the esxcfg-boot -r & esxcfg-boot -b options are needed for that, what do they do?

For other people with the same problem: don't forget to do a 'chmod +w sata_nv.xml' before adjusting it.

Greetings

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rpartmann
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>

>Thanks for the quick & correct reply!

You are welcome!

>I had done something like that before to get ESX to start with the

>MCP55 Controller, but after doing that I noticed the 037f device I

>added wasn't there any more.

>Appearantly the esxcfg-boot -r & esxcfg-boot -b options are needed

>for that, what do they do?

# esxcfg-boot

esxcfg-boot -h --help

-q --query boot|vmkmod

-p --update-pci

-b --update-boot

-d --rootdev UUID=

-r --refresh-initrd

-g --regenerate-grub

Queries cannot be combined with each other or other options.

Passing -p or -d enables -b even if it is not passed explicitly.

-b implies -g plus a new initrd creation.

-b and -r are incompatible, but -g and -r can be combined.

#

>For other people with the same problem: don't forget to do a 'chmod

>+w sata_nv.xml' before adjusting it.

vim can override that :wq! afaik.

hth,

Reinhard.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.
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Everslea
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Hello

This is a great thread and I have managed to get out ML115 G5 machine with an MCP55 SATA controller working to a point however when we now boot ESX 3.5 Update 2 the following message appears on the console:

<0>SCSI: device set offline - command recovery failed: host 2 channel 0 id 0 lun 0

In the Infrastructure client the controller does now appear however I have seen other posts that reference this error stating the MCP55 is prone to shuting down and freezing the box once this error is diaplayed.

Disks show correctly in the infrastructure client under storage adapter:

vmhba32 - 149 GB Boot drive

vmhba33 - 465 GB SATA DRIVE

vmhba34 - 465 GB SATA DRIVE

vmhba35 - Nothing attached

vmhba36 - CDROM

vmhba37 - Nothing attached

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

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