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jwhitehv
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Major LSI 2208 Issue

http://www.synchronet.com/blog/critical-bug-for-lsi-pass-through-on-vsan/

What's the impact, operationally?

Greenfield

  • Controller configuration for RAID 0
  • Does RAID 0 need to be set up per-drive? I don't have a 2208 handy. Anyone?
  • Drive replacement
    "The main consideration when utilizing RAID 0 mode for storage controllers within Virtual SAN is the impact on the operational model. To manage the addition and removal of drives, RAID 0 mode requires interaction with the storage controller firmware through hardware vendor–specific software tools." -- VMware Virtual SAN Hardware Guidance 1.0
  • Controller cache settings;
    "When utilizing RAID 0 mode, the storage controller cache should be disabled—this is configurable on some but not all storage controllers—to ensure that it does not conflict with the cache of the SSD drives controlled by Virtual SAN. When the storage controller cache cannot be completely disabled in a RAID 0 configuration, configure it for 100 percent read cache, effectively disabling the write cache." -- VMware Virtual SAN Hardware Guidance 1.0
    Not sure how that impacts the native 2208 or the various OEM versions.

Existing:

  • Manual reconfiguration on host by host basis (and possibly drive by drive) from pass-through to RAID 0
  • Possible reconfiguration of RAID caching

Man, is LSI really the only manufacturer doing HBAs with pass-through mode?!

I blog at vJourneyman | http://vjourneyman.com/
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6 Replies
zdickinson
Expert
Expert

I am very interested in this.  Is this a confirmed bug?  I would like to see a KB from LSI or VMware.  If so, does it affect the LSI 9207-8i?  Thank you, Zach.

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DrewDeM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm having similar issues testing Dell H730p controllers in Pass-through modes.  I have two VSAN clusters currently setup.  One that I've used in HBA mode and Pass-through and the other is setup using the RAID 0 method.  I'm able to consistently cause drive errors on the Pass-through cluster and have so far not been able to generate any issues on the RAID 0 configuration. 

Yes, you do have to configure each drive individually for RAID 0 so they each present as a single drive to VMware and then you have to specify each individual SSD through ESXcli. 


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zdickinson
Expert
Expert

I don't believe the 730P is a supported card.  The 710P is.  See attached.  I was also under the impression that only pass through was only supported with certain LSI cards.  Thank you, Zach.

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rakeshrn
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

We are planning to certify the H730p by end of Q4, 2014.  We will be testing both RAID 0 and pass through modes.  Thanks for the heads up here, we will update you on what we find out as part of our testing.

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DrewDeM
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Zach,

Yes, I was aware that the h730p is not currently on the HCL.  As was mentioned above they are working on the certification.  I thought it was worth mentioning here as the Dell controllers are using LSI's technology.

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zdickinson
Expert
Expert

I reached out to VMware and to answer my own question the 9207-8i is based on the LSI 2308 chipset and should be unaffected by this issue.  Thank you, Zach.

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