ArnisR's Posts

All swaps/cache/logs and VMs themself reside on SSD which doesn't rattle:) But ESXi rattling HDD even if VM is booted to BIOS. I've tried now to start VM with 100% memory reservation and it doesn't change anything. I think it is related to some performance monitoring, journaling or storage adapter bus scanning/polling intervals (or glitching HP driver).

I don't know solution of problem, but I would check things step by step and try to localize the problem 1. Update BIOS, firmwares, ILO etc. Reset them all. Remove power completely from server for ~10 s (I know it is sounds weird, but I had problems after updates with booting/ILO on Microserver. Complete power-off resolved that.) 2. Install ESXi from scratch with latest HP image on internal SD card or USB. Without any disk attached. Check the booting time. 3. Attach one disk, check cables, make new RAID0 array from scratch on the whole disk. If problem appears, check with different manufacturer disk. A

Hmm. In my case (HP Microserver Gen8) VMs are correctly shutted down and then the server itself. All VMs must have VM tools installed. Did You try plink with system's shutdown script? For me it doesn't work correctly, but maybe it will work for You: plink root@< your ESXi host IP > -pw password "/sbin/shutdown.sh && /sbin/poweroff" A

The server itself is listed on HCL list. And HP stated that B120i is compatible with ESXi 6. B120i isn't separate hardware controller. It is software driven level on top of Intel chipset's functionality. A

I follow instructions from here - electrical power - VMware ESXi shutdown triggered by APC UPS connected via USB - Server Fault But slightly modified plink command at stage 8 because in my case depending on VM's shutdown order, ESXi host doesn't correctly shutdown controlling VM or doesn't power off ESXi. I use only poweroff command and it correctly shutdown VMs first (VM or open VM tools installed) and power off ESXi/Server. Didn't test yet with real electricity cut-off.

I try with Ubuntu 14.04LTS and Windows10TP. Both VMs base are on SSD datastore. Then I assigned second virtual disk for both VMs on HDDs datastore (for cold data). Unmount or make offline these HDD-based disk in VMs. Check in parallel disk usage in VM and ESXi host with esxtop in SSH shell. According to esxtop there are zero HDDs datastore disk actiivty in VMs (both or alone doesn't matter), but there is constantly reading and writing on HDDs datastore. Obviously by host (ESXi) themself. I simply can hear that HDDs are constantly accessed. If VMs has not assigned disks on HDD datastore or VMs with HDD datastore are shutted down, there is no activity on HDDs. P.S. Server is HP Microserver Gen8 with latest custom HP ESXi 6.0 image and ESXi patch, except with dowgraded HP hpsva driver, because latest hpsva drivers dramatically lowers disksystem IO. P.P.S. Yes, even starting VM in BIOS mode, ESXi starts monitoring assigned datastores.

Ok, thanks nthorst for changelog. (BTW, where they are?) Installed 088 driver and indeed in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS speeds goes up tenfold. vSphere client however still doesn't work fast - ~100-150Mbps from SSD datastore to desktop SSD. Also problem is still when I copy from one VM to another (Ubuntu<->Win10) on the same SSD. Speed often fall below 1 MB/s and even freezes for some time. I decided to try Hyper-V. I also have large HDDs and could stuck in 2 TB limit with esxi. Thanks again A

Thanks, nthorst I made some investigation now and found that hpsva ...-90 driver is marked as hotfix and urgent. I didn't find yet what the bug was in -088, but at this moment I don't want to risk with older one. Arnis P.S. There is also newer HP iso for ESXi 6 (...HP-600.9.2.38-Mar2015) from 30 March, but it didn't help me also

Thanks for the answer. I'll also plan to try 5.5->6 upgrade scenario. I  haven't DVD drive. I have installed SSD drive in that place and configured through RAID controller as RAID0 (single drive). ESXi 5.5 and 6.0 see them fine. Arnis