Help to update AACRAID driver on vSphere

[dfir]

Hello,

I'm trying to update my test-vSphere host to use the newly released driver for the Adaptec 5000 Series RAID controllers.

But this new .vib thingie that vSphere apparently uses is confusing me. I cannot find a way to update the host to use the new driver.

The driver package that I downloaded from Adaptecs website only contains 4 RPM files (one for each ESX release) and then a .vib file.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance

[Rumple]

Just a reminder, you will not be able to run vmfs volumes on that card as the vmkernel is not linux so you can't load drivers into it. If its not natively seen, it can't be used for storing VM's..just doing the main installation onto.

[dfir]

Hi Rumble,

The card is native seen and supported (and working) for VMFS datastores.

All I want is to update the driver that came with the original ESX4 installation with a newer one that Adaptec has released for ESX4.

And that is apparently not that easy as one could have hoped for

[The-Kevster]

I've got the same topic open but no one has replied there either.

I have an Adaptec 2405 which uses the same driver.

So far I've extracted the tar.gz file and got the cross_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacraid_400.1.1.5.2465-1.0.4.2465.vib file which is needed for vSphere. I think this is installed using the esxupdate command but when I run it I get an error that the vig signature is missing.

esxupdate -b ./vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacraid-400.1.1.5.2465-1.0.4.2465.x86_64.vib update vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacra.. ########################################

Encountered error VibSigMissingError: The error data is: Vib - /var/cache/esxupdate/cross_vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacraid_400.1.1.5.2465-1.0.4.2465.vib Errno - 20 Description - Vib signature is missing.

So maybe someone knows a little bit more info that we need to get this working :smileygrin:

[dfir]

Hey Kevster

I'm glad that I'm not the only one with this problem. I put a friend of mine on the task and he might have found a way (don't know if it is the correct way to do it) to get a usable driver.

The .vib file is apparently a 7zip file which my friend managed to get unzipped on a Windows machine. The .vib file containt a RPM that might be installable on the ESX4 using the --force command. Look in the Adaptec guide to find the correct rpm-command to use.

I cannot confirm if this will work, but my friend is working on it

P.S. Apparently the --force command is needed, because ESX fails the update stating that the system driver is newer than the 6 day old driver from Adaptec.

[The-Kevster]

I don't believe it's an RPM file but you can get to the 3 files that need to be replaced.

• /etc/vmware/init/manifests/Adaptec Inc.-aacraid.mf

• /etc/vmware/pciid/aacraid.xml

• /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/aacraid.o

I'm sure these could be replaced manually but I wouldn't like to try. Hopefully Adaptec will bring out some updated documentation soon or it might even be in the first batch of updates for vSphere.

Looks like we'll just have to wait and see.

[The-Kevster]

Adaptec have finally got back to me and here is the process to install the new driver. I was very nearly right with the esxupdate command above!

To install the Adaptec vSphere 4 driver version 1.1.5-2465 driver, you must first remove the existing inbox driver:

Obtain the currently installed package name:

rpm -qa | grep aacraid

i.e. vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacraid-400.3.5.10.5vmw-1.0.4.164009

Delete the currently installed package:

rpm -erase vmware-esx-drivers-scsi-aacraid-400.3.5.10.5vmw-1.0.4.164009

Install the Adaptec vSphere 4 driver package:

esxupdate -b <filename.vib> --nodeps -nosigcheck -maintenancemode update

NOTE: There is currently no boot install driver package available.

This last line bothers me! Does this mean that I wont be able to boot from my Adaptec card once the driver has been updated? As that will be a small issue for me!

[dfir]

Hi Kevster,

Awesome, great. Will try it

Hmm, from what I interpret then they only state that there is no driver availiable that you can use to install during the boot-installation of ESX.

If you remember then there is a point during the ESX installation where you can add "3rd party" drivers. I think (although I'm not certain) that is that that which they are talking about.

[The-Kevster]

That makes more sense. As it's supplied as a vib it can't be used. Maybe it has to be signed for boot installation but you can skip that from the command line.

Waiting to hear how your upgrade goes

[The-Kevster]

So did you get round to upgrading your drivers? I can't say my upgrade went sucessfully.....

[dfir]

Hey Kevster,

Likewise! My update went very bad.. I ended up having deleted the old driver and then I couldn't install the new one... 😕

It seems that the instructions you were given by Adaptec was incorrect, to say the least

Did you eventually manage to update your driver?

I remember that all the arguments they specified to be used with esxupdate doesnt even exists? At least as far as I can see..

[The-Kevster]

I removed the old driver, installed the new one then restarted. That's when it went wrong. It wouldn't boot being unable to find the esx-console.vmdk so I reinstalled ESX. When I did my Data disks were blank...I don't believe the reinstall formatted the disks so all I can think is the updated driver corrupted the volumes. After booting the disks didn't even have a vmfs partition.

Lesson learned....don't install any drivers or OS updates for ESX that weren't released by VMware!

[kklueber]

i had a similar problem with a driver for our 10gig nics. documenation from the vendor shows some switches you can pass to esxupdate

--nosigcheck

--nodeps

--maintenancemode

--nocache

i think the --nosigcheck will solve your VIB signature issue