vSphere 5.0 installation stuck

[spravtek]

I have this strange installation problem I encounterd.

The system is a server with a supermicro x8 board and an onboard LSI 2008 controller. The disks are configured as mirror.

The ESXi 5.0 installation is started via USB. Startup is ok, disks get recognized as "remote" ... The datastore gets created ok.... The problem happens when the partitioning/installation of ESXi itself is happening.

The installation starts, runs until 10% and stops, sits there ... I have waited a long time, more then 45 minutes, but it's stuck at 10%

Anyone had this issue before?

The controller has the latest firmware, so does all other hardware ...

I've used the USB for other installations which ran fine ...

Any input/ideas welcome ... This evening I'm going back to the site for testing.

[firestartah]

Hi

A few ideas i have that might be the problem is

1. You state the disks are 'remote'. are you installing ESXi on remote disk on purpose as you state you have the disks on your server setup in a mirror configuration yet you are selecting remote so possibly your local disks aren't appearing for you?
2. When it gets stuck at 10% does it show you what it is trying to install at that point?
3. Are all you controllers and equipment on the HCL for vSphere 5?

Gregg

[spravtek]

Well, that's the thing, the disk shows as "remote" to ESXi, though it is connected to the onboard LSI controller (which as far as I remember was on the HCL) ... The other equipment should be fine as well.

I was thinking it might have something to do with a setting on the controller ... But not a lot of settings to adjust.

So, the disks (mirror) are in fact local, but the installer sees them as remote ...

It doesn't show me anything when stuck at 10%, though I know the datastore was created, it's after this point it gets stuck (I'm guessing during partitioning or copying files?)

Thanks for thinking with me ... Hope somewhere a light will switch on

[firestartah]

Funnily enough a light did flick on about this as I remembered reading a blog posting by the infamous Scott Lowe which sounds a lot like yours even though it isn't the same equipment

http://blog.scottlowe.org/2011/04/27/vmware-esxi-local-disks-showing-as-remote/

Gregg

[spravtek]

I totally missed that one ... Thanks a lot ...

So, the fact that the installation gets stuck could be due to the fact it can't create the scratch directory?

Though I thought it would just continue ... Maybe it has, because I still need to check the last install I started I let it run to see if it would continue.

The problem will be using a kickstart script ... These systems have an SSD which also hangs on the LSI controller, so if I script it and tell to take the first remote disk the chance is it will take the SSD, or will that not happen... SSD on ESXi for me is kinda new

I still need to read the rest of the blog/article so maybe I'll find an answer there...

[spravtek]

So, I checked if the installation finished after more then a day, which it didn't, it was still stuck at 10%

Is this due to this scratch directory not getting created? The only workaround for this is creating it after installation, which is not possible when installation doesn't finish.

I did the installation with a usb thumbdrive and a kickstart to choose first local disk, which of course was the usb thumbdrive, which resulted in ESXi being installed to the USB thumbdrive.

So, I gues there is a problem installing to this mirror on an LSI 2008 ... I'll see if I can find some info about this.

If anybody has another idea?

[spravtek]

update:

I tried reinstall again, still same issue, but now I have the vmkernel log entry:

LinSCSI: SCSILinuxAbortCommands: 1798: Failed, driver fusion MPT SAS host, for vmhba2

I checked again on the Compatibility Guide if the card is there ... Of course it doesn't tell if it is also supporting the onboard kind of controller but it is definetily in the list for ESXi 5.0

Is it a driver problem or some other issue?

Anyone encountered this issue before?

[spravtek]

Well ... It's fail after fail ...

I just don't get it ...

I even created a custom iso with these drivers: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_lsi_mpt2sas_101010001vmw/dCV0YnRAZSpidGVkZA==

But still no go ...

Running out of ideas ... Anyone?

I know about people who installed VMware succesfully on these boards and controllers ...

[edit] what I forgot to mention, there's 2 systems like this, the second one gets to 35% and fails with the same error.

[admin]

The disk showing up in the "remote" section is a red herring.  The reason why it's showing up as "remote" is because the driver isn't really sure where the disk is located -- this happens for a lot of disks and is really only cosmetic.

Unfortunately your specific problem is related to the driver for your specific chipset not working correctly.  You should call support and file a ticket.

[spravtek]

Hey Patrick,

Yeah, I understand the remote disks by now, learned a lot past few days, weeks ...

I did just that, file a case with VMware support, I hope they can help me out, otherwise it will be an (even more) expensive ordeal.

Thanks!