Solved: ESXi - host does not have Persistent Storage - Driver Issue??

[JaanTE]

Hey Guys!

Have just installed ESXi 6.0 to USB (as appears to be a recommended method) on one of our servers - a SuperMicro X7DCL.

This server was previously running 5.5 without any issues, but something became corrupt after a lockdown so decided to install a fresh / newer copy ( 6.0 ).

All seems to be fine, all loads, can access the machine locally and remotely - there is only one issue, which is small yet very annoying - I keep getting an error come up in vSphere:

"ESXi host does not have Persistent Storage"

The server is on a RAID 6 config (4x WD Reds), and in 3ware Raid Bios all looks fine.

I have read up a few posts on this issue, and found the following, which discusses drivers that may be needed post-installation of ESXi for certain RAID controllers.

Our controller is a '3ware 9650SE'.

No persistent storage after upgrade - ESXi 5.5

I have the option to "Click here to create a DataStore" - however no drives are found so no datastores can be created. Again makes me think its a driver issue?

Any help / advice highly appreciated. I feel as though I may have a similar problem? What are your views?

Many thanks!

[Gotzu]

Do you see your storage on Configuration > Storage tab.

Also go to storage adapter and enable iSCSI adapter.

[JaanTE]

Hi Gotzu.

Thanks for the reply!

I don't see any storage in there at all, also I have done the iSCSI setup before and still no help (have attached an image). Do you have any other ideas?

Also it is a SATA RAID config.

Thank you guys.

[Gotzu]

Did you attempt to rescan all storage?

The article you posted has suggestion to upgrade the driver and download link otherwise.

-Rajeev

[bansne]

This message is generated when an ESX/ESXi host does not have a VMFS datastore. If this message is observed after installation, the host may not have been able to create a VMFS volume due to an underlying storage problem, or storage device incompatibility with the VMFS filesystem. .

Can you do a cross check on all.

[Techie01]

Please upload the result of "lspci -vvv" command. That should tell why your raid controller is not getting detected

[JaanTE]

Solved:

Thanks to everyone for their help with the issue, this has now been solved and here is how...

It turns out that my orginal suspicion was correct, the problem lied with drivers...

On the SuperMicro, compatibility for the '3ware 9650SE' RAID controller stopped back at version '5.1 U3' - however - what I did in the end was obtain a legacy driver from the manufacturer, SCP it onto the server, and then install the VIB file. After doing this I rebooted and all was fine, I was now able to see my devices and create datastores.

I can't currently guarantee stability in version 6 of ESXi running a driver that is now depreciated - but all seems good so far.

[daquili]

can you give me the driver?

thank you!