ESXi 6 install on HP BL460c Gen 9 - local storage not found

[pmccready]

Hi

I've just deployed a new blade enclosure containing a number of BL460c Gen9 blades.   Each of these blades have 2 x local HDDs which have been configured as a RAID-1 set.

When I run through the ESXi installation, following accepting the license agreement it searches for devices, but under "Local" where I would expect to see my RAID1 drive/volume, it simply says "None".

These are new servers, and on the compatibility list.  Why is the local storage not found?

Thanks in advance,

Pete

[Paltelkalpesh]

Might be your RAID controller is not supporting esxi 6, kindly go through below link which may helpful for check VMware compatibility.

VMware Compatibility Guide: I/O Device Search

[pmccready]

Hi

Thanks for your response, the controller is a HP Smart Array P244br controller.  It is on the list, screen shots attached.

Thanks

Peter

[Gavis4569]

It is always good to use custom images for particular vendors (HP, Dell, IBM, ...). The point is that there are driveres bundled within the installation image. I assume that this is your problem - Standard ESXi image does not see the RAID array, because it has no drivers for that.

You can download custom image here: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI60U1B-HPE&productId=491

Martin

[MattGagliardi]

You'd probably be better off using the custom HP flavor of the ESXi ISO.  That has specific drivers built-in for HP components like storage, network, managment, etc. 

[douglasarcidino]

This is 100% correct. The Gen8 and up HP servers and blades will not have the storage drivers loaded into the stock ESXi image. Go into myvmware, my products, vSphere, custom images and download the HP image. I have 50 Gen 9 hosts in a mix of DL360 servers and BL460c all using the HP image with no drivers issues.

[pmccready]

Martin, Matt and Douglas - absolutely correct, many thanks for the pointer.  HPE image included the drivers and sorted it.