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vipclubber
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Enthusiast

Changing LSI Logic SAS to Paravirtual controller on Windows 2012 R2?

I am running Windows 2012 R2 VM on HP G8 DL360p Server. (ESXi 6.0U2)

I need to change SCSI Controller from LSI Logic SAS to Paravirtual.

Do I need to install drivers? If yes, what drivers and how?

When I click on ADD SCSI Device under VM settings, the SCSI Device is shown (unavailable) and greyed out.

1. Is there an article or a video with steps and instructions you can provide?

2. What are the reasons for performance improvements by switching to Paravirtual?

Thanks in advance and please advise.

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8 Replies
dja234
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

First you have to add small disk to the same virtual machine from paravirtual adapter.Then it will automatically installed drivers to virtual machine. after that safely you can remove that disk & change your existing disk controllers.

Please follow below steps which is mentioned in vmware kb

To configure an existing Windows boot disk to use a PVSCSI adapter:

This procedure is required as the guest operating system does not have the PVSCSI driver and the guest will BSOD on boot if using the above method. This workaround forces the guest operating system to install the PVSCSI driver.

  1. Power off the virtual machine.
  2. Create a new temporary 1GB disk(SCSI 1:0) and assign a new SCSI controller (default is LSI LOGIC SAS).
  3. Change the new SCSI controller to PVSCSI for the new SCSI controller.
  4. Click Change Type.
  5. Click VMware Paravirtual and click OK.
  6. Click OK to exit the Virtual Machine Properties dialog.
  7. Power on the virtual machine.
  8. Verify the new disk was found and is visible in Disk Management. This confirms the PVSCSI driver is now installed.
  9. Power off the virtual machine.
  10. Delete the temporary 1GB vmdk disk and associated controller (SCSI 1:0).
  11. Change the original SCSI controller(SCSI 0:X) to PVSCSI as detailed in Steps 3 to 5.
  12. Power on the virtual machine.

Configuring disks to use VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) adapters (1010398) | VMware KB

Darshana Jayathilake
vipclubber
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

1 Are there any additional drivers installation on OS is required? Are controller drivers part of Vmware Tools?

2 Please explain the reasons to switch to Paravirtual controller?

Thanks in advance and please kindly advise...

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dja234
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

you can refer below link.this include answers for your queries.

vSphere Documentation Center

Darshana Jayathilake
vipclubber
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

How do I go backwards if I need to go back to the original SAS controller from Paravirtual?

Are steps in reverse the same or is there something different needed to be taken into an account?

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Gavis4569
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If you want to switch from VMware paravirtualized SCSI controller back to LSI you do not need to do anything. Just power off the VM and change the controller (since the driveres are aleredy installed in the system there is no need for any manual operation)

Martin Gavanda https://martingavanda.com https://learnvmware.online
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NikolayK_38RUS
Contributor
Contributor

I tried, it works fine!

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Sanda21
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Kolla, kela wela tibbe. Den hari 😂

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ArnoldKeizer
Contributor
Contributor

Still works in 2023.. 😉

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