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Platon201110141
Contributor
Contributor

Can I upgrade my ESX4 to ESXi5 if my server IBM blade type S with SAS Controller LSI 1064E?

Hi.

I study Upgrading to ESXi 5.0 best practices.
link http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200510...

and find out  SAS controllers LSI1068E (LSISAS3442E) and LSI1068 (SAS 5) only.

Can I upgrade my ESX4 hosts to ESXi5 hosts if my server IBM blade type S with SAS Controller LSI 1064E?

My server configuration:

42D0677IBM HDD Ret 146.8GB   SAS 15K Slim-HS 2.5" 6Gbs
88861TGIBM BC Chassis S   7U/2x1450W HS
43W3581IBM BC S 6-disk Storage   module
43X0802IBM HDD Ret 300GB SAS 15K   HS 3.5"
43W3584IBM SAS RAID   CotrollerModule 3,4,5
46C7438IBM Power Supply 2x1450W   HS BC S
7870B4GIBM BC HS22   XDPQC-E5540-2.53(1066/8M)/2x2G/0 SAS HS/2xGEth
44T1488IBM 1x4GB SD PC3-10600   ECC DDR3 Reg VLP DRank BC
43W4068IBM BC SAS Connectivity   Card CIOv
44W4479IBM BC Eth 1Gb 2/4x   Expansion Card CFFh
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8 Replies
firestartah
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi

If it isn't on the hcl then i wouldnt recommend upgrading it. It may work but obviously it isn't supported so I would personally recommend upgrading the LSI controller

Gregg

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Gregg http://thesaffageek.co.uk
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gokhankucuk
Contributor
Contributor

No, never , ever !

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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Check here if this controller is supported to works with ESXi5.0

www.vmware.com/go/hcl

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers. *Por favor, não esqueça de atribuir os pontos se a resposta foi útil ou resolveu o problema.* Thank you/Obrigado
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gokhankucuk
Contributor
Contributor

We have tested it, unfortunately its crashed !!!

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eilatuno
Contributor
Contributor

Hi all

at this link http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5089360&brandind=5000020&myns=x10875... IBM explain the bug with ESXi 5.0.

Unfortunly the IBM "solution" is the restart of server, but there is a simple and fast solution that helped me with a customer.

You need to add the new driver for mpt2sas devices,unzip the package and import the patch with the update manager or install directly on esxi by cli following the README instructions.

Version 11 - http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_lsi_mpt2sas_110000002vmw/dHRAYnRAJWRiZHBqaA==

Version 12 - http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi50_lsi_mpt2sas_3_120000001vmw/dHRAYnRAKipiZHBqaA==

I think the problem is the version of the driver shipped with the iso and with the latest build (6.00.00.00.5).

You can verify the properly load of the driver from the CLI by:

vmkload_mod -s mpt2sas |grep -i Version

Hope this is helpful

Andrea

VCP 3,4,5 RHCSA
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AWoroch
Contributor
Contributor

I'm in the middle of trying to troubleshoot this exact issue.  Trying either of the two drivers, but both have issues via VUM, so I'll be trying via the CLI next. 

Issues via VUM are:

/var/log # tail esxupdate.log
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://<vchost>:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/LSI/metadata_1340911408.zip to /tmp/tmpVYe31u...
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://<vchost>:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/LSI/metadata_1340913795.zip to /tmp/tmpPYJem6...
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading http://<vchost>:9084/vum/repository/hostupdate/vmw/vmwESXi-5.0.0-metadata.zip to /tmp/tmpeUl97v...
2012-06-28T20:04:36Z esxupdate: Metadata.pyc: INFO: Unrecognized file vendor-index.xml in Metadata file
2012-06-28T20:04:37Z esxupdate: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = '['/usr/sbin/vsish', '-e', '-p', 'cat', '/hardware/bios/dmiInfo']', outfile = 'None', returnoutput = 'True', timeout = '0.0'.

Did anyone who tried either updating the mtp2sas drivers and/or IBM's suggestion of disabling interrupt remapping (http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5089360&brandind=5000020&myns=x1...) have any success?

Avram

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eilatuno
Contributor
Contributor

Have you tried to unzip the update package before import in update manager?

VCP 3,4,5 RHCSA
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AWoroch
Contributor
Contributor

To be fair, I don't recall if we tried that or not.  Only 5 of the hosts were HS22 and affected.  In the end, I did the updates via the CLI in an SSH session very quickly.

Knock on wood - NO issues since the changes.

Something to watch for, as I don't know what made it happen for us.  On two of the hosts we had the issue the next day and I got concerned thinking this didn't fix it.  Upon looking into the changes in the IBM/VMware KB, it was clear that the changes were set but not active.  So we rebooted those two hosts, they reported as active, and no issues since.  My suspicion is that we made the IBM/VMware changes first, then applied the driver which might have reset the setting, and then rebooted - and did some of the other hosts in another order.

Either way, all is good.  Just finished doing the Dev/Test and last night Prod (the HS22) clusters VMware Tools and Hardware and VM reboots.  One step closer to having vSphere 5 Upgrade complete, just some storage to upgrade or migrate to VMFS5.

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