ESXi server-storage compatibility

[Adamovick]

Hello Team,

I have ProLiant DL360 Gen9 and HP MSA 2040 SAS and ESXi 6.7U3 installed. According to below link, my storage is not compatible with ESXi the beyond ESXi 6.5U1: https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=san&productid=35545

what is the compatibility exactly? what if I upgrade the ESXi to 7.0? 

the storage is good and working fine.

please advise here. 

Thanks

[IRIX201110141]

The MSA2040 was testet and certified up to ESXi 6.5u1 from the Vendor which means VMware support leave you alone if you have storage related problems and running something different.

With vSphere 7 the ESXi leave the old VMKlinux driver model behind and only the NextGen drivers will work. Also your Vendor best practices will not covered the new version.

Hint: You wrote about the SAS version of the MSA but linkted to the ISCSI one. If you have iSCSI i see less problem when running "non" supportet stuff compared to SAS.

Regards,
Joerg

[DanRobinsonHPE]

The SAS version uses a SAS HBA instead of iSCSI/FC to connect the Array.

The Gen9 era SAS HBAs should have full Native Driver support

Seems this is more a question on the MSA support as an Array and not about the hosts connected.

 

HPE Keeps all their Array stuff over at:
https://h20272.www2.hpe.com/spock/index.aspx
Use your free HPE Passport account to login.

Unfortunately it says the same thing.
The last vSphere release validated with the 2040 SAS was 6.5 U1
Now this doesn't mean it WONT work, but if you go for 6 or 7, there is no support.

Also here is the SAS 2040 on VCG:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=san&productid=35546&releases_filter=367,338&deviceCategory=san&details=1&keyword=MSA&arrayTypes=4&isSVA=0&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc
Same 6.5 limitation.

 

2040 has since been replaced by the 2050 and then the 2060
The 2050 (and it's little brother the 1050) are both supported up to 7.0 U3

[DanRobinsonHPE]

PS: H241 was a common SAS HBA on the Gen9 family.

Those are still supported to 7.0 U3, so as I said the problem is not on the Host side

 

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=38340&deviceCategory=io&details=1&keyword=H241&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

[Adamovick]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. 

 

It could be a firmware upgrade of MS2040 to support newer ESXi versions.  I researched and did not find any new version supported ESXi 7.x

 

do you have any suggestion about version/ firmware upgrade for MSA2040?

[DanRobinsonHPE]

If there was new FW update with 7 support it would have been in the SPOCK system.

I think this Array just fell off of supported list before 7.

There is likely a way to upgrade to 2050 and keep all your disks, I would contact your VAR or HPE to discuss.

[Giovanni Vecchi]

Dear @Adamovick,

I'm currently in your shoes: did you go ahead with vSphere 7 upgrade? If yes, is everything fine?

Thanks