getting info from H200 inside ESXi

[mephistopoa]

Hi guys,

I ho eyou can help me with this issue. I need to check the disk status of a raid array of an H200 controller running ESXi 4.1 update 1. Is this possible? The server is a Dell R710, and even using the idrac card I can't access that kind of information, so I'm not sure if I'm missing something or there is no functionality like that.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Regards,

[DSTAVERT]

You will need to add the Dell specific CIM providers and the Open Manage offline bundles. Those should be available from the Dell Website.

[pcerda]

Hi,

You can try installing Dell OMSA 6.4 in the ESXi host:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smsom/6.3/en/omsa_ig/html/instesxi.htm#wp1097926

This is useful to gather information about the hardware where ESXi is running.

Best Regards

[DSTAVERT]

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R275661&SystemID=pwe_r710&servicetag=10C1NM1&os=EX41&osl=en&deviceid=21859&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=36&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=406735

[J1mbo]

System performance will be very disapointing with this controller, since it lacks any cache (unless SSD is being used perhaps).

[mephistopoa]

I would like to use SSD but so far I have not found a good solution for a server. I've been using Intel for about 2 years and then sandforce on all my workstations and I'm quite happy with a raid 0 on them, but the enterprise model from OCZ, the vertex 2 pro is just way too expensive to use MLC memory. Not very confident to spent £1500 on a SSD that uses MLC even knowing all the data compression the controller does.

Regarding he H200 and H700 for example, do you have any tip where I can find comparisions of them? I'll need to get a few more R710 from Dell to set up a few more servers and so far I was using a DAS to serve all of them, so I don't have many experience with H200 controller.

Any tip is greatly appreciated :smileyhappy:

[DSTAVERT]

The H200 is a poor choice for a RAID controller since it doesn't offer battery backed or flash backed cache. The BB modules allow the controller to provide write back which greatly increases performance.

[mephistopoa]

good point mentioning the write cache, I was testing a MD3200 from dell with 8 drives and the performance hit without the write cache was huge

I'm using the H200 to host some old Citrix metaframe server (32bit version capped at 4GB) so it is not much disk intensive, but I'll have to take another R710 that is running barebone windows 2003 to ESXi, running DCs, exchange and other stuff, so perhaps that one will be a good idea to get a H700 or H800 controller to make a raid 10 array of 6x600GB disks. The DCs and Exchange were running on a rad5 (arg!) array on a different server, so slugish...

I'm taking away all server in raid 5 and putting raid 10 in place, and if OCZ or any other SSD manufacturer makes anything slightly cheaper, then migrate databases to it.

[DSTAVERT]

The performance differences between cache and no cache are huge. Larger cache is better than small and can be 64bit wide vs 32bit wide.

It is possible that trim support will be available in a future version. :smileywink:

[DSTAVERT]

At this point SSD drives don't have direct support (no trim support for one) although that may change soon.

[mephistopoa]

I heard esxi 5 will add trimm support, is that true?

[mephistopoa]

Thanks for all the tips regarding how to install that 3rd party tool from Dell, I'll do this on the next following days and hopefuly I will have access to the raid arrays.

[mephistopoa]

I've installed it, restarted the server with the required settings on the software/advanced tab, then where the thing should be located? I can't find it anywhere how to check the raid controller

[mephistopoa]

nevermind guys, I thought it had its own open manage server, so in case I need to access a server that has open manage installed and use its web interface to connect to the ESXi machine.

[mephistopoa]

Guys,

is possible to get alerts on ESXi or on the dell plugin when a drive fails using email? I can't see anything related to that. thanks!

[DSTAVERT]

I think you will need to install the Dell Management Station component to get email alerts or if you are using vCenter to manage you can set up alerts there.

[mephistopoa]

That dell management station is that linux Dell VM?

I can't see the individual drives from vCenter, even with the dell plug in to use open managent software I can only see the virtual disk and if a drive fails there is no way to tell

[DSTAVERT]

Make sure the hardware status plugin is enabled. Once enabled you will have a Hardware TAB in vCenter. That should show the individual drives. Make sure that the Dell CIMs are installed and enabled.

[mephistopoa]

The one I've installed is the Dell OpenManage Server Administrator agent (OMSA)

Does this enable the access to the hardware through vcenter?

I may be confusing what exactly can provide access to the hardware.

Thanks for your help

[DSTAVERT]

Do you have the Hardware TAB when you select an ESXi host in vCenter? Usually towards the far right. If not you will need to enable the hardware status plugin for vCenter.

[mephistopoa]

Yes I have it, but a few issues so far. Some scrneeshots to describe everything bellow

[DSTAVERT]

Does the error happen when for each of the ESXi hosts? Try restarting the vSphere client. Try restarting the vCenter Server Services. Retry restarting the ESXi management agents. Other than these suggestions I would give a call to Dell support.

[mephistopoa]

Hi mate,

I think you are thinking I've installed this http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/virtualization/management-plug-in-for-vmware-vcenter.aspx

But what I've installed is the dell open manage CIM, and I think this will only open the door so a open manage server can connect to the ESXi host and fetch hardware information, it looks this is not the hardware provider tool to give me information about the raid controller inside vsphere client for example.

Can you confirm this please? I'm very confused, sorry

[DSTAVERT]

I think you are thinking I've installed this http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/virtualization/management-plug-in-for-vmware-vcenter.aspx

I was assuming from the posts that you have installed the Dell CIMs and the openmanage bundle. If vCenter does not see the disk drives it may be because the H200 controller is not supported with the Dell CIMs. I would call Dell Support.

Other things that might affect this is firmware. Make sure you have the latest Dell firmware appropriate for ESXi (The latest firmware might not be appropriate for ESXi)  Make sure the DRAC frimware is updated.

[mephistopoa]

The open manage bundle you mean the virtual apliance? If so, no I didn't. I thought I could access it through vcenter using only the CIM provider.

Also, I'm testing on a H700 on another R710 server with all latest firmware for idrac, raid, etc... Got the same problem.

[DSTAVERT]

The Management Station is Dell installable Software. I believe there is a Windows and a Linux version available. With vCenter it isn't as important to have the MS software installed.